Announcing the Pearl District Gallery Map

The Pearl Gallery mapmakes it easier and more efficient to walk the Pearl on First Thursday.

For those not familiar with First Thursday, almost all the galleries in Portland's Pearl District have one night a month where they stay open late, and many galleries have their openings/receptions for new art then. The Pearl becomes quite the scene, with thousands of people walking the streets and parking spots are scarcer than hen's teeth. Other art districts have their own nights, such as Last Thursday, First Friday, etc.

The map shows galleries, restaurants, bistros, pubs, coffee & tea houses, dessert & bakeries, parks, mass transit, ATMs and the streetgrid. It deliberately does not show things which most likely are of little value to the gallery visitor.

This map is free to download (for personal use), and print for your next excursion to the Pearl.

The map is available from http://www.artofgeography.com/maps/pearl-gallery-map.html

What became interesting to me after creating this map is the distribution of galleries. Perhaps someone more familiar with economic geography would have a theory why the "plot" of locations seems to fall into a diagonal cluster, orthogonal to the perfect rectangular grid of streets. I would have guessed the cluster to be vertical, parallelling the streetcar route.