City Information

Having been spared the kind of aggressive, remorseless development that many Seattle residents have come to loathe, PORTLAND still retains a pleasant, small-city feel, both for its well-preserved Beaux Arts architecture and walkable urban core, as well as its easygoing atmosphere. On the other hand, while Portland's unpretentious bohemian flavor may be lost on more gung-ho travelers, the city remains an excellent spot for casual visitors to slack around for weeks at a time, with a wealth of good diners, microbreweries, clubs, bookstores and coffee houses to keep you occupied.

The city was named after Portland, Maine, following a coin toss between its two East Coast founders in 1845 ("Boston" was the other option). Its location on a deep part of the Willamette River, just 78 miles from the Pacific and surrounded by fertile valleys, made it a perfect trading port, and it grew quickly, replacing its clapboard houses with ornate facades and Gothic gables. By the 1970s, Portland's historic buildings had decayed or were sacrificed to parking lots and expressways, but since then, it has salvaged what was left of its past, replacing concrete with red brick, and introducing folksy statues and murals. Although the city's rehabilitation, along with its "urban growth boundary" to limit unrestrained development, has done much for Portland's reputation nationwide, most residents are ambivalent about the praise and would prefer you move anywhere preferably Seattle but here.

The Willamette River divides Portland in half: the downtown area lies between the river's west bank and the I-405 freeway, forming the bulk of the city's southwest quadrant; the east is mostly residential. Surrounded by historic terracotta buildings downtown, Pioneer Courthouse Square is the indisputable center of Portland, its curving brick steps filled with music and people, and is named after the adjacent Pioneer Courthouse , a squat 1868 structure that still maintains its judicial function. Within easy walking distance are the city's leading theaters, museums and department stores (notably Nike Town , 930 SW Sixth Ave, a flashy corporate theme store with high retail prices) - a melange of old and new, where fading plasterwork and ceramic reliefs face concrete and glass, punctuated by small grassy parks.

Broadway epitomizes Portland's mix of early grandeur and new wealth, with prestigious hotels sharing space with cultural institutions, such as the grand old Paramount theater, restored as part of the impressive Portland Center for the Performing Arts , at 1111 SW Broadway ( ). One block west, the Portland Art Museum (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $7.50; ) hosts touring exhibitions, plus a wide-ranging collection of Northwest Native American masks, Mexican statues and ancient Chinese figures - and recently acquired the modernist personal collection of critic Clement Greenberg, parts of which are on display intermittently. A block away, decorated with huge trompe l'oeil pioneer murals, the Oregon History Center , 1200 SW Park Ave (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $6; ), is primarily a research facility, but has some imaginative exhibits exploring different facets of the state's history. Between the museum and the history center run the South Park Blocks , a twelve-block green belt and favorite Portland hangout, where retirees commingle with teen slackers and the homeless - all under the shadow of statues of Teddy Roosevelt riding on to victory at San Juan Hill and Abe Lincoln standing rigidly with a long, dark expression.

A five-minute walk away, at the junction of Madison and Fifth avenues, is one of Portland's few notable architectural sights - Michael Graves' Portland Building , a monumental concrete box with "ironic" blue ribbons. Several blocks east, Portland's riverfront has been rescued from a century of burial beneath wharves, warehouses and, more recently, an express highway. The area is now lined by another favorite urban oasis, the two-mile-long Tom McCall Waterfront Park (created by demolishing the highway), where flocks of Canadian geese abound on the grass and young and old alike dash through the fountains of Salmon Street Springs . As a cheap and fun way to get wet, the springs are second only in popularity to the user-friendly Ira Keller Fountain , a huge concrete water sculpture just west of the riverfront at SW Third and Clay streets. Further north, the small Yamhill Historic District is lined with 1890s buildings, and the Yamhill Marketplace (built in 1982), SW second at Yamhill street, has a couple of produce stalls and cafés, though most of its interior has been turned into a gym.