Aileen Jeffries

I live in a neighborhood of Portland called Hillsdale, often confused with Hillsboro, the suburban hinterland. No, no Hillsdale,  I correct, slightly too quickly and insistently. Not that living here is anything to be especially boastful about. Hillsdale is hardly trendy like Nob Hill, or swank like the Pearl, or saturated with hipsters like Mississippi Ave. Hillsdale is quiet and dependable, populated with good Oregonians who like to garden, drink beer, buy organic, vote Democratic and take advantage of Portland’s famed public transportation system. As I begin my long, slow slide into middle age and motherhood, I find my neighborhood’s charms are growing on me.

Our immediate neighbors are all incredibly, almost suspiciously, nice. Not one of them has been anything but cheerful throughout our unsightly and disruptive Endless Remodel, required police intervention in a domestic dispute, or stolen my identity for the purposes of supporting a meth habit.  We live within a block of a fire station, a library and a nice little park with a playground. The best bakery in Portland, Baker and Spice, is an easy walk from my front door. As is a passably good Mexican restaurant, decent Thai, and a liquor store that is never open when I need liquor. We have the requisite McMenamins, if you like the element of surprise in your dining experience. Delicious Captain Neon burger with no onions and a Ruby, served quickly with a smile? Or will I be waiting 30 minutes to get my drink order in before finally giving up and walking out? Who knows! It’s McMenamins! Wilson High School and the Sunday farmer’s market are just a couple of blocks away too. This may all sound quite quaint and village-y, but I assure you, it isn’t. Hillsdale’s center is a sad little strip mall facing a busy highway, crisscrossed with overhead power lines.

This is about to change, slowly but for the better. The planners are wisely shifting the focus away from Hwy 10 (a dreary but necessary artery through SW Portland) and toward underutilized blocks to the north. The focus of Phase 1 is the intersection of DeWitt St and Sunset Blvd, just a block from our house. The park will be extended all the way to Sunset, and DeWitt will be extended on the other side of Sunset. This, apparently, is actually going to happen. If later phases come to fruition, we’ll get a mixed retail/residential/public space town center in what is currently a parking lot.

I’m tentatively thrilled. What foresight we had to buy our house two years ago (like we had any clue)!