Downtown Portland, Oregon
Downtown | |
---|---|
Neighborhood | |
Interstate 5 | |
Coordinates: 45°31′10″N 122°40′47″W / 45.51935°N 122.67962°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Oregon |
City | Portland |
Government | |
• Association | Downtown Neighborhood Association |
Area | |
• Total | 1.00 sq mi (2.58 km2) |
Population (2010)[1] | |
• Total | 12,801 |
• Density | 13,000/sq mi (5,000/km2) |
Housing | |
• No. of households | 8,353 |
• Occupancy rate | 87% occupied |
• Owner-occupied | 1,099 households (13%) |
• Renting | 6,171 households (74%) |
• Avg. household size | 1.53 persons |
Downtown Portland is the central business district of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found.
The downtown neighborhood extends west from the Willamette to
Portland's downtown features narrow streets—64 feet (20 m) wide—and square, compact blocks 200 feet (61 m) on a side,[2] to create more corner lots that were expected to be more valuable. The small blocks also made downtown Portland pleasant to walk through. The 264-foot (80 m) long combined blocks divide one mile (1.6 km) of road into exactly 20 separate blocks.
By comparison,
Urban development
1900s
By the early 1970s, parts of Portland's central city had been in decay for some time.[4] New suburban shopping malls in the neighboring cities of Beaverton, Tigard, and Gresham competed with downtown for people and money. Unlike many downtown revitalization efforts around the United States at this time, Portland's plan did not call for widespread demolition and reconstruction. Robert Moses, the designer of New York City's gridded freeways, expressways, and bridges, designed a plan to revitalize downtown Portland. Moses charted a highway loop around the city's central freeways, which would become Interstate 405 as it links with I-5 south of downtown.[5]
Additionally the creation of a
2000s
Downtown Portland has many surface parking lots,[7] which the city is attempting to reduce in order to promote higher density, create storefronts, and make downtown more vibrant.[citation needed] Some changes are being made slowly, such as the creation of the Smart Park garage system,[citation needed] and conversion of a surface-level parking lot into a park with underground parking at Park Block 5 between the Fox Tower and Park Avenue West Tower.
In 2017, Human Access Project partnered with Portland Parks & Recreation to open the city's first officially recognized public swimming beach, Poet's Beach.[8][9][10]
In 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Downtown Portland faced an increase in homeless camps, and a reduction in office workers due to remote work. During and after the Black Lives Matter protests, there was an increase in graffiti, property damage, and windows being boarded up.[11][12]
Bridges
Portland is sometimes known as "Bridgetown",[13] due to the number of bridges that cross its two rivers. There are nine bridges entering downtown and immediately adjacent areas. The bridges are (north to south):[14]
- Northwestdistricts and into downtown
- Pearl District and carrying the Portland Streetcar's east-side line
- Steel Bridge, the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world,[14] and carrying MAX Light Rail and Amtrak into Old Town Chinatown
- Burnside Bridge, connecting the east side to downtown and the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood
- Morrison Bridge, leading directly into the central business district from the east side
- Hawthorne Bridge, Portland's oldest highway bridge and, leading directly into the central business district from the east side; Oregon's most heavily used bridge for bicycles
- I-5traffic
- Tilikum Crossing, Portland's newest bridge, limited to public transit, bicycles, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles
- South Waterfront
Outside the downtown area there are three other road bridges within Portland limits that
Transportation
Most streets in downtown Portland are one-way.
Downtown is also served by several forms of public transportation.
The southern part of downtown and the West End are also served by the Portland Streetcar system, operating from South Waterfront north into the Pearl and Northwest Portland districts. The system currently has two routes, measuring 7.2 miles (11.6 km) end to end, and connects in South Waterfront with the Tram (aerial cableway) to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).
Starting in 1975 and continuing for almost four decades, all transit service in downtown was free, as downtown was entirely within TriMet's Fareless Square, which also covered a portion of the nearby Lloyd District after 2001. However, in 2010, free rides became limited to MAX and streetcar service – no longer covering bus service – and the zone renamed the "Free Rail Zone",[15] and in September 2012 the fareless zone was discontinued entirely, because of a $12 million shortfall in TriMet's annual budget.[16]
Sites of interest
- Pioneer Courthouse Square
- Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
- Portland Art Museum
- Portland State University
- Oregon Historical Society
- Tom McCall Waterfront Park
Buildings
Several high-rise buildings are located in downtown Portland.[17] The five tallest are:
- Wells Fargo Center: rises to 166 meters (546 feet) and was constructed in 1972
- U.S. Bancorp Tower: rises to 163 meters (536 feet) and was constructed in 1983
- KOIN Center: rises to 155 meters (509 feet) and was constructed in 1984
- Park Avenue West Tower: rises to 153 meters (502 feet) and was constructed in 2016
- PacWest Center: rises to 127 meters (418 feet) and was constructed in 1984
Adjacent districts
- Old Town Chinatown[18]– northeast, and extending south of West Burnside St. near the river
- Pearl District – north, adjacent to Chinatown
- Goose Hollow – residential, west of PSU, north of US 26
- Southwest Hills – residential, west of PSU, south of US 26
- Marquam Hill (colloquially "Pill Hill") – south, including OHSU and the Veteran's Hospital
- RiverPlace – at southeast corner of downtown
- South Waterfront– south of downtown, east of Interstate 5
See also
- Mount Hood Freeway
- Portland, Oregon neighborhoods
References
- ^ a b c "Portland Downtown". PortlandMaps. City of Portland. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
- ISBN 0-9603408-1-5.
- ^ "Beloved and Abandoned: A Platting Named Portland". Planetizen.com. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
- ISBN 978-0-300-09827-3.
- ^ Mesh, Aaron (November 5, 2014). "Feb. 4, 1974: Portland kills the Mount Hood Freeway". Willamette Week. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
Every great civilization has an origin story. For modern Portland, it is an exodus from Moses. That's Robert Moses, the master builder of New York City's grid of expressways and bridges who brought the Big Apple its car commuters, smog and sprawl. In 1943, the city of Portland hired Moses to design its urban future. Moses charted a highway loop around the city's core with a web of spur freeways running through neighborhoods. The city and state embraced much of the plan. The loop Moses envisioned became Interstate 405 as it links with I-5 south of downtown and runs north across the Fremont Bridge.
- ^ Jackson, Reed (July 16, 2012). "Perceptions of Portland's east side changing". Daily Journal of Commerce. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
Before the mid-1990s, development on the east side was sparse; and even then, large construction projects were rare. Between 1990 and 2010, 500,000 more square feet of development took place in downtown than in the east side's Lloyd District, CEID and Lower Albina area combined, according to data collected by the Bureau of Development Services.
- ^ "State of Parking 2015". City of Portland. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
- ^ Labrecque, Jackie (2017-07-06). "Poet's Beach will have life guards, swim rope along Willamette River's west banks". KATU. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ "Portland touts revived Willamette River". The Seattle Times. 2017-07-15. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ Law, Steve (2017-06-07). "Welcome to Portland's first pop-up beach". PortlandTribune.com. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ Goldberg, Jamie; Rogoway, Mike (May 15, 2021). "Downtown Portland is unsafe and uninviting, residents say in new poll, threatening city's recovery". The Oregonian.
- ^ Mesh, Aaron; Jaquiss, Nigel. "Obituaries for Portland Are Premature. But What Will Become of Its Most Important Neighborhood?". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on 2021-02-17. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
- ^ "The Water". Portland State University. Archived from the original on October 31, 2006. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-9787365-1-6.
- ^ "Better have that bus fare today; Fareless Square ends". Portland Tribune. January 4, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Bailey, Everton Jr. (August 30, 2012). "TriMet boosts most fares starting Saturday; some routes changing". The Oregonian. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ "Emporis Building Database". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-09-02.
- ^ "Old Town/Chinatown Summary of Issues and Opportunities".
Improving physical connectivity between Old Town and adjacent areas, including Downtown, the Pearl District and Waterfront Park can strengthen the vitality and economic health of the area