Portland: Where to live to walk into nature daily? (Beaverton: homes, neighborhoods)

[bks15]

Moving to Portland soon. My ideal would be to live in a neighborhood that is walking distance from a playground for my daughter and hiking / running trails for myself...and perhaps a short drive to a mall for my wife! I'll be working near downtown. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Leisesturm]

Goose Hollow.

[EnricoV]

Portland's got a good trail system. But to fulfill the hiking requirement ... I'd say anywhere along the West Hills. If you're looking for hills to hike in. Eastward, the land flattens out. There's a good map at the 40-Mile Loop website that gives a decent picture of the hiking opportunities.

You'll find neighborhood parks everywhere. The Portland Parks & Recreation website will help with that.

From someone who lives in the city, I'd say the shopping is the toughest fulfillment. Lloyd Center is in inner NE Portland, and is large for its location. Pioneer Place, small upscale shops, is downtown. But for the big box type shopping, you've got to go to the 'burbs. The big malls are Washington Square out in Beaverton or Clackamas Town Center out in Clackamas. Both would probably be about a 20-minute drive from downtown (depending on traffic).

I should add, though, that "nature" is hard to escape in Portland. The city is really well "treed," so even where there are not necessarily parks, if can feel as though you're in one.

[nowannamove]

Cedar Hills is a nice, affordable family neighborhood on the west side. In general I think the west side is better for families. We used to live there. You can find homes of various sizes and price ranges. They have a large duck pond and playground in the neighborhood. It is 10 minutes from downtown and has easy bus/max transportation. Also it is in washington county, which has substantially lower taxes than multnomah county.

[bks15]

Thanks, great lead to that 40 mile website. I think I'm moving to the right place. When you guys say West Hills, does that mean all the green on the map that is north and west of downtown...or is there a stretch of hills running south from downtown?

I'm looking for Cedar Hills on the net...sure I'll find it...and I'll check it out.

[Leisesturm]

Cedar Hills is in Beaverton, I was there today. Didn't see any nature, well, trails. Plenty of shopping though! Goose Hollow puts you in spitting distance of the Washington/Forest Park complex and you are about as close to Downtown as is possible without actually living in Downtown. Plenty of shopping there too.

H

[nowannamove]

We lived in Cedar Hills and we had a portland address. We were 1/8 a mile from a beautiful duck pond. Cedar Mill is even nicer.

[oldtintype]

In terms of the daughter part...Goose Hollow isn't the best kid area--actually it's fun for kids and my son loved it, there just aren't any other ones around for the most part and Couch park (only thing in walking distance) playground sucks. We moved from there recently with our six year old because it was impossible to find friends for him that were close by. If you check out the area closer to Chapman Elementary--upper NW 23rd area, there are tons of families, lots of shopping, a good playground/lots of kids at Wallace Park and it's right by the entrance for Upper Macleay Park, which has amazing trails and links to Washington Park and Forest Park. Macleay has some of the most gorgeous hiking around (and a lots of joggers). Another good thing about the trails at Macleay is they're pedestrian only so you don't need to worry about mountain bikers the way you do in other locations. Chapman is also a good school test score wise if you're worried about that. It's in the Lincoln cluster. The area is fairly expensive though.

If you're wanting to live IN Portland (as opposed to more suburban places like Cedar Hills) there are other neighborhoods too such as Sellwood that has multiple parks, community center, lots to walk to, a swimming pool, tons and tons of kids, etc. It's less urban (but not suburbia either) and further from downtown. It's on the springwater trail which is good for walking/jogging/biking and Oaks Bottom wildlife refuge is right there with lots of good hiking. I guess it depends on what kind of environment you want (more urban or less) and what kind of hiking you're looking to do.

[mdvaden]

You can check the map to see if it works, but look up Greenway Street or Avenue in Beaverton. There is a huge park extending from north to the side of it, south into Portland. Paved trails, some play equipment.

Parkview Loop is in that area two. There are several neighborhoods. Try looking at it in Google Earth.

If you use Denny Rd. or Scholls Ferry, there is a shortcut to get to downtown.

It may not be short enough, but thought it's worth mentioning.

I don't know about playgrounds, but Terwilliger Blvd. has some nice greenery and paths nearby.