Portland is a city located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. With a population of 562,690[2] it is Oregon's most populous city, and the third most
populous city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. Approximately two million people live in Portland metropolitan area (MSA),
the 23rd most populous in the United States as of July 2006.[3]
Portland was incorporated in 1851 and is the seat of Multnomah County; it extends slightly into Washington and Clackamas Counties as
well.
The city and region are noted for strong land-use planning[4] and investment in public transit, supported by
Metro, a distinctive regional-government scheme. Portland lies in the
Marine West Coast climate region, which is marked by warm summers and rainy but temperate winters. This climate is ideal for
growing roses, and for more than a century Portland has been known as "The City of Roses," with
many rose gardens – most prominently the International Rose Test Garden. Portland is also known for its large number of
microbreweries, and as the home of the Trail
Blazers NBA basketball team.
History
-
Portland started as a spot known as "the clearing",[5] which was on the banks of the Willamette about halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In 1843, William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land, but lacked the funds required to file a land
claim. He struck a bargain with his partner Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for 25¢, Overton
would share his claim to the 640 acre (2.6 km²) site. Overton later sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and
Lovejoy both wished to name the new city after their own home town; this was decided with a coin
toss, which Pettygrove won.[6]
At the time of its incorporation on February 8, 1851
Portland had over 800 inhabitants,[7] a steam
sawmill, a log cabin hotel, and a newspaper, the Weekly
Oregonian. By 1879, the population had grown to 17,500.[8]
Portland's location, with access both to the Pacific Ocean via the Willamette and the
Columbia rivers and to the agricultural Tualatin Valley via the "Great Plank Road"
through a canyon in the West Hills (the route of current-day U.S. Highway 26), gave it an
advantage over nearby ports, and it grew quickly.[9] It
remained the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s, when Seattle's deepwater harbor was connected to the rest of the mainland by rail, affording an inland
route without the treacherous navigation of the Columbia River. During this time, corruption in the government allowed for some
very unsavory activities to go on as well: "white slavery", specifically including the abduction of men to be used as forced
labor on sailing ships, was so common that a network of underground tunnels, formerly used to transport goods from the river to
nearby hotels and bars, was coopted to accommodate the practice. (See the Portland
Underground, also known as the "Shanghai Tunnels.")[10] The first known reference to Portland as "The City of Roses" was made by visitors to an 1888
Episcopal Church convention, the nickname growing in
popularity after the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition
where Mayor Harry Lane suggested that the city needed a "festival of roses"[11]. The first Portland Rose
Festival was held two years later and remains the city's major annual festival a century later.
Law and government
- See also: Government of Portland,
Oregon,
- See also: List of foreign
consulates in Portland.
The city of Portland is governed by the Portland City Council, which
includes the Mayor and four other Commissioners; and an auditor. Each is elected citywide to serve a four year term. The auditor
provides checks and balances in the commission form of government and accountability for the use of public resources. In
addition, the auditor provides access to information for all Council members and the public and issues reports on various matters
of city government.
The city's Office of Neighborhood Involvement serves as a conduit between city government and 95 neighborhood associations, which are grouped into seven coalitions.
Portland and its surrounding metropolitan area are also served by Metro, the United States' only directly elected regional government. Metro's charter
includes land use and transportation planning, solid waste management, and map development. It also owns and operates the
Oregon Convention Center, Oregon Zoo,
Portland Center for Performing Arts, and Portland Metropolitan
Exposition Center. The Multnomah County government also provides many
services to the Portland area, along with that of Washington and
Clackamas Counties to the west and south.
Since the 1950s, if not earlier, Portland has strongly favored the Democratic Party at all levels of government. Although local elections are nonpartisan,
most of the city's elected officials are Democrats. Democrats also dominate the city's delegation to the Oregon Legislature.
Federally, Portland is split between three congressional districts. Most of
the city is in the 3rd District, represented by Earl Blumenauer, who served on the city council from 1986 until his election to Congress in 1996. Most
of the city west of the Willamette River is part of the 1st
District, represented by David Wu. A small portion of the city is in the
5th District, represented by Darlene Hooley. All three are Democrats; a Republican has not represented a significant portion of Portland since 1975. Oregon's
senior Senator, Ron Wyden, is from Portland.
Planning and development
Aerial view of central Portland
Portland is often cited as an example of a city with strong land use planning
controls;[4] This is largely the result
of statewide land conservation policies adopted in 1973 under Governor Tom McCall, in
particular the requirement for an urban growth boundary (UGB) for every city and
metropolitan area. The opposite extreme, a city with few or no controls, is typically illustrated by Houston, Texas.
Portland's urban growth boundary, adopted in 1979, separates urban areas (where high-density development is encouraged and
focused) from traditional farm land (where restrictions on non-agricultural development are very strict[citation needed]). This was atypical in an era when
automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.
As a result, one can see pastoral farmlands and old red barns within miles ( km) of downtown Portland, literally
across the street from large suburban developments (where that street is the urban growth boundary.) Opponents argue that this
growth boundary has limited growth and increased the costs of housing; proponents argue that it has preserved valuable farmland,
made possible the popular farmer's markets in Portland, and brought more efficient public transportation and less traffic than
similarly sized cities.
As the population has grown, and undeveloped land inside the urban growth boundary has dwindled, there has been pressure to
change or relax the rules. The rapid growth of two major employers in Washington County, namely Nike and Intel, contributed to this
pressure.
The original state rules included a provision for expanding urban growth boundaries, but critics felt this wasn't being
accomplished. In 1995, the State Legislature ordered cities to expand UGBs to provide enough undeveloped land for a 20 year
supply of future housing at projected levels, and to complete the newest expansion by the end of 1999.[12]
1966 photo shows sawdust-fired power plant on the edge of Downtown that was removed to make way for dense residential
development. High rises to left in background were early projects of the Portland Development Commission.
The Portland Development Commission is a semi-public agency that plays a major role in
downtown development; it was created by city voters in 1958 to serve as the city’s urban
renewal agency. It provides housing and economic development programs within the city, and works behind the scenes with
major local developers to create large projects. It has been criticized for clubbiness and lack of transparency.
In the early 1960s, the PDC led the razing of a large Italian-Jewish neighborhood downtown, bounded roughly by the I-405
freeway, the Willamette River, 4th Avenue and Market street. It was replaced by concrete office developments that proponents find
clean and modern, and opponents find antiseptic and lifeless at night.
Mayor Neil Goldschmidt took office in the 1970s as a proponent of bringing housing
and the associated vitality back to the downtown area, which was seen as emptying out after 5pm. The effort has had dramatic
effects in the 30 years since, with many thousands of new housing units clustered in 3 areas; west of Portland State University
(between the I-405 freeway, SW Broadway, and SW Taylor St.); the RiverPlace development along the waterfront under the Marquam
(I-5) bridge; and most notably in the Pearl District (between I-405, Burnside St., NW Northrup St., and NW 9th Ave.).
The Urban Greenspaces Institute, housed in
Portland State University Geography Department's Center for Mapping Research, promotes better integration of the built and
natural environments. The institute works on urban park, trail, and natural areas planning issues, both at the local and regional
levels.
In 2006, Portland was ranked overall number 1 of 50 U.S. cities by the organization SustainLane on quality of life and
economic factors that affect personal sustainability.[13]
According to Grist Magazine, Portland is the second most eco-friendly city in the world.
Free speech
Because of strong free speech protections of the Oregon Constitution,[14] Portland reportedly has more strip clubs per capita than both
Las Vegas and San Francisco.[15]
Geography and climate
The Willamette River with the Lloyd District in the background.
A view of downtown with
Mount Hood in the background.
Portland lies at the northern end of Oregon's most populated region, the Willamette
Valley. (As the metropolitan area is culturally and politically distinct from the rest of the valley, local usage often
excludes Portland from the valley proper.) Although almost all of Portland lies within Multnomah County, small portions of the
city lie within Clackamas and Washington counties, with mid-2005 populations estimated at 785 and 1,455, respectively. The
Willamette River runs north through the city center, separating the southwest and
southeast quadrants of the city, before veering slightly northwest to join with the Columbia
River (which separates the state of Washington from the state of
Oregon) a short distance north of the city.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 145.4 mi² (376.5 km²). 134.3 mi² (347.9 km²) of
it is land and 11.1 mi² (28.6 km²), or 7.6%, is water.
Portland lies on top of an extinct Plio-Pleistocene volcanic field known as the Boring
Lava Field.[16] The Lava Field
includes at least 32 cinder cones such as Mount Tabor,[17] and its center lies in Southeast Portland. The potentially active volcano
Mount Hood, to the east of Portland, is easily visible from much of the city, and the active
volcano Mount Saint Helens, to the north in Washington, is visible in the distance from high-elevation locations in the city, and is close enough
to have dusted the city with volcanic ash during its spectacular 1980 eruption.
Climate
Portland's climate is temperate and seasonal. The rainfall averages 36.3 inches per year.
Portland averages 155 days with measurable precipitation a year. Snowfall is
uncommon, generally occurring no more than a few times per year, although the city has been known to see major snow and ice
storms thanks to cold air outflow from the Columbia River Gorge. The city's winter
snowfall totals have ranged from just a trace on many occasions, to 1,547 mm (60.9 inches) in 1892-93. Although it lies
in the Marine west coast climate zone, Portland shows many characteristics of a
Mediterranean climate. The city has mild, wet winters, and hot, dry summers. The
summer months (June through September) mark the driest period, averaging no more than one inch of rain per month, but it is not
uncommon for summer months to receive little or no precipitation. November through April is the rainy season, with 80% of the
total annual rainfall occurring in those months. Winter low temperatures hover around 35 °F (2 °C), and summer highs
average around 27 °C (80 °F), however summer heat waves with temperatures exceeding 38 °C (100 °F) do occur.
But for the most part, the Portland summers are very pleasant with abundant sunshine. The lowest temperature ever recorded in
Portland was −19 °C (−3 °F), set on February 2 1950.
Portland has recorded a record high temperature of 42 °C (107 °F) numerous times, and temperatures of 38 °C
(100 °F) have been recorded in each of the months from May through September.
| Avg / Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
| High °C (°F) |
7.8 (46) |
10.0 (50) |
13.9 (57) |
16.7 (62) |
20.0 (68) |
23.3 (74) |
26.7 (80) |
27.2 (81) |
23.3 (74) |
17.2 (63) |
10.6 (51) |
7.8 (46) |
17.2 (63) |
| Low °C (°F) |
2.8 (37) |
3.9 (39) |
5.0 (41) |
6.7 (44) |
10.0 (50) |
12.2 (54) |
14.4 (58) |
14.4 (58) |
12.8 (55) |
8.9 (48) |
5.6 (42) |
2.8 (37) |
8.3 (47) |
Precipitation mm
(inches)[18] |
135.9
(5.35) |
97.8
(3.85) |
90.4
(3.56) |
60.7
(2.39) |
52.3
(2.06) |
37.6
(1.48) |
16.0
(0.63) |
27.7
(1.09) |
44.5
(1.75) |
67.8
(2.67) |
135.6
(5.34) |
155.7
(6.13) |
922.0
(36.30) |
Sections and neighborhoods
- See also: Portland, Oregon
neighborhoods
The sections of Portland.
Portland straddles the Willamette River near its confluence with the Columbia River. The denser and earlier-developed west
side is mostly hemmed in by the nearby West Hills (Tualatin Mountains), though it
extends over them to the border with Washington County. The flatter east side fans out for about 180 blocks, until it meets the
suburb of Gresham. Rural Multnomah County lies farther east.
In 1891 the cities of Portland, Albina, and East Portland were consolidated, and duplicate street names were given new names. The "great
renumbering" on September 2, 1931 standardized street naming
patterns, and changed house numbers from 20 per block to 100 per block. It divided Portland into five sections: Southwest,
Southeast, Northwest, North, and Northeast. Burnside St. divides north and south, and the Willamette River divides east and west.
The river curves west five blocks north of Burnside and in place of it, Williams Ave. is used as a divider. The North section
lies between Williams Ave. and the Willamette River to the west.
The streets of Portland are for the most part laid out on a grid, with named "streets" running perpendicular to the Willamette
River and numbered "avenues" running parallel to (and with numbers increasing with distance from) the river. The grid breaks down
in hilly regions, particularly in the West Hills, where roads follow the contours of elevation. The "logic" of the grid also
breaks down slightly in the North section: it's the only section on the east side where address numbers go higher towards
the river. In the rest of the east side, the numbers go lower towards the river.
On the west side, the RiverPlace, John's Landing and South Waterfront Districts lie in a "sixth quadrant" where addresses go
higher from west to east toward the river. This "sixth quadrant" is roughly bounded by Naito Parkway and Barbur Boulevard to the
west, Montgomery Street to the north and Nevada Street to the south.
Southwest
Downtown, in the southwest area of Portland, at night, from the east.
View of downtown Portland from the south.
Downtown Portland lies in the Southwest section between the I-405 freeway loop and
the Willamette River, centered around Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's
living room"). Downtown and many other parts of inner Portland have compact square blocks (200 ft [60 m] on a side) and narrow
streets (64 ft [20 m] wide), a pedestrian-friendly combination.
Many of Portland's recreational, cultural, educational, governmental, business, and retail resources are concentrated
downtown, including:
- South Park Blocks, Pettygrove and Lovejoy Parks, and Tom McCall Waterfront
Park
- Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland Art Museum, and Oregon Historical Society
Museum
- Portland City Hall, the Portland Building, Pioneer Courthouse, and Mark O. Hatfield
United States Courthouse
- Portland State University, with the largest student body of any in
Oregon
- The Meier & Frank Building (Now Macy's, but not open yet as of
6-7-07), Pioneer Place mall, Wells Fargo Center, and the World
Trade Center
Beyond downtown, the Southwest section also includes:
- The campuses of Oregon Health & Science University
(OHSU), Lewis & Clark College, and Portland Community College/Sylvania
- Neighborhoods like South Portland, South Burlingame, Hillsdale, and
Multnomah, with unique residential houses and well defined commercial and
retail districts
- Alpenrose Dairy in the Hayhurst
neighborhood, the grounds of which host track cycling and Little League sports
- Washington Park, site of North
America's deepest transit station, the Oregon Zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, the International Rose Test Garden, the Portland
Japanese Garden, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and many hiking trails.
- The south Willamette riverfront along SW Macadam Ave., over 100 acres (0.4 km²) of
former industrial land. This area is undergoing redevelopment as a mixed-use, high-density neighborhood, with an anticipated
2,700 residential units and 5,000 high-tech jobs after build-out.
Northwest
The Made in Oregon sign above Old Town.
Northwest Portland includes the Pearl District, most of
Old Town Chinatown, the Northwest District, and various residential and industrial neighborhoods. A range
of streets in Northwest Portland are named alphabetically, from Ankeny (actually one block South Of Burnside, which, even though
it is technically the divider between north and south, is the "B" street in the alphabetical sequence) north to Yeon. (Several
characters in Portland native Matt Groening's TV show The Simpsons have names based on these: Ned Flanders, the
bully Kearney, Reverend Lovejoy, Mayor Quimby,
Milhouse Van Houten (actually in North Portland), and possibly
C. Montgomery (also named for the large Montgomery Park sign) Burns[ide].
Contrary to popular belief, the character Sideshow Bob Terwilliger is not named after SW
Terwilliger Boulevard in Southwest Portland.[19]
The Pearl District is a recent name for a former warehouse and industrial area just north of
downtown. Many of the warehouses have been converted into lofts, and new multistory
condominiums have also been developed on previously vacant land. The
increasing density has attracted a mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries.
The galleries sponsor simultaneous artists' receptions on the first Thursday of every month.
Between the Pearl District and the Willamette is the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. It includes Portland's Chinatown, marked by a pair of lions at its entrance at NW
4th Ave. and W Burnside St. and home to the Portland Classical Chinese
Garden. Before World War II, this area was known as Japan Town or Little Tokyo;
Chinatown was previously located just south of W. Burnside St. along the riverfront.
Further west is the compact but thriving NW 21st and 23rd Avenue restaurant and retail area, the core of the Northwest
District. Parts of this area are also called Uptown and Nob Hill. The residential areas adjacent to the shopping district include the
Alphabet Historic District (with large Victorian and Craftsman homes built in the years before and shortly after 1900) and
a large district centered around Wallace Park. The neighborhood has a mix of Victorian-era houses, apartment
buildings from throughout the 20th century, and various businesses centered around Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. The
Portland Streetcar connects Nob Hill to downtown, via the Pearl.
West of the developed areas is the northern portion of Portland's West Hills, including the majority of extensive
Forest Park.
North
North Portland is a diverse mixture of residential, commercial, and industrial areas. It includes the Portland International Raceway, the University
of Portland, and massive cargo facilities of the Port of Portland.
Slang-names for it include "NoPo" (shortened from North Portland) and "the Fifth Quadrant" (for being the odd-man out from the
four-cornered logic of SE, NE, SW, and NW).
North Portland is connected to the industrial area of Northwest Portland by the St. Johns
Bridge, a ft ( m) long suspension bridge completed in 1931 and extensively rehabilitated in 2003-5.
During World War II, a planned development named Vanport was constructed to the north of this section between the city limits and the Columbia River. It grew to be the second largest city in Oregon, but was wiped out by a disastrous flood
in 1948. Columbia Villa, another wartime housing project in the Portsmouth Neighborhood, is being rebuilt; the new $150 million
community is known as New Columbia and offers public housing, rental housing, and single family home ownership units. Since 2004,
a light rail line runs along Interstate Avenue, which parallels I-5, stopping short of
crossing the Columbia River.
Northeast
Northeast Portland contains a diverse collection of neighborhoods. For example, while Irvington and the Alameda Ridge boast
some of the oldest and most expensive homes in Portland, nearby King is a more working-class neighborhood. Because it is so
large, Northeast Portland can essentially be divided ethnically, culturally, and geographically into inner and outer sections.
The inner Northeast neighborhoods that surround Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. were once predominantly African American, resembling
typical urban inner-city environments found in most major U.S. cities. That is now changing due to the process of gentrification.
Inner Northeast includes several shopping areas, such as the Lloyd District, Alberta Arts District and Hollywood, and
part of the affluent Irvington, Alameda, and Laurelhurst neighborhoods and nearby developments. The city plan targets Lloyd
District as another mixed-use area, with high-density residential development.
At the base of Northeast is the Rose Quarter. It is named after the Rose Garden
Arena, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, and also includes the Blazers'
former home, the Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum is the home to Portland's hockey
team, the Portland Winter Hawks, of the Western Hockey League, though they often play at the Rose Garden. The newest Rose Quarter tenants
are the LumberJax of the National Lacrosse
League. The city still holds the lease to the land and owns the Coliseum, but the Rose Garden and other buildings were
owned by private business interests until they went into receivership. The area is quite active during the teams' home games, and
the city hopes to extend the activity by promoting a major increase in residential units in the quarter using zoning and tax
incentives.
Southeast
Southeast Portland stretches from the warehouses along the Willamette, through the historic Ladd's Addition to the Hawthorne
and Belmont districts out to Gresham.
Southeast Portland initially tended toward the blue-collar but, with its lower real-estate prices, has since evolved to encompass
a wide mix of backgrounds; inner southeast is something of a haven for hippies, hipsters, and environmentalists, while the outer
edges remain populated by an increasingly diverse, largely working-class population constituted of significantly large immigrant
communities from Eastern Europe and Southeast
Asia. The Hawthorne district in particular is known for its hippie/radical crowd and small subculturally-oriented shops;
not far away is Reed College with its counter-cultural flavor and strong intellectual,
anti-establishment tradition.
Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Southeast was home to Lambert Gardens. Southeast
Portland also features Mt. Tabor, a dormant volcano that has become one of
Portland’s more scenic and popular parks.
People and culture
Demographics
As of 2000, there are 529,121 people residing in the city, organized into 223,737 households and
118,356 families. The population density is 1,521/km² (3,939.2/mi²). There are
237,307 housing units at an average density of 682.1/km² (1,766.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 77.91% White, 6.64% African American, 6.33% Asian, 1.06% Native American, 0.38%
Pacific Islander, 3.55% from other races, and 4.15% from two or more races. 6.81% of the population
are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Out of 223,737 households, 24.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.1% are married couples living together, 10.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 47.1% are
non-families. 34.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or
older. The average household size is 2.3 and the average family size is 3.
The age distribution was 21.1% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 34.7% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.6%
who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 97.8 males. For every 100 females
age 18 and over, there are 95.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $40,146, and the median income for a family is $50,271. Males have a reported
median income of $35,279 versus $29,344 reported for females. The per capita income
for the city is $22,643. 13.1% of the population and 8.5% of families are below the poverty
line. Out of the total population, 15.7% of those under the age of 18 and 10.4% of those 65 and older are living below the
poverty line. Oregon has a 9% income tax which tends to suppress accurate reporting. Figures delineating the income levels based
on race are not available at this time.
Portland is becoming increasingly racially diverse. Recent trends have more young people moving into the city as older, more
established white families with children move to the suburbs[citation needed]. Although the city has the highest percentage of white residents of an
American city of 500,000 or more, 60% of people moving to Oregon are non-white[citation needed].
However, though the population of the city is increasing, the total population of children is diminishing, which has put
pressure on the public school system to close schools. A 2005 study found that Portland is now educating fewer children than it
did in 1925, despite the city's population having almost doubled since then, and the city will have to close the equivalent of
three to four elementary schools each year for the next decade.[21]
Portland's public school system has remained racially imbalanced. As of the 2000 census, three of its high schools (Cleveland,
Lincoln and Wilson) were over 70% white, while Jefferson High School was 86% non-white. The remaining four schools are more
ethnically balanced.[22]
The imbalance can be explained through Portland's demographic history. Before the Second World
War, Portland had very few residents of non-European ethnicity, primarily because Portland (and Oregon as a state) was a
Sundown town for much of its history.[citation needed] In 1940, Portland's African-American population was approximately 2,000 and largely consisted of railroad employees and
their families. During the war-time liberty ship construction boom, the need for workers
drew many blacks to the city. Because of institutionalized racism in the real-estate community at the time, this new influx of
blacks was guided to specific neighborhoods, such as the Albina district and
Vanport.
