Visiting from Austin -- Don't worry i have return tickets (Portland: houses, neighborhoods)

[austinnative69]

Hello weird brethren to the Northwest,

My wife and I are coming up to visit in a couple of weeks and i am looking for advice of places to see. My wife is a photographer who likes to photograph urban decay, and we both appreciate dive bars. What are some must-see locations?

Thanks in advance!

[hamellr]

Amazingly, not a lot of Urban Decay, at least in the traditional sense, in the Portland area. Our Urban Growth Boundaries do a good job of getting rid of it. The only thing that would qualify might be the burned out warehouse in the East Side Industrial area, or maybe a few of the less well kept up buildings along MLK.

As a fellow photographer here is a partial list of places to hit up:

Rose Gardens
Japanese Gardens
Chinese Gardends
Pennisula Park (the "other" Rose Gardens,)
Laurelhurst Park
Rhododendron Gardens
East Bank Esplanade (or Tom McCall Waterfront Park)
Kelly Point Park (great River views)
Multnomah Falls/Old Columbia River Highway
Hood River Fruit Loop Tour
Pittock Mansion
Butteville Store and Champoeg Park
Oregon Coast

[Ms_Christina]

I was watching something on Discovery about how bars in Portland in the 1800's would help ships shanghai drunks by having trap doors to underground tunnels to the river. I didn't watch the whole show, but I bet if you could find the more historic bars you might find something interesting to photograph.

[aajn1983]

maybe the white eagle tavern or the lotus? for historic bars, i mean.

they have tours of the shanghai tunnels.

they aren't really fun, though.

i went but i knew more than the tour guide did.

[austinnative69]

I read a book about the underground tours and such -- it sounded interesting.

Thank you for the list hamellr. I'll map some of those out. From your experience -- are there many murals in Portland? Great Graffiti?

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by austinnative69

I read a book about the underground tours and such -- it sounded interesting.

Thank you for the list hamellr. I'll map some of those out. From your experience -- are there many murals in Portland? Great Graffiti?

Surprisingly few good murals considering the number of artists here, and little to no good graffiti in Oregon. Most of the Graffiti is of the tagging variety.

[Rob Allen]

There's a new mural at the corner of Capitol & Terwilliger, and one being painted right now on Capitol near Sunset in the middle of "downtown" Hillsdale.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by austinnative69

Hello weird brethren to the Northwest,

My wife and I are coming up to visit in a couple of weeks and i am looking for advice of places to see. My wife is a photographer who likes to photograph urban decay, and we both appreciate dive bars. What are some must-see locations?

Thanks in advance!

There's not alot of urban decay in inner Portland--at least not like what you find in the old cities of the Northeast or Midwest. Which is really a good thing.

But if you're looking for sort of gritty neighborhoods with some older architecture in a sort of picturesque way---I'd go down to Oldtown/Chinatown and the inner Eastside. Oldtown/Chinatown is sort of the grittier downtown area and has a lot of the oldest buildings in the city. The Inner Eastside area across the river down on the west side of Grand--has a lot of dive bars and some industrial/warehouses that's slowly being gentrified but still feels kind of funky in some ways.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by hamellr

Surprisingly few good murals considering the number of artists here

There are some, you just have to know where to look (and most are on/for private companies). The mural facing Park next to the Oregon Historical Society is just absolutely outstanding, we were there again today, so it comes to mind. Great use of shadows and 3D imaging.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by austinnative69

Hello weird brethren to the Northwest,

My wife and I are coming up to visit in a couple of weeks and i am looking for advice of places to see. My wife is a photographer who likes to photograph urban decay, and we both appreciate dive bars. What are some must-see locations?

Thanks in advance!

Urban decay.... In Portland?? That's funny! You know it's the Pacific Northwest, right? But as close as you'll come to finding that will probably be in North Portland up along MLK and Killingsworth. Maybe up along Lombard as well out towards the St. Johns area. It's less bombed out buildings as it is unkempt yards and houses in various states of repair and disrepair interspersed with empty lots with 3 foot high grass next to shiny, new buildings. It's interesting, for sure, and pretty photogenic.

But I digress. My must see list...
The International Rose Test Gardens/Washington Park. Check out the view of the city with Mount Hood.
Cliche, but go to Powell's. It's amazing.
As for bars, check out some of the ones on Hawthorne such as Tanker or the Space Room.
Pub At The End Of The Universe down on Holgate is good if you're more of a beer person.
Biddy's on Glisan is nice divey place and sometimes has live music.
Delta Cafe and Bar on Woodstock is a favorite of mine too. Good Southern food there as well.
The best Southern food I've had was at Miss Delta on Mississippi.
Check out Alberta and Mississippi districts--must see, for sure.
Divison St is really funky and probably my favorite business district in the city. Papa G's is a great organic, vegan deli on Division.
Speaking of delis, my favorite place for kosher food is downtown is Kenny and Zuke's Delicatessen. Highly recommended.
Check out Mount Tabor too for some good views of the city.
If you're there on a weekend, the Saturday Market downtown is always fun for people watching.
Ride the streetcar around.
Take the aerial tram from OHSU to the South Waterfront.
If you have time, go out to the Multnomah Falls (not on a weekend).
Oregon Coast (around Cannon Beach) is also recommended if you can wing it. Ecola State Park is great. Astoria is probably my favorite town of all time anywhere.

Hope you guys have a good time! Be sure to let us know how your trip went, what you thought, and share some pictures if you can.