Is Portland still a "blue collar" city at heart? (Beaverton: home, neighborhood)

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Anders15

I have another question and I'm sure many of you will HATE it but do you see Portland "building up" any time soon?

Yes similar to Seattle and other big cities. It seems like most are discovering the PNW these days so I was wondering what are future plans for Portland like to handle the population in the future. It would not be a bad thing entirely.

Portland will continue to build more high density residential development around downtown--basically the Pearl District is almost built out but there's still some room on the far north end. I can see Goose Hollow being built up as well, and the South Waterfront and PSU areas will see some more development as the market allows. The South Waterfront has rightfully been considered a bust but eventually some day there will be more of a demand in that area. The Portland condo market sort of go overbuilt during the boom years from 2004-2009 or so...rental demand has come back strong though in the period after that.

On the other hand increased density on the Eastside is always a tricky issue. In part because a: People don't want to see historic properties removed and b: There's not a lot of vacant lots. You're dealing with old street car suburbs that don't have much room to add new infrastructure in terms of new transit or parking--and the lots in Portland are fairly small. A place like N Williams which was full of vacant lots just a few years ago has been built up in the last year with condos and new commercial buildings.

But the infill on the eastside is pretty small scale compared to even Seattle. They will build scattered 4-6 story buildings among some of the main commercial arteries, but even that will be limited. The biggest issue is that there isn't a good parking situation in these neighborhoods and developers have gotten away with building structures with little or no parking. And you're going to be limited to bus transit in these areas--as well as the fact that there isn't a lot of larger boulevards to handle inner crosstown traffic.

Portland isn't a dense city on the level with somewhere like San Francisco on the eastside of town, but you're dealing with neighborhoods that we're developed pre-automobile--with tight streets and so on though the housing stock is a mix of Craftsmans and older homes, older apartments, and some newer developments. Actually much of Seattle is like this as well--it's mostly a similar style of development once you get outside of the urban core of Seattle(downtown/Belltown, Capitol Hill, and Queen Anne) with a few outliers like the U District or Fremont--but in general Seattle's quieter residential neighborhoods aren't that different than Portland. The inner core feels denser in part because Seattle has always been more aggressive in terms of development--South Lake Union is going to be a much different neighborhood that's just being built up.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Deezus

Safeway is doing a similar upgrade to the store on SW Barbur.

The old Safeway on 82nd that was a complete dump(the most "Un-Safe" way in town) was sold out and was turned into an Asian grocery to open soon. I think Safeway has had trouble competing in a town full of Fred Meyers on one end and high-end places like New Seasons on the other...

I agree about the one on 82nd. That was awful. The one on Hawthorne was fine except way to small for the growing number of customers. With the combination of 150 new apartments in the new buildings I doubt it will want for customers.

It isn't cheap though. Fred's is a better deal. But Safeway is only a block and a half from me and right outside where the bus lets me off so they have my business. I still shop at Fred's too. I like the fact that Kroger's allowed Fred's to still look like Fred's even with the remodel.

[oldtintype]

Originally Posted by Deezus

Portland will continue to build more high density residential development around downtown--basically the Pearl District is almost built out but there's still some room on the far north end. nt--South Lake Union is going to be a much different neighborhood that's just being built up.

North end is being heavily build on right now. Two buildings in progress, three in planning and then there are two or three more block lots (empty) left after those. Then there are at least three full city blocks with old warehouses on them that will probably go soon. There's also a three story climbing gym going up at 14th and Quimby. So lots of room left but within five years I'll bet it's full.

Then of course there's the Conway land between the Pearl and NW 23rd--17 acres and something like 2500 houses, a park, a grocery store, etc. planned.

[turquoise1]

What is "Conway land?" Also, I didn't know there was development in the Northwest Industrial area.

[SETabor]

Conway land is a big block of land owned by Conway Transportation that they're having developed into mixed use. It's mostly just parking lots right now.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by SETabor

Conway land is a big block of land owned by Conway Transportation that they're having developed into mixed use. It's mostly just parking lots right now.

And former site of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exhibition!

[doity]

It's funny, I picked up a 1972 Portland Chamber of Commerce magazine a couple weeks ago at a estate sale. The front photo is of a large tree in a forest and throughout the magazine the main theme was indeed lumber and other industries. Of course the port was also emphasized a lot. And the kicker is that on the full page ad enticing people to join and advertise with the commerce, in order from top to bottom it pictured a woman with a push up bikini with mega cleavage (I am not kidding), a ship going through the port, a picture of a still unfinished First Interstate tower behind Forecourt fountain, and men felling a tree. So yes, Portland was indeed a blue collar town back then and I think now it is trying hard to cover up it's past but with little success.

The problem is that nothing has really replaced those kinds of jobs except for government and service jobs. And small business entrepreneurs who might hire a few people here and there but cannot come close to the number of jobs that heavy industry provide. I blame a combination of outsourcing, rigid regulations and old infrastructure, and environmental nuts who might have good intentions but in reality are standing in the way of good jobs.

[dj006]

Originally Posted by doity

The problem is that nothing has really replaced those kinds of jobs except for government and service jobs. And small business entrepreneurs who might hire a few people here and there but cannot come close to the number of jobs that heavy industry provide. I blame a combination of outsourcing, rigid regulations and old infrastructure, and environmental nuts who might have good intentions but in reality are standing in the way of good jobs.

Heavy Industry is steadily moving towards automation. More robotics, which requires fewer workers, yielding more profit for companies.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by doity

in order from top to bottom it pictured a woman with a push up bikini with mega cleavage (I am not kidding),

That was very likely in reference to Jantzen Swimwear. At the time they were one of the biggest employers in Portland due to the number of garment workers they employed.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by doity

It's funny, I picked up a 1972 Portland Chamber of Commerce magazine a couple weeks ago at a estate sale. The front photo is of a large tree in a forest and throughout the magazine the main theme was indeed lumber and other industries. Of course the port was also emphasized a lot. And the kicker is that on the full page ad enticing people to join and advertise with the commerce, in order from top to bottom it pictured a woman with a push up bikini with mega cleavage (I am not kidding), a ship going through the port, a picture of a still unfinished First Interstate tower behind Forecourt fountain, and men felling a tree. So yes, Portland was indeed a blue collar town back then and I think now it is trying hard to cover up it's past but with little success.

The problem is that nothing has really replaced those kinds of jobs except for government and service jobs. And small business entrepreneurs who might hire a few people here and there but cannot come close to the number of jobs that heavy industry provide. I blame a combination of outsourcing, rigid regulations and old infrastructure, and environmental nuts who might have good intentions but in reality are standing in the way of good jobs.

Just on the news the other day they were saying that Portland has 98% small business employers. That seems like a lot. I used to work for one of the larger employers, Standard Insurance, which had 2,000 employees at one time. Now it's under 1,000 due to outsourcing and consolidating and contracting. They have closed many branch offices all over the US as well.

People decry the coming of big box stores and I can certainly understand that. I have heard some bemoan the opening of the new downtown Target simply because it is "big box." But I think this particular big box store serves a need both for jobs and consumers. It replaces a more local variety store of its type that has been needed I think for a long time as well. Sometimes you have to look beyond the big box and realize that you need a combination of both small and big business if a city is going to survive.

BTW, I doubt Portland is trying to cover up that it ever was blue collar. Who would be covering that up and why would they care? Like someone said, the bikini lady was probably from a Janzen swimsuit ad and the rest represented other industries here. I never heard anyone say otherwise.