The “great renumbering” on September 2, 1931 divided Portland into five sections: Southwest, Southeast, Northwest, North and Northeast.Burnside Street divides the north and south sections, and the Willamette River divides the eastern and western sections. The river curves west five blocks North of Burnside and in place of it, Williams Avenue is used as a divider. The North section lies between Williams Ave. and theWillamette.

Every address is preceded by one of these five sections, so play close attention to them. Because many of the street names appear on both sides of the river, you could potentially find the address you think you’re looking for and be on the wrong side of the river. That is, if you’re looking for the corner of 15th and Irving—it’s important to note whether it’s NE 15th/Irving or NW 15th/Irving. Both exist.

Portland also has an unnamed sixth \”quadrant\” between Naito Parkway (formerly Front Avenue) and the Willamette River, which has an east bend south of downtown. Instead of having its own name, negative numbers denoted by a leading zero are used (For example, “0110 SW Porter St.” is an office building one block east of Naito Pky.)

Northwest

Northwest is the area extending north from W Burnside St. to the city limits, and west from the Willamette River to the Washington County line. It includes the Pearl District, Old Town Chinatown, the Northwest District, and various residential neighborhoods.

Streets in Northwest Portland are in alphabetical order, from Burnside north to Yeon. Several characters from “The Simpsons” television show are named from its streets, as creator Matt Groening grew up in the nearby Portland Heights neighborhood.

The Pearl District is a fairly recent name for a former warehouse and industrial area straddling NW Lovejoy between NW Broadway and the I-405 freeway. An elevated off-ramp ran along NW Lovejoy St. from the Lovejoy Bridge past NW 10th Ave. and was demolished in the late 1980s, allowing dozens of blocks  to open for development.

Since then, and peaking in the 2000s, many of the existing warehouses, some on brownfield sites, have been converted into lofts, and new multistory condominiums have also been developed on previously vacant land next to the train yard. The increasing density has attracted a mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries, though in some cases pioneering tenants have been priced out of the area.

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 and Burnside and home to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. Before World War II, this area was known asJapan Town or Little Tokyo; Chinatown was previously located just south of W. Burnside 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, (particularly around W Burnside and 23rd Avenue) and Nob Hill (centered on NW 23rd and Lovejoy). The residential areas adjacent to the shopping district include the Alphabet District (an official historical district, with large, often Craftsman homes built around 1905) and a large district centered around Wallace Park (at NW 26th and Quimby). 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 this area to downtown.

Other neighborhoods in NW Portland include Hillside, Willamette Heights, Skyline, Forest Park, Linnton, and Northwest Industrial.  West of the developed areas is the northern portion of Portland\’s West Hills, including the majority of massive Forest Park.

Southwest

Southwest contains the heart of the Portland\’s Downtown, as well as the campuses of Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Lewis & Clark College.  Neighborhoods like Lair Hill, Burlingame, John’s Landing, Macadam, Hillsdale, Burnside Triangle and Multnomah Village, have unique residential houses and well defined commercial and retail districts.

The most developed portion of the West Hills, 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 West Hills underwent rapid expansion during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Willamette riverfront along Macadam Avenue includes over 100 acres of former industrial land. This area is undergoing redevelopment as a mixed-use, high-density neighborhood, with an anticipated 2700 residential units and 5,000 high-tech jobs after build-out .

The neighborhoods wholly or partially in Southwest Portland are Arlington Heights, Arnold Creek, Ashcreek, Bridlemile, Collins View, Crestwood, Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill, Downtown, Far Southwest, Goose Hollow, Hayhurst, Healy Heights, Hillsdale, Homestead, Maplewood, Marshall Park, Multnomah, Old Town-Chinatown, South Burlingame, Southwest Hills, Sylvan-Highlands, and West Portland Park.

Northeast

Northeast 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.

Southeast

Southeast 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.

Farther south, the Brooklyn, Sellwood-Moreland, Woodstock, Brentwood-Darlington, and Eastmoreland neighborhoods near Reed College are close to the Willamette River. The Clackamas Town Center and Mall 205 are the largest retail centers serving the area.

North Portland

North Portland includes the neighborhoods of St. Johns, Cathedral Park, University Park (and the University of Portland), Overlook, Portsmouth, Kenton, Boise, Eliot, Arbor Lodge, Bridgeton, Hayden Island, Humboldt, and Piedmont.

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.