Helping Families One Home at a Time

Portland Neighborhoods

City of 90 Plus Neighborhoods

So what does ice cream have to do with Portland neighborhoods?  My husband loves ice cream and just about any flavor will do.  He has a difficult time deciding which flavor will suit him on a given day and he will change his mind a couple times before making his final pick.  It struck me that Portland neighborhoods are like my husband trying to decide on his daily ice cream flavor.  Everyone of them offers a new taste sensation. That isn't to say that you shouldn't pick a favorite.  You have lots to sample from and it may mean changing your mind a couple of times.

Neighborhood Guide

The Portland Monthly magazine features neighborhoods in their April issue every year.

To help those in the housing market, the magazine combines all the data from approximately 120 neighborhoods and communities in the Portland metro area in one easy-to- read document.  Include in the document are housing prices, school ratings, demographics, crime statistics, parks, commuting information, and services.

Click here (PDF format) to download the document.

Nomenclature

Deciphering the difference between official neighborhood names as
maintained by the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI)
and what Portlanders call a neighborhood can be a problem.  For example, most Portlanders call the official ONI neighborhood
of Southwest Hills by the
two older historical names:
Council Crest and Portland Heights.

Neighborhood
Map

View a Portland Neighborhood Map
 in PDF format.

The Physical Size
of Portland

The City of Portland
is 134 square miles.

Others Cities in
square miles:
Austin - 252
Chicago -227
Denver - 153
Los Angles - 469
Seattle - 84
 

Voting Results
2004 General
Election

Pick your neighborhood
by voting preferences based on the 2004 Presidential Election.

STEPS:
1) Go to the Multnomah County Precinct Overview Map
and locate the precinct.
2) Go to the Precinct Map to verify that you have the correct precinct.
3) View the 2004 President Abstract file.
(rich text format -rtf).

Oregon Elections

Interested in viewing additional voting information visit
Oregon Elections Division Secretary of State.

Portland Facts

Altitude
 Highest - 1073 feet;
Lowest - sea level

Density in Year 2000
(People per Square Mile)
 Portland - 3,939
Bend, OR - 1,625
Eugene, OR - 3,403
Seattle - 6,717
Austin, TX - 2,610
New York City - 26,403

Average Daily Temp
 January - 39.6° F
 July - 68.2° F

Churches
Protestant - 450
Roman Catholic - 48
Jewish - 9
Buddhist - 6
Other - 190

City-owned Parks
 200
(over 9,400 acres)

Per Capita Personal Income in 2000
$31,620

Median Age in 2000
35.2 years

Sex Offenders
 

The Oregon site lists information on sex offenders who have been classified as "predatory" by the state Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision.
In addition to names, addresses and photographs, the site includes a physical description of each offender, the type of vehicle he owns, a description of the crime committed, and the types of victims targeted.

Crime

View detailed crime maps of a neighborhood and the City of Portland with the  City of Portland Police Bureau CrimeMapper interactive mapping site.

CrimeMapper creates maps from a database of Part 1 Crimes created specifically for CrimeMapper from the Portland Police Data System.

CrimeMapper also creates detailed graphs and reports that display crime data by month, day of week, and time of day. CrimeMapper displays the same crime data as Portland Maps.

The City Police Department also tracks crimes by neighborhood.  You are required to download files for neighborhood crime stats.

 Population Research Center

 The Population Research Center located at Portland State University provides and abundance of demographic data for the Portland Metropolitan area.  U.S. 2000 Census data is available for all Oregon metro areas, Oregon counties,  and incorporated cities (as well as Census Designated Places).

Traditional Developed Neighborhoods in the West

The TND West Web site represents an effort by John Horne to provide capsule descriptions of the significant traditionally designed neighborhoods (TNDs) that have been constructed or are proposed on the West Coast. In general the focus is on larger mixed-use neighborhoods that include a significant number of single family residences. To view the TNDs in the Portland metro area, open the Web site and then scroll down to the heading titled, "Portland Area."  Visit the TND West Web site

Local Census is a free website that provides a plethora of statistical information about the U.S.A. and all of its cities, zip codes, and counties.

Linus Torvalds

Linus, creator of the Linux computer operating system, lives in Dunthorpe, a Southwest Portland neighborhood.  He moved to Portland in 2004 with his wife and three daughters. Here is what Linus says about living in Portland:
I actually like having stuff nearby, even though I never go to it.  I like having a small downtown, and I like knowing that I could, if I wanted to, do things.  That makes me happy."

Office of Neighborhood Involvement

If you like names, you will love those that classify Portland neighborhoods.  For example, on the west side you'll find Goose Hollow, Lair Hill, John's Landing, and Terwilliger. Across the river (Willamette) to the east are Brooklyn, Eastmoreland, Ladd's Addition, Mt. Tabor, and Sullivan's Gulch.

According to the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, (ONI) a city agency, there are more than 90 neighborhood associations in Portland. It has hyperlinks to all the individual neighborhoods data, calendars, map, and city information. This site has so much information and links, it is difficult to navigate. But perseverance will be rewarded. 

View a Portland Neighborhood Map in PDF format.

The "neighborhood revolution" began when a number of neighborhoods began to argue for their own versions of local revitalization in the late 60s. By 1972, active neighborhood associations and planning committees had established a presence that politicians and planning administrators could not have ignored even had they wanted to do so.  Two groups are credited with creating today's active neighborhood associations:

• The Northwest District Association formed in 1969 to deal with a proposed hospital expansion.  It worked with the Planning Bureau to develop an alternative plan that would preserve Northwest as a high density residential area.

• The Hill Park Association organized also organized in 1969 to fight the possible clearance of the Lair Hill neighborhood, located just south of the downtown urban renewal zone.  It joined three other neighborhoods to develop their own district plan to preserve fragments of old South Portland and Fulton.

Nomenclature  Deciphering the difference between official neighborhood names as maintained by the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) and what Portlanders call a neighborhood can be a problem.  For example, most Portlanders call the official ONI neighborhood of Southwest Hills by the two older historical names:  Council Crest and Portland Heights.

Sources

Best Places  This amazing Web site is the creation of Bert Sperling who lives in Portland and Depoe Bay, Oregon.  He is a co-author of "Cities Ranked & Rated: More Than 400 Metropolitan Areas Evaluated in the U.S. & Canada” (Wiley Publishing).  The site offers various cost-of-living calculations, as well as information about schools and amenities, and allows users to take a quiz to help find the best place to live. You'll answer questions about your life stage, job, amenities, schools, health care, culture, etc.  Then the site will provide you with a list of places to live.

News for Neighbors  By far the best source of news about Portland neighborhoods.  According to their site, "News for Neighbors is a Web site dedicated to supporting Portland neighborhoods by promoting discussions about local issues. We provide tools for citizens and neighborhood associations to discuss breaking news."

CascadeLink is another online source for  neighborhoods.  CascadeLink is designed to be a place for getting and sharing information about  neighborhoods and neighborhood activities.   CascadeLink also covers Clark, Clackamas, and Washington county neighborhoods.  But only a few of the neighborhoods create a page or update the information on a periodic basis.

The Insiders Guide gives a local perspective on a few Portland neighborhoods as well as the local real estate market.  The Insider Guide is one of the few sites that actually has some well-written content about Portland neighborhoods as most websites simply redirect you to the ONI or CascadeLink sites.

Walking Score

Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.  Walk Score shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property by just inserting the address.

Your Walk Score is a number between 0 and 100. The walkability of an address depends on how far you are comfortable walking—after all, everything is within walking distance if you have the time.  Scores are from 100 (walkers' paradise) where most errands can be accomplished on foot and you get by without owning a car to below 50 (not walkable).

City of Portland Livability Study

The city's Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) report is a comprehensive study on Portland residents' feeling and opinions about where they live. The Audit Services department has conducted the study for about 15 years.  They survey questions citizens on everything from police responsiveness to tap-water quality.

In the 2005 study, the results were compiled from 22,070 responses to more than 70 questions.  Overall the news is good:  Portlanders like where they live, with 80 percent of respondents rating the livability of their neighborhoods as "good" or "very good."  While livability ratings have increased or remained steady in most neighborhoods since 2001, they've declined in outer East and central Northeast Portland.

You can download information about the report to include survey methodology, survey form, etc. at the City of Portland's Web site.

Two reports are worthy of reading.  First is the 2004-05 SEA report (146 pages) - click on City of Portland Service Efforts and Accomplishments. This is the overall summary but it does not get into the actual neighborhood data.  To view the data from the 75 neighborhoods, download the Neighborhood Survey Data (MS Excel format) - click on 2005 Neighborhood Survey Data. 

Demographic Information

Neighborhood Coalitions