prplmtngal wrote:What areas do you recommend to look for apartments? My brother lives on NE Going and N Williams and said it's basically CRAP... Can you recommend a better neighborhood to find an apartment in? Not too expensive but not ghetto.
Okay, the problem with North and Northeast Portland is the result of a couple of factors; 1) traditionally (last 60 years), poor folks have lived there who happen to be black; 2) these neighborhoods are located close to the geographic center of Portland.
As a result, the poor minority status of these areas combined with a close proximity and craftsman-quality homes has made them prey to hip wealthy people eager to buy cheap real-estate in a progressive, albeit segregated, city. Even though the value of real-estate in Portland has been increasing at an alarming rate in the last ten years, the displacement of poor folk in the above scenario is handled as a racial issue as opposed to a class issue. That mischaracterization resluts in a lot of young people moving to these areas in an attempt to be "street". In reality, it's just living around poor people who really deserve better but cannot get better. It's frustration and crime.
lemur68 wrote:I'll let the natives correct me, but I'll give my impressions as a visitor (I'm there as we speak, in fact!)--yeah, apparently North Portland is nasty. Pearl District is nice and hip (which quadrant is your brother working? If it's NW, that's the Pearl District, and the hostel I'm staying in is just two blocks from there), but I think it's pricy. The area around Portland State University is as well, but may be cheaper. Beaverton has cheaper rents, but I haven't been out there.
Northwest Portland is divided from North and Northeast by the Willamette river. The Pearl district is a recently fabricated uptown haven for the uber-douch class. I'm honestly suprised they allowed a hostel anywhere near there. Portland State is near the park blocks, but being downtown is only a five-minute walk from the Pearl and still expensive. Further west in Northwest (NW 23rd) is the old neighborhoody douch-strip. Expensive.
Beaverton is not Portland. Not at all.
iembalm wrote:The area in near Southeast, across the river from downtown, which consists of neighborhoods like Belmont, Hawthorne, Hollywood and others, is very hip, albeit on the expensive side. Plenty of stuff to do, places to eat, clubs, etc.
These areas are more realistic if you don't mind paying someone else's property taxes. Belmont and Hawthorne are a lot of fun if you're young, but take it from me, the charm of living paycheck-to-paycheck just to be within walking distance of a bar full of poseurs wears off after a couple years.
So my recomendations?
Try a radius around the intersection of 28th and East Burnside. Great bars, restaurants, second-hand stores and a second-run theater with
$3.00 movies and $6.00 pitchers of PBR.
Further South, the area south of Division and North of Holgate (between the river and 39th) is pretty vast but reasonably navigable. The heart of this pocket would be the Clinton street area which is less-expensive than Hawthorne and Belmont, but as a hub of activity (Clinton street video, Dot's Cafe, Clinton Street Theater, Green Noise Records, q is For Choir records, Clinton Street Pub) is moderately-priced. Best year of my life was spent in this area. Train-hopping optional (though highly reccomended).
I currently live very east of both these neighborhoods, near the undesireable 82nd and East Burnside. It was a trade-off I made to be a home-owner. Despite this, there is a cafe, second-run movie theater (with beer) and a few bars within blocks of my doorstep. I haven't checked out rent, but you can ask your brother to check around the 78th and Stark area; it might be the most affordable of anything else suggested, though he might refuse to bother.
Again, good luck.
