With all the accolades that have been bestowed upon Portland over the years, it’s hard to know exactly what the city’s strongest suit is. “Cleanest City in the U.S.A”, “Most Bike-friendly City In The Country”, “Best Balanced City and Suburbs”, and even “Best City In The Country To Have A Baby In”, all of these praises have been given to the “City of Roses” at one time or another. The fact of the matter is that they are all true, and yet they only paint a small picture of everything that this amazing city has to offer.

Portland is clearly a city that lives for the great outdoors. Don’t get us wrong: there are certainly plenty of modern amenities such as those that you can find in any major big city. But the abundant natural beauty of the surroundings along with the care and thought that went into designing the city’s streets make Portland a place where you will simply want to spend as much of your time outdoors as possible.


 

Residential Places in Portland

There are numerous areas in Portland that are ideally suited to residential living, from the downtown neighborhoods such as Goose Hollow, the Northwest District and Pearl District, to the suburban communities of Beaverton, Orenco Station, Lake Oswego and Tualatin.

In Portland, the “downtown area” refers to neighborhoods that are no more than a 15 to 20 minute walk away from the center of the city. Aside from the downtown neighborhoods that we mentioned earlier, this would include Old Town or Chinatown.

Housing options in most of the neighborhoods in the downtown area are comprised of condos and row houses, with the exception of the Northwest District and Goose Hollow, wherein you can find plenty of single detached houses.
In the “highlands” area of the city, most of the houses are built into the hills with a few of them being constructed on stilts. Property prices in this area are generally higher than anywhere else in the city and a common housing design is the daylight basement, with rooms placed at either street level or lower.  

Most of the newer housing developments in Portland are located in the suburbs, although some houses have recently been built in the highland neighborhoods. Newer multiple-unit properties are also being built closer to the downtown Portland area, ranging from row houses to condos and lofts.
 

Hospitals and Universities of Portland

In addition to the public hospitals in Portland such as Oregon State Hospital and Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, there are also a number of health care facilities that operate under the Legacy and Providence Health Systems, among them Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, Emanuel Children's Hospital, Portland Medical Center and St. Vincent Medical Center.

Portland is home to some of the most respective colleges and universities in the country, including the Oregon Health Science University, which was ranked number 4 out of 128 medical schools. Two other colleges in the city, Reed College and Lewis & Clark College, also rank consistently as among the best colleges in the country for their excellence in liberal arts and law respectively.

Some of the other notable universities and colleges in the city are the private institutions Cascade College, Concordia University, Marylhurst University and University of Portland, and the public institutions Oregon Institute of Technology and Portland State University.

Commercial Places in Portland

Portland has seemingly trailed behind other West Coast cities such as San Francisco and Seattle in the culinary arts but over the past 5 years or so, the city has managed to catch up in a big way. To be fair, much of this perception is due to the mainstream media, which has always focused more attention on the aforementioned cities. The truth of the matter however, is that Portland has always enjoyed a small but loyal following of food aficionados who are fully aware of the city’s wealth of restaurants, fresh local produce and talented chefs.
Dining options in Portland range from the familiar fine dining restaurants to small cafes and everything in between. Of particular note are the city’s many “brewpubs” and Bento or Japanese box lunches.

Some of the places worth mentioning in the city are Jake's Famous Crawfish, Higgins Restaurant & Bar, Pazzo Ristorante and Mother's Bistro.

Service Establishments of Portland

Almost all of the electricity supply needs of Portland are provided by Portland General Electric. The company offers a number of electricity related solutions for both homes and businesses, information on which you find on the company’s Web site at www.portlandgeneral.com. For bills payment, you can either go to one of the PGE Express Pay stations that are located in grocery and convenient stores and pharmacies throughout the city, or you can go to their customer service centers in downtown Portland, Gresham, Hillsboro, Eastport Plaza and a few other locations. You can also reach a customer service representative of the company at 503-228-6322 and 800-542-8818 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Mondays to Fridays, or you can call the 24 hour emergency line at 503-464-7777 or 800-544-1795.

The Portland Water Bureau is in charge of providing water supply services to most of the city. The company currently provides high quality drinking water to more than 860,000 residents, most of which comes from the Bull Run Watershed, which is 26 miles away to the east in Mt. Hood National Forest. The company also draws additional water from groundwater sources. You can reach the company through their Web site at www.portlandonline.com, where you can get more information on their various services as well as their contact information. You can also call them at 503-823-4874 for emergency services and at 503-823-7770 for customer service assistance.

Embassies in Portland

There is a British Honorary Consulate office in Portland in case you need consular assistance while you are in the city. You can reach them by telephone at (503) 227 5669, or you can fax them at (503) 675 5344. You can also email them at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Alternately, you can also contact the British Embassy in Washington D.C. at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008.