Portland is a city at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. With a population of 562,690 it is Oregon's most populous city, and the third most populous city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. Approximately two million people live in the surrounding metropolitan area (MSA), the 23rd most populous in the United States

Portland was incorporated in 1851 and is the seat of Multnomah County; it extends slightly into Washington and Clackamas Counties as well.

The city and region are noted for strong land-use planning and investment in public transit, supported by Metro, a distinctive regional-government scheme. Portland lies in the Marine West Coast climate region, which is marked by warm summers and rainy but temperate winters. This climate is ideal for growing roses, and for more than a century Portland has been known as "The City of Roses," and has many rose gardens – most prominently the International Rose Test Garden. Portland is also known for its large number of microbreweries, and as the home of the Trail Blazers NBA basketball team.

Portland straddles the Willamette River near its confluence with the Columbia River. The denser and earlier-developed west side is mostly hemmed in by the nearby West Hills (Tualatin Mountains), though it extends over them to the border with Washington County. The flatter east side fans out for about 180 blocks, until it meets the suburb of Gresham. Rural Multnomah County lies farther east.

In 1891 the cities of Portland, Albina, and East Portland were consolidated, and duplicate street names were given new names. The "great renumbering" on September 2, 1931 standardized street naming patterns, and changed house numbers from 20 per block to 100 per block. It divided Portland into five sections: Southwest, Southeast, Northwest, North, and Northeast. Burnside St. divides north and south, and the Willamette River divides east and west. The river curves west five blocks north of Burnside and in place of it, Williams Ave. is used as a divider. The North section lies between Williams Ave. and the Willamette River to the west.

The streets of Portland are for the most part laid out on a grid, with named "streets" running perpendicular to the Willamette River and numbered "avenues" running parallel to (and with numbers increasing with distance from) the river. The grid breaks down in hilly regions, particularly in the West Hills, where roads follow the contours of elevation. The "logic" of the grid also breaks down slightly in the North section: it's the only section on the east side where address numbers go higher towards the river. In the rest of the east side, the numbers go higher away from the river.

On the west side, the RiverPlace, John's Landing and South Waterfront Districts lie in a "sixth quadrant" where addresses go higher from west to east toward the river. This "sixth quadrant" is roughly bounded by Naito Parkway and Barbur Boulevard to the west, Montgomery Street to the north and Nevada Street to the south.

Southwest

View of downtown Portland from the south.

Downtown Portland lies in the Southwest section between the I-405 freeway loop and the Willamette River, centered around Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's living room"). Downtown and many other parts of inner Portland have compact square blocks (200 ft [60 m] on a side) and narrow streets (64 ft [20 m] wide), a pedestrian-friendly combination.

Many of Portland's recreational, cultural, educational, governmental, business, and retail resources are concentrated downtown, including:

• South Park Blocks, Pettygrove and Lovejoy Parks, and Tom McCall Waterfront Park
• Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland Art Museum, and Oregon Historical Society Museum
• Portland City Hall, the Portland Building, Pioneer Courthouse, and Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse
• Portland State University, with the largest student body of any in Oregon
• The Meier & Frank Building (Now Macy's, but not open yet as of 6-7-07), Pioneer Place mall, Wells Fargo Center, and the World Trade Center

Beyond downtown, the Southwest section also includes:

• The campuses of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Lewis & Clark College, and Portland Community College/Sylvania
• Neighborhoods like South Portland, South Burlingame, Hillsdale, and Multnomah, with unique residential houses and well defined commercial and retail districts
• Alpenrose Dairy in the Hayhurst neighborhood, the grounds of which host track cycling and Little League sports
• Washington Park, site of North America's deepest transit station, the Oregon Zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, the International Rose Test Garden, the Portland Japanese Garden, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and many hiking trails.
• The south Willamette riverfront along SW Macadam Ave., over 100 acres (0.4 km²) of former industrial land. This area is undergoing redevelopment as a mixed-use, high-density neighborhood, with an anticipated 2,700 residential units and 5,000 high-tech jobs after build-out.

Northwest

NW 21st Ave.

The Made in Oregon sign above Old Town.

Northwest Portland includes the Pearl District, most of Old Town Chinatown, the Northwest District, and various residential and industrial neighborhoods. A range of streets in Northwest Portland are named alphabetically, from Ankeny north to York. (Several characters in Portland native Matt Groening's TV show The Simpsons have names based on these: Ned Flanders, the bully Kearney, Reverend Lovejoy, Mayor Quimby, Sideshow Bob Terwilliger (actually in Southwest Portland), Milhouse Van Houten (actually in North Portland), and possibly C. Montgomery Burns[ide].)

The Pearl District is a recent name for a former warehouse and industrial area just north of downtown. Many of the warehouses have been converted into lofts, and new multistory condominiums have also been developed on previously vacant land. The increasing density has attracted a mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries. The galleries sponsor simultaneous artists' receptions on the first Thursday of every month.

Between the Pearl District and the Willamette is the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. It includes Portland's Chinatown, marked by a pair of lions at its entrance at NW 4th Ave. and W Burnside St. and home to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. Before World War II, this area was known as Japan Town or Little Tokyo; Chinatown was previously located just south of W. Burnside St. along the riverfront.

Further west is the compact but thriving NW 21st and 23rd Avenue restaurant and retail area, the core of the Northwest District. Parts of this area are also called Uptown and Nob Hill. The residential areas adjacent to the shopping district include the Alphabet Historic District (with large Victorian and Craftsman homes built in the years before and shortly after 1900) and a large district centered around Wallace Park. The neighborhood has a mix of Victorian-era houses, apartment buildings from throughout the 20th century, and various businesses centered around Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. The Portland Streetcar connects Nob Hill to downtown, via the Pearl.

West of the developed areas is the northern portion of Portland's West Hills, including the majority of extensive Forest Park.

North

St. Johns Bridge.

North Portland is a diverse mixture of residential, commercial, and industrial areas. It includes the Portland International Raceway, the University of Portland, and massive cargo facilities of the Port of Portland. Slang-names for it include "NoPo" (shortened from North Portland) and "the Fifth Quadrant" (for being the odd-man out from the four-cornered logic of SE, NE, SW, and NW).

North Portland is connected to the industrial area of Northwest Portland by the St. Johns Bridge, a 2,067 ft long suspension bridge completed in 1931 and extensively rehabilitated in 2003-5.

During World War II, a planned development named Vanport was constructed to the north of this section between the city limits and the Columbia River. It grew to be the second largest city in Oregon, but was wiped out by a disastrous flood in 1948. Columbia Villa, another wartime housing project in the Portsmouth Neighborhood, is being rebuilt; the new $150 million community will be known as New Columbia and will offer public housing, rental housing, and single family home ownership units. Since 2004, a light rail line runs along Interstate Avenue, which parallels I-5, stopping short of crossing the Columbia River.

Northeast

The Oregon Convention Center in NE Portland.

Northeast Portland contains a diverse collection of neighborhoods. For example, while Irvington and the Alameda Ridge boast some of the oldest and most expensive homes in Portland, nearby King is a more working-class neighborhood. Because it is so large, Northeast Portland can essentially be divided ethnically, culturally, and geographically into inner and outer sections. The inner Northeast neighborhoods that surround Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. were once predominantly African American, resembling typical urban inner-city environments found in most major U.S. cities. That is now changing due to the process of gentrification. Inner Northeast includes several shopping areas, such as the Lloyd District, Alberta Arts District and Hollywood, and part of the affluent Irvington, Alameda, and Laurelhurst neighborhoods and nearby developments. The city plan targets Lloyd District as another mixed-use area, with high-density residential development.

At the base of Northeast is the Rose Quarter. It is named after the Rose Garden Arena, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, and also includes the Blazers' former home, the Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum is the home to Portland's hockey team, the Portland Winter Hawks, of the Western Hockey League, though they often play at the Rose Garden. The newest Rose Quarter tenants are the LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League. The city still holds the lease to the land and owns the Coliseum, but the Rose Garden and other buildings were owned by private business interests until they went into receivership. The area is quite active during the teams' home games, and the city hopes to extend the activity by promoting a major increase in residential units in the quarter using zoning and tax incentives.

Southeast

The Bagdad Theater in the Hawthorne district.

Southeast Portland stretches from the warehouses by the Willamette, through the historic Ladd's Addition, to the Hawthorne and Belmont districts. Southeast Portland residents initially tended to the blue-collar but have since evolved into a wide mix of backgrounds; inner southeast is home to several thriving subcultures including Hippies, Hipsters, and environmentalists, while the outer edges are populated by a diverse, largely working-class population which includes immigrant communities from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The Hawthorne district is known for its hippie/radical crowd and small subculturally oriented shops. The area is also home to Reed College.

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Southeast was home to Lambert Gardens. Southeast Portland also features Mt. Tabor, a dormant volcano that has become one of Portland’s more scenic and popular parks.