TALL TALES ABOUT SMALL LIVING by Wade Nkrumah

Bright Lights. Big City. Small Spaces
Living small is the new kickball.
It’s the new game in this self-professed weird town.
Small-is-in works because the playing field is shrinking everywhere: Appliances. Cars (thank-you, gas prices). Computers. Furniture and furnishings. Hair (who has BIG hair, anymore?). Housing. Music accessories. Phones. Televisions.
Many can relate:
He’s not tall.
She drives small.
They don’t have it all.
In a six-year period, he moved from a 1,400-square-foot house with a 1,100-square-foot basement and detached garage to a 1,200-square-foot townhouse with garage to an 800-square-foot condominium with assigned parking space in a carport.
He doesn’t cook, so he appreciates a unique condominium feature: the single-wall kitchen, which leaves remaining space for more creative use.
A friend in ever-sprawling Houston jokes that such downsizing adventures mocks typical big house dreams.
“That’s so un-American.’’
Not so much anymore. Well, maybe still in Texas, where everything is ... um, you know. Big.
To be sure, the single-family home is almost universally viewed as the All-American dream home. But the Craftsman – they’re not building them anymore – is giving way to the condominium.
Other less-is-more signs are all around us.
Portland’s neighborhoods are small. City blocks are small. Sushi is small.
Mill End Park, which occupies the base of a Southwest Naito Parkway traffic island, is so small it redefines tiny.
Even Portland ‘burbs – not one has 100,000 people – are small by national standards.
But whatever its form, living small isn’t trendy and often can be less spendy.
Small living no longer is novel nor a last resort of affordability. Rather, the living small movement is a growing phenomenon.
It’s a lifestyle that, increasingly, is much preferred.
No place is this more evident than the city’s housing stock.
The condominium explosion last decade made the small house movement a natural starting point.
Condominiums and their loft and townhouse cousins transformed downtown and its immediate surroundings. The tide of homeowners who moved into condominium buildings and towers give Portland a long-absent big-city feel.
Downtown Portland pulsates with energy that, in large part, is fueled by an influx of condominium owners who are attracting and supporting big-city amenities.
Downtown is the hub, with spokes extending the living small concept east across Willamette River, south into South Waterfront, north into St. Johns and to Columbia River, and beyond city limits into the ‘burbs.
Yet, not all that is small is a poster child for the living-with-less movement.
In 2003, there was widespread uproar over rapid-rising skinny houses sprouting like dandelions in east side Portland neighborhoods.
Today, those houses, tarnished reputation and all, continue to be desirable. However, as with condominiums, designs and features are more creative.

Follow this link to read the whole article about Living Small in Portland Condos