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I agree with you that Portland is no progressive paradise but "pretty crazy pretty much everywhere between Pearl and SW Waterfront"? I am not sure... I work in downtown and take the Max here every workday. I take my walks during every lunch break and walk all over downtown and have never seen the above that you mentioned. Not saying that you didn't see that stuff, but my experience has been very different. I find it to be pretty nice and clean, and I have never felt threatened. Yes, there are homeless folks out there doing their thing, but I have not been bothered by any of them. I love the hustle abd bustle, and for me, downtown Portland is definitely one of the safest cleanest nicest downtowns I have ever been in a major metro area.
exactly,
I agree- I do not think the OP got an "accurate impression" of Portland " at all.
The Portland area has some good things, the outdoor activities are quite good. But I must ask myself again again why people come here to visit??? The doughnuts? The book store? Ummm still not sure why people come here on a vacation. Seattle has a lot more activities (zoo, aquarium, waterfront with activities, space needle, etc), Vancouver BC has a lot more activities (beautiful huge park with activities, beautiful waterfront with activities, etc.) I go down to the Portland waterfront and there are no activities, nothing going on besides for homeless people everywhere. So I agree with the original post, I live by 23rd and it could be any street in any city. Portland is lacking something, there are no real tourist destinations in the city of Portland. Then you add in the non-stop traffic issues and really it is not a good place to visit.
We have a zoo located in WA Park which is gorgeous and has plenty of other places to visit within the park. We have OMSI across the river and the walk across the new bridge is ideal. Portland is much more walkable than Seattle so if you want to compare, Portland has as much to offer tourists in many ways. Our inner core of close in quadrants offers an easier way to get around and enjoy restaurants, bars, nightlife. We also have easy drives to the coast and the gorge.
The Portland area has some good things, the outdoor activities are quite good. But I must ask myself again again why people come here to visit??? The doughnuts? The book store? Ummm still not sure why people come here on a vacation. Seattle has a lot more activities (zoo, aquarium, waterfront with activities, space needle, etc), Vancouver BC has a lot more activities (beautiful huge park with activities, beautiful waterfront with activities, etc.) I go down to the Portland waterfront and there are no activities, nothing going on besides for homeless people everywhere. So I agree with the original post, I live by 23rd and it could be any street in any city. Portland is lacking something, there are no real tourist destinations in the city of Portland. Then you add in the non-stop traffic issues and really it is not a good place to visit.
Regardless of whether you feel like there's anything to do in Portland, you can't deny that people do vacation here. Maybe they just like stuff that you don't care about?
I agree with you that Portland is no progressive paradise but "pretty crazy pretty much everywhere between Pearl and SW Waterfront"? I am not sure... I work in downtown and take the Max here every workday. I take my walks during every lunch break and walk all over downtown and have never seen the above that you mentioned. Not saying that you didn't see that stuff, but my experience has been very different. I find it to be pretty nice and clean, and I have never felt threatened. Yes, there are homeless folks out there doing their thing, but I have not been bothered by any of them. I love the hustle abd bustle, and for me, downtown Portland is definitely one of the safest cleanest nicest downtowns I have ever been in a major metro area.
I encountered all of which I described (and more) simply by walking around on my lunch breaks. I used to work in the Pioneer tower. Its pretty clean during the long wet winters but as soon as it dries out the place gets pretty bad. Not like really bad, but worse than other cities I've been to. Even Houston is way nicer and it really shouldn't be if you think about it.
And for people who compare it to Seattle and San Fran, yeah it seems pretty nice and normal. But that's a low bar.
We have a zoo located in WA Park which is gorgeous and has plenty of other places to visit within the park. We have OMSI across the river and the walk across the new bridge is ideal. Portland is much more walkable than Seattle so if you want to compare, Portland has as much to offer tourists in many ways. Our inner core of close in quadrants offers an easier way to get around and enjoy restaurants, bars, nightlife. We also have easy drives to the coast and the gorge.
Omsi...compared to many cities museums is not up to par, the zoo as well is nice for a small city zoo but every city has a zoo. Easier to get around than a lot of small cities, I agree with that but where are they going? Portland is very generic, a zoo, in a park, a small, but lacking science museum, a waterfront with no activities. Having been to Seattle, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, New York, Philadelphia...I can name a ton of things to do in each of those cities that Portland lacks.
The South Waterfront is pretty cool. I like the sleek and modern design. It's really well thought out transportation wise as well. There aren't any weirdoz there but this is weirdozville. It's still under construction with loads of potential and a mile from downtown. It's the "New Portland".
Lair Hill right across the footbridge from the South Waterfront is also charming with its Victorian houses from the 1800's. I like that it's a historic district and the oldest neighborhood in Portland overlooking the newest neighborhood in Portland. It's the juxtaposition of "Old Portland' overseeing "New Portland". There are some real characters in Lair Hill and traffic. Mah Gawd the traffic!
Last Thursday I was driving home from a 3:45 pm appointment. It took me two hours to get home and I was only 12 miles away. The rush hour traffic started at 3 pm and maybe a little before that as driving there took me 35 minutes taking back roads to avoid the congested highway. Many of the side roads are all hilly steep sharp twists and turns. That's one of the real sorry downsides of having the luxury of living within a 30-minute walk to the south edge of Downtown Portland. No wonder everyone wants to ride bicycles around here or take the public transportation.
If you take the walking path from the South Waterfront to Downtown it's clean and efficient with surveillance cameras and several other transportation options. That's the path to take.
If you take the walking path from Lair Hill to Downtown it's dirty, filthy, dark, scary. The indigenous plant life is over grown and you fear the big bad wolf is lurking in the woodsy bushes. Several well hidden homeless camps along there. Graffiti covered bridges, buildings, tunnels you don't want to enter, and filthy underpasses with decades of greasy grimy industrial waste. I would always walk in groups here.
If you took the old Portland path by road then I could see what the OP is talking about. If you took the South Waterfront path in new Portland then it's an entirely different world. And they run right alongside each other.
Last edited by Merrily Gather; 07-26-2017 at 01:40 AM..
Reason: considering the OP
Omsi...compared to many cities museums is not up to par, the zoo as well is nice for a small city zoo but every city has a zoo. Easier to get around than a lot of small cities, I agree with that but where are they going? Portland is very generic, a zoo, in a park, a small, but lacking science museum, a waterfront with no activities. Having been to Seattle, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, New York, Philadelphia...I can name a ton of things to do in each of those cities that Portland lacks.
I grew up in SF and The Oregon Zoo is much better. I lived in NYC and yeah, it's NYC so comparing apples to oranges in terms of museums and activities. As for comparable medium sized American cities, Portland is doing well.
I've noticed that newcomers love Portland (both transplants and people from smaller towns around the state). People who grew up there don't always love what its turned into. This could just be human nature. SoCal natives can't stand what its become but I love it the way it is. Portland doesn't have a lot of things that similar sized cities have for various reasons but one of them is the weather. You can't have an amusement or water park here for example because the economics don't pan out for the window of time that it can function. For me, when out-of-towners came, SW waterfront was the place to take them.
I agree that's a good idea to take out of towners there.
You can show them the Ariel Tram, The Street Cars, The BikeTown ride share and OHSU commuter bikes, the food trucks and footbridges. The smart cars and three different ride shares with cars-to-go.
Right there where the Zidell's Shipyard is they just built their last ship and that property is going to be developed into this awesome place for tourists and locals to go!
They'll have a kayak launch pad right there, a dog water park, a beach for swimmers and sunbathers, water-front restaurants and bars, some cute boutique shops and a grocery store! There's like 15 brick and mortar stores to eat in that residential area too right now if you walk around. It's a nice modern contemporary place to live with views of the city, the waterfront and the breathtaking snow capped mountains in July.
You'll see in the article pictures the buildings renderings are glass skyscrapers mixed with professional services such as salons, dentists, gyms, OHSU offices. I love the sage green of the Ross Island Bridge with the complimentary elements in the copper tones of the Zidell Shipyard theme they're keeping along this waterfront development, and the use of the outdoor patio lights to give the illusion ceiling for the cafe park.
All around it has these beautiful landscape designed walking paths with sculptured concrete designs, lily pools, fountains, lazy rivers, blossoming flowers with plenty of mature trees to provide shade, areas with cool grass and benches to sit, contemplate, relax and rest. They offer movies in the park during the summer, a farmer's market, a splash pad for kids to play and families to visit and an area for bocce ball which is actually quite fun. It's also not super crowded yet with the exception during commuter times for bikes, tram, and streetcars in that one area near the stops and stations at the end of the footbridge. It's also only a short walk to the only designated pedestrian bridge linking to Hip Counter-Culture Foodie Paradise East Side.
The only thing missing is the music. I haven't seen any street performers yet playing guitar or saxophone in the new area which would be nice, but maybe when Portland's version of Pike's Place Market is developed in the shipping yard right there it'll happen? Right now there may still be too much construction going on with all the cranes up there working during the day.
If not the OMSI site, another intriguing possibility for the James Beard Public Market would seem to be South Waterfront and, more specifically, the Zidell Yards. Recently the Zidell Marine Company announced it will next year shut down its barge-building terminal next door to OHSU’s Center for Health & Healing and the Portland Aerial Tram. The Zidell facility’s main structure, known in-house as “The Barn,” is about two football fields long, all wide-volume open space. The market doesn’t need all of it, but taking, say, half or one-third would provide an ideal home while giving the district a “there there,” a reason for non-residents and people who don’t work for or get treatment from OHSU to come to the area.
I think it's Naito Parkway the OP didn't like. I agree it needs to be cleaned up.
Last edited by Merrily Gather; 07-27-2017 at 05:32 AM..
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