One time in 1993, I was at the Porthole Tavern (now called the Railside), drinking with my fake ID and playing pool with friends. Has Portland changed a lot since the 70s? HELL YES! China Town was still downtown and MOST of the people you met were native Oregonians. No one would have ever imagined Clinton Street, the "Mississippi district" and most of North East would be anything but low income burn-out housing. Satyricon, EJs, Belmount's and a bunch of other clubs had bands like The Wipers playing at them regularly. The Galleria was still a big retail destination, Pioneer Courthouse Square was just a flat parking lot, Meyer and Frank was still an independent department store, the downtown Woolworths and Fred Meyer were great places to get your pocket picked and only little kids rode bikes. "The Pearl" didn't exist and the only two viable retail businesses in that whole area were Powell's and Django's (an amazing record store long since demised.) The wedge where Sizzle Pie is across from Powell's was a string of failing clothing stores, one owned by members of the Buzzcocks. In the 70s and early 80s Hawthorn was a dump and so was Northwest. At any rate, I'd be very interested in hearing any more details from those who experienced the city at the time, particularly in regard to specific neighborhoods. The 80s in general were more dangerous - back then, there was a real danger of having your head stomped in at a metal show, whereas metal shows today are some of the safest places in the world.
It sounds like everything was inexpensive, gritty, and somewhat dicey. Portland was very recently an industrial city, as is evidenced by the warehouses everywhere (some of which have been converted into pubs), and it sounds like the atmosphere has been completely transformed. I've also heard that there used to be street prostitution in the Hollywood neighborhood on Sandy and even in NW. I've been told there were way more hippies, punk rockers, metalheads, goths and skinheads (subcultures that are significantly smaller today), and a lot of blue collar folks, junkies, and immigrants from southeast Asia (who now live much further out in the 100s). I've been told that inner SE and NW were a bit run down and industrial, and although they might have featured a handful of hippy organic businesses and cafes, it consisted of predominantly dive bars, diners, and Plaid Pantry's, and that shows were predominantly held in basements or abandoned warehouses. However, I've heard that in the 80s, there was no concentration of shops and bars on Hawthorne or the NW area. Most bars and nightlife options in the early 2000s were rather scattered and not concentrated along these stretches. There might have been about two blocks of this type of thing on Belmont and Clinton, but that was it - of course it has since popped up on 28th, Williams, Missisippi, Division, Stark in Montevilla, etc.
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When I moved here, Hawthorne and perhaps NW 21st/23rd were the only neighborhoods exhibiting the "urban village" phenomenon - you know, the 10-15 block strip full of bars, cafes, restaurants and shops, which people stroll along. The city has changed rather dramatically even since 2001.
I'm extremely curious to hear people's impressions of the general atmosphere of Portland from the 70s and 80s, as I had no extensive experience of it prior to the year 2001. However, I didn't grow up HERE - I moved to Oregon in the late 90s (Eugene specifically), and didn't move to Portland until around 2001. I was born in the late 70s and grew up in the 80s, and spent some time this week thinking about the ways in which life was different back then, specifically in relation to technology and how new developments have impacted the culture.