Where are the iffy and/or undesirable neighborhoods in Portland, OR?

Question

I'm visiting Portland for the first time. Any neighborhoods I should stay away from and why?

Answer 1

MLK, Hollywood district, Killingsworth. Its your average metropolitan area. Use common sense; don't travel alone at night, carry a cell phone and pepper/mace just for added protection.

Answer 2

I've had several people from ot of town tell me that there aren't really undesirable neighborhoods here like there are in other big cities, so I wouldn't worry about being unsafe anywhere.

To answer your question, though, North Portland in general is seen as kind of shady. They're cleaning it up, but I still wouldn't want to be on Lombard or Portland Blvd. after dark. Downtown is kind of tricky because the scene changes from questionable to trendy about every other block. I don't love being downtown south of Burnside at night, though. That's where there are more dive bars and a rougher crowd. That's probably just me. North of Burnside is pretty trendy, though. There are millions of restaurants, shops, and hotels, so there are always a lot of people around.

Answer 3

If you're used to big cities Portland is no big deal. Downtown is super chill, Old Town, China Town, Pearl Dist, Hawthorne/Belmont Dist, Hollywood Dist, Alberta St. are all pretty chill. The only area to really stay away from is North Portland. There's not much to do there anyway so no worries.

Answer 4

I've lived her all my life and here is the rub. Northeast has always been seedy in parts and trendy in others. MLK, Sandy, Portland, Vancouver and Killingsworth (not just a clever name) streets are mostly trouble. Gresham has recently become a drug trafficking central. Milwaukie (Methwaukie as we call it) is being overrun by meth heads West of 205 and North of 224. The rest is OK. I live in Southwest which is nice. Lake Oswego (or as the locals affectionately call it Lake NoNegro)...no comment.
David Douglas area used to be nice, but now it is just trash. It's really sad to think that all these places used to be really beautiful and pleasant, now the freaking meth heads have taken over our city.

Answer 5

i was just there helping my aunt move to tigerd and there didn't seem to be any really bad parts like i expected parts of downtown weren't that great ya know like a guy standing around drinking on corners and a guy washing cars for 25 cents but it didn't look to violent. some one told me the Lloyd center mall was really bad but i went there twice and it was fine some questionable people but that's about it.

Answer 6

This is waaaay cool: a portland crime map online. You can zoom and pan and check for different crimes. I just found out there was a sexual assoult next door to me. Sweet!

http://www.gis.ci.portland.or.us/maps/police/

Answer 7

we may not be a big city with all the pitfalls - but you should always be careful and use common sense