Portland Neighborhoods Guide

Portland Neighborhoods Guide: St. Johns

Pros:

  • Revitalized town center
  • Homes still affordable
  • Cathedral Park
  • The amazing St. Johns Bridge

Cons:

  • Still somewhat grungy - far from Portland's best neighborhood
  • A decent drive to the nearest freeway
  • Portland Downtown is 20 minutes away

St. Johns has been near the bottom of the Portland neighborhood food chain for a while. It still is - but the rising tide that "has lifted all boats" in Portland's neighborhoods has lifted St. Johns, too. The downtown core has received a lot of new investment, as cool independent businesses have thrived or started up. Long an area considered "sketchy" for crime, some streets are still a bit trashy. Others are improving. Homes have been shooting up in value as the other Portland neighborhoods become less and less affordable. St. Johns is one of the last "affordable" areas to buy a home for working-class folks, but as all prices keep going up, that window of opportunity may close, too.

Ask certain locals about St. Johns and one "fact" you might hear is that the area is its large population of Latinos. Usually they'll leave it to your preconceived stereotypes to figure out what that means (poverty? crime?). Portland is a pretty white city, though, so the minority concentration in St. Johns is a distinction. Crime has declined here as it has in the other North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods but it has not disappeared.

St. Johns is at the northwest end of the beautiful St. Johns Bridge. The main drag through St. Johns is N. Lombard St., which is a busy, sometimes trashy road between St. Johns and the I-5 freeway. The better way into Portland from St. Johns is over the bridge and east on Highway 30 - not a bad drive, although it's not all 55 mph.

Cathedral Park (a park and a neighborhood) adjacent to St. Johns hosts events such as the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival. The Willamette River here is quite industrial, but the city of Portland has recent designated this part of the river as a redevelopment area, meaning industrial areas will turn residential soon - and probably more improvement for the area. Honestly there isn't much room left in Portland for new development - this expansion isn't a big surprise, but it's probably a big boost for the area.

Interesting note: Portland has a number of "Theatre Pubs" where you can view movies while drinking beer/eating food. St. Johns happens to have two of these in its little downtown...

Bus service into the area is pretty good - but it's a ways to downtown Portland. Light rail up N. Interstate is several miles away. I-5 is also several miles away via Lombard.

Links:St. Johns Sentinel Newspaper



St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland

St. Johns, Portland
St. Johns, Portland


Pictures are all copyrighted by Andrew Hall and may not be used or copied without permission.


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