Today was perhaps one of the most beautiful days in Portland ever. Of course, I tell myself this every time it is sunny and in the mid-70s here. Nothing is better than Portland on a sunny day.

I’ve lived in Portland for 16 years. I don’t know that any other place will feel like home to me like Portland does, but lately for me – the bloom has been off the Rose City. Blame the long winter, the pothole obstacle course in my neighborhood, the half-empty condo towers out my window, or Beau Breedlove – but for some reason I’ve been feeling really down on Stumptown.

My day job keeps me in the loop about the financial health of the city, particularly the non-profit sector. Portland is not immune from the economic crisis facing the rest of the nation, and when I hear stories about MLS or the Made in Oregon sign – I worry. I worry that the leadership of Portland is too easily distracted and isn’t taking the economic issues facing the city seriously enough.

Portland has been the kind of town that takes a relatively simple problem, like a place downtown to go to the bathroom – and turns it into something really complex, expensive, “progressive” (and ultimately flawed) and comes up with a cutesy name like The Portland Loo. Portland is a real-estate developer’s paradise. A place you can swoop in with a big bag of shiny money and suddenly be everyone’s best friend. And all of your new best friends think you shit sunshine and have the most brilliant ideas ever. Portland is big on grandiose ideas, but no so big on the pesky little details. Details like the city’s $5.4 billion in long-term debt.

And what is it with all the panhandling and charity mugging downtown? Gah! I just want to walk down the street in peace.

The other day I was ticking off my list of Portland grievances with a friend of mine, and she chastised me for being such a cynic. I really couldn’t argue with her. I’ve become a total Portland Pessimist and a bummer to hang out with at cocktail parties. I’ve even gotten tired of listening to myself complain.

So I’ve made a little project for myself. I’m going to find reasons to fall in love with Portland again, and share my findings here on ourpdx. Today was easy:

The sun! The warmth!
The evenings are getting longer.
The Blazers are in the playoffs and because I’m a season ticket holder – I’m going to the home games.

Yep. It’s good to be a Portlander today.

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House

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

There is a block close to my house where 9 single family homes are boarded up awaiting demolition. On N. Interstate, a new condo tower is going in – albeit only a 6 story “tower.” While I’m glad to see the change, I am saddened by the loss of some great 1920’s or earlier bungalows and Victorians.

Well, it appears at least one of the houses is going to be saved. I wandered by the other evening and this house is up on steel I-beams awaiting transport somewhere. I thought it would move this past weekend, but alas, it is still there. Such a beautiful house. Someone has a gem on their hands. According to PortlandMaps, this house has a market value where it is at of $275K. I wonder how much the buyer paid. Seriously. They are saving the development company cash money by taking the house away. Yet, the house has value. Was it a $1000 deal? A $10,000 deal? Just think. Wouldn’t it be cool to buy a house for that cheap? Granted, you have to find a lot and pay to move it, but in the end, you would have a gem.

I’m glad the house is being saved. Built in 1907, we should cherish such homes. Now, if only the Rebuilding Center could get the contract to deconstruct the other houses and salvage the materials….

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photo.jpg

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

So, if you ventured downtown any time in the past 30 years, you would be familiar with the 70’s era bus shelters that dotted SW 5th and 6th avenues. That was before the most recent green line MAX construction. When they first began construction and moved the buses off to 3rd and 4th, they tore out all of the shelters except for one – on 5th by the courthouse.

This rather cool designed shelter has sat vacant for the last couple of years awaiting its next adventure. Back when the construction started, there were many rumors on what it would become – a newstand? a hotdog stand? an info center? I wonder if anyone really knows. Recently, fencing was put up around it which implies something is happening soon. Or, they just wanted to keep the smokers out. I think it would be a great micro dance club. You know, grab the morning coffee and then bust a move?

A photo of shelters past:

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photo.jpg

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

I live a block away from a group of houses that are currently boarded up awaiting demolition up off N Interstate. Some have been empty since June. There are 9 of them along with a commercial structure. Over the summer, a couple of the houses became dumping grounds for trash – probably from when people moved out, but also items that people dumped. Next came the graffiti that was poorly covered up by whomever is the caretaker. Now, a few of the houses have become temporary homes to homeless youths. The plywood over the back doors are easily removed and this evening, I saw a group of those kids walk towards the back of the houses and disappear.

Here’s one image of what will be there. I’m all for development in this area. Original development plans called for 3 stories on N. Maryland and now has 5 stories. That’s a big difference.

I wish the developers or owners would either get on with the demolition and subsequent construction or put up fences to keep the riff raff out. My concern is that since the properties have been vacant for so long, everyone knows they are available to squat in. Also, sine TriMet doesn’t check fares on MAX, it is only a hop skip and a jump from downtown. Further, while the developers keep saying they plan to begin “soon,” with the economy the way it is, how can one be sure. Get on with it or remove the plywood and re-rent the properties.

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Last night, Portland filmmaker Ivy Lin showed her documentary Pig Roast and a Tank of Fish at the Someday Lounge on NW 5th and Couch. The film looks at the rich history of Portland’s Chinatown. From rough and tumble beginnings, through an era of thriving business and a large ethnic residential district, to the present day of surface parking lots, empty storefronts and the shift of the Chinese and other Asian communities to more far flung neighborhoods like outer SE Portland and Beaverton, the film’s main focus is to look at where Chinatown has been and why this area remains important to the city.

“Pig Roast & Tank of Fish” trailer from Ivy Lin on Vimeo.

It is a timely film. Portland’s beleaguered Chinatown could be headed for a rapid revitalization in the next few years. Recently, Japanese supermarket giant Uwajimaya announced they are looking to potentially develop a large mixed use grocery, mixed income housing and food court complex on the block between 4th and 5th/Couch and Davis. This month, Andy Ricker of Pok-Pok eatery fame announced he was opening a new Asian restaurant in the former dive-bar space of Hung Far Low on NW 4th. But there is also the continuing flight of the Chinese community out of the area – with more restaurants closing than opening and many formerly Chinese owned buildings being sold to white dudes in suits. Also, let us not forget the beheaded dragon statue debacle as well as the conflicts of the homeless access center and the 4th Ave. Caesar Chavez rename proposal that caused many in the Chinese community to say, in essence, “no way.”

Anyone who has waited at night for a bus at the main drug deal area Tri-Met stop along NW 4th and Couch might think: a more spiffed up Chinatown might not be a bad thing. Yet risks and conflicts remain. This revitalization could mean a gentrified and Disneyfied theme park of Chinatown. Or, can Chinatown turn into a mixed income 24-hour working neighborhood the likes of New York, Vancouver B.C. or San Francisco? Should it be driven and populated solely for Chinese, despite the area’s diverse history and a burgeoning “new Chinatown” out on SE 82nd? The city has been trying to jump start this area for years – focusing on the Chinese Classical Garden, storefront and streetscape improvements, the MAX extension down 5th and 6th and new housing developments.

The Oregonian wrote an interesting article this past Friday with a “Chinatown belongs to all of Portland/We all have a stake in Chinatown,” slant. Yet the Oregonian missed some major points. Specifically, how does a city reinvent identity and history and create a thriving ethnic community when one is already being self-created by that community in another neighborhood across town? Besides, what does the term “Chinatown” mean anyway?

Ethnicity, history and identity are tricky and often loaded subjects, especially when city planning and development gets involved in the mix. What is exciting and positive for some can be insulting to others. Portland’s Chinatown is not the Chinatown of a Hollywood script and a healthy neighborhood does not mean “It’s a Small World After All” ride as simply a place to drive to on Sundays and eat Dim Sum. Before WWII, “Chinatown” was also home to a thriving Japanese community with waves of Jewish, Irish and other immigrants throughout the years. It never has been exclusively Chinese. Besides, Chinatown was once Portland’s Chinese ghetto: a place of treacherous kidnappings (Shanghai Tunnels) in the Chinese community and intense exclusionary laws that all but forced the Chinese community to live there in the first place. It is not necessarily a desirable place for the Chinese community itself.

Yet, members of the Chinese community, like Ivy Lin, believe otherwise and her film illustrates this. Chinatown is an area rich in culture, in history and is worth saving, even if that has yet to be defined.

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photo.jpg

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

After I posted last week about the news that New Seasons would be opening a new store on the corner of N. Williams and Fremont, I got an email from an individual who is in a position to know the know. This source said that while New Seasons is a “front runner,” other firms are vying for the spot. This list includes Trader Joe’s and possibly other grocery type stores.

The land is owned by PATH/Kaiser who had originally wanted to build the Backbridge lofts there. That project must be off as all the signage is now gone. All that sits on the corner is a little rubble left over from the demolition of the Franz Bread building. Something else to note for whomever gets to build – just south one block, there is signage about a proposed development that looked to be housing. Further north on Williams, Myhre group, a local architecture firm, has designs on the former House of Sound building and lot. Lots of development is going to happen in just that small area. Whomever snags the grocery spot should be a store that caters to the changing demographic.

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Yeah baby. Good-ole, progressive Oregon is about ready to walk a far different walk than it talks.

The Oregonian today provided an intriguing review of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s evaluation and assessment of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project. It appears that our friends involved in developing the CRC project were less than diligent in honestly evaluating the potential breadth of impacts of a mega-bridge.

For those of you unfamiliar with the project (yes, both of you), the CRC is a massive effort by the State of Oregon and the State of Washington to determine steps for addressing interstate vehicular traffic needs between the two states. Specifically, the CRC is (as stated on their Web site) “…designed to reduce congestion and improve safety problems on a five-mile segment of Interstate 5.”

Transportation needs between the two states are currently met using the existing I-5 bridge and associated freeway infrastructure. According to the official Web site, the CRC is designed to “…address the transportation problems on I-5, (whereby) a mix of bridge, public transit and highway solutions are needed. If we do not move forward with a comprehensive long-term solution now, the problems will only get worse.” Visit their site to read more about the what the project planning committee sees as the problems and solutions.

This topic is ripe for conversation and news sources and blogs have beaten the issue to death, but yet it still lives on. Somehow, even in the face of obvious disparity between the facts and the project planners’ assumptions/projections, we still have a mega-bridge ready to plow through the Columbia river and further soil North Portland. This harkens back to the early 1970s, when transportation gurus came up with a brilliant plan to help traffic move through Portland via a massive freeway that would’ve destroyed one percent of Portland’s housing stock and bastardized SE Portland. Back then, opponents argued that the freeway would be obsolete the minute it opened, log-jammed with traffic. Today’s opponents argue the same (and more), but the message does not ring quite as loudly.

Perhaps there’s too much on the table politically. Perhaps the commercial transportation industry is wielding a far bigger hammer than it did back in 1970. Perhaps it’s the force of two states’ economies begging for a mega-project, regardless of its real impact. Or, like the arial tram, perhaps it’s just futile hope powered by ego.

Whatever the case, the Federal EPA has called big fat dog-doo on the project. The agency has a massive beef with the CRC as it relates to planners’ inadequacies in accounting for the project’s health effects on people living, working or attending school near the I-5 bridge. According to the EPA, “There was no indication (in the CRC environmental impact statement) of how these vulnerable populations might be impacted by air pollution, noise, diesel construction vehicles and increased traffic.” The agency goes on to state that the CRC’s analysis, “focuses on emissions trends that are not influenced by the project,” essentially ignoring emissions in regard to wind, weather and the distance between people and the bridge.

The CRC went ahead with its project plans regardless of the potential negative health impacts. But why would manufacturers, trucking companies and long-distance commuters be concerned about the health or North Portlanders?

The EPA’s concerns don’t end with the not-so-simple issue of health and emissions. As stated in the agency’s report, they also have major concerns regarding the CRC’s impact on the Troutdale Sole Source Aquifer, which lays under the Columbia River, providing drinking water to nearly all of Clark County. The EPA specifically chided CRC planners for failing to examine if bridge pilings would bust into the aquifer’s water channels. If this were to happen, contaminated sections of the aquifer would combine with clean portions, potentially creating a significant water treatment issue for Vancouver and other surrounding communities.

At the end of the day, the real kick in the groin came in the CRC’s dismal of projections as it relates to sprawl. CRC planners explicitly designed the project around assumptions that a 12-lane toll bridge would not promote housing or job growth along the I-5 corridor. The EPA countered this assumption with a resounding disapproval, stating that, “Roadway expansion of this magnitude, even with tolls and transit, may stimulate travel demand for use of privately owned vehicles and may contribute to pressures for dispersed development.” Or, in layman’s terms, the CRC will lead to sprawl, like every other freeway expansion.

If the Federal EPA can see the truth behind this debacle, why can’t all the agencies supporting the project see it as well? The CRC has nearly unanimous support, albeit very conditional support from the City of Portland and Metro. Why? Are we that desperate to build something that won’t solve the real issues (aside from structural integrity of the I-5 bridge), but rather create new issues? Yes, we need multiple transit options, but the CRC centers around roadways, and double the amount we now have.

Roadway congestion is a symptom of a far larger problem than not enough lanes. There will never be enough lanes until people stop driving personal vehicles as much as they do now. The demand for roadways comes from social and market conditions that have enabled (and in many cases forced) people to drive. 12 lanes will not cure the disease, they will merely prolong the pain. Rising fuel costs, urban revitalization (work and life), increased heavy-rail freight use –these are are all key components to reducing congestion. But they’re far more complex to implement and take far more time than simply paving over more ground and widening a bridge.

If you build it, they indeed will come.

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DSCN9753.JPG

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

In my neighborhood, where I have lived now for 10 years, things are changing rather quickly. I live 2 blocks off N Interstate and the new zoning proposal is really going to change the landscape. Where single family homes currently stand, high rise apartments and/or condos will soon dominate. Boy, the ghosts in my 1890s home would be miffed.

I’m not against development. I am actually for it in my little neighborhood. I want to see some of the detritus removed and if condos come in as the replacement, so be it. Slowly the neighborhood cleans up. [For all you haters who think I'm supporting the negative side of gentrification, email me offline your home address and I'll send over some of my neighbors and neighbor's "friends" to come over and shit in your lawn, steal your flowers and plants or knock on your door @ 1am looking for cans.] Change can be good.

And yet…. The photo to the left is of a couple of houses just a block from my house which are boarded up. In total, there are currently 7 single family homes on that block of 9 that are boarded up. These houses range in age from 54-104yrs old. Seriously, one of the houses was built in 1904 and will be razed in a few short weeks. See, they are razing the entire block in order to build a mixed use complex with condos, apartments and retail space right off the Prescott MAX stop. An amazing location for anyone to be sure. It saddens me to see these old houses go, but it saddens me more to see my liquor store go.

Yep, the liquor store! I live 2 blocks from a prime liquor store, the only one within many miles. There are no liquor stores on NE MLK, nor on N Interstate. Whole neighborhoods are going to be left wanting when this liquor store closes in a couple of weeks. All in the name of development. Where will I get my whiskey now?

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I live a block off NE MLK, Jr. Boulevard. In my daily commute on the #6, I always pass empty, boarded-up buildings. It’s depressing to see, especially when there are other signs of revitalization happening in small pockets.

With all the planned building projects scheduled to occur in the coming months and years, I know things will look better, but getting there will be a series of struggles.

According to today’s Oregonian, the Walsh Construction Company has pulled out of a project on NE MLK, Jr. Boulevard where Planned Parenthood would be the anchor tenant due to the barrage of anti-abortion protesters. I have seen the anti-abortion protesters with their signs showing aborted fetuses, signs saying Planned Parenthood is killing the black community (riiiight…) and so on.

While the Walsh Construction Company made the decision based on the fear of repercussions from anti-abortion protesters who may stop at nothing, I hope other businesses and firms are not scared away.

This area needs more small businesses to come in and serve the community. Not only by offering jobs, but also allowing people who live in the neighborhood to see how they can support local businesses and keeping their dollars spent close to home.

Do I want the area to become another Pearl District? No, and it probably never could become that way due to a number of factors. That said, it would be wonderful to look out the bus window and spy a shop I want to check out after work rather than seeing another abandoned building.

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