Reed Neighborhood in SE Portland Oregon

A Typical Sunny Day in Reed

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Reed is a residential neighborhood, sandwiched between the Eastmoreland and Creston-Kenilworth neighborhoods of SE Portland, as well as the Woodstock and Brooklyn neighborhoods on its east and west. On a day like today when the high in Portland is eighty degrees, you will find some of the locals of Reed watering the gardens that inundate the front of their homes, children on their tricycles peddling down the sidewalks, and fathers mowing their well-kept lawns. There is a quiet presence created by the locals doing these daily duties, while the rest of the neighborhood is absent from nine to five.

Simply SE

I appreciate Reed for its simplicity; there is not much flowery language to use about the neighborhood unless we’re talking about the home gardens. It is candid and straight to the point; it is a neighborhood that has all that it needs. And what the neighborhood doesn’t have, its convenience to the bus lines makes up for. The Reed NA is small, therefore it is easy to get pretty much anywhere in Portland from the area be it Sellwood or downtown. I ran into one local named Becky while she was taking her dog for a morning stroll around the neighborhood. Becky likes Reed for a number of reasons, one of them being the styles of the houses. They are “low-slung, mid-century styles” that she says people maintain and keep clean. Becky also likes the neighborhood for its wide streets that are easy to park on, and for the friendly people. She appreciates the close proximity of the neighborhood to downtown and that it is close enough to walk to Trader Joe’s, the neighborhood market.

Local Businesses

Trader Joe’s is where locals walk to for all of their basic market needs such as fresh produce, inexpensive wines, large imported cheese selection, freshly baked baguettes and so much more. It is conveniently located on SE 39^th between Schiller and Long.

And wonderfully located next to Trader Joe’s is a store called Limbo Inc., which is an organic produce market. Limbo has a wide variety of fresh produce as well as a huge selection of herbs.  The store’s wall of herbs, teas and spices has more than seven hundred kinds to choose from. Locals love the store because there are tons of international herbs, all in the convenience of SE Portland.

Walking along Reed’s northern border on Holgate Blvd and 28^th, I came across Open Space which is a great cafe that serves local food and drinks in a sustainable environment. The store owner, Morgan Whalen, talks about the kinds of people that come through the cafe in a typical week and gives some advice to potential Portland residents in a short interview.

Open Space has a full bar and cafe, it hosts birthday parties, has DJs come in and spin, and it has a rotating show of local artists who present their art along the walls of the cafe each month. It’s a great setting with great food, drinks and service in this comfortable SE Portland neighborhood.

Location

The perimeters of the neighborhood are within the Union Pacific Rail yards on the west, 39^th Avenue on the east, Holgate from 24^th to 39^th Avenue on the north, and Reed College on the south side. With a few commercial businesses on the east side from 24^th to 28^th, the rest of the neighborhood is composed of residential homes, a few apartment complexes and some duplexes.

Photos of Reed

Schools

Grout Elementary is a conveniently located k-5 school that highly encourages community and parent involvement. With a caring and respectful environment created by the teachers, Grout offers a literacy program for the entirety of the school’s students which happens through daily small group instruction. The school offers preschool and an all day kindergarten to children, as well as an on-site child care provided by the YMCA.

Hosford Middle School is a culturally rich school that is known for its rigorous academics and its value of world languages. Hosford offers language immersion programs for Spanish and Mandarin, and puts students into core classes based on their abilities. Hosford also offers a variety of before and after school programs.

Cleveland High School is known for being holistically advanced in its academic standards and areas of education. Cleveland is the only high school in the area to offer a special-focus business program, and only one of two high schools in the area to host the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.

Tucker-Maxon School is a student-centered program that focuses on children with hearing disabilities and impairments. This is done in small collaborative classes, joining children with typical hearing and children with hearing loss in a nurturing environment that focuses on language and speech development.

Reed College borders the south side of the neighborhood with its beautiful brick buildings and large green fields. Known for being a highly rigorous liberal arts college, Reed also embraces the community around its campus. The college holds events throughout the school year and summer that are open to the community, with activities such as art shows, workshops and camps. The campus is a great place to go and take a walk, located a short distance from any spot in the Reed neighborhood.

Parks & Recreation

Kenilworth Park is on the north side of the neighborhood, and holds events throughout the year that are posted on the park’s community board. Throughout the summer there are events in the park such as movies and concerts that the whole community is welcome to.

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden is a beautiful seven-acre garden containing an enormous collection of rare species and hybrid rhododendrons, as well as azaleas and some other lesser known plants. The garden is located in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, just south of Reed. Crystal Springs is run by volunteers, and heavily supported by locals and visitors who come out to visit any time of the year. The Crystal Springs Lake, which feeds into the garden, attracts countless aquatic birds such as ducks and geese, which nest and feed in the natural habitat. The setting is regarded as a photographer’s dream, and it’s easy to forget that downtown Portland is only minutes away.

Reed in Retrospect

The Reed neighborhood is safe for families, a convenient location to everything that locals need, and a stones throw away from downtown Portland and other SE neighborhoods that are lively and thriving.

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This post was written by...

Scott Krager – who has written 11 posts on Portlanders.

Scott Krager is the founder of portlanders.com. He lives in Portland, Oregon, spending most of his time writing, coding, and avoiding the rain. Scott doesn't like to run but forces himself at least once a week. Google+ | Twitter | Quora | LinkedIn