What's so bad about Gresham??? (Portland: neighborhoods, live, mall)

[pathrunner]

Gresham covers a huge area that literally has every kind of person and neighborhood. There are highly desirable areas in Gresham, but you're going to pay more.

Gresham is 10-11 miles wide from Portland to the Sandy River, and runs from Glisan to just south of Palmquist and Orient (depending on whether you are west or east of Hwy 26). That covers a lot of ground. If you really want to - or need to - live in Gresham you can find a decent area.

However, the traffic in Gresham is horrible, the traffic lights waaaay too long, and the streets are laid out in a cockamamie fashion. There are too many cars and people. Gresham was poorly planned and went up too quickly. The MAX train means that people who live in Gresham for the affordability also ride the MAX, which has had a lot of violence. I would also imagine the parking lot at the MAX stations have break-ins. If you commute to PDX from Gresham you'll get a seat but at some point you'll be approached for a handout by persistent sparechangers.

If you can live south or east you'll find nice neighborhoods but if you're looking for decent schools and a slower pace then Sandy or Boring is the way to go.

[LauraShepard]

As the City's Communications Manager I would encourage you to check out [mod edit - 10 post to link offsite] if you are interested in learning about Gresham. You learn all about our great neighborhoods, schools, and business community.

I would disagree with you on traffic though. Over the last several years the city has worked on improving the traffic flow that includes making signal improvements in a couple of key areas that monitor the amount of traffic on the road and adjusting the duration of green light time for drivers. Our street grid for the most part is simple (numbered streets are East/West and named streets are north/south) Where the confusion may lie is that as Gresham grew we included parts of unincorporated Multnomah County which has a Portland steet grid. Over the last several years the City has worked with TriMet to ensure MAX safety even including putting Gresham officers on the trains. Actually the city covers 23.43 sq miles and our population is right around 101,000. If you want to learn more about Gresham check out our website or visit us on Facebook.

[philwithbeard]

Ms Shepard:

Thank-you for adding you thoughts to this thread, which was started about 3 years ago. As someone who posts often on this sub-forum, I welcome you to our little corner of the Internet. Please stop by again.

[pathrunner]

Ms. Shepard I find I must respectfully disagree with you about the traffic in Gresham. I had to stop doing errands and shopping in Gresham because I spent the majority of my time waiting at traffic lights behind too many cars. If it was worse than it has been since I moved here 2 years ago, I shudder to think what it was like back then! I do my shopping in Sandy now, and will probably continue to do so, because this is not a problem that is easily solved.

I do appreciate that officers have been added to the MAX line, but something really needs to be done about the traffic. The current roads and street lights just don't support a 100K+ population!

[dedwretched]

It's the butt of Portlander's jokes and rightfully so. There are only a few nice areas, like south of Powell and a couple places here and there. The rest of the town is mainly 1960's tract housing and low rent apartments.

181st IS Gresham and it extends over to 162nd in some parts. Check your zoning maps.

[Lee151]

181st and 162nd are the west boundary edge of Gresham where it butts up against Portland. It isn't typical of the entire city nor is it the city center. Wasn't even part of Gresham for many years. There are many nice areas in Gresham. The low rent areas are much smaller than the better areas.

[jimrbird97030]

i have been here 35 years and not one time i have had no trouble here, plus were ever you move to there is always some problems some were close to were you live..................

[gypsydoc]

Originally Posted by Lee151

Poorly designed neighborhoods? Ugly? Gresham has some lovely neighborhoods. Lovely scenery too. It is much more attractive than say... Beaverton or Tigard. Gresham has some of the nicest family friendly neighborhoods in the Portland area. There are million dollar homes in Gresham and there are affordable neighborhoods too.

There is shopping and restaurants too. Not just in the historic downtown area. Gresham Station is a mini Bridgeport Village that was built several years before Bridgeport.

All of those news reports concern the Rockwood area which is a very small section of Gresham that borders Portland. Where Stark and Burnside cross and the surrounding few blocks. Technically it is Gresham so the news reports say Gresham. This part of Gresham didn't even get annexed into Gresham all that long ago. It was part of Portland.

Anyone considering Gresham should not let people who don't know anything about Gresham stop them from looking to buy or rent in Gresham.

No, I don't work for the city of Gresham but I have lived near Gresham for over thirty years and spend a great deal of time in Gresham. I am in Gresham at least once a week. Often more. I shop in Gresham, I dine in Gresham, I have friends and family that live in Gresham, some of my doctors are in Gresham, my mechanic is in Gresham etc.

And no, I'm not low income and can't afford to live anywhere else and neither are my friends and family.

I agree....
My daughter lives in Gresham and has a thriving therapeutic massage business. I do most of my shopping and business in the Gresham area. It's much closer to where I live, easy to get around and pretty every type of store one would want is within 10 minutes. There are lovely parks for hiking and one is very close to quick access to the Columbia Gorge.

Troutdale is another few minutes East and has a great Factory Outlet Store Mall, plenty of shopping and things to do.

I live in outer SE Portland, by SE 162nd and division... almost in Gresham. I happen to agree with the Rockwood assessment, although there are some streets that are OK, the overall vibe and stats are not great. It is an area, however that is not as bad as places in places like Kansas City, MO, Atlanta, GA, St. Louis, MO - places that I would not want to be day or night.

Rockwood is not the majority of Gresham.

Gresham as a whole is the third largest city in Oregon and I really love it. The historic downtown area has great antique shops, coffee shops (Delerium is great), clothing stores, restaurants, a custom made guitar shop, etc. Saturday market during the summer with plenty of fresh produce, live music, free parking and artisans showing their wares.

It is not a falling down town full of homeless derelicts. Yes, there is construction of apartments going on, yet Gresham is confined to developing inside the urban growth boundary, as is every town in the state. This means that building UP is one of the only options there is at this point. I hope you will do your own research on getting the facts here. I have no idea how some of the people came up with their comments.

The crime is really no more than in Portland.

Portland has the most people in Oregon - 593,820 people living in the city limits.
Gresham, directly east has 107,439.
So... Portland has about 6 times the population.
and the crime stats are about the same % as the population difference...

Recent crime stats:

[CENTER]Portland[/CENTER]
Crime20122011 Murder and non-negligent manslaughter 20 20 Forcible rape 231 258 Robbery 950 917 Aggravated assault 1,892 1,842 Burglary 4,471 4,303 Larceny-theft 22,398 22,494 Motor vehicle theft 3,585 3,225

Gresham

Crime20122011 Murder and non-negligent manslaughter 4 1 Forcible rape 33 31 Robbery 207 172 Aggravated assault 243 212 Burglary 886 751 Larceny-theft 3,230 2,943 Motor vehicle theft 742 617

These are FBI stats.

I feel perfectly safe here and in Gresham. I'm not sure what you are used to, so I can't say that it is better than where you are, but I think you will find it better than some of these folks are telling you.

[doity]

The question should be, what is right with Gresham. I used to pass through every night on my job and after a few years I was at a stop light looking around at everything and I thought to myself, "This place is a dump". I have to admit that I like the community college and when you are coming in to downtown Gresham from the road between Damascus there are some really nice older homes around there. Besides that Gresham is just spillover from outer NE/SE Portland and people who were priced out by the hipsters.

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by gypsydoc

I agree....
My daughter lives in Gresham and has a thriving therapeutic massage business. I do most of my shopping and business in the Gresham area. It's much closer to where I live, easy to get around and pretty every type of store one would want is within 10 minutes. There are lovely parks for hiking and one is very close to quick access to the Columbia Gorge.

Troutdale is another few minutes East and has a great Factory Outlet Store Mall, plenty of shopping and things to do.

I live in outer SE Portland, by SE 162nd and division... almost in Gresham. I happen to agree with the Rockwood assessment, although there are some streets that are OK, the overall vibe and stats are not great. It is an area, however that is not as bad as places in places like Kansas City, MO, Atlanta, GA, St. Louis, MO - places that I would not want to be day or night.

Rockwood is not the majority of Gresham.

Gresham as a whole is the third largest city in Oregon and I really love it. The historic downtown area has great antique shops, coffee shops (Delerium is great), clothing stores, restaurants, a custom made guitar shop, etc. Saturday market during the summer with plenty of fresh produce, live music, free parking and artisans showing their wares.

It is not a falling down town full of homeless derelicts. Yes, there is construction of apartments going on, yet Gresham is confined to developing inside the urban growth boundary, as is every town in the state. This means that building UP is one of the only options there is at this point. I hope you will do your own research on getting the facts here. I have no idea how some of the people came up with their comments.

The crime is really no more than in Portland.

Portland has the most people in Oregon - 593,820 people living in the city limits.
Gresham, directly east has 107,439.
So... Portland has about 6 times the population.
and the crime stats are about the same % as the population difference...

Recent crime stats:

[CENTER]Portland[/CENTER]
Crime20122011 Murder and non-negligent manslaughter 20 20 Forcible rape 231 258 Robbery 950 917 Aggravated assault 1,892 1,842 Burglary 4,471 4,303 Larceny-theft 22,398 22,494 Motor vehicle theft 3,585 3,225

Gresham

Crime20122011 Murder and non-negligent manslaughter 4 1 Forcible rape 33 31 Robbery 207 172 Aggravated assault 243 212 Burglary 886 751 Larceny-theft 3,230 2,943 Motor vehicle theft 742 617

These are FBI stats.

I feel perfectly safe here and in Gresham. I'm not sure what you are used to, so I can't say that it is better than where you are, but I think you will find it better than some of these folks are telling you.

This is very thoughtful post. Thank you, Gypsydoc. I will have to check out Gresham's downtown since I have been here for four years and never have been to Gresham except a drive through.