Is there a "Ghetto" in Portland? (Lake Oswego, Detroit: high crime, how much)

[PDXUGH21]

I've lived in NEP for a long time, and have been all around the Portland area. It would be unwise to decide where to live in Portland by crime rates alone, as there's no place in this city that I'd feel uncomfortable in. Having said that, the best places to live would be in the main Portland area, rather than the 'burbs, Gresham and Lake Oswego alike. Not much to say beyond that, I dunno, don't move into a trailer park, etc.

[MelissaFawnsi27]

For the suburbs, Beaverton has some nice homes, just try to avoid the areas around Baseline Rd (not ghetto, just...dinky) Check out Murrayhill, many nice houses/ townhomes. Also, there are so many great places in Portland, try the 97229 zip code, its a bit more suburban than most of Portland. Other nices zip codes areas include: 97007, 97008, and 97223.

But if you want to live in the city, just avoid NE Portland, you'll be fine
Good luck!

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by MelissaFawnsi27

But if you want to live in the city, just avoid NE Portland, you'll be fine

Not really, there's plenty of nice parts of NE Portland, just as there's slightly sketchy areas in SE Portland(Felony Flats for one). My girlfriend's family has lived near Grant Park for two generations and that's a perfectly safe, well kept area--along with neighboring areas like Alameda or Irvington which are pretty upscale as far as Portland goes. There's pretty mellow middle-class areas out near Rose City Park. Where I live in NE just to the east of Williams is pretty gentrified these days as well and the Alberta area might as well be inner Southeast in terms of who lives and goes there.

I've lived in North and Northeast Portland for 6 years now, and I've never been a victim of a crime. On the other hand my car got broken into twice when I lived in SW Portland off Barbur Blvd and once when I lived off SE Stark. In general though. sketchiness in Portland is pretty much concentrated in a few areas--and the most concentrated areas of crime and poverty are mostly in the further reaches of Portland, outer NE and SE east of 82nd or far north Portland towards Columbia Blvd--and even then it's not at the intensity level of most big cities.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by MelissaFawnsi27

For the suburbs, Beaverton has some nice homes, just try to avoid the areas around Baseline Rd (not ghetto, just...dinky) Check out Murrayhill, many nice houses/ townhomes. Also, there are so many great places in Portland, try the 97229 zip code, its a bit more suburban than most of Portland. Other nices zip codes areas include: 97007, 97008, and 97223.

But if you want to live in the city, just avoid NE Portland, you'll be fine
Good luck!

NE Laurelhurst, Alemeda, Irvington and Freemont are all very nice. So are parts of Lents as they continue to improve.

[EnricoV]

Yeah, some of the trendiest, most upscale, most expensive places to live are in NE. Kind of hard to throw out one-fourth (probably more like one-third, area-wise) of the city as unlivable just because some areas in it might not be as desirable.

[gypsydoc]

Originally Posted by ChadPettingill

For someone to say avoid Gresham must be someone who's never been there. Yes there's a neighborhood in Gresham that has a high crime rate, but Gresham is over 95,000 people and it's pretty spread out. I'd say most of Gresham feels just like a middle-class suburb. Why do people generalize areas so much on here?

Yeah... Rockwood used to be Portland's territory, but was annexed into Gresham in the 90's. Seems like the population is around 105,000 now and is Oregon's 4th largest city...
I agree that it is more like a middle class suburb... Historic downtown is cute... lots of shopping and close to the Gorge. Very convenient area.
Oh, ans the cost of living is still lower than most of Portland...

[freemkt]

The only areas I recommend avoiding are the Rockwood neighborhood in Gresham (around 181st Ave) and the gang-infested area around 162nd (which is the Portland/Gresham border) between Glisan and Stark. Having said that, it appears there has been a wholesale migration of poverty into the part of Portland east of 122nd, and I would probably avoid that area as well so staying west of 122nd (better yet, I-205) is probably a good idea. So that's a lot of territory to avoid, actually.

[Steve Pickering]

Rockwood must have changed since I lived there.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by PNWhike

Portland has it's good and bad areas. We have an exploding Hispanic population throughout Portland. Most of them are illegals. Gentrification throughout Portland has pushed a lot of the poverty/crime further out west on the west side of Portland towards Hillsboro and further out on the east side of Portland east side towards Gresham. The Oak Hills/ Bethany area you speak of used to be "out in the countryside" if you willuntil about 12 years ago. It has been paved over and forests were cleared out for massive developments. It could be considered "a good area to live." It's fairly expensive now. A decent house in Bethany would start around $350,000 or so. Good luck with your move.

Most of the Hispanic population in the Portland are not illegal, who told you such a silly idea?

[gypsydoc]

Depending on what your definition of "ghetto" is, would determine if we have one. I've lived in cities that definitely had ghetto.... Areas where you wouldn't want to be day or night... I don't find that true here.

This site has some interesting stats.

Portland OR crime rates and statistics - NeighborhoodScout