Portland is often cited as an example of a well-planned city. The credit for this starts with Oregon's proactive land-use policies, particularly the establishment of an urban growth boundary in 1979. The boundary preserved agricultural land in the mold of 19th-century farming techniques. This was atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.

Some developers and real estate investors dislike the urban growth boundary, and argue that it has brought no benefits and the burden of high housing costs.

Still, housing costs are lower than most urban areas in California and Washington, and residents enjoy many benefits of a more compact urban area, including efficient public transportation and less traffic than similarly sized cities.

The Portland Development Commission also plays a role in keeping the city livable; it was created by city voters in 1958 to serve as the city’s urban renewal agency. It provides housing and economic development programs within the city.

The more densely populated parts of the city proper are somewhat asymmetrical, with the west side hemmed in by the West Hills, while the flatter east side stretches on for about 180 blocks, until it meets Gresham. Further east lies rural Multnomah County.

Downtown Portland and many other parts of inner Portland have compact city blocks and narrow streets. Each block is 200 ft (60 m) square; by comparison, Seattle's city blocks are 240 by 320 feet (70 by 100 m), and Manhattan's east-west streets are divided into blocks that are from 600 to 800 feet (180 to 240 m) long[citation needed]. In addition, most streets are 64 feet (20 m) wide; the combination of compact blocks and narrow streets makes the downtown more pedestrian friendly. The 264 foot (80 m) long combined blocks divide one mile (1.6 km) of road into exactly 20 separate blocks.

The "great renumbering" on September 2, 1931 divided Portland into five sections: Southwest, Southeast, Northwest, North and Northeast. Burnside Street divides the north and south sections, and the Willamette River divides the eastern and western sections. The river curves west five blocks North of Burnside and in place of it, Williams Avenue is used as a divider. The North section lies between Williams Ave. and the Willamette.

Portland also has an unnamed sixth "quadrant" between Naito Parkway (formerly Front Avenue) and the Willamette River, which has an east bend south of downtown. Instead of having its own name, negative numbers denoted by a leading zero are used (For example, "0110 SW Porter St." is an office building one block east of Naito Pky.)

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