by Geon, Bryan
Homestead
On the eastern slope of Council Crest, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a sprawling complex of clinics, labs, classrooms, and hospitals that stands prominently atop Marquam Hill, a.k.a. “Pill Hill.” The compact Homestead neighborhood is tucked into the hills around and just above OHSU. While there are plenty of interesting single-family homes here, this area also features a large crop of apartment and condominium buildings, which primarily serve the population of medical students and residents at the university and its hospitals; unusually for the West Hills, the neighborhood population is evenly split between renters and owners. Many houses and apartments here have amazing Mount Hood views, while others back onto greenspaces like Marquam Nature Park. On-street parking is at a premium in and around OHSU, and resident parking permits are required for long-term parking. Terwilliger Boulevard connects the neighborhood to downtown and Hillsdale, while steep, windy Marquam Hill Road leads up to Fairmount Boulevard. Because of OHSU’s huge employee and patient base, the neighborhood is well served by bus transit, and is at the upper terminus of the Portland Aerial Tram.
Arlington Heights
Arlington Heights, a small neighborhood south of Burnside, tucked in between Washington Park and Hoyt Arboretum, has experienced blistering growth in home prices in the last decade, and it is now one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city on both an absolute and per-square-foot basis. It’s not hard to see the appeal of the neighborhood: residents enjoy practically backyard access to walking trails in the Arboretum and around Washington Park, yet are only minutes away from downtown and Northwest Portland. The majority of the homes here are of prewar vintage—grand English Tudor–style homes, shingled cottages, and the like—but some ranch houses were built in the 1950s, and some large custom homes have been built in recent years. The neighborhood has few through streets, and is very quiet—except on Sunday nights, when the Zoobombers tear down Fairview Boulevard. The Zoobombing phenomenon involves a group of grownups who modify kids’ bikes, tall bikes, and other two-wheeled vehicles (often removing brakes and other critical components in the process), take them on the MAX line to the Oregon Zoo, then blast downhill to Goose Hollow, where they hop back on the MAX and repeat the process. The Zoobombers maintain a “pile” of minibikes at Southwest 13th and Burnside. The Zoobombers are largely self-regulating, and police calls are infrequent, but some Arlington Heights residents are not enamored of this group.
Kings Heights
Across Burnside Road to the north, Kings Heights, also known as the Hillside neighborhood, spreads across the hillside (hence the nickname) above the bustle of Northwest 23rd Avenue and below the grandest West Hills palace of them all, Pittock Mansion (www.pittockmansion.org). Most of the homes on the steep, switchbacking streets are gracious older homes, in a variety of styles but typically a jumbo variation on the bungalow, foursquare, or half-timbered theme. Many of these homes are truly grand, multilevel affairs, while others are more modest but still charming. Given the slope, many of these homes lack much of a yard but have fantastic city, river, and/or mountain views. Some condominium complexes have been built in the lower reaches of the neighborhood. Tiny Hillside Park, with its small community center, indeed perches on the hillside in the middle of the neighborhood. The street layout can be highly confusing to the uninitiated; a network of stairways and shortcuts (also potentially confusing to the uninitiated) connects the various levels of the neighborhood and provides pedestrian access to the shops and restaurants of Northwest. This layout is also confusing to crooks, apparently; the Hillside neighborhood has one of the lowest crime rates in the city. Predictably, Kings Heights is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Portland.
Willamette Heights
A bit further north, across Cornell Road, Willamette Heights lies at the doorstep of the foggy fastness of Forest Park; some homes are literally a stone’s throw from a trailhead, and the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare, Northwest Thurman Street, dead-ends at Leif Erikson Drive, the main mountain bike route into the park. Willamette Heights is full of grand early-20th-century homes, some of which stand high above the street with only a steep staircase for access. Most views here are northward, over the industrial district and Willamette River toward Mount St. Helens, although many homes are tucked into woodsy ravines with no views at all. One of the neighborhood’s significant advantages is its proximity not only to Forest Park and the Northwest 23rd district, but also to the commercial zone along Thurman Street itself west of 23rd; neighborhood fixtures include St. Honoré Boulangerie (www.sthonorebakery.com); Kenny & Zuke’s Bagelworks (www.kennyandzukes.com), where the bagels are properly boiled; and Food Front Cooperative Grocery (www.foodfront.coop). The Northwest branch library is also located here. The lower end of Thurman Street has seen the construction of several small-scale modern apartment buildings and condos in recent years, which mingle with the remaining old homes, but most residences in this area are single-family structures or duplexes. For a literary perspective on the thoroughfare, you might want to grab a copy of Thurman Street resident Ursula K. LeGuin’s Blue Moon Over Thurman Street. (For information about Forest Heights, Linnton, and other neighborhoods near Forest Park, see “Forest Park and Environs” below.)
Sylvan
West of the main ridge of the West Hills—in the neighborhoods along Skyline Boulevard near Sylvan, where the Sunset Highway crests the hills on its congested way to Beaverton—development is far less dense and generally newer, with homes dating anywhere from the 1950s to last week. The area just north of the Sylvan exit has a concentration of small office buildings, restaurants, and apartment complexes, but outside this zone many homes are on large lots, giving parts of the neighborhood a semi-rural feel. There is no typical home style here: houses run the gamut from nondescript boxes to thoughtfully designed, architecturally noteworthy structures tucked away in the woods. Some homes offer westward views over Washington County to the Coast Range. In addition to easy access to the Sunset Highway, Sylvan is close to Burnside, which provides an alternate commuting route to either downtown Portland or Beaverton/Hillsboro.
Southwest Hills
The neighborhoods south of the Sunset Highway, between Humphrey Boulevard and Patton Road, sometimes known as the Southwest Hills, share affinities with both Sylvan and Portland Heights. As in Sylvan, most homes date from the postwar period, and many are on large lots, but socio-economically the area has more in common with Portland Heights (with which it shares a neighborhood association, the Southwest Hills Residential League). Many homes are quite large and impressively landscaped, quite a few are set back from the road (in some cases, behind walls), and some offer expansive vistas to the northeast, west, or southwest. A gas station at the corner of Patton and Dosch, where the Southwest Hills, Portland Heights, and Council Crest meet, is the only commercial establishment in the area. This area, like Sylvan, is relatively close to downtown Portland and the Northwest District, but also offers easy access to the Sunset Highway for commuters to Washington County. It is often overlooked by newcomers who focus on more “name-brand” neighborhoods.
Given the terrain and the low population density, the West Hills enjoy surprisingly good bus service. Bus lines serve Portland Heights, Council Crest and Healy Heights, Willamette Heights, Kings Heights, the Homestead/OHSU neighborhood, Sylvan, and the area around Washington Park. In some areas, residents who live more than a few blocks from a bus line may have difficulty safely reaching the nearest bus stop.
West Hills Neighborhood Information
ZIP Codes: 97201, 97210, 97221, 97239
Post Office: Forest Park Post Office, 1706 NW 24th Ave; also see “Downtown and Environs”
Police Station: Portland Police Bureau, Central Precinct, 1111 SW 2nd Ave, 503-823-3333 (non-emergency)
Emergency Hospitals: Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, 1015 NW 22nd Ave, 503-413-7711, www.legacyhealth.org; OHSU Hospital, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd, 503-494-8311, www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/; Provide
nce St. Vincent Medical Center, 9205 SW Barnes Rd, 503-216-1234, www.providence.org
Libraries: Central Library, 801 SW 10th Ave, 503-988-5123; Hillsdale Library, 1525 SW Sunset Blvd, 503-988-5388; Northwest Library, 2300 NW Thurman St, 503-988-5560
Parks: Several major parks, including Washington Park, Hoyt Arboretum, Council Crest Park, Macleay Park, Marquam Nature Park, Forest Park, and Keller Woodland; www.portlandparks.org
Community Publications: Northwest Examiner, www.nwexaminer.com; Southwest Community Connection, www.swcommconnection.com; Southwest Portland Post, www.swportlandpost.com; SW News, 503-823-4592, www.swni.org
Public Transportation: TriMet, 503-238-RIDE, www.trimet.org; bus service on several routes, MAX light rail service available at Washington Park; Portland Aerial Tram (www.gobytram.org) serves the Homestead neighborhood
Southwest Portland
Boundaries: North: Burnside Street (official); West Hills (unofficial); West: Beaverton; West Slope, Raleigh Hills, Garden Home (unincorporated Washington County); Tigard; South: Lake Oswego; East: Willamette River
With a few notable exceptions like Lair Hill, the South Waterfront district, and Multnomah Village, Southwest Portland as a whole feels more suburban than any other quadrant of the city. Many Portlanders from other parts of the city either dismiss the neighborhoods here as insufficiently interesting and too “white bread” or ignore them entirely. At the same time, many parts of Southwest Portland are closer to downtown, in terms of both distance and travel time, than some “urban” Eastside neighborhoods are, and no bridge crossing is required to get there. Southwest Portland is also one of the more family-friendly parts of the city, with generally good-to-excellent schools, relatively low crime rates, and plenty of open space; if you take the time to look, there are some decent restaurants and quirky shops, too.
That said, Southwest’s nightlife and cultural scene is admittedly inferior to the hot spots of the Pearl, Northwest Portland, and the Eastside, and the area also lacks some of the attributes that many newcomers to Portland seek. Most houses in this part of the city are postwar or newer structures, not the cute bungalows or English Tudor cottages of the older streetcar neighborhoods of the Eastside. An increasing interest in mid-century design, however, means that many Southwest neighborhoods are getting a second or third glance from newcomers who might once have sought out a century-old bungalow. The general lack of sidewalks discourages casual strolling, and the hilly terrain can make cycling a challenge, although the Southwest Trails network offers off-street and low-traffic routes for hikers. Some parts of Southwest Portland feel almost rural, with rutted, potholed, unpaved streets (a characteristic that disconcerts some people). Keep in mind that Southwest Portland, like all parts of the city, is comprised of a diverse set of neighborhoods; chances are that somewhere in Southwest may have the specific attributes you’re looking for.
South Portland
Neighborhood Association: South Portland (formerly Corbett–Terwilliger–Lair Hill)
The neighborhoods that border the west bank of the Willamette River south of downtown are among the oldest residential areas in Portland, yet also include some of the most rapidly changing parts of the city. The area offers a diverse range of housing and a quick commute to OHSU or to downtown Portland via various transit options, bicycle path, and a network of major roads: Barbur Boulevard, Interstate 5, Macadam Avenue, and Corbett Avenue. This easy access to highways is also a curse, however; the roads chop up entire neighborhoods, and many parts of South Portland are never free of the distant roar of traffic.
The Lair Hill neighborhood occupies the lower slopes of Marquam Hill just south of Interstate 405 and downtown Portland. This compact area harbors the oldest largely intact residential development in the city, with a relative abundance of Victorian houses, including Queen Anne and Italianate styles, which are otherwise rare in Portland. These homes were built for workers, not captains of industry, so they are generally small. Many of these old homes have been beautifully renovated since the 1960s, when the then-blighted area was slated for demolition and “urban renewal.” The neighborhood is by no means pristine: some houses remain in poor or even dilapidated condition, several major thoroughfares cut through the area, and various more modern and not necessarily attractive buildings—small commercial buildings, apartments, and townhouses—have mixed in with the old homes. New condo and apartment buildings have been built in the vicinity of Duniway Park, primarily to serve the Portland State and OHSU populations. At the same time, the “bones” of the old neighborhood remain, and the close-in location is a significant draw for some newcomers.
Lair Hill
The shiny metallic pods of the Portland Aerial Tram soar over the south end of the neighborhood as they shuttle between OHSU atop the hill and the South Waterfront district on the east side of Interstate 5. Major controversy erupted when the tram was first proposed; most Lair Hill residents opposed the project, pointing out quite reasonably that it would not directly serve the neighborhood and that tram riders would be able to peer down directly into residents’ back yards. Despite these concerns, the tram was built and began operation in 2007. Local attitudes toward the tram are currently mixed; many residents still object to the invasion of privacy, but others embrace the tram as a new, distinctive neighborhood symbol.
Meanwhile, in the South Waterfront district (which the tram directly serves, www.southwaterfront.com), the advent of this novel form of transportation (along with major financial incentives from the city) helped fuel a major construction boom. Once the province of shipbuilders and scrapyards, the district that sarcastic, syllable-challenged hipsters call SoWa now bristles with several new high-rises. OHSU’s Wellness Center, one of the greenest buildings in the country (the toilets use harvested rainwater), stands just off the freeway at the lower terminus of the tram. OHSU, which has run out of space on Pill Hill, claims to be planning a major expansion in this area. Meanwhile, several gleaming high-end condo towers rose here—just in time for the real estate bust and the resulting collapse in demand for units in gleaming high-end condo towers. The circular John Ross tower auctioned off many of its unsold units at (relative) fire-sale prices, and the developers of the Ardea scrapped the condo idea entirely and turned the place into a luxury apartment building. With the recovery of the real estate market, construction of several more buildings is planned or under way, and the semi-ghost-town vibe has largely vanished. The Portland Streetcar was extended to serve the South Waterfront in 2007, and a new MAX light-rail line will serve the neighborhood beginning in 2015, but the pace and extent of residential development in this area will likely depend on unpredictable economic factors, particularly on the state of the real estate market.
South Waterfront
The city hopes that South Waterfront will have 5,000 residents by 2020, and planners and developers seem to be envisioning a sort of mini-Manhattan (or at least mini–Vancouver, BC)—or a Pearl District South—on the banks of the Willamette. These visions may be optimistic. Until recently, shops, restaurants, and other amenities that most people associate with dense urban living have been thin on the ground. Restaurants that have opened in the area, in particular, seem to have been cursed. South Waterfront may finally be getting some traction in this department, with new restaurants, a pub, a wine bar, and a bakery opening their doors in 2014. At the center of the neighborhood, Elizabeth Caruthers Park hosts occasional movies in the park and other community events, including a farmers’ market on Thursday afternoons and evenings from June through October. While South Waterfront still has detractors, it also has admirers, and many of its residents appreciate the close-in location along the river, the views, and the relative quietness of the neighborhood (barring traffic noise from nearby Interstate 5).
The neighborhoods south of Lair Hill and the South Waterfront are a mix of commercial, residential, and light industrial uses. Terwilliger Boulevard was one of four city parkways that famed park planner John C. Olmsted envisioned for Portland at t
he beginning of the 20th century; it was the only one actually built, and today it winds along the slopes of Marquam Hill high above the rest of the city, passing just below OHSU. (If the boulevard’s name seems oddly familiar, it may be because The Simpsons creator Matt Groening appropriated “Terwilliger” as the surname for the show’s Sideshow Bob character.) A broad pedestrian path parallels the road, and the adjacent corridor is almost entirely semi-natural woodland. A small enclave of prewar single-family homes downhill from this parkway, along and off of Hamilton between Terwilliger and Barbur Boulevard, is within strolling distance of OHSU, and offers a rare combination of expansive views and sidewalks. This small, steep neighborhood is popular with doctors and others who work or study on Pill Hill.