When the rent gets 2 damn high, people go out to what the kids call "The Numbers." The long-maligned 80ish blocks between I-205 and Gresham are home to many, many strip malls, but the area may also be beginning its own renaissance—think of it as our Oakland. Believe it or not, the area already claims 21 percent of the city's population—only 7,000 fewer than live west of the Willamette River. Home sale prices are now rising faster there than in Portland as a whole.