moving to Portland, wondering about neighborhood demographics (Beaverton, Lake Oswego: home, neighborhoods)

[trapperjohn1974]

I feel somewhat uncomfortable asking this, but my wife, who was born in Korea, my daughter, and I are moving to Portland in the next couple of months. We have never lived in areas with significant Asian populations, and I would like for my wife to no longer feel that she is "alone" and I would like for my daughter to be exposed to her mother's cultural heritage. Having said that, are there any neighborhoods that have a higher proportion of Korean or at least Asian populations? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[EnricoV]

You might try using the Korean Society of Oregon as a resource. They're located in Beaverton, which might indicate that area would have a higher concentration. There's also a Korean church in Lake Oswego. Uwajimaya, an Asian grocery is also located in Beaverton. Beaverton is a pretty typical suburb.

There is also a high concentration of Asian restaurants, groceries, etc. along 82nd Avenue, in Portland. Though it's a less desirable neighborhood for living in.

[aajn1983]

I used to live around NE 66th and NE Broadway. I remember there being an Asian grocery store over there and a few other Korean-run businesses. I don't remember seeing all that many Asian people over there, however.

[Minervah]

Don't feel uncomfortable, it's an understandable question. I googled Korean Churches and came up with quite a few.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Korean+churches+Portland+OR&src=IE-SearchBox&Form=IE8SRC

Maybe you could contact one to find out about the Korean population in Portland.

[turquoise1]

I believe SE 82nd Street is home to a lot of Asian-owned businesses (like Fubonn). There is also a Korean population and supermarket (H-Mart) in Beaverton. That said, Portland isn't an "ethnic enclave" kind of place like, say, NYC.

[aajn1983]

I think in the Portland metro, the closest thing you'll find to an ethnic enclave will probably exist in one of the suburbs. I also lived in Beaverton for about 6 months, and the area around the Nike headquarters had a lot of Indian people living there.

[trapperjohn1974]

Thanks to all for the advise and insight. Looking forward to our move.

[Jackalope78]

Lots of Koreans in Beaverton. My little girl's best friend is Korean and their family lives in the Cedar Mill area.

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Somewhat related, I found this site a while back, it has a demographic profile of every zip code in the US. It's more for targeted marketing purposes but I found it useful nonetheless:

Free ZIP Code Lookup Gives the Scoop on Any Area in the United States | ArcNews Winter | 2010/2011 Issue

And I echo the above comments. There is a higher concentration of Koreans in the Beaverton area, and Portland is fairly high among west coast cities (this is in contrast to other Asian nationalities where Portland doesn't fare quite as well as other larger cities in the west, from what I recall when I last perused the census).