Here’s what Eliot Residents Like about Our Neighborhood and What the Future Looks Like.

First of all, thank you to all who participated in our Eliot resident survey. We had close to 75 responses and they came from a mixture of new and long time residents of our neighborhood.

Here’s a recap about who we are as a neighborhood, what we like, what we’d like to change and also what events you’d like to see us work on organizing so we can get to know each other better and make Eliot an even better place to live!

How long have you lived in the Eliot neighborhood?

About 60% of the responses came from residents that have lived in Eliot 10 years or less.

The response from the resident who has lived here the longest as lived in Eliot for 40 years. I bet you have a lot of great stories to tell about our neighborhood? We’d love to hear about them and share them with our readers – reach out to Editor if you want to share.

The most recent Eliot resident to respond has only been here one month. Welcome to the neighborhood!! We hope you get involved and discover all Eliot has to offer.

What do you like best about the Eliot neighborhood?

The most popular answers were about location, proximity, and diversity.

Residents also like the old houses and gardens, plus all the restaurants and the neighborhood feel and how bike able it is.

“There are real people here with Portland history,” says one resident.

Another says they like “the sense of community and neighborhood pride. We moved from NW/Pearl and Eliot feels much more like a community.”

What changes would most improve Eliot?

The overwhelming response to this question was about traffic both calming measures and reduction of traffic. Traffic speed enforcement has been requested many times in the last three years with no action being taken by the police or city.

Equally as popular a response was a continuation of the trash pick-ups to reduce the garbage and litter in the neighborhood.

Housing affordability was also a great concern with all the apartment buildings being constructed with anticipated high rental rates.

A lot of you felt that petty crimes like car break-ins were on the rise and that the police needed more of a presence in the neighborhood and a better response rate.

Some felt there was too much accommodation for bikes and wealthier people and that we need to be attentive to the needs of older adults, those with disabilities, low income and minorities. Also we could do a better job of integrating the new and old neighbors so that we have a more cohesive neighborhood.

Is there a new event or activity you would like to see organized by the Eliot Neighborhood Association that you would be interested in attending?

The most popular response for this question was game nights and pot lucks get togethers.

Also happy hour gatherings and events we can host like panel discussions, a street fair and emergency preparedness training were common responses.

Finding the best way to set up these events and how to notify the residents will be the challenge so keeping an eye on our website,  the Eliot Neighborhood Facebook page and Nextdoor, the social media/bulletin board/classified ad website,  will be important to check in between issues of the Eliot News delivered to your mailbox.

All in all it sounds like there is a lot of neighborhood pride and willingness to make Eliot a better place to live and that neighbors want to get to know each other better. They want to join together in community events where they can meet new neighbors and get to know better the residents that have lived here and have stories to tell and memories to share.