Portland Neighborhoods: Beaverton

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Pros:

- lots of retail
- downtown Beaverton near MAX, lots of public transportation, easy access to downtown Portland, Nike.

Cons:

- lots of suburban sprawl
- ugly traffic on the major roads
- Beaverton isn't known for its cultural attributes

Beaverton itself is a huge, sprawling area - very residential, suburban. There is a tiny downtown Beaverton, near Beaverton High School.

The MAX train runs through northern Beaverton, serving the Tektronix and Nike campuses. Downtown Beaverton is close to the Beaverton Transit Center, which is the end of the line for the MAX Red Line to the Portland Airport (Blue line continues west through Beaverton to Hillsboro). The Transit Center also serves numerous bus lines, so if you need to commute somewhere by bus or train, this is a pretty good location (both MAX Red and Blue go to downtown Portland so you get very frequent train service to/from Portland from here). In addition, in the fall of 2008, a new train service will open from Beaverton Transit Center to Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville (weekday rush-hours only).

You could get away without a car living in downtown Beaverton near the Beaverton TC but it's not exactly quaint. You could commute by MAX fairly quickly into downtown Portland, west to Nike or Tektronix or even to the Intel campuses in Hillsboro or take buses a dozen places form the TC. One of the MAX stops, Beaverton Central, is surrounded by The Round, a little complex of loft apartments and restaurants and even a 24 Hour Fitness gym; this is walking distance to the Beaverton TC as well (buses and more frequent MAX) and there is a lot of retail nearby. To the west there are a couple of big apartment complexes at the Beaverton Creek MAX stop but there is almost no retail within walking (retail shops one of the complexes always seem vacant) and you would be relying on the MAX blue line trains.

Downtown Beaverton suffers from horrible car traffic and not just at rush hour. Two busy roads, marked on a map as Oregon Highway 8 and Oregon Highway 10 (the original roads into Portland before freeways) run through Beaverton. No one calls them 8 and 10, however. Highway 8 changes names east to west from Canyon Road to Tualatin Valley Highway (aka "TV Highway") in downtown Beaverton, and Highway 10 changes names east to west from Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway to Farmington Road in Beaverton. (Don't call them 8 and 10 when conversing with locals, people will not know what you are talking about). In any case, both clog up with traffic. TV Highway especially is a mecca of suburban sprawl, with strip malls, car dealerships, chain stores, and seemingly endless stoplights, a not-very-fun drive to downtown Hillsboro even if it looks quick on a map.

The 217 Freeway (people do call it "217") connects the Sunset Highway (Highway 26) to the I-5 freeway, a west-side bypass of downtown Portland. 217 is a busy freeway too but usually it's the most convenient way to get south of Portland, to Tigard, Tualatin, or Wilsonville.

There is plenty of retail in downtown Beaverton. North of downtown Beaverton, Ceder Hills Blvd takes you to Cedar Hills Crossing, a complex of small box stores and restaurants, including a Century Theatres multiplex movie theater (a notch better than Regal Cinemas, the local movie chain that dominates the rest of the Portland area). Cedar Hills Crossing is an upgraded version of what was once called Beaverton Mall. There's now a Best Buy as well as a WinCo Foods budget grocery store. A highlight of the Cedar Hills Crossing area is a Beaverton branch of the popular Powell's Books. There's also a Border's Books a half mile away, so living near hear isn't so bad if you love books.

Links:

Beaverton Round

Portland Neighborhoods Guide: Beaverton