Demo Rule Changes on Tap ■ City Vows by JIM REDDEN Hoods,” Hales Says
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Roots of Pumpkin Ridge EDITION — SEE SPORTS, B1 GREATER PORTLAND PortlandTUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2014 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPERTribune • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY Still Old Town WORKIN’ revival their plan banks CHOPS on housing Historic buildings in line to get seismic upgrade funds from PDC By STEVE LAW The Tribune Mayor Charlie Hales says he’s “ashamed at the condition of Old Town/Chinatown.” Now we’ll see if the mayor’s proposed fi xes will do much to change that. The Portland City Council narrowly approved an ambitious Old Town/Chinatown Action Plan last week, aimed at helping historic-building Left: Sequoia owners afford earthquake safety upgrades and Allen and luring the fi rst middle-income tenants to the Mitchell city’s oldest and poorest neigh- Zunneville dance borhood. The Portland Development as the New “We think Commission, which crafted the Horizons Big action plan in close consulta- this is a Band performs tion with neighborhood prop- signifi cant during Art erty owners and community inducement Splash in leaders, set aside $500,000 to Tualatin. help owners assess their build- for a part Above: The ings for potential seismic up- of our city New Horizons grades. Then PDC will award trumpet players $5 million for actual upgrades, that is in rehearse. in what is billed as a demon- dire need of stration project with the city’s Bureau of Emergency Manage- changing ■ ment and Bureau of Develop- the status Tualatin big band breaks age barriers, keeps on swingin’ ment Services. The idea is to quo.” model how to renovate old aking after his father, teach you how to play the trum- for a weapon. He returned three brick buildings that are largely — Dan Saltzman, Bob Lenneville began Story by Caitlin Feldman pet instead,’” said Lenneville. “It years later to teach music and be- vacant because earthquake city commissioner learning the drums at Photos by Lacey Jacoby was a challenge, I think, probably come a band director, and in 1960, safety requirements make re- Tage 5. By age 14, he’d more than anything. I never got Lenneville led Roseburg High models so costly. switched to the trumpet because very good at it, but it was fun.” School to the Rose Parade, where Beyond that initial phase, PDC has another his drum habit had grown too ex- trumpet, the year was 1936. So, Lenneville played through- it was the honored band. Less $50 million or so available in urban renewal pensive. And by age 23, he was “To be a drummer, you’ve got out high school in Portland and than a month shy of his 92nd funds, which could subsidize a series of seismic majoring in music at the Univer- so much equipment you have to for the United States Army in birthday, he’s still playing the retrofits in Old Town/Chinatown during the sity of Oregon. buy. And in those days, the 1930s, World War II. He played for the trumpet, this time with New Hori- next several years. This all seems like a pretty av- it was the depression and all that University of Oregon before being zons Big Band of Tualatin. Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish erage story, except that when stuff. (My dad) said, ‘No — that’s sent to the Korean War, where he hotly opposed one provision designed to spur Lenneville was given his first too much money, so we’re gonna had to put down his instrument See BAND / Page A2 construction of 500 middle-income apartments by freeing builders from paying an estimated $7 million in development fees. That kept the ac- tion plan bottled up for several months while Hales made concessions and rounded up two more votes needed to pass it. Lisa Abuaf, PDC’s central city manager, says there are a few projects already “in the pipe- line” that likely will contend for early seismic Weighmaster death stirs issues upgrades. “We hope to be one of those,” says Brian Mc- forms and unmarked vehicles gave the im- State report could focus on pression they were law enforcement. How- See OLD TOWN / Page A7 ever, they had never had any training in how safety, training concerns to safely make traffi c stops, which, according to documents, they did about 15 to 20 times By SHASTA KEARNS MOORE each week. Pamplin Media Group “They have been expressing concerns to management about this issue for several It seems like everyone who knew Grady years,” Loving says. “They were concerned Waxenfelter loved him. The Estacada man that they could run across some nut and be many describe as warm, caring, an elder mistaken for a full public safety offi cer.” A highway at his church and a beloved father of Clackamas County offi cials — including memorial honors three was shot and killed Feb. 6 on duty Peterson, the architect of Clackamas Coun- Grady as a Clackamas County Weighmaster. ty’s Weighmaster Program — were asked Waxenfelter, a But while everyone is mourning Waxenfel- several times for comment on this story. Clackamas ter’s loss, some are also saying that Clacka- County spokesperson Tim Heider says the County mas County’s Weighmaster Program and its structure of the Weighmaster Program is weighmaster supervisor, Kevin Peterson, have been skirt- in fl ux but could not give a timeline or any who was killed ing disaster for years. more details of coming changes. In a writ- near the In the next few days, Oregon OSHA is ex- ten statement, County Administrator Don intersection of pected to release its six-month investigation Krupp says he took an independent re- TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE Highway 224 and into the workplace incident, which could car- port’s fi ndings “very seriously” but also The Whidden & Lewis Building on the northwest Amisigger Road ry a hefty fi ne for the county. gave no specifi cs on the direction the coun- corner of Flanders Street and Fifth Avenue in Old on Feb. 6. Don Loving, a union spokesperson, says Town is in line for improvements. The City Council TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO county employees worried that their uni- See WEIGHMASTER / Page A6 hopes new funding will boost redevelopment. Hales: Demo rule changes on tap ■ City vows By JIM REDDEN hoods,” Hales says. Hales says he became convinced increasing number of residential The Tribune According to of the problem during the July 31 demolitions took the opportunity to to tackle Hales, staff mem- City Council meeting that turned present their concerns to the coun- ‘demolition Mayor Charlie Hales is con- bers in his office into a lively forum on demolition cil. And both commission’s support- epidemic’ vinced the city needs to act have already begun and other growth-related issues. It ed their testimony, with local archi- quickly to prevent more historic meeting to discuss was originally scheduled so the tect Brian Emerick, chairman of the threatening homes from being demolished policy options. He council could receive annual re- landmarks commission, declaring livability and replaced with infi ll develop- expects to an- ports from two commissions that Portland’s livability is threatened ments. nounce one or advise on related matters, the Port- by a “demolition epidemic.” “The existing system is not work- more proposals HALES land Landmarks Commission and Hales praised those who testifi ed ing. When historic homes are re- soon. the Portland Design Commission. for presenting a compelling case placed by one or two new ones, you “It will be a matter of weeks, not But preservationists and neigh- lose the character of neighbor- months,” Hales says. borhood activists alarmed by the See DEMOLITION / Page A2 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that re ects the THE PURR-FECT CAT LOVER stories of our communities. Thank you — SEE PORTLAND LIFE, PAGE B1 for reading our newspapers.” Inside — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Tuesday, August 12, 2014 Demolition: Projects are part of inll work on lots that can be legally divided ■ From page A1 for more homes, putting them at increasing risk for redevelop- that existing city policies in- ment as the economy continues tended to preserve historic to improve. properties are not working, es- Most of those who testified pecially now that the economy called the current rate of demoli- is improving and many people tions an epidemic that is destroy- want to live in close-in Portland ing the character Portland neigh- The New neighborhoods that contain a borhoods. Developer Jeff Fish Horizons Big large number of older homes noted they were a very small Band of Tualatin that can be replaced. percent of the cities existing rehearses. “It was an excellent hearing. 150,000-plus homes. He has also TIMES PHOTOS: The people who testified made a said that most of those homes are LACEY JACOBY very reasonable case that some- not worth saving forever, noting thing should be done to save his- that many were not built to last toric home and the answer is in the first place. He considers yes,” says Hales. most of the infill projects part of Still, there are a number of the evolution of all cities, which Band: Group revives a genre challenges for Hales. are constantly changing in re- For starters, a law passed by sponse to market forces. ■ From page A1 the 1995 Legislature during the Nevertheless, Fish says the Join the band height of the property rights city should identify those consid- movement prevents the city tell- ered historic and find some way “The main thing is the chal- ■New Horizons Big Band of ing homeowners they cannot de- to allow preservationists instead lenge involved in doing it right.