Swan Island Industrial District
From PortlandAfoot
The Swan Island Industrial District is, along with the Inner Eastside, one of the Portland area's most transit-friendly and bike-friendly industrial areas. Major employers in the North Portland employment area include Daimler Trucks North America, UPS, and Columbia Distributing.
As of 2009, the low-lying section of the district (which is also Oregon Census tract 44) employed 11,330 people, 90% of them commuting from non-adjacent ZIP codes.
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[edit] Getting to Swan Island
[edit] By transit
The area is directly served by the 85 and 72 buses as well as the Swan Island Evening Shuttle.
The evening shuttle and 85 bus connect to every MAX line at the Rose Quarter Transit Center, as does the 35, which runs just above the island along Greeley Avenue. The 72 connects to the MAX Yellow Line at the N Killingsworth MAX station.
[edit] By bicycle
The best way to reach Swan Island by bicycle is a protected sidewalk on the north side of Going Street, which begins just west of its connection to Interstate Avenue. For more details, see the Swan Island Transportation Management Association's guide to walking and biking on the island.
[edit] By carpool or vanpool
As of April 2011, C-Tran operates very inexpensive vanpools to the island from Battle Ground and Orchards, in Clark County. For more details, see the Swan Island TMA's guide to ridesharing on the island.
[edit] Personalized trip plans
For help preparing a personalized plan to reach the island, including advice on "off-map" bike routes, contact the Swan Island Transportation Management Association at 503-745-6563 or sitma@teleport.com. The association works to improve low-car travel options for Swan Island workers, including vanpool, carpool, bike and TriMet.
[edit] Slow decline in workers living nearby
Research for this section was sponsored in part by the Swan Island Transportation Management Association.
[edit] Migration rate at Swan Island
From 2002 to 2009, Swan Island's workforce migrated away from their employment area, but less rapidly than workers at other nearby industrial districts, according to the Census Bureau's longitudinal employer-household dynamics data.
In 2002, the Census reported that 10.7% of people whose primary jobs were on Swan Island were commuting from one of the closest five ZIP codes (97203, 97217, 97211, 97212 and 97227). By 2009, the share of close-in commuters had fallen to 10.1%, the equivalent of 62 fewer workers with short commutes.
[edit] Migration rate at Rivergate
However, in the Rivergate District, the share of close-in commuters (from ZIP codes 97203, 97217, 97211, 97231 and 97210) fell from 14% to 11%, the equivalent of 389 fewer workers with short commutes.
If Swan Island workers had migrated to more distant neighborhoods at the same rate that the nearby Rivergate workers did, an additional 274 Swan Island workers would have had long commutes by 2009.
[edit] Slideshow comparing Swan Island to other areas
[edit] Auto parking
According to a November 2010 inventory, the industrial area includes at least 32 acres devoted to auto parking lots of at least one-quarter acre. At the area's 2002 average job density of 13 jobs per acre and an estimated land price of $300,000 per acre, that much space is worth about $9.6 million could be used for 415 jobs if fully developed.
However, the district's most job-dense lot, the headquarters of Daimler Trucks North America, employs many more than 13 people per acre. Daimler also has the district's single largest parking lot.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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