The joys of walkups

So Carmen and I are in the NW neighborhood today, working at an amazing coffee shop on 21st (Coffee Time), and generally being pleased at the cutie patootieness of the whole place.

As I see it, the tradeoffs (vs. the Plaza) are as follows:

Parking - not guaranteed an actual lot, and street parking can be a challenge down here. Associated issue is parking for visitors - in the Plaza there's usually a spot free for folks coming to dinner, etc.

Access - the Plaza is sooo very central, but by and large the key thing about the Plaza is four blocks from the 5, both north and south. Less so NW, where my guess is you have about 15 minutes worth of puttering along before you get to a road that will take you to the freeway at more than 20 mph. So that's definitely a consideration.

Cost - obviously this is in NW's favor. When you have no view (or more specifically, no skyline-style view), you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars off for the same space.

Amenities - Plaza wins. Still the best value in terms of perks of any condo building in Portland.

Cutie Patootieness - This has to go to NW. The shops, the restaurants, the same accessibility to the Pearl and downtown (i.e. you lose nothing that you had at the Plaza), and the streetcar access all make this a pretty good bet for adorable heart-of-the-city living. Plus, non-corporate coffee.

Anyway, it's not like we're moving, but any conversation about moving is dangerous for us. Our record to date is (I believe) 32 months. Poor Claire.