The city of Portland officially added a “sextant” on Friday, with the formal creation of “South Portland” addresses.
This will probably not stop many Portlanders from referring to this area as the sixth “quadrant” of the city, even though a quadrant signifies one of four parts. It’s a designation that the Portland Bureau of Transportation acknowledges.
“Many Portlanders do prefer to call the city’s address areas quadrants regardless of the total number,” the agency announced in a press release. “In this spirit, PBOT will also informally recognize sixth quadrant as a designation for the new part of the city.”
More than 6,000 Portland addresses located east of S.W. Naito Parkway but west of the Willamette River are changing from Southwest to South. The move is meant to make navigating roadways easier, particularly for emergency response crews.
“For decades, due to the eastward curvature in the Willamette River, addresses in Southwest Portland located east of S.W. Naito Parkway (and S.W. View Point Terrace in more southern Portland neighborhoods) have used a leading zero to differentiate them from addresses west of Naito Parkway,” the bureau explained in a press release. “A leading zero address is a property address that starts with a zero. These addresses make wayfinding difficult for delivery drivers and, most importantly, first responders to locate and easily navigate to leading zero properties.”
The new South Portland addresses will also lose their leading zeros.
You can view an interactive map of address changes here.
Crews change the directional markers on Riverside Street and Palatine Hill Road from Southwest to South Portland.
Crews will change street signs in phases, starting with signs in poor condition. Larger street signs will be changed later when social distancing guidelines ease.
For residents who might forget their new addresses, the old addresses will remain in the city’s emergency communication’s database, and will be recognized as “alias addresses” should someone need to reach 9-1-1.
These address changes have been in the works for two years, following a vote by the Portland City Council. According to the city, this is “the first major readdressing effort in Portland since the Great Renaming of 1931″ which created the current zones of N, N.E., N.W., S.E. and S.W. Portland.
The city is having a bit of fun with the sextant versus quadrant debate, by offering up a Twitter poll and selling T-shirts with the competing designations. Proceeds from #TeamSixthSextant or #TeamSixthQuadrant shirt sales benefit Sunday Parkways.
-- Samantha Swindler; sswindler@oregonian.com; @editorswindler
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