Portland, Oregon

Portland is the largest city in Oregon, a few dozen miles from the west (Pacific) coast of the United States. It is situated just south of the Columbia River, where the Willamette River, which flows north through the city, joins it. The city population is 529,121 (2000 Census), with a CMSA population of 2,180,996, making it the 22nd largest metro area in the United States (1999 Census Bureau estimates).

The city is nicknamed "The City of Roses", and hosts a Rose Festival each Spring. Informally, residents of Portland also call it "PDX", from the IATA airport code of Portland International Airport. Other nicknames are "Stumptown" and "Puddletown".

Francis Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy, co-founders of Portland, named the city in 1845 when Pettygrove won a coin toss with his partner. Pettygrove named it for his hometown of Portland, Maine; had Lovejoy won, he intended to name it after his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.

Portland is home to Forest Park, one of the world's largest parks contained within a city (about 20 square kilometers, or 2000 hectares), and Mill Ends Park, one of the smallest parks anywhere (being a one-foot diameter circle, its "acreage" is only about 0.3 square metres). Portland is the home of the Portland Trailblazers NBA team, the Portland Fire WNBA team, and the Portland Beavers minor league baseball team.

The Portland metropolitan area includes also the neighboring cities of Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, Oregon City, and Tigard (all in Oregon), as well as Vancouver (in Washington). Portland itself is in Multnomah County.

Portland is divided into 5 sections. The Willamette River bisects the city into an eastern and western section, and Burnside St. bisects it into a northern and southern section. So there is NW, SW, NE, and SE. The river curves to the NW north of Burnside, so the section of N Portland that is actually north of the river is the N. section. The city is slightly asymmetrical, because the west side is cut off by the west hills, while the east side stretches on for more that 150 blocks, until it meets Gresham.

NW Portland is a mix of industry, old warehouses which are being converted into condos, a trendy shopping distrect, and art galleries. SW Portland contains downtown, the super-rich west hills, and the Macadam Blvd. area, as well as Lewis and Clark College. N and NE Portland are the supposedly "bad" areas, although compared with other cities they are very tame. N Portland also contains the St. Johns neighborhood which has an old-fashioned and slightly run down feeling, right next to the beautiful St. John's Bridge. NE Portland is slowly becoming gentrified. It is the traditionally black area of Portland, but as the arts district of Alberta Street becomes more yuppified, black and poor people are being pushed out the the east side. NE is a center of punk activity because of low rent and the arts scene. SE Portland is calm, very white, and stretches from the warehouses by the river, through the hippie Hawthorne distrect, to the white-trashy 82nd Ave and beyond. It is a haven for aging leftists, gardeners, anarchists, and Reed College.

Portland is notible (partly) for its wonderful public transportation system. 5th and 6th Aves in downtown are designated for bus traffic only. The bus system is extremely organized, with almost all bus routes ending in downtown on the bus mall, where bus stops are grouped geographically by destination, so that if you miss your bus you can take another one that goes closeby. The light rail, or MAX goes from Hillsboro, a western suburb, to Gresham, an eastern suburb. It goes through downtown, the Lloyd center mall, and the Hollywood district. Another MAX line goes from downtown to the airport, and a route alone Interstate Blvd. is under construction. Last year, the Portland Streetcar began, with a short route from Portland State University, through downtown, to the shoping district on NW 23rd.

Other notable current and former Portlanders:

Notable Portland institutions include:

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)
OMSI - The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
The American Advertising Museum

For bibliophiles:

Powell?s City of Books