Good places in Portland/area for a cross-country newcomer? (Burns: neighborhood, buy)

[TwistKick]

Hm, good to know, crisw. Ultimately, I'm going to try to get a job in Portland, not a suburb, and live as close to work as possible. If I can walk or bike to work and have to drive 15 minutes to the grocery store twice a week, I'll consider that a success

[crisw]

One of the things to be aware of is that, due to the UGB, Portland and environs is pretty compact. From where we rented in Milwaukie, for example, it was only a 15-minute drive (or a 40-minute or so bike ride) to my job downtown (and a five-minute walk to the grocery store.) So you may not want to rule out all suburbs categorically.

[TwistKick]

Holy crap!! I got a call back today from a law firm! It's not a job offer, but still! The only bad thing is, they're on the west side of the Willamette and all the neighborhoods I've marked down (North Tabor, Montavilla, Alberta, Kerns, Sullivan's Gulch, etc) are on the east side :<

[SETabor]

Where on the west side? Downtown isn't that big an issue as all public transportation feeds to the middle. Multnomah Village would be a different story, although that is a lovely area to live in.

[TwistKick]

Good to know, Deezus! I'd love to be able to bike to work - but is it safe to bike across the river bridges? I guess if not that, a short bus ride's perfectly acceptable, too. Oh man, if I could forgo my car entirely for work that'd be pretty awesome.

What's the drivetime from Montavilla/North Tabor to downtown, though, say, in the morning rush (should I miss the bus) ?

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by TwistKick

Good to know, Deezus! I'd love to be able to bike to work - but is it safe to bike across the river bridges? I guess if not that, a short bus ride's perfectly acceptable, too. Oh man, if I could forgo my car entirely for work that'd be pretty awesome.

What's the drivetime from Montavilla/North Tabor to downtown, though, say, in the morning rush (should I miss the bus) ?

Driving is usually like 15 minures. It's a straight shot down Burnside or Glisan to the Burnside Bridge or down Belmont to the Morrison Bridge. It's really easy, there's occasonally traffic driving back, but it's not that bad once you get a little way past the bridges. Parking can be like $10-$15 around downtown, that's why a lot of people take the bus or bike or walk.

Biking across most of the bridges is fine. The Hawthorne has a lot of bike riders as it's got a separate bike/walk lane on the side(as does the Steel Bridge) and the Burnside Bridge has a wide bike lane. It's more your comfort level riding in fairly busy bike lanes along main streets to get to the bridges. Downtown one can ride along the waterfront bike paths if they don't want to ride on the busier downtown streets.

[bler144]

Biking across most of the bridges is fine imo - biking over/around the streetcar rails can cause accidents if you don't know how to account for rails. Most of those neighborhoods would be just fine for going downtown.

15 minutes from Montavilla in rush seems optimistic to me, though it would make a difference whether you were coming from 68th/Burnside (70 blocks straight shot to the river) or 92nd/market (close to 100 blocks).

But generally I agree - if you're living east of the river there's a big difference between working "west of the river/downtown/psu" which can be quite doable and "westside" up into the hills/Beaverton/Hillsboro, which personally I'd avoid.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by TwistKick

Good to know, Deezus! I'd love to be able to bike to work - but is it safe to bike across the river bridges? I guess if not that, a short bus ride's perfectly acceptable, too. Oh man, if I could forgo my car entirely for work that'd be pretty awesome.

What's the drivetime from Montavilla/North Tabor to downtown, though, say, in the morning rush (should I miss the bus) ?

The Hawthorne Bridge (nearest to your location) is a major bike commute route. Here's a nice little film about the commute on the Hawthorne. And the new transit bridge will make it even easier.

Good luck with the interview. Hope it goes great!

[bler144]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

The Hawthorne Bridge (nearest to your location) is a major bike commute route. Here's a nice little film about the commute on the Hawthorne. And the new transit bridge will make it even easier.

Good luck with the interview. Hope it goes great!

I'm locked out of repping you, but that's a great little video - good illustration of the volume of traffic, and while I didn't catch them mentioning it specifically, you can visually see some of the variety of lane markers for bike safety that are present in almost all of near-in NE/SE.

[Yankeemama]

Awesome news! Good luck and keep us posted. The Tri-Met will take you downtown from various East side stations.