Portland does not do as good a job as Philadelphia keeping cars in their place. Cars are everywhere, and they speed by unimpeded with few stops and wide streets. It’s pretty unpleasant. This has been the most disappointing part of Portland so far.
Density is hard to come by. The core is dense, and most everything around that seems to be single-family homes.
Portland’s parks don’t seem to be as nice as Philadelphia’s either. Seating and shade are both harder to come by.
Air conditioning is more common in Portland than in Seattle. Most apartments seem to have it, although there are cheap apartments that lack it.
Hawthorne District
This neighborhood was a bit sleepier than I’d like. It’s very car centric. Almost entirely single-family homes. Even mid-rise apartments were extremely rare. There were some nice commercial districts, but they were on busy car streets without enough stops to make them super comfortable for walking.
Pearl District
This looks like a very nice livable neighborhood downtown, but it’s very expensive. I’m not prepared to spend that on housing plus taxes right now.
Mississippi
This is a much more suitable area for me than Hawthorne. It’s like a slightly more developed version of West Seattle. Lots of mid-rise apartments with businesses underneath. The businesses are really fun and quirky. I have a nice comic shop very close by. There’s a very weird shop with lots of taxidermied animals nearby that was fascinating to look at. I also found a cat-themed gift shop that was really cool.
The commercial area is a few blocks long, but there are several other similar ones in the area. I really enjoyed my time looking around here.
There were lots of homeless people on the streets — sometimes literally, sleeping on the sidewalks at trendy cafes while people ate in outdoor seating just a few feet away. A woman asked me to buy her food and started leading me to a pizza restaurant before moving the cheese and asking me for cash. I refused.
Housing is more expensive than I’d like. I found two apartments that I might have looked at. They were 2,100/month after income taxes.
I think I could live here, but it’s a bit too expensive.