Downtown Living? (Portland: sales, lofts, co-ops)

[take57]

Originally Posted by Melyzzard14

Very helpful, thanks everyone.

How about the Alphabet District? I'm a little deeper into the apartment search now and the retro smaller buildings are veeeery affordable.

Any thoughts on this area? It's close to Pearl and looks to be a quaint neighborhood (based on Google Street view...)

Similar to my earlier post, it depends on where exactly you're looking. The Alphabet generally speaking is nice enough. The larger retro buildings are going to be nearer Burnside, smaller 'courts' will be in the northern part, closer to Pettygrove-"ish". Not too different than any older urban neighborhood you'll find in any moderately sized city. Parking is a challenge, but you'll find mostly everything you need by walking. NW Portland (particularly 21st & 23rd) has been traditionally the more eclectic parts of town both business and people wise, although that has shifted a bit over the years. It's now more trendy than years past.

There's also a lot of newer residential going in near Slabtown (if you look at Google Maps, it's sort of the area tucked in west of the 405 and south of Hwy 30) It too is a nice enough area and a bit of a buffer transition from old NW to Pearl NW.

The one thing I will say about some of those "veeeery affordable" retro apartments is they get turned a lot, sometimes for good reason. Folks tend to stay put in the sweet ones.

Hope this helps.

[Nell Plotts]

The 'Alphabet District' is basically the flat area of NW Portland where the streets are named alphabetically north of Burnside. Before the Pearl district was created there was warehousing, the city needed to tear up the streets to perform needed separation of storm water from sewage so it was re-zoned and 'renewed'. The remainder of NW remains as it once was except for site specific reconstruction particularly along 23rd street.

We 'old timers' find current rent rates high but then some of us remember when NW Portland was down on its heals, so to speak. You won't find much parking there but transit service is excellent.

[texasdiver]

Some terminology might help. In Portland, "downtown" usually refers to the area bound by I-405, Burnside, and the river. Basically the downtown business district.

I think what the OP is really looking for is "urban" living rather than an actual "downtown" location. The number of areas that provides some level of urban living high-rise apartments/condos and plenty of street life keeps expanding as Portland grows. The "Alphabet District" Nell talks about, the whole Pearl District, the older Goose Hollow district west of Providence Park, the South Waterfront area, and now parts of the east side right across the river and around the Lloyd District are all growing into fairly dense urban areas that are all at different stages in the evolution.

[take57]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Some terminology might help. In Portland, "downtown" usually refers to the area bound by I-405, Burnside, and the river. Basically the downtown business district.

I think what the OP is really looking for is "urban" living rather than an actual "downtown" location. The number of areas that provides some level of urban living high-rise apartments/condos and plenty of street life keeps expanding as Portland grows. The "Alphabet District" Nell talks about, the whole Pearl District, the older Goose Hollow district west of Providence Park, the South Waterfront area, and now parts of the east side right across the river and around the Lloyd District are all growing into fairly dense urban areas that are all at different stages in the evolution.

Excellent points from you and Plotts. If that's the case for OP, I wouldn't dismiss SE Hawthorne and/or Division (not altogether unlike NW 21st/23rd but without the excessive cover charge) or around NE Mississippi/Williams. You're also right about Lloyd, it's been going nuts over there.

[marshallsteeves]

I bought a condo a year ago right on the border of Goose Hollow, NW District, Pearl, and Downtown after living Downtown for 3 years. I never have to use a car. Ever. I walk and cycle daily and use transit if I have to go outside the city limits. There is so much energy here - always something happening. Lots of new highrises going in every day - Portland's Downtown is beginning to grow fast. If there is anytime to go for it, the time is now.

NW District is an older, more quaint neighborhood but very dense and still lots of energy even without many highrise buildings.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

If you like to attend political riots every now and then...............................at least you will be close.

[SumTingy]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

If you like to attend political riots every now and then...............................at least you will be close.

Now, now. We need people to move downtown and not in the burbs. We own guns out here and love to shoot.

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

If you like to attend political riots every now and then...............................at least you will be close.

It's a tough and dirty job, Mike, but someone has to live in those many parts of Portland you wouldn't touch. Or would you rather all 500K (in the close in Metro) of us come to your little patch of Paradise?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

..

[JonathanLB]

Haha, you guys are hilarious. Yeah, with all of the craziness of Portland lately, I'm not going to lie, I'm happy to be in Beaverton. I really have no reason to go to Portland so I never do. My dad's house is in Portland, technically, but I mean I never go to the downtown area. To be fair, going downtown in almost any city is extremely annoying. How could it not be?! Parking is always an issue, getting around takes forever, because it's so densely populated. I always thought it was preferable to LIVE downtown and then drive out to the suburbs to visit friends, because if you live downtown, you don't have to DRIVE downtown that much, you can walk or use public transit or even a taxi / rideshare. I've lived in both Downtown Los Angeles and Downtown Portland, and really enjoyed my time in both all things considered. Whatever I didn't enjoy had little to do with the downtown part and more to do with the city as a whole.

I think what I miss most about the Pearl is probably just that waterfront view off the balcony. Watching the river was peaceful, and sitting outside in the summer just looking at the water, even if my view wasn't the most amazing, was still pretty awesome and I'm glad I got to experience that. I still think the Pearl is one of the best places to live in Portland, but it is very pricey and the property taxes were pretty crushing. If you have the money, it's a lot of fun, but for my lifestyle at least it was too tough to live in a small place with my girlfriend. We're just not that type of people. We need a big house to feel independent and have our own space. As a single guy, I was always fine with small places, both of my condos in L.A. were under 1,000 square feet and I just crammed them full of stuff and it was fine with me. No issues. It was enough space. But when you have two people, you need about four times the space in my experience.