Portland's East Side Neighborhoods Are Still Great -- Here's Why
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 เม.ย. 2024
- Like nearly every city, the greatest streets and neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon exist where the long-abandoned electric streetcars ran. Today we're touring Portland's east side to find remnants of that age and talk about why its lingering impact is so important.
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Special thanks to Cameron Booth at transitmap.net for use of his 1915 Portland electric streetcar line map! I strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with his site if you haven't -- Cam does amazing work. You can buy this particular piece as a print at transitmap.net/store/product/...
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- My Video On Downtown Portland: • Portland Is a Bit of a...
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Resources:
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Since you willingly scrolled down to the comments, now you have to endure this one: if you were on Nebula, you would've seen this video a few days early! (Also without ads, and, best of all -- WITH NO COMMENT SECTION.) Using my custom link gets you 40% off an annual subscription, and really helps the channel! go.nebula.tv/citynerd
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I'll have you know I already watched this on Nebula. I'm just here to interact with screen elements for the algorithm like a good viewer 🫡
I like the comments.
The comments on videos of this nature are often interesting and raise some worthwhile points; it's a shame that you should see them as a nuisance
And this urbanism can be yours for the low price of 3k a month rent for a studio
Jokes on you, I already watched this on Nebula!
The worst part about living in Philly is the constant feeling of abandoned trolley lines underneath your tires.
😭
Spooky... 👻
That clunk every time your tire rotates is annoying and those buried tracks cause most of the potholes on those streets.
Most of those streets still have the old bricks/pavers/cobbles down there too
I would've thought it would be the proximity to Philly sports fans
That last comment about idling engines hit me, its depressing how so much of the background noise of our every day lives is an internal combustion engine.
Eh. With mufflers, idling engines are pretty quiet, no worse than most air conditioners. Accelerating from a stop is when engines are the worst, and at speed, tire noise is much worse than engine noise.
@@jonathanstensberg but when there's like 20 cars parked in a drive through i don't care how quiet they are. it's just dumb.
@@jonathanstensberg Some guy today (Wednesday) in some kind of a fancy, souped-up Jeep was literally and quite purposefully roaring his motor up and down my generally quiet Denver city streets near North High (most of which predatie the automobile, as well) like he was both angry and yearning for big-time attention. He did have some kind of muffler, I think, and what he was doing may have somehow been within the limits of the law - but regardless, that stuff happens a lot more often than it needs to, legally or not, and no one is going to pick him up. It's just not going to happen. But to Ray's point, idling engines outside of schools is another bizarre but true issue in America, and not just for the noise.
any civilized car would just turn the engine off when stopped - but in those areas you see far to many "emotional support vehicles", where noise is seen as a feature…
@@jonathanstensberg i have tinnitus so no noise is the worst possible situation
Meanwhile in Seattle, we can't even agree to make the Pike Market a pedestrian zone. This is a street that can take about an hour to drive a block on a weekend.
It’s really silly
It is actually being discussed this year but as always, Seattle is paralysis by analysis
There is 0 reason why automobile traffic is allowed on that street. They closed it off for the 2023 MLB All Star Game and the world didn't end
American main roads take about an hour to cross 😂
As a Seattleite these days, that literally worked with advocates in Portland for years on many of these streets, I'm always frustated af with Seattle's potential that is buried in "Seattle process" and nonsense! Pike Market should have been a pedestrian zone a zillion years ago, the fact it's a 0.1 mph car street with marking just boggles my mind.
For some reason, my brain chose to interpret "predates the automobile" as in "hunts and eats cars." That would have been a very different video. 😂
Came here to say this lol
Yeah, "Rapture" by Blondie: "And then you're in the Man from Mars, You go out at night, eating cars."
Attenborough voice: "The SUV nervously shuttles its young along the paved corridor. Not all of them are going to make it to driving school today. Hidden underneath the tarmac lies a silent killer - the hydraulic bollard."
@@vincelamb4063
Yesss! Love Rapture!
This wins the internet today! Ray, you better call this out mister.
I live in the Kenton neighborhood and I never want to leave .The fact that we have a MAX stop and good bus access as well as bike infrastructure really makes my life possible despite being poor. The East side neighborhoods in Portland is my favorite thing about the city I just wish they were still all as well connected as Kenton is.
You know, I kinda assume the Kenton line ran on Denver (it's marked as Derby Street in the old maps, which I think is the old name of Denver), but I wasn't going to get that far north anyway, so I also missed St. Johns & Dekum/Woodlawn. Didn't get as far east as I could've either!
One summer day many years ago I had a great time biking with friends from Buckman to old town for drinks; then bikes put on the Max to Kenton; and then a meandering evening ride back to Buckman, stopping at friends’ houses along the way.
You said something really important to me. I'm poor and I need a bike-able/walkable city. Mostly, I just really need to leave Texas. I'm in a blue-ish area,but i'm just about done. Portland seems really interesting.
@@bodhimind108The main issue with Portland… despite the best attempts of some people to devalue property in the city, it’s rather expensive. I’m not sure I can even point you to an exception that is anywhere near any of the neighborhoods in the video. The people mentioning Kenton here… maybe?
@@PCSPounder Thanks for the heads up. I notcied people were mention that area. I have friends in another part of Orepon. I should contact them. It's been a while. Thx
the idea of a neighborhood getting together and convoying the kids to school on bikes is way cool. you go PDX.
Former long-term Sellwood resident here: The east side now draws some of the most insane housing prices + cost of living in the state. Our family (with our high 6 figure income) was forced out and will not likely be able to return. Only the lucky who bought cheap + wealthy families buying now can afford a family home in the area. It's frankly the best place to live on the west coast if you're into an urban life. It makes me sick that it's on the fast track to become the next exclusively wealthy, urban enclave. That we have to fight an impossible battle for this level of livability everywhere is beyond discouraging.
sellwood is awful. no one should move here. I don't know what you are talking about.
Feel you, I grew up on the east side, near what is now the division monstrosity that's celebrated, and there's no way I could ever afford to live in the house we had that was $80k in the early 90s and is over $700k now. Portland is great, but it should be great for everyone, and not just the wealthy that forced all of my local friends to far flung suburbs that suck.
*Inner Eastside* you mean. Sorry to break it to you but anyone living west of 52nd was already extremely privileged. There's still semi-affordable stuff way out east.
Did you mean "high five figure income?"
A high 6-figure income would be $700-900K. It can't be that kind of expensive there! I just found a nice little 2+1 in Sellwood for $575K. Here in LA, that would get me a burned-out vacant lot in Compton.
Literally just stayed in the Mississippi area over the weekend, and it was fantastic. Love visiting Portland.
I moved to Portland a year ago and ditched my car when I moved. I live in Inner SE and it's definitely a great place to live and easy to get around without a car. Loving Portland!
That'll fade soon. Portland during an election year is literally like the Purge
The streetcar legacy for so many cities is interesting, thanks for the Portland insight
My daughter relocated to Portland a few years ago for graduate school. She hasn't left and has been able to make a solid living as an artist. Your video tantalizes people not living in Portland to visit the small neighborhoods with the shops, restaurants, and yes...gourmet doughnut shops. Thanks for your work.
I moved to the Sellwood neighborhood last year! Portland isn't perfect but it's such an improvement from where I was before. It was fun seeing my new home featured here.
Hi neighbor! I'm across 99E from Sellwood. 🙂 We've got a lot of cool things here.
If you ever see a blue Aventon cargo bike with a big red bow on the back riding around, that's me!
I just lived there for about a year and moved out about last week over to downtown. Wonder if we've ever seen each other before lmao
@@BellaDeininger Maybe! I'm often walking my dog south of Tacoma. What made you decide to move to downtown?
Speaking up to defend gray skies. Different courses for different horses. I've lived in desert areas. I find bright, sunny days glaring & oppressive. I much prefer gentle gray skies as a background. They make the flowers and moss POP. I understand that some people have Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is not the town for them.
100% agree! I love a quote from the film V for Vendetta: "God is in the rain".😇
Indeed, "all sunshine and no rain makes a desert." It's a biological fact that sunlight is healthy for human eyes but it's also a biological fact that it's damaging to the skin. I'd rather have a black forest than a bleached wasteland.
I noticed that people in the southwest hide in air conditioning more than the NW coast people hide under roofs. I can do a lot more outdoor sports in 60d clouds than 90d sun.
Every city has their good weather season and their bad weather season. If you’ve ever been to Phoenix in July or Buffalo in January you know what I’m talking about! 😂
This was such an amazing video City Nerd. As someone who has lived in Portland my entire life, I've always recognized how these specific streets that attract people were streets established back when our trolley lines were around. I really hope one day we can bring them back
Washington, D.C. used to have a robust electric streetcar/trolley network but, tragically, it was stopped in 1962 after a whole century of service. Ray’s assertion rings true here: the corridors where the streetcars traveled are now some of the D.C’s most vibrant, in-demand, and transit-friendly areas. And there are still remnants of the streetcar network, such as trolley turnarounds turned into parks and bus terminals.
I loved living in Portland. There was so much to do.
I moved to Portland 8ish years ago and ended up on the downtown side in my first rental, not knowing that much about the neighborhoods yet. it didn't take long to realize the heart of the city was on the inner east side just a short walk over the river. I moved over there less than a year later and have been having the time of my life ever since. No-one goes downtown for anything but appointments and soccer games or maybe a brunch in NW.
Nice job, Ray. I especially liked your observation that cities that developed while streetcars were still in existence have this quality as opposed to the ones that developed during auto dependency.
TIL his name is Ray
@@bagelized Ray Delahanty
I don't think it's debatable
My two daughters and I live in a townhome in South blocks PSU and Art museum adjacent, we love the availability of streetcar,bus, Max line all within three block radius. Yes, downtown has had a ruff run past 5 years, improvements are happening, streets are getting cleaner, people are getting displacement services finally.❤🎉😊
Lol, a rough run . Ok. I won't help them out then since its safe . You're beyond delusional
Doing our tour of urban fabric in Europe these last two weeks, so striking to experience the brutal soundscape that is London sandwiched by weeks spent in the bustling but mostly gently human powered streetscape of Delft in the Netherlands.
Delft benefits from having an old downtown with canals and narrow streets that were just never going to be given over to cars completely, since that would have required razing the city and starting over, and even at the height of car mania in the '60s and '70s, that would have been out of the question. The university district, on the other hand, is very new, and it used to be very car-oriented when I went to college there in the late '80s, and has since been transformed into a much more bike- and pedestrian-friendly space (and greener, too), which makes so much sense since the area is compact enough that driving around there always felt a bit silly.
It may not feel like it, but London has made big strides in modal shift to cycling, low traffic neighbourhoods, quiet ways and school streets. The Mayoral election happens in early May, and it’s depressing that there’s still a lot of culture war rhetoric bleeding the campaigns. Luckily the incumbent is likely to sneak it, and four more years will probably be the tipping point that makes it irreversible at least in the inner boroughs.
@@richardwhatmough2702 There are plenty of signs of the transition to walk bike friendly streets. It’s going to be interesting to see what our big cities look and sound like in ten or twenty years.
We just got back from Delft and a two week tour of the Netherlands. US can learn a lot about livability from Netherlands. 🇳🇱
Plenty of quiet places in London. I take it you didn't stray from the tourist spots before passing judgement on the entire city?
Division street resident here! Thanks for showcasing some of my favorite Eastside streets. I'm going to use this video to show my friends and family why I like living here so much!
hello fellow division street resident! ^_^
I appreciate how excellent Portland looks and not the Urban Hellscape some want to have us believe. Bravo Portland! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Well this is a couple of blocks in NE Portland, but yes, overall it lacks the decaying strip mall aesthetic of Phoenix or dry canals of LA or kudzu-eaten haunted tire shops of Atlanta. The closer you get to the bridges in the (other) City of Bridges the more it looks like Gotham City.
It does though . This video is bullshit. Lived here 40 years
Portland was way ahead of the curve with their awesome trolley car network in the 1920's. I visited my grandmother in Philadelphia in the 70's and remember seeing all of the trolley tracks through the pavement....and wondering how great it would be to ride the trolley all over town.❤
I used to live outside Philly in one of the small towns. We had a trolley right down State Street. We could take that trolley right into Central Philadelphia to go Christmas shopping at Wanamaker's. That trolley is still there, too. I wish we hadn't left!
@@james-p Awesome 😎. I remember the Wanamaker's Christmas parade each year. My grandmother would take the train from Philly to our house in Westfield NJ in the early 70's. She always brought a turkey in her suitcase....lol. My grandparents lived in the Mt. Airy neighborhood in Philly..... I miss those days too.
@@Earthshaker1965 Yes, early '70s, that's right around the time! I loved it there.
Interesting wrinkle: the early development of electric trolley cars is directly related to the region's early development of hydroelectric power (specifically Willamette Falls). There was no good way to store the constant excess of electricity generated by the constant flow of water, so they sunk it into public transportation.
@@sadvipra31Now THAT is worthy of its own video.
Former PDX resident. Love to see this kind of stuff!
Could you please make a video about Celebration, Florida, and other New Urbanism communities of the 1990s?
I went to high school and community college in Celebration, and being one of the original families was definitely an experience.
I recognized at a young age that I was fortunate to live there, and I recognized that it was not an affordable place to live compared to the rest of car dependent Orlando suburban sprawl.
Most of the videos about Celebration focus on the Disney connection, the development process, how it was a “social experiment,” or the two murders that happened in the 25 year history of the town.
It definitely inspired my love of urbanism, which is why I left Florida and went to UW-Milwaukee, which has an incredibly walkable urban campus.
Gahhh, neighborhood movie theaters are a godsend to me as a film buff and urbanist! I have fond memories of going to my neighborhood theater on Chalkstone Ave as a kid in the early 2000's, unfortunately most of neighborhood movie theaters in Providence have been converted into churches, including the one on Chalkstone, which was the oldest purpose built movie theater in Providence before in closed :(
This also applies to the mosquito fleet towns in the Salish Sea, where small urban nodes developed around docks where the old steam ships would stop instead developing on rail lines. Examples are Kingston, Langley, Coupeville, Friday Harbor, East Sound, and the biggest of all of them, Port Townsend
Fascinating. This topic needs a video.
Yay! Was hoping your recent appearance would result in a video and I am thrilled to see more bike bus coverage cause it really is what this city needs more of! My favorite part of Portland is in the early spring when all the roads are messed up from snow/ice/expansion and we get to see the cobbles and sometimes rails peeking out. They didn't even pull them up - its all still down there and just paved over every couple of years. Wish we could take a streetcar to Mt Tabor still, the amount of people who drive and fight for hardly enough parking to then only walk in the place about 1/2 mile, get their instagram shot and leave is one of the saddest things about spring. Thankfully if you are able to make it to the top its less crowded and completely car free.
Hopefully the better bus service on Division will help encourage some people to look at alternatives.
There is ALWAYS more than what you can see on the news. Even more than what you see when you visit.
Eternal optimism.
I moved my family to Portland (Sellwood) in early 2021. People who watched national TV news thought it was crazy but I studied urban planning and to me the many amazing successes of Portland (this video just being a small part) jumped out.
Thanks for the interesting archeology connecting former streetcar lines with stairs through residential neighborhoods.
CITYNERD!! Love seeing the Portland neighborhoods, being a resident in Parkrose, Belmont and frequenter of the Hawthorne neighborhood. Thanks for the quick splash of the Alberta Rose ...
A1 commentary 👍🏿
Thank you for mentioning displacement
Seeing streets like these gives me hope that it could become a trend once again. I'm so used to seeing videos about enormous inner city highways and miles of car parking that this is such a breath of fresh air.
The neighborhoods featured in this video are what many people would call charming. The only person that I have heard call a suburban neighborhood charming is a real estate agent.
Ha! True that!
My "city" has old street car routes, but today they're the sorts of places you don't go without a gun.
I could argue differently if you were near a grove of trees. (Raising hand)
But once the predictable infill happened, blerg.
@@PCSPounder It would be the trees themselves that would be charming.
It's eye opening to realize just how long ago the electric streetcar era was; by the time my grandparents sold their house in Irvington in the late 50s to move to the suburbs, the streetcar was gone or barely existed. I still wonder what could've been if they had stayed in this close-in neighborhood (99 Bike score, 73 Walk score), rather than becoming suburban pioneers and moving into that new ranch house a block from the freeway all the way out on 122nd in Parkrose Heights (Walk Score 40, Transit Score 38, Bike Score 66).
BLACK PEOPLE APPRECIATE YOU FOR ACKNOWLEDGING THIS RAY!!!
Still happening all over
It would be throughly embarrassing to talk about some of these places without talking about (especially Black) displacement. Hey, at least Ndamukong Suh invested a bunch around 30th and Alberta, that's all new since last time I was there. That Kinnamons smells amazing
@@CityNerd Terrell Brandon invested a lot back in the late 90's
🤣🤣🤣😂
Portland, one of my favourite American cities
Lived in PDX over 20 years ago, in SE and then North Portland for awhile. Only visited a few times since. Was there last year, and the FX2 line was very handy. First time I had seen that transit bridge as well.
Thank you for this video about my home city! I had no idea that all the wonderful Portlandy streets existed because of an old electric streetcars system. As a car-free transit rider, I wish that more extensive streetcars system still functioned today. Thanks also for pointing out the common features of beautiful movie theaters and all the Rudy's lol. I'll definitely be thinking of this channel when I go by one tomorrow. I appreciate your explanation of my environment, how it came to be the way it is. Portland is home to me, so it's really nice to have a better understanding of my home.
I go to Reed College in southeast; the fact that there used to be a streetcar on Milwaukie Ave in Moreland and 13th in Sellwood makes so much sense. Ever since I moved here, it's driven me INSANE how the MAX orange line goes down the highway in the middle of nowhere, instead of any of the real destinations to the west of it.
Absolutely! If I want to go to the Rhododendron Garden across the street from Reed College, it's a bit of a hike from the MAX station in Milwaukie. Still haven't quite figured out how to do the bus faster from my neighborhood up in the NW Alphabet District.
once upon a time streetcars used to circle the loop in front of vollum and went all the way down reed college place and could get you to the interurban that ran on the springwater corridor. rumor has it that one of the junked trolleys from this route was used in the original old spaghetti factory.
Favorite video of yours in awhile, but its about Portland so how could it not be good!
Portland's been my city since I moved here in 2007. Thanks for doing us proud with this flattering review!
I lived in the Alberta neighborhood from 1993 to 2000, and car-free the last two years. I miss those days. This video made me homesick. My husband worked at Metro from 1991-2000, and I sometimes wonder if you two crossed paths. He was Doug Weathers, in the IT department, and won several Oscars for great support to Metro's employees.
Visited Portland last November, but due to time considerations, I was only able to see Downtown, Old Town Chinatown, the Pearl District and Washington Park. I penciled in North Mississippi and NW Albina as destinations if time permitted, but this was not to be. Now having seen these and some of the other neighborhoods of the Central Eastside through your video, I'm determined to include them the next time I visit the Rose City. Thanks!
SE Division is basically a modernized streetcar street, and I know it's a little farther and technically outside of city limits, but downtown Milwaukie when the Sunday market is going is great. ❤
I live in SE. There used to be a trolley line in front of my house. Now the closest bus lines are a half mile away. The closest b rail is nearly 3 miles away.
There is a lot of new housing on Woodstock. Mostly one and two bedroom apartments.
Gentrification isn't the cause of displacement itself - it's a symptom of low housing supply. When the people in their 30's who would normally buy a home can't afford one/find one, they take the apartments that used to be occupied by high-earning professionals in their late 20's/early 30's. When those people can't find those apartments, they take the next lowest thing, and so on and so on, until the people at the bottom of the ladder just get pushed out of housing entirely.
Cincinnati has lots of public stairways that seem to complement its old streetcar system as well. A local organization named Spring In Our Step that’s working to restore the stairways and alleyways across the city
Where are you living now, CityNerd? I am living in Portland and appreciated this video!
Oh, man... These streets on a clear sunny day really make Portland look like an amazing place to live!
rainy days are amazing too, don't believe the lies
Expert resident here. It rains all the time. Prolly best not to come…;-)
@@lanewalp8727 Right? I feel like a weirdo with my friends when they all want sunny weather and I'm very happy with a cozy rainy day sipping some tea by my fireplace.
Thanks CN for the WaPo story link. From what I’ve seen, personal vehicles and school buses long ago settled into their current relationship: The bare minimum of buses and school lots filled to the brim with cars and trucks … especially high schools. And that’s even before the ridiculously long car lines.
And I understand why. When we moved to a small rural town my kids had a 40 or 60 minute bus ride to school, reachable by car in about 10 minutes.
It’s one bus that goes all around the town. My oldest didn’t mind so much because he reads his phone. My youngest couldn’t wait to drive to school.
The H.S. is located on a major stroad. Everyday 2 cops manage traffic from the usual 50mph down to crawling speed.
I realize there’s nothing at all unique about any of that, but remain astonished everyone puts up with it.
I live in the NW Alphabet Historic District in Portland. The city is redeveloping the Montgomery Park neighborhood north of Vaughn and east of 27th and would like to bring the streetcar to the neighborhood in a loop from 23rd up Roosevelt and down Wilson -- all new track that needs to be laid -- rather than taking advantage of the buried lines that are still under the pavement up Thurman to 27th. The city wants intense infill development in this parcel which does not mirror the success of the neighborhood directly to the south of Vaughn where the historic development pattern with the old street car line produced a pedestrian/active transit lifestyle as you've shown in the SE neighborhoods of Portland. I wish you were still here to help guide planning decisions.
To be fair, the buried tracks are probably not usable.
Awww you showcased my neighborhood!🥰
Saw mine too!
What makes me sad about the bike bus is what an outlier it is, and how many problems that fact is connected to. I was driving home from work the other day along an atypical route from my usual EB 26 drive (yes, I am often part of the car problem), in the Portland exurbs near Beaverton over the west hills, and was amazed at the traffic caused Sunset High School's morning drop-off rush: solid mile of backed-up cars in every direction (north along 143rd, E-W along Cornell Blvd). This is not a dense area, and Sunset is not a big school, but because the entire place is designed to be navigated by car--not a bit of protected bike lane in sight--and designed poorly--how many super-wide intersections could've been smaller if they were traffic circles, with fewer queuing lanes required due to better flow?--it's congested to absurd levels on a regular basis.
Someday, American traffic engineers will learn to do things better, but that's just going to highlight how wrong we've been doing it for decades.
I am a Sunset allum (94) and back then everyone just took the bus and things seemed to go smoothly. What changed to cause a mile-long car backup?
@@aprotosis I have no idea. I'm from New England originally, and I don't have any kids that go there, so I can't say. I will definitely say that the light at 143rd and Cornell is a big cause of the problem--another intersection that could easily have been a traffic circle--but I'd not be surprised if parents have become more insistent on driving their kids to school, rather than having them walk/bike or take the bus.
@@aprotosis I think you answered your own question with "everyone just took the bus."
Thanks so much for covering the bike bus in your video!!!
I hear (and see) the 'bike bus' in my Portland neighborhood every school day and it is indeed a joyous sound.
The deadly back story about "cool" cities like Portland or Seattle
My adult daughter moved to Portland last year, it's a cool urban environment BUT much of the construction is early 20th century un-reinforced brick masonry, including the four story building in which she resides on the 4th floor, constructed 1906 in the Nob Hill District ( and was barely able to afford) . As I understand it there is very little or no seismic retro fit or even hazard notification of risk to tenants required. We have tried to get her to look for safer digs, but so far without success.
Barely any of the housing stock is reinforced masonry, just a handful of early 20th Mansion Blocks and the city is mandating signage for the earthquake risk. Also NW is one of the most expensive neighborhoods so it would be pricey to live there, location, location, location.
That's definitely an issue I would think about, even if the building is super charming!
Portland is pretty far from the really bad fault... probably matters more what kind of soil the building is on. An old building that was less safe would probably have developed warning signs. Settlement cracks, that sort of thing.
Real masonry with the lumber in pockets is also not too bad because all the components have dimension. Takes extra work to tilt the whole or separate the pieces when weight is bearing on them.
@@josephfisher426 The Cascadia subduction zone and Juan de Fuca fault are just off the coast and while fewer earthquakes, when large one's hit they are Fukushima or Chile magnitude events. The last big quake was 1700 and estimated a 9.0 on Rictor scale. When that quake occurs it will do tremendous damage to cities from Vancouver BC down to Portland and near the Cal border. Portland is trying now to rebuild and retrofit the bridges over the Willamette before the next quake. There is real concern too over all the fuel storage for the region that is located on filled land along the Willamette in N Portland which is very likely to liquify. The number of unreinforced masonry (many even with old bricks & old mortar) buildings across Portland is huge and even though we are not on the coast, a 9.0 subduction quake is nothing to dismiss.
I love living in Sellwood neighborhood! Walk or bike to nearly everything, and a family friendly, small town vibe. Our family has a car but it stays parked most days.
There are so many wide streets and odd intersections in Seattle that were built and originally used as streetcar corridors. It’s interesting how odd they end up as car storage and odd angled, giant intersections in otherwise residential areas.
NW 85th street and 32nd ave NW is one giant streetcar intersection, and the nearby NW 80th street and 28th Ave NW is another.
I've lived in Portland through two winter seasons now and I can confirm that the weather fucks with you
10+ years of residency will fix that.
Have you spent a winter in Fargo? At least you dont get cabin fever here
Yes it does f!ck with one. Best not to come, out of staters!
get a cheap flight and hotel in Vegas for 5 days in late January and soak up as much sun as possible. it will get you through to summer.
Interesting stuff. I think one spot that deserves mention is the corner of SE 72/Woodstock where the curve for the ROW is still present and preserved.
Observation from Texas, where a lot of people have the opinions you'd expect about coastal cities: The people who think of Portland (and Seattle, Chicago, New York, etc) as a smoldering craters, burned to the ground by Antifa and BLM, will champion the old fashioned main street small towns that figure heavily in the American imagination. But those places died decades ago. You find a lot of places like that around rural Texas that were probably charming 60 or 70 years ago but are basically abandoned now. The places that aren't ghost towns are now centered around Walmart, parking lots, and crumbling infrastructure.
I moved from Texas 3 years ago to Portland after living there 61 years, and have never looked back.
I lived near 17th and SW Stark in Portland from 89-91 and this brings back fond memories of the neighborhoods I spent a lot of time in. It is unfortunate how gentrification has caused so much displacement, but I remember that those areas were to be avoided in general at the time.
Aww, I love the Alameda bike bus! Such a lovely neighborhood to ride through, too, esp with all the flowers starting to bloom. Thanks for sharing this video. It's nice to see things in my old neighborhood, and to know that Portland is still as verdant, human-scaled, and bike-friendly as I remember it.
Woo, Sports Bra mentioned
That's a great Simpsons-level store name pun, right there
Sports Bra just got finding grant to expand to other cities this week! 👏👏👏
@@ratsbath😂
Now I want to take my bike to Portland, and spend a few days exploring all these neighbourhoods.
Come on down! And remember, you can put your bike on a Max train downtown and travel to Kenton north, Sellwood south, or Hillsboro west and keep pedaling to the great green beyond.
It would be nice if we're able to spread the bike bus idea throughout the West Coast (and maybe even more areas)
I really loved this video! I really appreciate this type of content where you show how a place looks and demonstrate what's good (and sometimes not so good) about a place. The bike riding was really heartwarming. What great memories those kids will have from their daily commute. Loved it ❤
I am just here for the cat content at the end, but I enjoy watching the rest of the episodes as well. Never been to Portland before, added to bucket list.
What a great video to feature the beauty of my city!
Any chance you could ever talk about the St Johns neighborhood of Portland? (or if you already have which video?) I grew up in SW portland, and was never exposed to St Johns growing up, but ended up moving there after graduating from undergrad and have really fallen in love with it. Was hoping it would be mentioned in this video, the main street Lombard is a textbook example of these old trolley streets (I think!)
Gosh, I do miss my time living in the PNW. Good living with good people.
If you like public steps, that’s another thing you’ll find interesting in Pittsburgh. We actually got more than anywhere else
Tualatin resident here...the car centric city you showed. Yeah, it's car centric for sure. The area you showed is the main street through town, and for pedestrians it's very dangerous. That said, I will at times walk to the public library (near that man-made lake you see), and just keep my fingers crossed I'm not run over when crossing that main road. Thankfully now there is a free shuttle bus that I can catch about a 1/2 mile from my house that will take me directly to the library and other places, and I am thankful for that.
The al fresco/parking spot dining pods came into existence during the pandemic. It has been so successful that the city is standardizing and permitting them now. There's also a fair number of short blocks totally closed to car traffic too for expansion of dining areas adjacent to restaurants.
Oh I guess you did address that later on! But yeah the parklet and al fresco dining program is so popular and come summertime when it's 80-100 degrees every day, they are a life saver
I moved down from Marysville to Portland Piedmont neighborhood. I love going everywhere on my ebike. It's so nice to be back in PDX, but man, things have changed since the 1980s.
Portland, the city I call home! I love the old staircases throughout the city. I have been on a number of urban hikes seeking them out.
love that you got to ride in Coach Balto's bike bus! his videos are such a pleasant bright spot in my algorithm-driven doom feeds
Omg I live right by the Aladdin theater! I didn't realize you'd be there! Also it's cool seeing all the places I frequent on here, I love this city. I moved here a few months ago
I love this city!” Is not heard enough…
I live right off of that rainbow road that`s featured. It really is an amazing spot. You got ice cream, movies, coffee, drinks, amazing food, a whole foods, all on just one block. It`s part of the bike street that takes you directly downtown or further SE with ease. Plus you have amazing views of downtown and the SW hills if you got the right apartment 😉
But, remember, it rains all the time. Soo depressing ;-)
I know I sound like a broken record with this comment--but I hope you'll do a video sometimes about urban street lighting: which cities have friendly even lighting, and which ones have opted for "glare bombs," which shine mostly in people's eyes and out into space.
I wish this was talked about more in urbanism circles. The two biggest bummers to me about American urbanism is how most of your options (unless they're even more obscenely unaffordable) are in big cities when it should be easier to have urbanism in smaller towns, and the light pollution. It'd be nice to be able to see the stars in cities, or to just not be blinded by street lights and flood lights all the time.
One of my least favorite features of the school pick-up line, besides the idling engines on a 72 degree day, is the guy with the bullhorn calling kids out to the street to expedite the load-out. No joyful noise there.
I greatly dislike car dependence in the 95% of our cities. I used to drive, but my glaucoma worsened to the point where I'm not able to anymore. That's why I moved to Portland. Its one of the only cities that offers some kind of amenities for people who cant drive. I wouldnt be able to survive on my own in most other places.
In every city, we need to build new pre-automobile style streets! We should use intact pre-automobile streets in various cities around the world as a model for our new modern pre-car streets.
Hey boss, great video. Keep up the good work.
I lived in Portland for three years in a few different neighborhoods. My favorite place was in between Hawthorne and Belmont districts.
Thanks for sharing about the bike bus, that made my day. What a great gym teacher ❤
NW Portland is even more walkable. And Arguably less car focused then anything on the east side. I’m talking NW Flanders ST to NW Thurman ST from nw 20th ave to nw 23rd ave
I lived in Forest Grove back in 2020. Spent summers back in the 80's with family living in Newberg which was a nothing town back then and not a prestigious wine producing area. Love your vids. From San Diego!
13:18 man, i feel like I really would have loved that as a kid. That's just awesome.
Guero! That place is so good.
Great video. This is probably the most comprehensive 15 minutes about the charm of Portland in existence. I’ve lived in the Hawthorne-Belmont area most of my life, it’s a real treasure.
I used to get annoyed when national news would portray Portland as constantly engulfed in flames - we saw almost none of that on the inner east side, it was all downtown. But, I no longer get annoyed because I realize that kind of rhetoric keeps exactly the kind of people away from Portland that we don’t want.
Regarding NE28th, aka Restaurant Row - it wasn’t parking concerns that kept the city from closing it to cars, it was the Coca Cola bottling plant right off Burnside. It’s pretty high volume with trucks coming and going all day, and literally the only way out of there in a truck is 28th, so it wasn’t possible to close 28th to vehicles without putting them out of business.
That's a total lie. I grew up on that neighborhood
R.I.P. Sweet Hereafter :(
what happened do u noe?
@@bbbnuy3945 Rising rents and taxes on Belmont. Bar attendance has been way down since covid, and they just weren't able to make the numbers work anymore.
great work. love PDX
I would REALLY love to hear your detailed thoughts on displacement.
OMG! I did a double take at your thumbnail while scrolling, Reverend's BBQ!!! That's 5 min bike from my neighborhood and it has the BEST burger in the city. One of my partner's friends works there and she gives us free drinks when she's in.
Getting free stolen drinks is nice.
Great video, and you showed some of Portland's best bars/restaurants! Interesting to see how many of my favorite spots are in the abandoned-streetcar areas.
Ah, I too lived in gentrifying Alberta Street from 08-09. I do miss PDX sometimes but I don't miss the housing prices.
It was great to see many of my favorite local streets on this video. It also confirms my resolve to always live in a neighborhood built before World War II.
Unfortunately, the problem might have been that the modern areas were designed or over designed. A lot of pre 20th century places were more evolved than designed because there weren’t such uniform codes and methods and few “experts”. People copied what they knew from other places, but often otherwise experimented. The failures are mostly rebuilt later, and the successes survive to be copied.
This idea is a thread in other related videos from The Urbanist, Active Towns or Strong Towns: cities that evolved organically make more sense than "planned" communities that really center the automobile above human needs and patterns of gathering and commerce.