Boise Neighborhood (Portland: low income, real estate, renters)

[peninsular]

My good friends from SF are very seriously considering moving to Portland. With two little kids (3 and 1), life is quite difficult here. They've set their sights on Boise neighborhood and are asking my advice, since I spent 12 great years living in Portland before I moved here to the Bay Area about 5 years ago. Back then, blocks around N Mississippi were starting to gentrify, while the rest of the neighborhood was still a bit sketchy. How are things there today? I'm interested in particular in safety of walking alone at night, schools and whatever else there is to know about this part of North Portland. Thanks!

[urbanlife78]

It is very gentrified in that neighborhood these days.

[Deezus]

Boise-Elliot area has changed a lot in the last few years. Williams/Vancouver corridor is changing daily--there's condos going up everywhere on Williams and the few older businesses that were around in the old day are gone or about to leave and there's a lot of new businesses opening up. Very gentrified, you still have some of the older black community but most live further north in N/NE these days. Doesn't feel that dangerous at all these days, there were a few shots fired incidents on the corners around Fremont and Williams when I lived there years back but these days things are pretty mellow. Pretty expensive though in parts though the south-end and just to the north you can still find a few deals(relatively speaking) for that central area of town.

Really though it's not that sketchy these days, you're more likely to get hit by a bicyclist crossing Williams than anything else.

[Nell Plotts]

Heck, the older Black homeowners are delighted. Years ago a developer who happened to be Black consulted my husband about construction projects he had in mind, the MAX line was in in the planning stages and he anticipated that the neighborhood would be revitalized.

Low income renters doubtless are struggling.

[peninsular]

Thank you, all, for your feedback.

[SkyBlue Portland]

As a real estate team, we show that area to young professional couples quite often. It's one of the trendier up-and-coming neighborhoods. And you can still get a value there. However, depending on your friends' budget, there are neighborhoods more appropriate for family life with small children. I would suggest Sellwood for instance.

[AndyAMG]

I wouldn't live there. I have friends that live on Borthwick and Failing. Because they wanted to be by Mississippi. They have had a lot of problems. 3 car stereos stolen, random car vandalization. Gun shots heard several times a month. Cars going through blaring loud bass, gangs, and the graffiti is out of control. They had their PODS vandalized with graffiti, and had to pay for the damage. They still claim they love it there. Then they tell me an other story about how "unique" where they live is. "unique" is what they say because they don't want to admit I was right about the neighborhood. My buddy keeps saying, "but I can stumble home drunk from Prost, and ride my bike to the max station." to each their own. I asked him about the schools, he said "schools are great!" he said this after my wife told me a long drawn out story about a young boy inappropriately touching their daughter and her being bullied. All I will say is that area is better but still in the top 3 bad areas of Portland with Rockwood and Felony Flats/outer SE being number 1 and 2 respectively. Don't believe the hype.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

I wouldn't live there. I have friends that live on Borthwick and Failing. Because they wanted to be by Mississippi. They have had a lot of problems. 3 car stereos stolen, random car vandalization. Gun shots heard several times a month. Cars going through blaring loud bass, gangs, and the graffiti is out of control. They had their PODS vandalized with graffiti, and had to pay for the damage. They still claim they love it there. Then they tell me an other story about how "unique" where they live is. "unique" is what they say because they don't want to admit I was right about the neighborhood. My buddy keeps saying, "but I can stumble home drunk from Prost, and ride my bike to the max station." to each their own. I asked him about the schools, he said "schools are great!" he said this after my wife told me a long drawn out story about a young boy inappropriately touching their daughter and her being bullied. All I will say is that area is better but still in the top 3 bad areas of Portland with Rockwood and Felony Flats/outer SE being number 1 and 2 respectively. Don't believe the hype.

There sounds like there are a lot of exaggerations going on in this post. I know that area really well and it has been a long time since I would consider it to be a bad neighborhood or even bad block. Heck, homes in that area are $300-600K.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

All I will say is that area is better but still in the top 3 bad areas of Portland with Rockwood and Felony Flats/outer SE being number 1 and 2 respectively.

It's don't even know if it's in the top 3 worst neighborhoods in North Portland at this point... I have friends up in Piedmont and Kenton who complain a lot more about their neighborhoods, and Portsmouth is worse than either of those two.

I lived in that area for six years, it's not like it was five years ago, there was much more going on back in terms of bad corners, but most of the area isn't graffiti covered or especially sketchy at all. Things feel more like the old neighborhood as you go north towards Killingsworth into Humboldt, but even that area isn't like it used to be. I used to hear shots fired, but rarely by the time I left. I left because rents were a rip off and didn't want to spend enough to buy a house in that area, but crime was the least of my worries when I left a couple years back. I didn't have my car broken into once in North Portland though, I've had it broken into three times living in North Tabor in SE in the last year and a half, so that goes on almost anywhere in Portland.

[yellow925]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

There sounds like there are a lot of exaggerations going on in this post. I know that area really well and it has been a long time since I would consider it to be a bad neighborhood or even bad block. Heck, homes in that area are $300-600K.

I agree... I stay not too far from Boise and it's far from crime ridden.