beezneez mentions Hawthorne, it's a fun neighborhood. Belmont is close to Hawthorne, it's fine. Lloyd center isn't really a neighborhood, it's a commercial district but anything north of Broadway (just north of Lloyd center) close in is fine. Mississippi neighborhood is great in my opinion. Mississippi is very close to PCC Cascade, which is the campus I'd choose to go to if I was to enroll in PCC. The other campuses are way out of town and have more young suburban kids who's parents are forcing them to go to community college. Cascade is diverse and the students are more motivated. I only go downtown for a reason, I'd never choose to live there. I know people who like it but it's not hard to get from the close in east side to downtown. I have a friend who does session work and knows some of the younger jazz guys and I'll ask him if he knows where they play. I am under the impression that Jimmy Mac's is the older jazz guys hangout but there is probably some kind of young innovative jazz scene going on somewhere in this town. I know I've waited on some of the younger jazz crowd at my bar and they were all super nice guys who I've head are excellent musicians. There is a publicly funded jazz radio station in town KMHD 89.1 you might want to check it out. One of the DJ's come into the bar I work at from time to time and we've always hit it off. If I see him I'll get his number because I'm sure he is the kind of guy that wouldn't mind chatting with or going to a show with someone who just got into town. I don't see him all that often maybe once a month or so.
Thank you for going above and beyond with fruitful information. When we move there, I'll repay the favor.
You'd be surprised at how much hostility and lack of help I've received on other forums.
Here is my theory on why you have met hostility. The neighborhood I just moved out of had about 5 businesses on it 14 years ago when I moved here (most the storefronts were boarded up). Now it has more than 40 or 50. They have a block party on that street. I worked the first block party on Mississippi about 8 year ago. You could swing a dead cat and hit no one at that block party, it was one block and was sparsely attended. Now they have the second biggest block party in the nation, you have to push your way through the crowd in a party that stretches 10 blocks or so. The neighborhood I work in was a bit gritty and shitty eight years ago. I could play Bad Brains in the bar and most the patrons were into it. Now there are more than 500 nice apartment units going in just the two blocks of the bar, and certainly a bit of charm has left the bar as the neighborhood got 'better'. Almost no one is from here but after they have put in 4 or 5 years they think they are a fucking pioneer. The neighborhoods they came to love are totally changing all the time and it's because the money and pressure of all the new arrivals. Never mind that this has probably been going on since WWII, most people don't have the perspective to realize that this shit has been in a constant state of change before they arrived. It's a hard to town to find work in, a lot of that is blamed at all the new people moving here and competing for work. I think you'll find people to be very friendly in general but don't be surprised if you run into someone who doesn't like you because you just moved here.
Yeah, that's the vibe I was getting. Believe me when I say that my reason for moving to Portland is not because of Portlandia. I had visited a few years ago and cannot begin to explain to you the difference in energy between here and there. The air is so much more alive in Portland. The people are so alive in Portland. Plus, I'll take mountains, oceans, and forests any day over a concrete jungle. Would you mind if I PM'd you about working and finding places to send a resume? I've sent it a few places, and google maps only goes so far.