A couple weeks ago Jonathan Maus over at BikePortland posted about the “PDX Sidewalk Joy” map, a guide created by a few people highlighting the weird, interesting, and cool things that can be found on Portland sidewalks. I always love stuff like this, as does Jonathan. I think he was expecting a “Wow! Cool!” response. Instead, what he got was grousing about how the map ignored several areas of the city, particularly deep SW, where the most vocal criticisms came from. These folks will be the first to tell you how SW has gotten slighted again, yet will ignore the fact that North Portland nor Portland east of 82 also is missing from the map. One commenter noted the lack of sidewalks in deep SW, so there’s less cool “sidewalk” stuff there, which is true. But it’s most likely the people compiling the map come from either inner NE or SE, and this is the stuff they regularly see.
Deep SW indeed gets slighted. For most of us eastsiders, this part of town is “here be dragons” on our mental map. Because of that, I try to explore it as much as possible, but I don’t get over there nearly enough. And besides a few hyper-specific things like dentists, camera repairs, and car dealerships, there are few reasons I find to go over that way. Yes, there are nice things over there, but outside of parks, there will be an analogue on the east side. If I just need basic merchandise, a bite to eat, good coffee, there’s really nothing over there that can be found over here, times ten. I’m not trying to be a snob, it’s just the way it is.
But any time I say “There are few reasons for me to go to deep SW”, someone like Stasia will say it’s because I’m an “eastside elitist.” And that’s because Stasia has a different appreciation for this area. After all, this is where she landed when she came to Portland because of school. So she had more opportunities to explore this part of the city, figure out what’s what, and come to a greater appreciation as to what can be found here. I’m sure I would have done the same if I landed in deep SW, but after an initial excursion on the 12-Barbur bus when I started apartment hunting in my first Portland weeks, I got scared off of the place and retreated eastward. Too many strip malls and mid-century apartment complexes for me. If there was a dearth of cheap housing east of the Willamette I may have gritted my teeth and gotten beyond that initial reaction. Or maybe I wouldn’t have? In my first few years in town while traveling I’d run into folks that tried to live in Portland but hated it. While that hatred was usually attributed to the rain (at least back then), I would ask where they lived and they say SE 122 and Holgate or something to that effect, some far-flung place far from where things were happening.
And “where it’s happening” has moved over the years. When I landed in Portland in 2001, it was definitely inner SE, where I landed. Before this, the epicenter of cool was the Northwest neighborhood, alternately known as the Alphabet District or Nob Hill (or now Slabtown). This district was “where it’s at” through the 70s and 80s, and as it gentrified in the 90’s, those artsy types looking for less expensive rent flocked to the eastside and made SE Hawthorne “a thing”. I would run into NW holdouts in the first year or so in town, especially since I worked in NW. They rarely crossed a river and could not understand why anyone would live as “far out” from the center of the city as I did. (At the time I lived at SE 18th and Morrison, hardly far out.) They had built their lives, and their identities around being in the NW district and weren’t happy that they weren’t the center of “cool Portland” anymore. And they were unwilling to change.
While I was acclimating to inner SE, artsy folks were now moving northward to inner NE and inner N, many of these areas historically Black. Through the aughts, NE Alberta St, N Mississippi Ave, and then N Williams Ave would become new epicenters of cool. I would then see the confusion that I experienced with certain NW’ers in certain SE’ers, who moved to Portland in the 90s and centered their lives around Hawthorne, Belmont, and other inner SE districts. They couldn’t see what the big deal with Alberta or Mississippi is, especially since they had everything they needed “down here.” I worked at the hostel with these folks, and they would let me know every time they went to Alberta or Mississippi like they were taking an expedition into an unknown, foreign land. By this point I was living even deeper in NE, where I’d cross Alberta twice-daily on my commute. Alberta was just another street.
Portland is mid-sized as American cities go, a population of about 650,000 spread out over 145.00 sq mi (375.55 km2). There’s a lot of neighborhoods in those 145 square miles. But when I moved here, I kept hearing about how it has a “smaller town” feeling. That’s because it’s easy to feel that way when your needs are met in a smaller geographic area. In the 1980’s if you were a bohemian type you would consider “Portland” to be from the Willamette River west to the base of the West Hills, and you’d have little reason to cross the river or the hills. In the 90’s to early 2000’s, the “cool city” expanded eastward to about 39th/Cesar Chavez, south to Powell and maybe north to Broadway. Now we’re living in an era where a lot of the east side is considered “cool”. But there are still areas beyond that, like parts of North Portland, east of 82nd Ave, and deep SW.
There was a certain era here when how you perceived Portland depended a lot on where you landed. I feel that a lot of that has faded since folks are more willing to go to different neighborhoods to do things or move around a bunch. And that’s good. But there are still parts of the city that are neglected and folks should also explore those districts. I’m just happy that I live in a place big enough that I don’t feel like I’ve seen it all.
Urban Adventure League 
Heh, I was not expecting to read about myself when I started reading this post! (Though I will say, I didn’t read any of the bikeportland comments, but I loved that article for the potential for exploration it gave me:) Maybe I should have written “wow cool” there to balance out all the nitpicking it sounds like there was;)
That being said, I am somewhat amazed at your memory for what I write here. I am almost afraid to comment because it will most certainly come back to me like 10 years from now, ha!
Ah, Stasia, you need to remember that I don’t forget anything! 😉
Unlike you, I will probably forget this. heh.
That’s what you said the last time!
This was a big part of what I was getting at with my ‘circumscribed geography’ post. One gets to know a city in a particular way on two wheels!