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Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon, and county seat of Multnomah County. (Small portions of Portland are in Washington and Clackamas Counties.) Portland straddles the Willamette River immediately south of its confluence with the Columbia River. Portland is the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

The population of Portland is estimated to be 556,370 as of July 1, 2005http://www.pdx.edu/media/p/r/prc_2005_Table5_County_Split.xls, and that of the surrounding metropolitan area (MSA) is approximately 2 million (the 24th largest in the United States).

Portland is known as "The City of Roses" or "Rose City", nicknames that originated during the 1905 Lewis and Clark centennial exposition. Its climate is ideal for growing roses, and the city has many rose gardens, including the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. Other nicknames for the city of Portland include "Stumptown", "Bridgetown" (due to its numerous bridges), "Puddletown" (due to the weather), and "River City" (due to its proximity to the Willamette and Columbia Rivers), "PDX" (after the city's airport code) and, "P-town".

History

Portland started as a spot known as "The Clearing", which was on the banks of the Willamette River about halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In 1843, William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land, but lacked the funds required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with his partner Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for 25¢, Overton would share his claim to the 640-acre (2.6 km²) site.

Overton sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and Lovejoy each wished to name the new city after their own home town; the matter was decided with a coin toss, which Pettygrove won.

Portland's location at the navigational head of the Willamette River gave it an advantage over nearby ports, and it grew quickly. By 1850 Portland had approximately 800 inhabitantsGibson, Campbell (June 1998). Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990. U.S. Bureau of the Census - Population Division., a steam sawmill, a log cabin hotel, and a newspaper, the Weekly Oregonian.

Portland was the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s, when Seattle's deepwater harbor was connected to the rest of the mainland by rail, affording an inland route without the treacherous navigation of the Columbia River.

Geography and climate

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 145.4 mi² (376.5 km²). 134.3 mi² (347.9 km²) of it is land and 11.1 mi² (28.6 km²), or 7.6%, is water.

Although almost all of Portland lies within Multnomah County, small portions of the city lie within Clackamas and Washington counties, with mid-2005 populations estimated at 785 and 1,455, respectively.

The Portland metropolitan area is located within the Willamette Valley, which follows the Willamette River and the I-5 Corridor. The valley consists of suburban municipalities sprawled around patches of farmland farther south. The further north you travel, towards Portland, the thicker the population density becomes. The vast majority of Oregon's population lives in the Willamette Valley. Interstate 5 bisects the valley and a significant number of commuters travel the I-5 Corridor daily.

Portland lies on top of an extinct Plio-Pleistocene volcanic fieldhttp://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Oregon/BoringLavaField/description_boring_lava.html. The Boring Lava Field includes at least 32 cinder cones and small shield volcanoes lying within a radius of 13 miles of Kelly Butte, which is approximately four miles east of downtown Portland.

Portland's climate is temperate and seasonal. The average rainfall ranges between approximately 40 to 45 inches per year depending on location. Portland averages 155 days with measureable precipitation a year. Although it lies in the Marine West Coast climate zone, Portland shows many characteristics of a Mediterranean climate. The city has mild wet winters, and warm, dry summers. The summer months (June through September) mark the driest period, averaging no more than one inch of rain per month, but it is not uncommon for summer months to receive little or no precipitation. November through April is the rainy season, with 80% of the total annual rainfall occurring in those months. Winter low temperatures hover around 35 °F (2 °C), and summer highs average around 80 °F (27 °C), however summer heat waves with temperatures exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) do occur on occasion. But for the most part, the Portland summers are very pleasant with abundant sunshine. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Portland was −3 °F (−19 °C), set on February 2 1950. Portland recorded a record high temperature of 107 °F (42 °C) numerous times, and temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C) have been recorded in each of the months from May through September.

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Avg high °F (°C) 46 (8) 50 (10) 57 (13) 62 (16) 68 (20) 74 (23) 80 (26) 81 (27) 74 (23) 63 (17) 51 (11) 46 (8) 63 (17)
Avg low temperature °F (°C) 37 (3) 39 (4) 41 (5) 44 (7) 50 (10) 54 (12) 58 (14) 58 (14) 55 (13) 48 (9) 42 (6) 37 (3) 47 (8)
Rainfall inches (millimeters) 6.24 (158.5) 5.07 (128.8) 4.51 (114.6) 3.62 (78.7) 3.10 (63.2) 2.00 (50.8) 1.60 (40.6) 0.50 (12.7) 0.90 (22.8) 3.39 (86.1) 6.39 (162.3) 6.75 (171.4) 44.07 (1119)

The city and the region

Portland is often cited as an example of a well-planned city. The credit for this starts with Oregon's proactive land-use policies, particularly the establishment of an urban growth boundary in 1979. The boundary preserved agricultural land in the mold of 19th-century farming techniques. This was atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.

Still, housing costs are lower than most urban areas in California and Washington, and residents enjoy many benefits of a more compact urban area, including efficient public transportation and less traffic than similarly sized cities.

The Portland Development Commission also plays a role in keeping the city livable; it was created by city voters in 1958 to serve as the city’s urban renewal agency. It provides housing and economic development programs within the city.

The more densely populated parts of the city proper are somewhat asymmetrical, with the west side hemmed in by the West Hills, while the flatter east side stretches on for about 180 blocks, until it meets Gresham. Further east lies rural Multnomah County.

Downtown Portland and many other parts of inner Portland have compact city blocks and narrow streets. Each block is 200 ft (60 m) square; by comparison, Seattle's city blocks are 240 by 320 feet (70 by 100 m), and Manhattan's east-west streets are divided into blocks that are from 600 to 800 feet (180 to 240 m) long. In addition, most streets are 64 feet (20 m) wide; the combination of compact blocks and narrow streets makes the downtown more pedestrian friendly. The 264 foot (80 m) long combined blocks divide one mile (1.6 km) of road into exactly 20 separate blocks.

See also: Portland metropolitan area

Portland's five "quadrants"

As a result of a "great renumbering" on September 2, 1931, Portland is divided into five sections: Southwest, Southeast, Northwest, North and Northeast. Burnside Street is the boundary between north and south, and the Willamette River divides the eastern and western sections. North of Burnside Street, the river curves west and in place of it Williams Avenue is used as a divider. Between Williams and the river is the fifth, North, quadrant.

Portland also has an unnamed sixth "quadrant" between Naito Parkway (formerly Front Avenue) and the Willamette River, which has an east bend south of downtown. Instead of having its own name, negative numbers denoted by a leading zero are used (For example, "0110 SW Porter St." is an office building one block east of Naito Pky.)

Northwest
Northwest includes the Pearl District, a fairly recent name for what originally was an old warehouse and industrial area. Starting in the late 1980s, and peaking in the 2000s, many of the existing warehouses, some on brownfield sites, have been converted into lofts, and new multistory condominiums have also been developed. The increasing density has attracted a mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries, though in some cases pioneering tenants have been priced out of the area. Its galleries sponsor artists' receptions on the first Thursday of every month, spawning similar events on other days elsewhere.

Between the Pearl District and the Willamette is Portland's old Chinatown neighborhood. Its entrance is marked by a pair of lions at the corner of NW 4th and Burnside, and includes the district along the Willamette River between Burnside and Union Station. Before World War II, this area was known as Japan Town or Little Tokyo; Chinatown was previously located just south of W. Burnside along the Willamette River.

Further west is the Northwest neighborhood including the compact NW 21st and 23rd Avenue restaurant and retail area. This area is also called Uptown, Hill, and the Alphabet District. (Characters from The Simpsons are named from its alphabetically ordered street names - namely Ned Flanders, Kearney, Reverend Lovejoy, and Mayor Quimby. Another character, Sideshow Bob Terwilliger, is named for another Portland street. C. Montgomery Burns may have gotten his name from Burnside Street.) The neighborhood has a mix of Victorian-era houses, apartment buildings from throughout the 20th century, and various businesses centered around Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. The Portland Streetcar connects this area to downtown.

Other neighborhoods in NW Portland include Forest Park, Hillside, Linnton, Northwest Heights, Northwest Industrial, and Old Town-Chinatown.

West of the developed areas is the northern portion of Portland's West Hills, including the majority of massive Forest Park.

Southwest
Part of the West Hills is in the Southwest quadrant, which includes Washington Park, site of North America's deepest transit station, the Oregon Zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, the International Rose Test Garden, the Portland Japanese Garden, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and many hiking trails. The West Hills underwent rapid expansion during the 1960s and 1970s.

Southwest also includes:

Downtown Portland is laid out on a grid, with named streets running roughly perpendicular to the Willamette River and numbered streets running parallel to the river. Many streets in the rest of Southwest follow the countours of the quadrant's hills, rather than adhering to a rigid grid.

Southwest Portland is composed of 23 neighborhoods. They are Arlington Heights, Arnold Creek, Ashcreek, Bridlemile, Collins View, Crestwood, Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill, Downtown, Far Southwest, Goose Hollow, Hayhurst, Healy Heights, Hillsdale, Homestead, Maplewood, Marshall Park, Multnomah, Old Town-Chinatown, South Burlingame, Southwest Hills, Sylvan-Highlands, and West Portland Park.

Northeast
Northeast contains a diverse collection of neighborhoods. For example, while Irvington and the Alameda Ridge boast some of the oldest and most expensive homes in Portland, nearby King is a more working-class neighborhood. Because it is so large, Northeast Portland can essentially be divided ethnically, culturally, and geographically into inner and outer sections. The inner Northeast neighborhoods that surround Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. were once predominantly African American, resembling typical urban inner-city environments found in most major U.S. cities. That is now changing due to the process of gentrification. Inner Northeast includes several shopping areas, such as the Lloyd District, Alberta Arts District and Hollywood, and part of the affluent Irvington, Alameda, and Laurelhurst neighborhoods and nearby developments. The city plan targets Lloyd District as another mixed-use area, with high-density residential development. At the base of Northeast is the Rose Quarter. It is named after the Rose Garden Arena, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, and also includes the Blazers' former home, the Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum is the home to Portland's hockey team, the Portland Winter Hawks, of the Western Hockey League, though they often play at the Rose Garden. The newest Rose Quarter tenants are the Lumberjax of the National Lacrosse League.

The city still holds the lease to the land and owns the Coliseum, but the Rose Garden and other buildings were owned by private business interests until they went into receivership. The area is quite active during the teams' home games, and the city hopes to extend the activity by promoting a major increase in residential units in the quarter using zoning and tax incentives.

Northeast Portland is composed of thirty-seven neighborhoods. They are Alameda, Argay, Beaumont-Wilshire, Boise, Bridgeton, Center, Concordia, Cully, East Columbia, Eliot, Glenfair, Grant Park, Hayden Island, Hazelwood, Hollywood, Humboldt, Irvington, Kerns, King, Laurelhurst, Lloyd District, Madison South, Montavilla, Parkrose, Parkrose Heights, Piedmont, Rose City Park, Roseway, Russell, Sabin, Sullivan's Gulch, Sumner, Sunderland, Vernon, Wilkes, Woodland Park and Woodlawn.

Southeast
Southeast stretches from the warehouses by the Willamette, through the historic Ladd's Addition, to the Hawthorne and Belmont districts. Southeast Portland residents initially tended to the blue-collar but have since evolved into a wide mix of backgrounds; inner southeast is home to several thriving subcultures including Hippies, Hipsters, and environmentalists, while the outer edges are populated by a diverse, largely working-class population which includes immigrant communities from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The Hawthorne district is known for its beyond-the-norm hippie/radical crowd and funky shops.

Farther south, the Brooklyn, Sellwood, Woodstock, Brentwood-Darlington, and Eastmoreland neighborhoods near Reed College are close to the Willamette River. The Clackamas Town Center and Mall 205 are the largest retail centers serving the area.

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Southeast was home to Lambert Gardens. Southeast Portland also features Mt. Tabor, a park with one of only two extinct volcanoes in a continental U.S. city, which (on the south slope) is home to Warner Pacific College.

Southeast Portland is composed of 27 neighborhoods. They are Ardenwald-Johnson Creek, Brentwood-Darlington, Brooklyn, Buckman, Centennial, Center, Creston-Kenilworth, Eastmoreland, Foster-Powell, Glenfair, Hazelwood, Hosford-Abernethy, Kerns, Laurelhurst, Lents, Mill Park, Montavilla, Mt. Scott-Arleta, Mt. Tabor, Pleasant Valley, Powellhurst-Gilbert, Reed, Richmond, Sellwood-Moreland, South Tabor, Sunnyside, and Woodstock.

North Portland
North Portland includes the neighborhoods of St. Johns, Cathedral Park, University Park (and the University of Portland), Overlook, Portsmouth, Kenton, Boise, Eliot, Arbor Lodge, Bridgeton, Hayden Island, Humboldt, and Piedmont.

During World War II, a planned development named Vanport was constructed to the north of this section between the city limits and the Columbia River. It grew to be the second largest city in Oregon, but was wiped out by a disastrous flood in 1948. Columbia Villa, another wartime housing project in the Portsmouth Neighborhood, is being rebuilt; the new $150 million community will be known as New Columbia and will offer public housing, rental housing, and single family home ownership units. Since 2004, a light rail line runs along Interstate Avenue, which parallels I-5.

North Portland is also home to Portland International Raceway.

People and culture

Demographics

Historical populations
Census
year 		Population
1850 821
1860 2,874
1870 8,293
1880 17,577
1890 46,385
1900 90,426
1910 207,214
1920 258,288
1930 301,815
1940 305,394
1950 373,628
1960 372,676
1970 382,619
1980 366,383
1990 437,319
2000 529,121
2005 533,427

As of the 2000 census, there are 529,121 people residing in the city, organized into 223,737 households and 118,356 families. The population density is 1,521/km² (3,939.2/mi²). There are 237,307 housing units at an average density of 682.1/km² (1,766.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 77.91% White, 6.64% African American, 6.33% Asian, 1.06% Native American, 0.38% Pacific Islander, 3.55% from other races, and 4.15% from two or more races. 6.81% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Out of 223,737 households, 24.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.1% are married couples living together, 10.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 47.1% are non-families. 34.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.3 and the average family size is 3.

In the city the population is spread out with 21.1% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 34.7% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 95.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $40,146, and the median income for a family is $50,271. Males have a reported median income of $35,279 versus $29,344 reported for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,643. 13.1% of the population and 8.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 15.7% of those under the age of 18 and 10.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. Oregon has a 9% income tax which tends to suppress accurate reporting. Figures delineating the income levels based on race are not available at this time.

Portland is becoming increasingly diverse. Recent trends have more young people moving into the city as older, more established white families with children move to the suburbs. Although the majority of the city's population is still white, 60% of people moving to Oregon are non-white.

However, though the population of the city is increasing, the total population of children is diminishing, which has put pressure on the public school system to close schools. A recent study found that Portland is now educating fewer children than it did in 1925, and the city will have to close the equivalent of three to four elementary schools each year for the next decade.Egan, Timothy. " Vibrant Cities Find One Thing Missing: Children." New York Times. March 24, 2005.

Portland's public school system has remained racially imbalanced. As of the 2000 census, three of its high schools (Cleveland, Lincoln and Wilson) were over 70% white, while Jefferson High School was 86% non-white. The remaining four schools are more ethnically balanced"Abernethy Elementary School: Recent Enrollment Trends, 1995-96 through 2002-03." Portland Public Schools. Prepared by Management Information Services, October 30, 2002..

The imbalance can be explained through Portland's demographic history. Prior to the Second World War, Portland had very few residents of non-European ethnicity. In 1940, Portland's African-American population was approximately 2,000 and largely consisted of railroad employees and their families. During the war-time liberty ship construction boom, the need for workers drew many blacks to the city. Due to institutionalized racism in the real-estate community at the time, this new influx of blacks was guided to specific neighborhoods, such as the Albina district and Vanport. The post-war destruction of Vanport eliminated the only integrated neighborhood, and the ghettoization of blacks into the NE quadrant of the city continued.

Media

The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland. Willamette Week is a major alternative weekly publication distributed throughout the metro area. Other local weekly papers in the area include The Portland Tribune (a twice-weekly), The Portland Mercury, The Oregon Herald, and The Asian Reporter, a weekly newspaper covering both international and local Asian news. Portland Monthly is a monthly news and culture magazine. The Business Journal of Portland, a weekly, covers many business-news-related stories, as does The Daily Journal of Commerce. BarFly Magazine The Mid-county Memo *" target="_blank" >is a neighborhood newspaper serving the Gateway and Parkrose neighborhoods on Portland's east side. PORT [http://www.portlandart.net is an art macroblog dedicated to the vibrant art scene that provides daily updates on the arty goings on around town.

Portland is well served by television and radio. The metro area is the 23rd largest Designated Market Area (DMA) in the U.S., consisting of 1,086,900 homes and 0.992% of the U.S. market. The major network television affiliates include:

Parks and attractions

Portland is proud of its parks and its legacy of preserving open spaces. In fact, it has the highest parks-per-capita ratio of all cities in the United States. Parks and Greenspace planning dates back to the early 20th century when John Charles Olmsted, adopted step-son of Frederick Law Olmsted, prepared his 1903 Report to the Portland Park Board. The report inspired generations of urban greenspace adovocates. In 1995, voters in the Portland metropolitan region passed a regional bond measure to acquire valuable natural areas for fish, wildlife, and people. Ten years later, more than 8,200 acres of ecologically valuable natural areas had been purchased and permanently protected for the public.

Mt. Tabor Park is focused on an extinct volcano, making Portland one of two cities in the continental US with an extinct volcano within its city limits.

Forest Park is the largest wilderness park within city limits in the United States, with over 5,000 acres (20 km²). Portland is also home to Mill Ends Park, the world's smallest park (a two-foot-diameter circle, the park's area is only about 0.3 square meters). Washington Park * is just west of downtown, and is home to the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Japanese Garden, and the International Rose Test Garden.

Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park runs along west bank of the Willamette for the length of downtown. The 37-acre (150,000 m²) park was built in 1974 after Harbor Drive was removed and now plays host to large events throughout the year. Portland's downtown also features two groups of contiguous city blocks dedicated for park space; they are referred to as the North and South Park Blocks.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, or OMSI, is located on the east bank of the Willamette River across from downtown Portland, and contains a variety of hands-on exhibits covering the physical sciences, life science, earth science, technology, astronomy, and early childhood education. OMSI also has an OMNIMAX Theater and is home to the USS Blueback (SS-581) submarine.

Portland is also home to Portland Classical Chinese Garden, an authentic representation of a Suzhou-style walled garden. Local construction workers provided the site preparation and foundation, and dozens of workers from Suzhou, using material from China, constructed its walls and other structures, including a tea house.

The only state park in the area is Tryon Creek State Park; its creek still has a run of steelhead. Adjacent to the park is the Tryon Life Community Farm *, an aspiring urban ecovillage and educational center.

Portlandia, a statue on the west side of the Portland Building, is the second-largest hammered-copper statue in the U.S.

The Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden *, which immortalizes three of the award-winning author's best known characters with bronze sculptures, quote plaques, and a fountain, is located in Grant Park on N.E. 33 Avenue, between Knott Street and Broadway next to Grant High School. The garden is appropriately located in the Northeast section of the city where most of Cleary's characters lived, and is just a few blocks from the real Klickitat Street of Henry Huggins fame.

The city is also home to three steam locomotives: Southern Pacific 4449, Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700, and Oregon Railroad and Navigation 197. For many years after the engines were donated to the city in the 1950s, the three engines were on static display at Oaks Amusement Park in Southeast Portland. Starting in 1974 all three locomotives moved to Oregon's last surviving roundhouse. SP 4449 and SP&S 700 have been restored to operating condition by volunteers to operate in the city and Western United States on excursions. OR&N 197 is currently being restored.

Beer

Portland and certain other Oregon cities (such as Hood River and Bend) are well-known for their beer. It is often said that Portland is the home of the microbrew revolution in the United States. Some illustrate Portlanders' interest in the beverage by an offer made in 1888, when local brewer Henry Weinhard volunteered to pump beer from his brewery into the newly dedicated Skidmore Fountain. However, the renown for quality beer dates to the 1980s, when state law was changed to allow consumption of beer on brewery premises. In short order, microbreweries and brewpubs began to pop up all over the city. Their growth was supported by the abundance of local ingredients, including two-row barley, over a dozen varieties of hops, and the pure water from Bull Run and other drainage basins of nearby Mount Hood.

Today, with 33 breweries within the city limits, Portland is home to more breweries than any other city in the world. The McMenamin brothers alone have over thirty brewpubs, distilleries and wineries scattered throughout the metropolitan area, several in renovated theaters and other old buildings otherwise destined for demolition. Other notable Portland brewers include Widmer Brothers, Bridgeport Brewing Company and the MacTarnahan's Brewing Company. In 1999, author Michael "Beerhunter" Jackson called Portland a candidate for the beer capital of the world because the city boasted more breweries than Cologne, Germany. A popular nickname for the city in beer appreciation circles is "Beervana."

Portland hosts a number of festivals throughout the year in celebration of beer, including the Oregon Brewers Festival. Held each July, it is the largest gathering of independent craft brewers in North America. Other major beer festivals throughout the calendar year are: in April Spring Beer and Wine Festival in July Portland International Beerfest Holiday Ale Festival [http://www.holidayale.com/" target="_blank" >*.

Sports

Portland doesn't have as many major league sports teams as other cities of their size but have a variety of minor league teams.

Club Sport League Championships Venue Founded
Portland Trail Blazers Basketball National Basketball Association 1 (1976-77) Rose Garden Arena 1970
Portland Winter Hawks Ice Hockey Western Hockey League 2 (1982-83, 1997-98) Rose Garden Arena, Memorial Coliseum 1976
Portland Beavers Baseball Pacific Coast League 0 PGE Park 2001
Portland Lumberjax Indoor Lacrosse National Lacrosse League 0 Rose Garden Arena 2006
Portland Chinooks Basketball International Basketball League 0 Multiple arenas 2005
Oregon Riptide Basketball American Basketball Association 0 2006
Portland Timbers Soccer United Soccer Leagues First Division 0 PGE Park 2001
Portland Naughty Dogs Paintball National Professional Paintball League Multiple tournaments None 1996
Portland's first professional sports team was the Portland Rosebuds. Not only were they the first professional sports team in Oregon they were the first professional hockey team in the U.S. They joined the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1914. They were the first U.S. Team to play for the Stanley Cup; in 1916, they played against the Montreal Canadiens. In 1918, the team moved to Chicago, Illinois and took the name Blackhawks.

The Rosebuds played at the Portland Hippodrome. At the time it was built, it was the world’s largest indoor ice rink. It was on NW 22nd and Marshall; it burned down in 1951.

Portland is home to only one team in a major league, the Portland Trail Blazers. The National Basketball Association team has several players in the Basketball Hall of Fame, including Dražen Petrović, Bill Walton, Lenny Wilkens, and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler.The Blazers won their only NBA Championship in 1977. They came close to winning another championship in 1990 and 1992 but fell short. Many fans and commentators say that if the Blazers had Arvydas Sabonis during the early 1990’s, the Blazers would have won another NBA Championship. The team drafted Sabonis in 1986 but he was not allowed to play in the NBA by the Soviet Union.

The Portland Winter Hawks, a major-junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League, have been a team since 1976-1977, when the Blazers won the NBA Finals. The Winter Hawks are one of the most popular junior ice hockey teams and there are many loyal fans in Portland. They have also produced many NHL stars.

The Portland Beavers, are a Triple-A baseball team from the Pacific Coast League affiliated with the San Diego Padres. They were founded in 2001. However, the original Beavers started playing in 1903. The Beavers play in PGE Park and sell a fair amount of tickets.

The Portland Timbers, of the United Soccer Leagues First Division, are a soccer team that plays at PGE Park. Since they were formed in 2001, the Timbers have made the playoffs four out of five times but have never won a championship.

The city was also home to a WNBA team, the Portland Fire. The team never made the playoffs and folded in 2002.

One of the cities’ newest and fastest growing teams in popularity is the Portland Lumberjax of the National Lacrosse League. They play in the best indoor lacrosse league in the country but it is not a major league. In the Lumberjax first season, they clinched their division, a rare and mighty feet for a first year team. Unfortunately for Jax fans, the team was upset in the first round of the playoffs by the veteran Arizona Sting.

Portland is now home to two new basketball teams, the Oregon Riptide, in the American Basketball Association and the Portland Chinooks in the International Basketball League. Neither team has established a significant fan base yet

The city also has a successful paintball team in the National Professional Paintball League called the Portland Naughty Dogs. The team plays in a variety of tournaments around the U.S.

Portland is also one of the locations on the Champ Car World Series circuit, hosting races at the world-class Portland International Raceway. PIR also hosts a race on the American Le Mans Series and a variety of SCCA, historic, and annual races such as the Rose Cup during the city's Rose Festival. There has been recent interest in attracting a Major League Baseball franchise to Portland. In 2004, the city made an unsuccessful bid for the Montreal Expos, and in 2006 was contacted by the Florida Marlins. There is also an interest of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL moving to Portland.

Skiing and snowboarding are particularly popular with Portlanders. The area is served by a number of resorts located on nearby Mount Hood, including Timberline, which allows skiing year round. The only other resort in North America with summer skiing is Whistler in British Columbia.

The local Alpenrose Dairy is host to the annual Little League softball World Series.

Famous residents

See List of Portlanders.

Infrastructure

Government

The city of Portland is governed by a mayor, four city commissioners and an auditor, who are each elected citywide to serve four-year terms. The city council consists of the mayor (Tom Potter as of 2005) and commissioners. The auditor does not have a vote on the city council or direct city operations, but provides checks and balances in the commission form of government and accountability for the use of public resources. In addition, the auditor gives access to information for all Council members and the public and issues reports on various matters of city government.

Portland and its surrounding metropolitan area are also served by Metro, the nation's only directly elected regional government. Metro's charter includes land use and transportation planning, solid waste management, and map development. It also owns and operates the Oregon Convention Center, Oregon Zoo, Portland Center for Performing Arts, and Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center.

Education

Public education

The Portland Public Schools district consists of about 100 schools covering in various combinations grades K through 12, as well as 50 special education programs. The number of students in the school district is approximately 53,000 — over 90% of the available school-age children, a higher percentage than other large urban school districts."Effects of Census Undercount on School Planning: Report Series: Report Number 5." U.S. Census Monitoring Board. February, 2001.Buckingham, Matt. "Teach Your Children Well - Lunch Money Leading Indicator." Willamette Week. March 27, 1996. Nonetheless, total school enrollment is declining, accompanying a change in Portland's demographics, and the Portland Public Schools are facing increasing budget pressure. Portland Public Schools are also known for their high ratio of drop-outs, as well as their low standardized test scores. Many feel an educational reform is necessary, rather than increasing the budget spending.

Notable public high schools include: Woodrow Wilson High School, Lincoln High School, Cleveland High School, and Benson Polytechnic High School. Lincoln, the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River, was built in 1869, and boasts several famous alumni, including cartoon voice Mel Blanc, singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) and astronaut S. David Griggs. Cleveland draws many students due to its International Baccalaureate program. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, graduated from Cleveland. Benson is a citywide magnet high school named for lumber baron and social entrepreneur Simon Benson, who in 1917 endowed the school with a grant worth $1.5 million in 2006 dollars.

School districts in the suburbs include: to the east, Parkrose, Centennial, and David Douglas; to the west, Beaverton, Tigard-Tualatin, Lake Oswego, and Riverdale; to the south, North Clackamas, West Linn-Wilsonville, and Oregon City.

The region also has several top private schools, including: the Catlin Gabel School, Central Catholic High School, Jesuit High School, The Northwest Academy, Oregon Episcopal School, St. Mary's Academy, and Valley Catholic High School. Portland is also home to Montessori Institute Northwest, an internationally recognized (AMI) teacher training facility, and the city and nearby suburbs are known as a nexus for Montessori education from preschool through junior high.

Colleges and universities

Portland State University, with graduate and undergraduate enrollment of around 24,000, is Oregon's largest university. Its primary campus is at the southern edge of downtown. PSU has masters programs in liberal arts, business, engineering, computer science, performing arts, social work and urban affairs. PSU's doctoral programs include biology, civil engineering, education, electrical & computer engineering, computer science, environmental sciences, math, psychology, public administration, urban studies, social work, and systems sciences.

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) includes a major medical school (see below), and several major research departments, including: Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research, Neurological Sciences Institute, Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Advanced Imaging Research Center, Center for Biostatistics, Computing & Informatics in Biology & Medicine, Center for the Study of Weight Regulation and Associated Disorders, Oregon Stem Cell Center, Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, and the Oregon Graduate Institute School of Science and Engineering.

Community colleges include: Portland Community College, with three major campuses in the city—Cascade, Rock Creek, and Sylvania—as well as the smaller Southeast Center and Metropolitan Workforce Training Center; Mount Hood Community College in East Multnomah County near Gresham; Clackamas Community College in Oregon City; Chemeketa Community College in Salem, about 45 minutes south of Portland; Clark College in Vancouver, Washington.

Private colleges include: Cascade College, Capstone College, Concordia University, George Fox University, Lewis & Clark College, Linfield College, Marylhurst University, Pacific University, Reed College, University of Portland, Warner Pacific College, and Willamette University.

Other: Concorde Career Institute, Western Culinary Institute, and Multnomah Bible College.

Schools of medicine
OHSU has a major medical, dental, and nursing school at its primary campus just south of downtown, in the West Hills. The campus anchors a medical district (affectionately called "Pill Hill") surrounded by other hospitals including a Veterans Affairs Hospital, Portland Shriners Hospital, and Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

OHSU has residency training programs in the following disciplines: Anesthesiology, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, General Medicine, Dentistry, Dermatology, Diagnostic Radiology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, General Surgery, Medical Genetics, Neurology, Neurological Surgery, Nursing, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Pathology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Other schools of medicine include: Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Western States Chiropractic College, and the School of Optometry at Pacific University.

Schools of law
Lewis & Clark College includes Lewis & Clark Law School.

Schools of art
These include the Art Institute of Portland, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Oregon College of Art and Craft and Northwest Film Center.

Transportation

The Portland metropolitan area has the typical transportation services common to major U.S. cities, though Oregon's emphasis on proactive land-use planning and transit-oriented development within the urban growth boundary means that commuters have multiple well-developed options.

In fact, Portland is well-known for its comprehensive public transportation system. TriMet operates most of the region's buses and the Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, light rail system, which connects the city and suburbs. 5th and 6th avenues are the Portland Transit Mall, an exclusive bus-only right-of-way running north/south through downtown.

For the most part, Portland's streets are arranged in a traditional grid-like pattern, with a few diagonal streets connecting various sections of the city and suburbs, and numerous bridges across the Willamette and Columbia rivers.

I-5 connects Portland with the Willamette Valley, Southern Oregon, and California to the south and with Washington to the north. I-405 forms a loop with I-5 around the central downtown area of the city and I-205 is a beltway on the east side which connects to the Portland International Airport. US 26 supports commuting within the metro area and continues to the Pacific Ocean westward and Mount Hood and Central Oregon eastward. US 30 has a main, bypass and business route through the city extending to Astoria, Oregon to the west; through Gresham, Oregon, and the eastern exurbs, and connects to I-84, traveling towards Boise, Idaho.

Portland's main airport is Portland International Airport, located about 20 minutes by car (40 minutes by MAX) northeast of downtown.

Portlanders have other transportation alternatives. The Portland Streetcar operates from the southern waterfront, through Portland State University north to nearby homes and shopping districts. The city is particularly supportive of urban bicycling and has been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists among others for its network of paths and other bicycle-friendly services. Car sharing through Flexcar is also available to residents of the city and some inner suburbs. Commuter rail planning is being finalized, and—if built—a controversial planned aerial tram will connect the southwest waterfront and OHSU.

See also

Sister cities

Portland has eleven sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:

Portland also has a friendship city relationship with Tallinn, Estonia."Sister Cities." Portland Mayor's Office. Retrieved on June 4, 2006.

References

Further reading

  • Stewart Holbrook, The Far Corner. Comstock Editions ISBN 0-89174-043-0 (1952).
  • E. Kimbark MacColl, The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1885 to 1915. Portland: Georgian Press, 1976.
  • E. Kimbark MacColl, The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1915 to 1950. Portland: Georgian Press, 1979. ISBN 0960340815

External links

Portland wiki sites

Cities in Oregon | County seats in Oregon | New Urbanism | Portland, Oregon

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Portland, Oregon".

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