Living in Portland

Living in Portland:  Portland is a very unique city located in the Pacific Northwest.  We're about an hour from the ocean and an hour from the mountains offering your pick of a variety of outdoor activities from surfing, snow sports, climbing, hiking, biking and so forth.  It's not surprising that we are an outdoorsy sort...

We are sometimes referred to as the "Silicon Forest" due the number of high tech businesses that call PDX home (think Intel). We have a high number of independent, locally owned Portland businesses, too-- many of which are national names (hello, Nike!).  We have wonderful Portland neighborhoods some of which consist of nearly 100% locally owned businesses. Our locals support their indie Portland shops and we wear it like a badge of honor.

Living in Portland is different. And we like it that way. In a place where bumper stickers scream, "Keep Portland Weird!" you should expect to see folks who wear birks to fancy restaurants, sport gardens instead of lawns, eschew cars for bicycles, recycle everything under the sun and refuse to carry umbrellas despite the near constant drizzle.  We are fierce beer drinkers, wine lovers and coffee snobs and well, we should be. We are an hour away from an award winning wine country, are famous for the highest concentration of brewpubs in the world and rock specialty coffee in such a way that even the New York Times stands up and takes notice. 

We have nearly 100 awesome urban neighborhoods, many of which are self-sustaining and each is distinct in its charm and character.  We are home to the nations largest urban park (Forest Park) as well as the largest open air market in the United States, The Saturday Market. 

Living in Portland- Learn More

You've come to the right place to learn more about this fascinating city and the people who live here: 

Moving to Portland  Moving to Portland?  Here's the skinny...

Visiting Portland  Visiting Portland?  This is your guide...

Portland Neighborhoods  Learn about our urban Portland neighborhoods here.  Each has its own neighborhood profile, complete with pictures, neighborhood businesses and an overview of what makes that neighborhood different from the rest.

Portland Community  Meet folks, network, find Portland events, videos, photos and blogs.

Portland Directory  News media, city guides, transportation guides and more.