Join us for a Portland urban walk in the SE Division Street neighborhood, where you’ll find delicious ice cream, a sample of Portland’s food carts, the requisite occasional quirky mural, and overall a high concentration of independent shops and restaurants.
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In today’s urban walk, we’ll be starting at the west side of the Division Street neighborhood's main commercial district, at SE 12th Ave, and walking east nearly 40 blocks, until SE 50th Ave. It’s a little over two miles one way, for a roundtrip walk of just over 4 miles. If you enjoy exploring Portland on foot, this is a great easy urban walk.
To get here for your walk, consider taking one of the new FX2 express buses, which run every 12 minutes on Division Street between downtown Portland and Gresham.
Division is a commercial street, but it’s bordered by walkable residential neighborhoods. I’d recommend taking a detour to explore a residential street or two while you’re there. I started out with a quick walk through the curiously geometrical Ladd’s Addition development just north of Division. The diagonal, tree-lined streets in this set of blocks are filled with cool-looking old homes.
Division Street borders Ladd’s Addition along the south side, and it’s here that you’ll find the delightful Books with Pictures comic book store, a cluster of food carts, and the pricy but delicious New Seasons Market grocery store.
Division Street in general is a little more upscale than nearby Hawthorne Boulevard. We like to say Hawthorne has a hippie vibe, and Division has more of a hipster vibe. For a similar walking tour of Hawthorne, check out our video here: • Portland’s Quirky Hawt...
The Division district officially spans two neighborhoods: southeast Portland’s Richmond and Hosford-Abernethy neighborhoods. You probably won’t notice when you walk from one to the other.