NeveHimself

Lovejoy is at the center of one of the largest urban renewals in Portland. Named after Asa Lovejoy, the man who lost the famous 1845 coin toss that decided Portland's name, Though the Pearl District used to be filled with industrial crap and warehouses, it has since become a fairly trendy, upscale, and generally nice (though I don't like to admit that) neighborhood.

Lovejoy, and the Pearl District in general, is most popular for its art galleries and shopping though I have not really partaken in either of those events. However, the people I know who do go to art galleries and enjoy shopping tend to rave about places in the Pearl.

Jamison Square and Tanner Springs Park are a couple of neat little urban parks. I tend to like my parks a bit less structured and manicured, but they are still very cool places to sit and watch life go on around you.

Most of the living space here are warehouses that have been converted into lofts, though condos and apartments have (and continue) to be built all around. The Portland Streetcar, which was pretty much invented for the renewal of the Pearl District, runs down Lovejoy and I am fairly certain that Lovejoy is within the free wireless internet zone that surrounds the Pearl District.

Of the restaurants in the area, I haven't been to many, but my favorite by far is the Santa Fe Tacqueria on Johnson. Just about any of the myriad brewpubs in the area are good too. We love our beer around Portland.

Overall the Pearl District is a good place to go if you want to get a slice of what passes for urban life in Portland. I don't think its typical of most big cities, but it really isn't my thing.

On and around Fremont Street between 65th and 82nd is a fairly pleasant residential area where most of my friends growing up lived. The area nearest to 72nd however would be my most recommended segment. 72nd is noticeable north of Fremont because of its large park blocks, which are excellent for pick up games of football, soccer, and freeze tag.

If you're North of Fremont you're very close to Harvey Scott Elementary School (which I attended) and which is also a pretty good school, however, since Portland recently went back to a K-8 system, I would actually recomment my middle school, which is now also an elementary school, Roseway Heights (formerly Gregory Heights). You will also be close to James Madison High School which I graduated from in 2004, and is one of the better schools in the district (though I may be biased).

As far as other attractions go, most of the stores are big chains, there's a Hollywood Video, a Safeway, a Subway, and a Papa Murphy's Take and Bake pizza. However, there are a few places near the area worth mention. Fairley's Pharmacy is an old style pharmacy with a lunch counter. I'm not sure if they started serving food there again, but I know they have a pretty "neat-o" malt. Annie's Doughnuts is another good place, though there are better doughnuts in town (See: My review of SW 2nd Ave.) Annie's is still very good.

There is a large Asian influence in this area, which means a lot of good Asian (and Asian-influenced) restaurants. I would recommend Thien Hong, Royal Thai (which is across the street), Pho Vinh, Pho Oregon, and Ohana Hawaiian Cafe. If you've never had Vietnamese food which is served at both Pho restaurants and Thien Hong, I recommend pho (beef noodle soup), gui con (salad rolls), banh xeo (a crepe filled with shrimp and pork, and dipped in peanut sauce) or lau (a vietnamese hotpot).

Overall, this is a nice neighborhood if your kids are old enough to be able to look out for traffic, and if you don't mind a lot of cars whizzing by (but only on Fremont, your number streets are pretty quiet).

If you're into bars and clubs then SW 2nd Ave. is the street for you... sort of. Basically, if it's a Friday night and you're looking for somewhere to go, something to eat, or something neat to spend your money on, wander the area between 1st and 3rd Ave. from Burnside down to about Washington Street.

During the day on the weekends you'll be perilously close to one of the best things to do in Portland when its "in season" and that is the Saturday Market. Live music, good food, and cool shops to buy gifts and things. It is also becoming a popular place for street performers and has always been a staple of Portland culture.

If it's a Friday night there are a number of bars worth looking into Kell's is probably my favorite (it's a good restaurant too), Dante's Inferno (on 3rd) and Berbati's Pan (on 2nd) are also worth mentioning. Other bars that are pretty good include The Thirsty Lion , Bar 71, Dan and Louis' Oyster Bar (all on 2nd), and Captain Ankeny's Well (on 3rd) are also fun. Most of these places sell food, but I've only eaten at Kell's, which I recommend, but I can't comment on the other places.

However! If you're down here at night, there is one place you must visit, Voodoo Doughnuts. Not only can you learn Swahili from the fryer (on Tuesdays at 9PM), not only can you get married beneath a giant crueller shaped chandelier and a velvet painting of Isaac Hayes, not only are they responsible for such oddities as the bacon maple bar, the pepto-bismol donut, and the Tex-Ass donut, but all of the donuts (with the exception of the pepto which I chickened out on and is no longer served) are delicious. If you pass up Voodoo, you're definitely misisng out. Voodoo is on 3rd, but it's impossible to miss. Look for the red door and the giant donut chandelier.

If you're looking for a place to hang out, throw back a few, and get some good grub, or if you want to visit Saturday market, definitely check out this area.

Then you would probably want to visit Belmont street from about 20th to 43rd and that's giving you a little extra room to explore, for a reason I'll explain in a moment. From 39th, Belmont is only about six blocks north of Hawthorne and is a similar neighborhood filled with fun bars, good restaurants and neat people. I recommend, if walking from Hawthorne to Belmont, or vice versa, to walk up or down 33rd, it's a quiet residential street with lots of charm.

Where points of interest and shopping are concerned I like Zupan's market, just to browse, it's ridiculously expensive, Movie Madness (which is way down on 43rd, hence it's inclusion), the Avalon theatre, and Za Zen Boutique.

The bars and food on Belmont that I dig are the Aalto Lounge, Hoda Middle-Eastern Cuisine, and the Paradox Cafe. There are some others I'm forgetting, but like Hawthorne, most places you go will be pretty good.

I recommend visiting Belmont if you're going to visit Hawthorne, but I don't know if I would say its worthy of it's own special trip.

I would say that Hawthorne Street from about 30th to 50th is one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Portland. There are a host of little retail shops, great restaurants, bars, and little nuggets of Portland Culture.

I am not a big shopper, but there are some very cool shops in this area. Greg's is a place that sells gifts and stationary and some other nifty knick-knacks. The Third Eye Shoppe is also worthy of mention, even though it is a head shop and may not appeal to certain shoppers. The Baghdad Theatre, while not really a shop, is worth checking out as well.

I am, however, an eater, and while I agree with the other reviewer's recommendation of Zach's Shack, I would also add The India Oven, Thanh Thao, A Pizza Scholls, Big Daddy's BBQ and Vege Thai (for the vegetarian crowd). But, pretty much anywhere you stop in on Hawthorne you'll find something good to eat.

The rest of the Hawthorne experience is just the people, the wacky cars, and crazy paint jobs. I recommend taking a walk down Hawthorne very mcuh, and it's only a few blocks.

One of the best places to go in Portland whether you live here or are just visiting is located on 10th and W Burnside street. This place? Powell's City of Books. Home to over 1.1 million books it is one of the largest independent booksellers in the world and consists of three floors and takes up an entire city block. The best place to buy new or used books, there is also a little coffee shop, and a rare book room featuring some of the most interesting volumes you will ever see.

I don't know very much about living in the area, as I think it is primarily commercial, but a lot of the stores are pretty cool as well. There are a lot of good restaurants nearby, Jake's Famous Crawfish, McMenamin's Pub, Rocco's Pizza and Pasta, and Thai Peacock are all good choices, though there is also a Baja Fresh, a P.F. Chang's and a Whole Foods nearby. There are also several good little shops to buy other things around, a clothing store, a record store, and a smaller "alternative" bookstore, come to mind right away.

I definitely recommend checking out this area of Burnside for people who live in Portland or who are coming here to visit. Powell's is just a hop, skip, and a jump from other Portland Landmarks such as; Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Pioneer Courthouse Square, and to some extend, the Skidmore Fountain/Saturday Market.

Though I used to live on 90th and Tillamook, by Handcock Park, the area of Tillamook I like the most is part of it that is west of 82nd, between about 80th and 62nd.

I walk down this street on an almost daily basis, just to get in a little bit of exercise, clear my mind, and get out of the house. From the corner of 82nd and Tillamook this street doesn't look like much, but once you get walking you'll see.

The first thing you'll notice is the Banfield dog park to your left. I used to have a membership here for my German Shepherd, and he loved it. All of the dogs do, and I think most of the owners as well. There are mostly houses here, though if you look to the right and down the street you'll see Madison High School, which is a very fine place to get an education (it's where I got mine).

Next you will come to a golf course on the right, and a series of apartment complexes on the left. These apartments are clean, and fairly nice, I have friends who live in them, and I've heard only good things. There's a trail that follows the golf course fence, and a bike/jogging path, that are my targets here. It's a very quiet, clean, good place to walk. It's almost like a little slice of wilderness in the middle of the city. Okay, not quite, but the next feature is.

After you walk past the golf course you come to Rice Elementary School and Rose City Park. It is a very nice, clean park, with a barkdust trail that follows the golf course past the school, the tennis courts, the swings/play structure and finally up towards Sacramento street and Roseway Heights Middle School. I volunteer at RHMS, and can safely say it is a very good place to send your kids. However, about halfway to Sacramento the trail turns and follows the golf course again, this time with a very steep hill (and Sacramento) to your left and the Golf Course to your right.

I typically walk down this trail, meeting some joggers and dog walkers on my way, until I reach 72nd, at which point I turn back towards Tillamook and walk home. It's a very pleasant walk, and my dog likes it too.

I lived on 84th and NE Thompson for about two years while I was attending James Madison High School (which is the lcoal high school for this neighborhood) and I would not recommend living there to anyone who was not a masochist.

The houses themselves are okay. They're nothing to brag about but I've seen (and lived in) worse. The problem with this part of Thompson is the other people who live here. The street was always dirty, generally loud and obnoxious, and the neighbors were very unpleasant.

On my 18th birthday, my grandmother was assaulted outside my house by one of the neighbors, which then led to a street fight, police activity, and a lot of unnecessary discomfort. I moved out of the area a couple of years ago, but have since heard of two seperate shootings on my block of Thomspon, with one of the victims actually being killed.

It is close to Jason Lee Elementary, James Madison High School, Rocky Butte, The Gateway Shopping Center (and Transit Center) the 82nd bus, the MAX, and a few other places, but the neighborhoods directly to the south are much better, and far less violent.

So I do not recommend looking for houses on Thompson. To anyone. Bottom line.

I lived on NE 90th off of Tillamook, across the street from Hancock Park, before moving about two blocks south in 2004.

At first, I thought, well this is going to be great, I live across the street from the park I always played in as a kid. But I soon realized that the park is about the only good thing in the neighborhood, and even that has it's pitfalls.

Don't get me wrong, the street is very clean, and my house was nice, as are all of the houses. And it is probably a pretty kid friendly place to live, but there are some things that make it... less than palatable.

The first of these are the neighbors. My neighbors on either side of me were nice. One was a retired school teacher who taught at my elementary school, and the others were a family with two daughters whose only real problem was a penchant for skinny-dipping in their pool. But most of the other people surrounding the park were not very friendly at all. There were a few problems with dogs, a boxer in particular, and people seeming to think that the park was there for their enjoyment and no one elses. And despite the fact that there is a backstop and a cleared field in the park for baseball, my brother and I were often yelled at for playing there, and even had a neighbor call the police on us... for playing ball in the park.

Many of the visitors to the park are also unfriendly, or just downright menacing. I caught seveal people using drugs on the play structure, parked cars with foggy windows are very common, the pedestrians who walk around the park were generally pretty rude, and I lost all sympathy for dog owners during my tenure on 90th.

There also seemed to be a propensity for violence among the children in the neighborhood, a lot of traffic due to Tillamook street, and fairly frequent police activity due to the above reasons.

But it's close to Jason Lee Elementary, James Madison High School, the Gateway shopping center, Rocky Butte, and the bus on 82nd. I also haven't lived there in a few years, so things might have changed a little bit.

I currently live on NE Broadway St, a few blocks east of 82nd Ave. and before I lived here, my grandmother did, so I know the area fairly well. That being said, of all the places I have ever lived, and all the streets I have ever lived on. This one is my favorite.

Jason Lee Elementary school is just a few blocks away, and although no Portland Public School is particularly good, I think Jason Lee is as close to good as we get. The high school kids feed into here is James Madison high school, and though I may be biased, since I graduated from there in 2004, MHS is one of the better PPS high schools to go to in terms of experience. It is a very diverse school, for a fairly diverse neighborhood, but is overall a pleasant place to go to school.

I live in a very quiet neighborhood, the only form of noise pollution we ever get is the occasional barking dog. There is very little traffic, very few problems with the neighbors, or with people doing things they shouldn't be doing in the neighborhood. It is very close to Hancock Park, and Rocky Butte, as well as the Gateway shopping center.

The 33 and 72 busses both run about a block away, and it's a very short walk to catch the MAX at 82nd or at the Gateway Transit Center. So where public transportation is considered, we've got things pretty well under wraps.

The neighbors are a fairly quiet bunch, but they're polite, and they keep their yards clean, and like I said, there's never any real trouble. I lived on Thompson streed, and Tillamook which are both only a couple of blocks north, but they're nowhere near as pleasant as Broadway is. I love living here, and you would probably like it too.