North - Mississippi, etc (Portland: middle-class, transplants, renting)

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Would appreciate your feedback: Pluses, minuses, must-go-tos, tribal knowledge, and other opinions ... much obliged!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

No one who's lived in (or investigated living in) this district?

[The Cactus Leaguer]

I used to live near there. Definitely a hip, up and coming area. Kind of gentrified, but not nearly as much as, say, Hawthorne. I think it's a good bang for the buck if you want a cool area that's fairly close to the city center.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Would you say that it gets more sketch the further East you go from I-5 / the MAX line?

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Sort of, yeah, but it depends on the block. Some are more gentrified than others.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Would appreciate your feedback: Pluses, minuses, must-go-tos, tribal knowledge, and other opinions ... much obliged!

I live in NE Portland off of Williams just blocks from N Mississippi. It's a quickly changing area. My street is a mix of older working class black families, younger transplants renting homes, and more middle-aged professionals who can afford to buy and fix up the old Victorian and Craftsman homes in the neighborhood(and there are some nice ones still around and the prices have gone down from the peak although some are still pretty expensive).

Mississippi Street itself is nice, although it gets kind of a trendy tourist village feel on weekends and when the weather is nice. It's sort made the transition from somewhat rundown vacant storefronts to hippie/bohemian to more upscale in some ways. There's some good restaurants though. There's Prost, a fun German bar, with a good selection of German brews--and the best place to watch sports on Mississippi(or the only one really). There's also Amnesia Brewing(good place to grab a beer and a sausage on a sunny day), Lovely Fiftys(really good wood-fired pizza and ice cream), and further up is Trebol, a sort of more upscale Mexican-Oaxacan restaurant/Tequila bar, that's good for regional Mexican food. N Williams just a few blocks to the east is transitioning as well--developers are filling in the many vacant lots with new commercial buildings. There's a good place for oysters and New Orleans style food called Eat Oyster Bar and there's also a good breakfast joint called Tasty and Sons. If you like Ethiopian, Dalo's(which looks shabby from the outside, but actually has a nice bar/lounge/restaurant inside) is one of the best spots in Portland for Ethiopian food. The street becoming a little too trendy in some ways, but it's nice to have more places to eat and walk to. And it's easy to get to other parts of Portland--close to downtown and the freeways are right there.

As far as the neighborhood getting worse as you go east from I-5--not so much these days if you're going directly east down Fremont or Alberta from the Mississippi area. To the east of the Mississippi/Williams area on the other side of MLK you run into the Irvington neighborhood--which is pretty nice these days--to the north of that you run into the Alberta neighborhood which is gentrified as well. If you go north of Mississippi or on the other side of MLK further to the north however, it does get a little rougher(although nothing like a bad neighborhood in most of the Bay Area). Mostly random acts of violence that's often limited to certain street corners, although my friend who lives up north towards Lombard has had a few bad experiences with a couple shootings in the neighborhood(rare for Portland, but there is gang violence in certain parts). In general though in the past where Mississippi was a small gentrified island in a somewhat rough area--it's now more so the bad spots are more so islands in a sea of gentrification until you get much further north or northeast of there.

[Deezus]

Also just over I-5 from the Missssippi area on the other side of Interstate Avenue---there's the Overlook neighborhood. If I was looking to buy a home right now, I might consider that area. It's got a nice middle-class feel, friendly residents, and some great houses once you get closer to the river--and you can actually walk across the pedestrian bridge to the Mississippi neighborhood so it's not that far away. Interstate Avenue itself is sort of sketchy in parts but it's improving and once you get to the west it's a good area. Overlook Park is one of nicest views on the Eastside and there's nice little spots on the bluffs above the river for walks or bike rides or just to sit and watch the sunset. I used to live in that area previously and like the laidback feel---and it was cool having old school Portlanders as neighbors who'd been in the neighborhood for years.

There's also a cool old Polish church/library where there's a huge annual Polish Festival(biggest west of the Mississippi) reflective of the area's old heritage as a Polish enclave. And in the library building there's a great Polish cafe that's only open on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons--but it feels like a cross between a pub in Krakow and my Polish great-grandparents house in Milwaukee, WI with a lot of the Polish community in Portland in attendance and great pirogis and kielbasa and Polish beer. One of the hidden gems of Portland.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

TCL and Deezus, thank you very much for the very useful info!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Well, I must say I really liked this hood. I will definitely go back again. Sort of dangerous on the old waistline though!

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by The Cactus Leaguer

Kind of gentrified, but not nearly as much as, say, Hawthorne.

I'd say Mississippi is more gentrified than Hawthorne. I mean they have a gourmet Mac and Cheese only shop on Mississippi!!!!

I was quoted a few weeks ago as saying "Mississippi, it's the Disneyland of gentrification". I stand by that.

I know Minervah will tell us about how rough Hawthorne used to be, but I don't think you had the true, move out the locals gentrification going on there the way it has happened on Mississippi.

That said I love Gravy.