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Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found. The downtown area is usually considered to extend west from the Willamette to Interstate 405, and south from Union Station to just south of the Portland State University campus (also bounded by I-405). (The northeastern portion of this area is also part of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.) High-density business and residential districts near downtown include the Lloyd District, across the river from the northern part of downtown, and the South Waterfront area, currently in development just south of downtown in the South Portland neighborhood. The city recognizes a formal neighborhood called Portland Downtown, bounded by Burnside St., I-405, and the river, except for a few blocks that are part of Old Town Chinatown. Portland's downtown features narrow streets— wide—and square, compact blocks on a side, to create more corner lots that were expected to be more valuable. The small blocks also made downtown Portland pleasant to walk through. The long combined blocks divide one mile (1.6 km) of road into exactly 20 separate blocks. By comparison, Seattle's blocks are , and Manhattan's east-west streets are divided into blocks that are from long. == Urban development == By the early 1970s, parts of Portland's central city had been in decay for some time. New suburban shopping malls in the neighboring cities of Beaverton, Tigard, and Gresham competed with downtown for people and money. Unlike many downtown revitalization efforts around the United States at this time, Portland's plan did not call for widespread demolition and reconstruction. However, the creation of a downtown transit mall in 1977, a new waterfront park in 1978 (later named after Governor Tom McCall) in place of a freeway, the creation of the Pioneer Courthouse Square in 1984, the opening of the Portland–Gresham light rail line in 1986, and the opening of Pioneer Place mall in 1990 successfully drew or retained businesses and lured customers. Downtown, which had been a virtual ghost town after regular business hours, became more of an all-hours shopping, dining, and business venue. During the two decades starting in 1990, downtown Portland dominated city development, with more development there than on the east side (Lloyd District, Central Eastside Industrial District, and Lower Albina). Downtown development has not been without criticism. Some charge that the transit mall and increased pedestrian traffic has attracted transient and homeless persons from across the city, and aggressive panhandling has increased, despite periodic police crackdowns. Others argue that a proposed expansion of the transit mall is an unneeded expense, and that parking and traffic problems in the downtown area are an indication of the failure of Portland's transit policies to address growth-related problems. Downtown also has numerous surface parking lots which contradict the city's efforts to promote higher density and create the storefronts needed for a vibrant downtown. Some changes are being made slowly, such as the creation of the Smart Park garage system, and conversion of a surface-level parking lot into a park with underground parking at Park Block 5 between the Fox Tower and Park Avenue West Tower. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Downtown Portland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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