I've also heard that there used to be street prostitution in the Hollywood neighborhood on Sandy and even in NW. I've been told there were way more hippies, punk rockers, metalheads, goths and skinheads (subcultures that are significantly smaller today), and a lot of blue collar folks, junkies, and immigrants from southeast Asia (who now live much further out in the 100s). I've been told that inner SE and NW were a bit run down and industrial, and although they might have featured a handful of hippy organic businesses and cafes, it consisted of predominantly dive bars, diners, and Plaid Pantry's, and that shows were predominantly held in basements or abandoned warehouses. However, I've heard that in the 80s, there was no concentration of shops and bars on Hawthorne or the NW area. Most bars and nightlife options in the early 2000s were rather scattered and not concentrated along these stretches. There might have been about two blocks of this type of thing on Belmont and Clinton, but that was it - of course it has since popped up on 28th, Williams, Missisippi, Division, Stark in Montevilla, etc.
When I moved here, Hawthorne and perhaps NW 21st/23rd were the only neighborhoods exhibiting the "urban village" phenomenon - you know, the 10-15 block strip full of bars, cafes, restaurants and shops, which people stroll along. The city has changed rather dramatically even since 2001. I'm extremely curious to hear people's impressions of the general atmosphere of Portland from the 70s and 80s, as I had no extensive experience of it prior to the year 2001. However, I didn't grow up HERE - I moved to Oregon in the late 90s (Eugene specifically), and didn't move to Portland until around 2001. I was born in the late 70s and grew up in the 80s, and spent some time this week thinking about the ways in which life was different back then, specifically in relation to technology and how new developments have impacted the culture.