• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

SOUTHEAST EXAMINER Your Neighborhood News Source March 2020 Created and Powered by the Love of Community southeastexaminer.com Our 31st Year Vol 31 No 3 Portland, OR Fixing Our Streets dition. Now the Portland City Council is criticized for trying to renew this regres- BY DON MACGILLIVRAY sive tax. The congestion and poor condition During the first four years of the Fix- of Portland streets is a frequent public ing Our Streets program its $84 million im- complaint. The first effort at “Fixing Our proved 40 lane miles of road, constructed Streets” was a 10 cents per gallon gas tax 300 new sidewalk ramps, made 58 inter- narrowly approved in 2016. sections safer and built 49 projects for Safe This is an excellent beginning to ad- Routes to Schools. dress a chronic problem, but the work is far In addition, money has been used for from complete. Therefore, the renewal of the improvements to SE Foster Rd., NE this fee will again be on the ballot this May. Halsey St., NE Weidler St. and to sections Some thought the 10 cent gas tax of SW Capitol Hwy. would not be renewed after the first four These programs are audited annually years, but, even with its success, problems and the Fixing Our Streets Oversight Com- are far from being resolved. mittee reviews the progress continuously. Portland has 4,834 lane-miles of They have advised the formulation of this paved roads. 40 percent of Portland’s busi- ballot measure and will continue their est streets were deficient and 47 percent of work into the future. Photo by Gabe Frayne residential roads were in poor condition as 40 percent of the work of Fixing Our judged by a 2013 City of Portland audit. Streets has been contracted with minority- Portland’s Struggle with Affordable Two years later, these statistics were 49 owned and emerging small businesses, percent and 56 percent, respectively. twice the goal set for the program. Over the In 2015 Portland identified a $1 bil- last four years, the Portland Department of Housing lion street maintenance backlog estimated Transportation has increased their work BY GABE FRAYNE evicted. That was in 2017, well before Or- to take 10 years to fix. The City Council efficiencies, established stronger manage- egon’s (largely feckless) rent control law was tentative about referring a tax on gaso- ment systems and enhanced businesses re- Jeanne Favini looks back with a and Portland’s relocation assistance ordi- line to the Portland voters. lationships. mixture of bitterness and embarrassment nance went into effect. The first Fixing Our Streets ballot The 2021-2024 program is divided at the moment she realized she faced an According to data compiled by Rent- measure in 2016 was for $76 million and into three primary focus areas: smoother imminent choice between homelessness jungle.com, in the six years between 2011 there was another $8 million gleaned from streets, safer streets and community trans- or moving into her adult daughter’s guest and 2017, the average rent for a two-bed- a tax on heavy vehicles, but at $21 million portation services. room for an extended visit. room apartment increased by 70 percent per year, it would take 50 years to bring $25 million includes paving and pre- “The landlords specifically said that city-wide (though rents have since seen a Portland’s streets back into first class con- continued on page 11 they felt they were leaving money on the modest decline). table because these were modest apart- Scenarios such as Favini’s prompted ments at modest rents,” she explains, “so voters in Portland to approve a $258 mil- they started to raise the rents several times lion affordable housing bond in 2016, fol- a year. None of us had leases. They didn’t lowed by a $652 million bond in the tri- do leases.” county Metro area two years later. Favini was referring to the Chestnut Last September, Mayor Ted Wheeler Court apartments on SE Stark, which she declared that the Portland housing bond had called home for several years. was succeeding beyond expectations. With “They decided they wanted a bet- a dozen projects in various states of com- ter class of tenants,” she recalls, and there pletion, the bond has provided 1,424 units ensued a brief attempt to form a tenants of affordable housing as of the beginning union. of this year. That’s more than the 1,300 “They just went ballistic, brought in originally projected for all the funding a battery of lawyers and went for us big- available. time.” “This slate of projects not only gets Within months, most of the tenants, us to our numeric goals, but it reaffirms including Favini, had effectively been our commitment as a city to better serving communities of color, to mitigating dis- placement and to committing our invest- ments in our east Portland neighborhoods,” Wheeler told The Oregonian. The bond’s projects include both ac- Photo by Teressa Raiford quisition and upgrades of existing housing, as well as construction of new housing. Teressa Raiford - Candidate for Among the former are the Ellington Apartments at 1610 NE 66th Ave. and the Mayor East Burnside Apartments, which was a The Multnomah County Health De- BY JACK RUBINGER brand new building at the time it was ac- partment’s annual review of homeless quired. The Ellington in particular would Teressa Raiford doesn’t pause for deaths found that during the 2018 calendar appear to target one of the main problems a breath. She has a lot to say, she’s pas- year, 92 people died in Multnomah County that the bond seeks to address. sionate, has a sense of humor and a deep without an address or a home of their own. A link to the Portland Housing Bu- knowledge of Portland history. All too familiar with this data, part reau (PHB) site notes that “Before the She’s running for Mayor because of Raiford’s community advocacy as a acquisition, [the Ellington’s] 263 garden- she’s frustrated with the acquiescence non-profit leader is protecting, feeding and style apartments and town homes were be- shown by Portland leaders not showing up clothing houseless communities while ad- ing marketed to higher-income clientele, for community at times that civic participa- vocating for legal referral services. threatening to displace residents. tion is most needed. She has seen too many broken prom- “Now, plans are underway to trans- Raiford lives across from a church in ises from entities like Portland Housing form all of the units into affordable homes, NW Portland. The steps are frequented by Bureau, which she believes is more com- welcoming at least 80 extremely low- houseless individuals on rainy nights. mitted to rapid development than to the income families and stabilizing hundreds “We’ve got to resolve our housing people. who were previously at risk of losing their issues,” she said. “You can’t do anything “I believe in restoration and rehabili- housing.” without a place to live.” tation while providing affordable housing continued on page 2 continued on page 17 2 THE SOUTHEAST EXAMINER MARCH 2020 Richmond Considers Parking Permits SE HAWTHORNE BY MIDGE PIERCE Attendee comments ranged ways. from cost concerns and outrage Tony Jordan of the Park- Few issues rile up Portland- that tax-paying residents are bur- ing Reform Network indicated PAVE AND PAINT ers quite so much as parking. On dened with a problem caused by that close-in commuter programs The City is repaving and looking at street the eastside, it is dividing those developers, to testimonials about like Buckman’s can complement changes to better serve people and businesses. who seek it from those who seek hardships parents of small chil- hours residents are away to work. to reduce it. dren and seniors face when un- As growth challenges make park- COME TO A As the Richmond neigh- able to park and unload near their ing scarcer, he suggested selling borhood grapples with a squeeze homes. special day-use permits to com- COMMUNITY WORKSHOP caused by developments on SE Longtime bike activist muters that could raise funds for Supervised child activities will be available at each event. Division St., the Portland Bureau Doug Klotz was on hand with a transit subsidies and safety pro- of Transportation (PBOT) held an timely reminder to drivers to stop grams. open house to announce explora- blocking visibility by adhering He added that congestion MARCH 7 MARCH 10 tion of a parking permit proposal to state parking requirements to may necessitate overnight per- 1:00-4:00 p.m. 5:30-8:30 p.m. for the area. leave a 20-foot gap between cars mits as proposed by a Centers and SE Uplift Western Seminary PBOT will appoint an ad- and corners. Corridors toolkit. For Richmond, 3534 SE Main St Chapel visory group of businesses, rent- The Richmond parking he advocated an equitable balance 5511 SE Hawthorne Blvd ers and homeowners to work on squeeze typically occurs in the between “residents, workers, visi- design and boundaries. The focus evenings and on weekends when tors and patrons of all incomes Take our survey and learn more at will likely be several blocks north popular restaurants and shops and abilities” as well as aware- www.portlandoregon.gov/ transportation/hawthorne-repave and south of Division between along Division are busiest. ness of both costs and impacts of 39th Ave and 29th Ave. Those demands are quite “building more and building less” PBOT representatives ac- different from the crunch and parking. knowledged that implementing congestion caused by daytime When it comes to permits, parking permits may impact ad- commuters in Buckman where only one thing is certain: you jacent areas that would continue parking programs have been can’t please everyone.

Load more

  20

Copy Link