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We’ve got an extra special episode of the Dive on deck today. I was a contributor to this week’s cover package, an exploration of Portland’s best under-the-radar regions.
I wrote about my own neighborhood, Woodlawn, a charming pocket of the Northeast that belies a radical, historically significant chapter of Portland’s origin story.
So today, rather than gushing over another quadrant’s jewels with one of our many top-flight contributors, managing editor Aaron Mesh will join me to learn more about Woodlawn, the neighborhood I’ve called home for nearly 20 years. Go, Wildcats!
Fun fact, when I first moved to Portland from Southern California, I moved into a house about four blocks from the house my dad grew up in, unbeknownst to either of us. For more of that family history, click on one of the players below. Point is, Woodlawn has been through it, and its development, maybe more than that of any other neighborhood, tells the story of an isolated, rural Portland, a hostile and divided Portland, an oppressed Portland and, now, a gentrified Portland that despite the glossy paint job, has roots that run about as deep as a colonizer’s roots can run. So what, like, a couple of hundred years? Go, Wildcats!