Welcome!

Collins View is a hilly 465-acre neighborhood in Southwest Portland, Oregon. It has 848 households. (2010 Census).

Collins View is unique in several important ways:

SCHOOLS — It has schools and colleges: Collins View is home to Oregon's largest private liberal arts college, Lewis & Clark College, and associated graduate school and law school. Students, faculty, and alumni occupy homes and rentals. Highly-rated Riverdale High School on Terwilliger is an erratic part of the nearby Riverdale School system, not a Portland public school!
CEMETERIES — It has five cemeteries formed in the 1880's adjacent to or within its boundaries.
GREENSPACE — It has, or borders on, several natural areas or nature parks: Eight-hundred-acre Tryon Creek State Park and 147 acre River View Natural Area with Marshall Park close by, home to a wide variety of plants, birds and other wildlife in what's called the Westside Wildlife Corridor. This forested spine of the west hills protects remaining natural habitat, protects headwater streams, and creates a continuous wildlife migration corridor from Forest Park south along the west hills.

More about Nature in Collins View: Portland's Special Status Habitats — recognized by state and federal agencies as being ecologically important — include Strategy Habitats: herbaceous wetlands, upland prairie and native grasslands, oak woodlands, interior forests (especially late successional conifer forests), bottomland hardwood forest, and riparian habitat. (From Westside Wildlife Corridor on Parks & Recreation website.)

Neighborhood Emergency Team

Q: What is NET??
A: It's our Neighborhood Emergency Team! Read all about it [HERE].

Collins View Firewise Community

Q: What is FIREWISE??
A: Collins View is a nationally recognized Firewise Community! We are working to reduce potential damage from urban wildfire. Read all about it [HERE].

USING TRANSIT in Collins View

In the area around Collins View, we have direct access to bus lines: #35, #38, #39, and #43, as described on our Transit pages: [LINK].

The Transit page will soon have links to the raw schedules for the above routes. In addition to schedules and routes, you need to know about fares (paying with a HOP card), and how to use the system to get various places. All this is already explained on the above Transit pages.

Here are some good ways to familiarize yourself with your transit options:

Identify stops near you - either by spotting them on the street (Terwilliger and Taylors Ferry), or by looking at Google or Apple Maps. Each stop has a uniq 1-5 digit ID.
Get a transit app, such as PDX BUS. Using the app, watch the Stop IDs you've identified to monitor arrival times of busses for each of the lines. This will give you an idea of how often the bus runs, and ergo when you can get there to catch a bus.
Go to TriMet.org and look up the route and study the route and schedule. This can be rather puzzling, so check out our Transit page.
Keep in mind that you are probably somewhere in the middle of a route, so you can go either direction - ie toward downtown, or toward Oregon City -- Or Toward Hillsdale/OSHU, or toward Tigard. and so on.
You might also pick up TriMet schedules on paper at a library or at the TriMet Customer Support Center in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Stay tuned to a completed Transit page and also an upcoming series of blog articles on 'Transit Tours' you can take beginning and ending in Collins View.

Nextdoor is a private social network for Collins View and nearby 'Hoods

Thousands of folks across many neighborhoods are set up on Nextdoor. You can set up your login by validating your street address — then you can view and participate.

See our Sign-Up instructions [LINK]. Thereafter, login into Next Door, and you'll land in the Collins View context. (The Nextdoor Instructions page also has a mini-orientation.)

College Party Houses

Do you live near a college Party House that disturbs your nights?
Talk to the students! Refer them to our Five-Minute Guide to Living in the Neighborhood.
If the ruckus continues, call the Campus Safety Office (open 24 hours/day) at 503-768-7777.

This is not to say that non-student adults don't also disturb the peace with fireworks, loud cars, and so on. See Resources on the Home page.

Collins View History in a Nutshell

This area was settled first by the Kalapuya people.

Historic Greenwood Hills Cemetery (1884) is a popular gathering and walking space, maintained by a volunteer association. Locals also enjoy walking and cycling through River View Cemetery to the Sellwood Bridge.

One of the oldest roads in the region is Boones Ferry Road. A Historical Marker sits at the junction with Taylor's Ferry Road. One of the city's first electric trolley lines ran through Collins View to the cemeteries from 1891 to 1899! Early Collins View had a Grocery, a Dance Hall, and a School. In the early 20th century there were orchards, vacation cottages, and the Frank Estate, which is now L&C College. BTW, The name 'Collins View' came from a developer.

Other Communities

The New Collins View Blog is accumulating articles on history, walks you can take in the area, and so on. New articles are announced on Nextdoor, or you can just check the blog home page from time to time: [NewCollinsView.blog]

Membership in the CVNA (neighborhood association) is open to all residents, property owners, governmental agencies, business licensees and nonprofit organizations located within Collins View. See the association website: [CollinsViewNA.org]

Southwest Trails is a group of volunteers who maintain local trails - on street and off. They also sponsor regular walks and hikes of all kinds. [SWTRAILS-PDX]