Portland's Shrinking Neighborhoods

"Portland is a growing city in a fast-growing state. But many neighborhoods near the heart of the city lost population during the 1990s...people who could afford more space in the city got it, not by building big new homes but by having fewer people live in the existing ones... From a planning point of view, the waning population count near Portland's center raises two chief questions, goverment officials and academics said: Is enough being done to make homes in the city affordable and attractive to families with children? And is enough being done to lure empty nesters out of their big family homes into smaller abodes, in order to make room for new parents and their broods?"