Best Toddler Friendly Neighborhood
Hi,
I'll be moving to Portland with my family, have 2 boys, ages 5 and 11 months, and am looking for a good neighborhood to move into. I know "good" is so subjective, but I was hoping to get advice or tips from moms who are especially happy with where they live - due to the good schools, community services (libraries, etc.), and public spaces that are really geared to and ideal for a family with young children.
We're pretty open to any area, as long as the commute (by car or public transport) is not too far from North Portland. If there are mamas out there who absolutely love where they live, I would love to hear why.
Thanks!
I'm in North, between Piedmont and Kenton. I love it! We can walk/bike to everything, library, stores, parks, post office. If we can't walk, we have bus and MAX right here. And the freeway access is a breeze. There are TONS of young families in the area.
Posted by: mom22 | June 03, 2009 at 11:51 AM
We are in North Portland, too, in Piedmont. We LOVE it. Unfortunately we are moving but when we get back to Portland, this is the area we will try to be moving to. I can't speak for the schools but everywhere in Portland, you hear good and bad. The community up here is fantastic so it is hard to believe that when our kids are in the schools with the kids from other families that we live happily around, it could not be too terrible...
Posted by: m | June 03, 2009 at 12:07 PM
That's the key, m, and one downside of this area. We've been looking at kindergarten this fall, and I found that 55% of my neighbors don't go to the neighborhood school. The schools are hit and miss over here. But, I am hopeful that will improve as more of these little ones over here hit school age and parents give it a shot.
Posted by: mom22 | June 03, 2009 at 05:06 PM
I recently moved from Irvington in NE Portland (tons of young kids, very safe, great school -- but expensive to live there and not a very diverse neighborhood) to Kenton in N. Portland. I love it so far. I can hop on the yellow max line or just walk to New Seasons, libraries, coffee shops, consignment stores, so on. I haven't looked into or heard much about the schools here but I plan to unschool ours so I wasn't too concerned with that. Plus, its got more culture and diversity that was lacking in the Irvington neighborhood, I felt.
Posted by: Vivian | June 03, 2009 at 11:43 PM
We are in Overlook (north of Going) and love it here, very convenient and we are happy at our local school.
Posted by: Sue | June 04, 2009 at 06:08 PM
We are in SE (Belmont/Laurelhurst/Kerns) area, and we LOVE it. Nice park, good schools, walk-able library, grocery store, cafes, Sunnyside Co-op. Very close to the airport/freeways and NE, too.
Posted by: anon | June 04, 2009 at 08:43 PM
I love my neighborhood, Sabin! My first email to friends and family after we bought our house is "I found my people!" Sabin is just north of Irvington. We can walk to a grocery(and bike to several others), library, coffee shops, restaurants, garden shop, yoga, 4 parks (bike to many more!), school and preschools. The families are fabulous. We have many young kids on our street. The moms on our block meet up once a month for a "Ladies Night Out." Many of my neighbors, as well as myself, are involved in the community association. It's a super friendly community. We've got diversity, too. Good luck on your search!
Posted by: Liberty Wilson | June 04, 2009 at 11:15 PM
We have recently relocated away from Portland, but lived for 3 years in Kenton and loved it. We initially ended up there because we found the right house in the right price range and worried we were compromising on neighborhood, but quickly realized we'd made the right choice on neighborhoods too. Within weeks we knew most of our neighbors and our kids had friends to play with down the street. I loved the location--we were blocks from "downtown" Kenton (which now has lots of great restaurants and coffee shop, and will be getting a new library soon) and the Kenton MAX station. Hopping onto 1-5 was a breeze, and we walked/biked for most of our daily errands. In terms of schools, our kids would have gone to Chief Joseph, which has become a sought after school in that part of town, so that made us feel great about the neighborhood school being a really viable option for us too. I miss it every day! Good luck in your search...
Posted by: Leah | June 11, 2009 at 12:17 PM