• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Burnside Skate Park   (Photo: Courtesy of SkateOregon 2000-2006)

Often overlooked in favor of other “emerging” neighborhoods like NW Alberta and Mississippi Streets, the not-yet-gentrified SE Industrial Zone hides thrift stores and discreetly marked restaurants and bars among its faceless office warehouses. Start under the Burnside Bridge at the illegally built (and later, city-sanctioned) Burnside Skate Park, where Gus Van Sant’s latest skate-punk psycho-thriller, Paranoid Park, was filmed. Less than a mile south, check out Small A Projects, a tiny contemporary gallery with surfacing artists like Zoe Crosher, whose Out the Window: LAX project features photographs taken from 31 different hotels around the Los Angeles airport. Next, head a quarter-mile north to score repossessed vintage furniture at City Liquidators. Finally emerge from the shadows by climbing up to Rocket's rooftop for catfish pirogis, stuffed squash blossoms, and fabulous skyline views.

Published on October 10, 2007 as a web exclusive.