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Get to Know North Portland

North Portland, also known as the city’s fifth quadrant, has undergone significant changes in the past two decades, as newer residents have joined longtime North Portland boosters in singing the praises of this lovely and diverse district. A few of North Portland’s better-known neighborhoods include Kenton, St. John’s, and University Park, as well as the main commercial strips of North Mississippi Avenue and North Williams Avenue. Some of North Portland’s neighborhoods originally began as their own towns, before being absorbed into Portland proper, and the district still feels a little separate from Central City. Notable visual landmarks in the neighborhood include the enormous statue of Paul Bunyan in Kenton, a relic from the Oregon Centennial Exposition of 1959; the gothic-style towers of St. John’s Bridge and Cathedral Park underneath; and the pretty campus of University of Portland. North Portland is also the city’s connection to Sauvie Island, every Portlander’s favorite day trip.

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Living in Portland, OR

Portland is a city that’s almost close to perfect, an astonishingly beautiful and lush destination that has an incredibly well-defined sense of self. Portland residents are a welcoming bunch and pride themselves on their community spirit, with each neighborhood serving as its own little local village. Sure, Portland’s fondness for analog culture in a digital world might be frequently satirized, but the vintage clothing–clad, kombucha- and craft-beer-drinking denizens of the Rose City are sitting pretty, knowing that they’ve been ahead of the curve in cool for decades. And though Portland has many (many!) record stores, bookstores, and farmers markets (all with the benefit of no sales tax on any purchase), the area does boast its own well-known tech corridor, the Silicon Forest. Portland also has a strong advertising agency scene, where creatives compete for Nike and Adidas accounts, as both rival shoe companies are headquartered in the region.