Sellwood

This is a great little neighborhood in the far south of south east. It is located by the river and has some nice shopping areas, especially if you are into antiques. Over the years this has become the area of town for antique store shopping and there are a ton of antique stores with all kinds of antiques to choose from.
When you need a break from Antiquing there are other shops and some really good restaurants to choose from. There are also some great parks in the area, as well as housing areas that are usually will maintained with nice yards. The houses feature lots of bungalows and craftsmans. Its a great area to come and explore!

This is my neighborhood! Sellwood has all the antique stores you could ever need, but also great restaurants, food carts, and other experiences. We have parks, we have views of downtown, we have unique stores specializing in socks, homesteader supplies, and a Columbia outlet too. Of course, very few people can afford to buy into the neighborhood at this point… But then, neither can I!

I moved to Sellwood in 1995 when it still had vestiges of it shady past. Who remembers those terrible blue apartments on 13^th? Thank goodness those are gone. Now we have roving gangs of upper-​middle class «new mommies» with designer strollers and the inevitable double skinny soy latte, buying up the poorly made mega-​houses. Funny thing is that no one seems to work. The question I have is paraphrased from the band Cake: «How do you afford your Sellwood — lifestyle?» Still, it’s decent, but way overpriced neighborhood.

Neat part of Portlandia with some hidden historical gems. A big park with a public pool and if your looking for Antiques… Boy Howdy. You found the land of plenty. Antique Row on S.E. 13 ave. between Tenino and Lexington has many Antique Stores to shop and really great restaurants and bars to help keep you looking for that hard to find item you can’t live without.

Needing to waste time I decided to go by. The actual road with all the antique shops, restaurants and old town views makes it worth the trip. The antique stores were decently priced and some will let you barter with them, within reason. It’s nice to be able to take walk down the street, grab a sandwich from the bakery or some tea. A nice quite community, every place I went was very friendly, then again most of Portland is like that. I spend more than 300 days a year traveling and visiting places like Sellwood is what I truly enjoy!

Lived here for almost 8 years and wouldn’t leave for anyplace else!

You wouldn’t like it. This is our own little paradise — don’t come here!!! LOL. The only bad thing about SW is there are no direct buses to Hawthorne or Powells from what I can tell. But who needs a bus when we have the green belt!!!

11 Years Ago: Oregon tops my list of places in the US that I’d like to visit. Got cultured (CULTURally EDucated) by a Physics student from Portland while studying Billiards, Non-​Profits, and Rock Concerts at Cornell. Spent four years learning about food, music, outdoor activities, film, and Oregon. Promised myself that one day I’d visit (It was second on my list after Prague).
9 Years Ago: Involuntarily left Cornell (was supposed to have been studying Engineering) and returned to Hawaii. Visited Seattle, fell in love with the Northwest… trees, mountains, and rivers everywhere!
5 Year Ago: Got married to my beautiful better half who loves to travel (and has), but had never lived off our island.
4 Years Ago: Debated moving or traveling… chose the later (finally made it to Europe… and put to rest my weird fixation with Prague)
9 Months Ago: Found out my brother (who lives in Portland) was marrying a Salem girl. Booked tickets to visit ORegon for the reception. Again began discussing leaving our comfortable island lives and maybe moving.
5 Months Ago: Decided we needed to stop talking about and stop looking at
till we actually visited.
3 Months Ago: Finally made it to PDX. When we left HNL we were 80% staying 20% moving (liked our jobs, most of our friends and family lived there, and it’s Hawaii). After a little over a week here we were sold on moving to one of the few places in the world where the grass really is greener. Loved the progressive ideas, the food, the culture, the Saturday Market, the charming hoods, and the eclectic people. Decided to wait a week to make our final decision.
A week less then 3 Months Ago: Rolled the dice and gave ourselves a two month time frame to move.
Two Weeks Ago: Had just finished leaving our jobs, selling our material possessions, and shipping what was left. Went on a Unilocal hiatus (13 days is a long time for a Unilocaler).
A Week and a half Ago: Bid Aloha to the Aloha state and Arrrived in Seattle with Madison (our canine dogther).
Just over a week Ago: Picked up tRAVis Blueberry (our RAV4) and drove down here.
The last few days: Visited neighborhoods, went to concerts, and spent more money then two jobless people should stocking up at New Seasons, Trader Joes, Target, Costco, Uwajimaya, Ross, and IKEA.
Right Now: Writing my first Portland Unilocal which has turned into a circuitous, verbose, meandering, somewhat introspective piece that hasn’t even gotten to the point yet.
Two Weeks from Now: Hopefully working for a non-​profit somewhere or at least getting paid to do something fun.
Three Months from Now: Hopefully living somewhere in Sellwood, Hawthorne, Alberta, Belmont, or Mississippi (NW23rd is nice too, but too expensive). We spent an afternoon walking up and down SE 13^th ave. in Sellwood and were blown away by all the affable dog-​friendly outrageously cool shops, restaurants, parks, and people. This place rocks.
Anyway, who really knows what’ll happen next? 3 months ago Portland was just a pipe dream. Now… we’re here (and loving it… and not just cause we’re unemployed with time to goof around).

When my grandma was alive, she used to joke that Sellwood was just all an antique row.
Well, 15 years later, that’s actually what it’s called.
Fancy that!

It ain’t up to no good!
Note the review #. Appropriate milestone in the hood of all hoods.
S:pringwater Corridor — City to country in a 40 mile loop.
E:ats — Ginos, Picazzos, A Cena, Mekong, Grand Central, Eleni’s.
L:eave the car — Walk 13^th and Milwaukie and your day is set.
L:aid Back — Free of trends and flash, just Portland people.
W:ine — Ginos wine list is to die for, even Ugly Mug has a selection.
O:aks Park — Old fashioned river front carnival goodness.
O:ld Stuff — Antiques galore, 2 days worth of antiquing minimum.
D:og Love — Sellwood Riverfront Park for dogs, dogs in stores, everywhere.
I love this neighborhood. It’s got history, scenery, proximity. Simply perfect.