Thinking about moving to Portland - neighborhood advice needed (apartment, rent)

[kotkoda]

Hello!

My husband, I and mother-in-law are thinking about moving to Portland in the near future. The neighborhoods we like are artsy, hippie, unconventional, walkable. We like no yuppie neighborhoods or 'burbs but we would like to stay away from high crime areas, too. It must have good access to public transportation.

One more thing: we applied to grad school at PSU (but we don't know yet if we got in or not). If we got in we would probably prefer to live not too far from there.

We would probably buy a house, but maybe rent first.

Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot!

PS: We have no kids (but we may want one in a year or two).
Oh and we have a dog so area should be dog friendly

[hamellr]

Live near PSU in a small apartment.

Or in Sellwood or Hawthorne area. Anything further out and you're going to be complaining about the commute. I'd highly suggest Hawthorne and getting a couple of bikes. You can easily commute from there to PSU with several well marked bike lanes.

[philwithbeard]

Ah........ what Hamellr said.

But, just to add my $0.02 to the discussions,

I would at least think about the Alberta St. Area of near Northeast Portland; think about near a bus line that feeds into the Yellow line MAX to PSU. This neighborhood is not my cup of tea, as this is a transitional area from diversified to a gentrified "starving young artist" neighborhood. This is one of those "must see yourself to decide for yourself" situations.

Phil

[Nell Plotts]

I think you should look along SE Hawthorne out as far as 44th (more or less), a few blocks north and south of that street, because of the ease of travel to PSU.

[kotkoda]

Thanks for all the input! How about if we don't get in and we don't have to be close to PSU?

[hamellr]

Hawthorn and Alberta, maybe Sellwood.

[kotkoda]

Are these areas dog friendly? We have a 60 lb collie mix...

I read on this forum that it is not easy to find an apartment/house that accepts large dogs in Portland (and actually we may bring our cat along too). Is that so?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by kotkoda

The neighborhoods we like are artsy, hippie, unconventional, walkable. We like no yuppie neighborhoods or 'burbs but we would like to stay away from high crime areas, too. It must have good access to public transportation.

I don't think Sellwood meets the above criteria except for being close to public transportation (the bus), and being somewhat low crime.

It has more than its fair share of PNW style yuppies, and I definately would not call Sellwood artsy, hippie, or unconventional, and it's on the edge of being walkable. I mean you can walk around the Sellwood neighborhood plenty but there really is not a whole lot of places to walk to. By that I mean lots of grocery stores etc. If you like antique shop after antique shop, boutique stores and boutique cafes and stuff like that you may be all right, but nobody I know would say that Sellwood has a "vibrant" neighborhood center.

Also many people lump together Sellwood and Westmoreland. They are seperate distinct neighborhoods.

For a more intimate look at the Sellwood, East-Westmoreland, and Woodstock areas click below:
There are also links to many other Portland neighborhood newspapers.

http://www.thebeenews.com/news/index.php

[hamellr]

All of Portland tends to be pretty dog friendly except for Downtown. Here's a list of all the Off Leash Parks in Portland. Portland Pooch - Portland Dog Park Map

All other parks allow dogs too, but only if they're on leashes.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

I don't think Sellwood meets the above criteria except for being close to public transportation (the bus), and being somewhat low crime.

It has more than its fair share of PNW style yuppies.

I'd say that PNW style yuppies and artsy, hippie, unconventional people in PDX being pretty much the same group of people