Pearl District

The Pearl District is an elegant part of Portland. It is near the water, with plenty to eat, do and see. So many facets and angles are to here. The streetcar runs through. Some parts do lack the development and the elegance of say the Alphabet District.
I do spend time here every so often. Parts of it could have a bit more soul such as some of the other neighborhoods. Much of the attractions and food are here. I sure want to live on a street such as Northrup which sounds fancy.
Do wander around.

This is one of those areas that no one wanted to go to, kind of run down. Then the city got together with a bunch of developers. Changed the name…
Now there are bunches of very expensive condos. There are a bunch of expensive boutiques. Finally there are a bunch of expensive and mostly disappointing restaurants.
Things have a lot of potential. World foods came in and seems to do well. I like the one on Barber better. That isn’t the neighborhoods fault.
In all its a good place to explore. But if I have a lot of time to spend, there are lots of better areas.

I live here. I like living here.

Nothing but a bunch of overpriced apartments and stupid yuppies from California. The area should have stayed warehouses, because it’s a better use of land.
There are some worthwhile stores and restaurants. But more often than not, the people who frequent such places are bring suburban clones.
Also, PF Chang’s is very overrated.

I wasn’t impress with this place. It was dirty and smelly! Pioneer Courthouse Square is way better!

I was hoping to see some «local flavor» by walking around this neighborhood, but what reality was is the area is full of international chain stores that can be found anywhere. The best part of this area was seeing Powell’s book store! It is a fantastic store that you could spend many hours in to find great books of any kind!

Long live Pearl

I have to say I am enjoying living in the Pearl District even more than I thought that I would. There is so much available on every block. There are great restaurants, bakeries, cafes, shops, bars, salons, etc. It’s very easy to walk to everything plus the street car runs through. I can’t say that it’s especially cheap, but I feel very at home here.

Such a hip little place in Downtown. Great place to walk around, shop and eat. The vibe here is so cool, there are also lots of food trucks and carts to try out. Architecture and all these buildings were nice to see, quite beautiful. Diversity, all about diversity! However, I did see a bunch of homeless peeps; and most of them were helpful since we’re pretty much tourist in Portland hahaha. Overall, a lot of places to see and check out – I would suggest just walk it instead of driving around because it can be a hassle especially for parking.

If you are willing to make the trek up and down the crowded streets, it will be well worth your time! There’s of course the normal amount of vagrant people throughout each block, but there is definitely a sense of generosity and safety. The food carts are an experience all on their own, giving you a good snapshot of the cultures in Portland. There are a variety of delicious pubs, wineries, and restaurants to choose from, as well as cute little shops showcasing local artisans. If you are looking for more mainstream shopping, there’s also a large mall to peruse. One of the town favorites is definitely Powell Books, which covers an entire block of the district. Parking is pretty inexpensive for the day, and it is in close proximity to a lot of different hot spots.

There are few American cities that are walkable, artsy! hip! trendy! Multitude of fab great restaurants with talented chefs, cool bars,
One of America’s most interesting neighborhoods. This is it

Fun little part of Portland to explore– reminiscent of San Francisco, especially with the tons of food options around every corner. Parking, as in SF, is a pain in the butt, too.
Artsy area with plenty of people-​watching to be had, better explored on foot at a leisurely pace than having to be tethered to a vehicle or with an eye on the time for your meter.
Swing by at night to get a glimpse at more of the art via the lighting fixture displays.

This area genuinely reminded me of being in downtown San Francisco. Other than some of the industrial facades on some of the buildings, you could’ve fooled me as to where I was. Still, a pretty neat little area to explore on foot. It’s apparently considered to be the «up and coming» area of Portland, which you can tell by the apartments and retail locations that are sprouting up. A tad touristy, but still an area worth checking out if you’ve never been to Portland before. There are some cool shops and dining options here that you won’t necessarily see elsewhere.

For my fellow tourists, who have also heard about this famed Pearl district:
1) It’s worth walking through, but…
2) there’s really not that many stores to shop in.
3) There are more restaurants/​cafes/​bakeries than there are stores, and
4) there’s not really that many of those either
It’s an interesting mix of industrial (a couple of body shops mixed in) and residential (fancy schmancy highrises), gritty (wafts of urine) and urban (scattered homeless folks). Add in there the touristy (Voodoo, Powell’s), the preppy (yoga ‘n’ whole foods crowd), and the tattoo and tobacco crowd.
That, my fellow tourists, is an outsider’s introduction to the Pearl district.

What a cool place. I wish there were more interestingshops and grocery stores but you can’t beat sitting down for a cup of coffee and watching the world go by on the corner of 10^th and Lovejoy.
Public transportation for seniors and disabled? Public transportation to downtown, hospitals, museums? Public transportation to shopping and the airport? Maybe I don’t get it but what’s not to like?
It’s great to see so many people out and enjoying public spaces year round. It really reminds me of some of the great cities in Europe, where you see older residents playing chess in the parks while skateboarders whiz past. This is the first city I’ve visited in Oregon where there are places for people to sit and chill. And the residents use those places – just check out the river walk and the parks. It’s exciting to be down here and easy to get back to work downtown. I just met a 90 something year-​old man who told me how he loved living in this part of town. His neighbors are kind and helpful. He uses a motorized wheelchair to get around and can access public transportation to grocery stores or to doctor visits.
I read some negative things about gentrification in Portland and was surprised to learn there has been more displacement of longtime minority and poor residents east of the river than in the Pearl District. (see
and
and
).
I Unilocal therefore I am, so I would never tell another Unilocaler s/​he is wrong for having negative personal experiences with a place, but since I have an interest in public policy and issues of access and equity, I look forward to seeing how the experiment of the Pearl (building public and private housing together – on the same blocks – and giving lower income individuals access to the same schools and services as higher income residents) will affect the next generation.

Keeping It Weird! Interesting area any given time of day. (It’s free entertainment.) Lot’s to do, see and eat.

The Pearl District
AKA «where the snobby Portlanders reside»
AKA «where you have fancy shmancy restos you can’t afford»
AKA «where you have cute boutiques and modern apartments»
A place you’d find me (and a bunch of others) mesmerizing about living around one day, but since it’s just a dream — I’m just a frequent visitor…
So what is it about the Pearl District that everyone falls in love with? Let me count the ways~ (not ranked in any particular order…)
Restaurants/​Bars
1. Andina
2. Irving Street Kitchen
3. Oba
4. Henry’s 12^th Street Tavern
5. Jinx
6. Bluehour
7. BridgePort Brewpub
8. Brix Tavern
9. Piazza Italia
10. Metrovino
11. Paragon Restaurant & Bar
12. Trader Vic’s
13. Ben & Jerry’s
14. Cool Moon Ice Cream
15. Rifle NW
16. Little Big Burger
17. Oven & Shaker
18. Cupcake Jones
Shopping/​Grocery
1. Powell’s City of Books
2. REI
3. The North Face
4. Anthropologie
5. West Elm
6. Whole Foods
7. Pearl Bakery
8. Lovejoy Bakers
9. Keen Garage
10. Aveda Institute
11. Safeway
12. Sur La Table
I’m a frequent visitor to the Pearl District. When I first moved here, I fell in love with the atmosphere — the trees have lights on them, places are pretty clean and people are pretty friendly (yet others tend to think they’re snobby). There are several homeless people who venture towards this side of town, but they’re just harmless.
Parking is on the streets (some are metered for 90 minutes — 3 hours) or in an underground garage. For the metered street parking, it’s free after 7pm but varies for the weekend. Sometimes parking can be a bit of a challenge.
If you’ve got visitors who love to spend their money and would like to see a nicer (and richer) side of Portland, this is a place to go!

The debate here is heated. Who ever thought opinions would get this strong about a strip of land no bigger than a large New York City park?
A lot of people hate this place, usually people who are not fond of cities in general. If you live in the middle of nowhere, and you have to come all the way to the Pearl or downtown to do something, well some of you might get all belligerent and piss and moan all over the internet about it. Most people might find it mildly irritating but appreciate that any city has a city center full of all city center stereotypes, but you will froth at the mouth about yuppies and their yogamats, as if yuppies and yogamats don’t ever exist in Beaverton, or the Hawthorne neighborhood, or any where else.
«EGADS! THE PARKING» you’ll say, «AND FURTHER MORE THE PRICE OF LIVING HERE! I AM ANGERED SIR, I SAY. GOOD DAY.»
In my opinion, your criticisms are astute. Accurate. The rent is overpriced, the yuppies are visibly going to their yoga classes, and parking is in fact difficult.
And despite this, having lived in large cities most of my life, I understand that’s the price you pay to live in a proper city. Portland is a medium-​sized city and therefore the closest approximation you’ll find to a Real City™ is downtown and possibly the Pearl. This will enrage people. This will displace people. This will attract certain people, some of them arguably «the wrong kind of people» (although that’s subjective, I’m more frightened of suburban soccer moms with their six ugly kids in tow than any yuppie overpaying rent and going to their stupid yoga class with a lunch bag full of some Whole Foods bullshit).
The beautiful thing about living downtown or the pearl is that you are living in the city center. There’s plenty of amazing restaurants and shops within walking distance. The waterfront is nearby. Old Town is a few feet away. Powells. Andina. Tasty n Alder. Racion. Blue Star Donuts. Pearl Bakery. The range — the government housing (yes, that’s in the pearl too, you snotty suburbanites who have no idea who lives down here), to the condos (and yes, those are more expensive than your ugly house in SE, or even your big prefab house in Bethany). No need to get heated. Some people just don’t want to live in the suburbs, and unless you for some reason need a large amount of space due to how much you demand to reproduce or how many animals you own, it’s not really required.
I say, the fine and strange people who live in the Pearl and the fabulous community they’ve built ain’t half bad. I forgive them their faults, because they offer me excellent food, books, and other goods I could not get elsewhere and would not want to.

Pros: Clean, tons of places, very walkable, cool vibe
Cons: Expensive to live here
People either love the Pearl District or hate it. Some like that it’s a nice, urban, gentrified enclave of galleries, condos, bars, cafes, shops and restaurants. Others hate that it’s, well, a nice, urban gentrified enclave of galleries, condos, bars, cafes, shops and restaurants. I fall into the former category. I think this is a very cool area and enjoy spending time here. Whether it’s going to one of the bars, checking out Powell’s books, or hanging out at one of the parks, I feel good around here. Plus, everything is so walkable and anything too far away can be accessed by the street car. Maybe this isn’t gritty or authentic enough for some, but I think it’s a pretty cool place and kind of a nice break from some of the weirdness that is Portland.

Powell’s City of Books
Everett Street Autoworks
Andina
REI
Lovejoy Bakers
PEARL. I heart you.
You have everything I need for my brain, my car, my fancy dinners or happy hours, my fitness needs and my sweet indulgences.
I live right on the border of the Pearl, the Alphabet District, downtown and enjoy the best of all three. It is wonderful being able to walk to terrific restaurants, coffee shops, places like Powell Books, First Thursday, downtown or the boutiques up on 23^rd Avenue.
And to those that have the impression that only the uppity, yuppity live in this area, let me assure you it is not the case. It does not have to cost a fortune to live here. It is true that parking is a bitch. Once I am parked, I can walk to everything I need. It is a small price to pay for all the other amenities.
No neighborhood is perfect but mine comes close.