Our 30th Page 11-15 Year Street Fair Sunday August 25 · 11 am - 6 pm AUGUST SOUTHEAST EXAMINER 2019 southeastexaminer.com “Your Neighborhood News Source” Vol 30 No 8 Portland, OR Code Challenges Neighborhood Clout BY MIDGE PIERCE It’s an assault on Democracy, says urbanist Michael Mehaffy who views the A City Bureau under Commissioner rewrite as a way to stifle public voices. He Chloe Eudaly is rushing a code change to warns that representative governments, no Council that, under the guise of equity and matter how well-intentioned, “die in dark- inclusion, weakens government account- ness” when they lose transparency. ability and eliminates the codified status of Stripping NA status could relieve Portland’s ninety-five Neighborhood As- City bureaus of neighborhood obligations sociations. and accountability on landuse, budgets and Controversial code change 3.96 by livability. the Office of Community and Civic Life For over forty years, NAs have suc- (OCCL/aka Civic Life) would eliminate cessfully fought off freeway expansions, neighborhood (NA) recognition as the protected parks from sell-offs and ques- City’s official go-to for notification and tioned city policies on safety, growth and public engagement on zoning, transporta- the environment. tion and infrastructure. Commissioner Eudaly and OCCL The 1911 Phoenix Pharmacy building After seven months of seemingly Director Suk Rhee say their goal is to ex- secretive meetings, OCCL’s draft rewrite pand the “circle of engagement,” not dis- surfaced with no reference to NAs or re- mantle NAs. Phoenix Reborn quirements for codified groups to abide by At summer events, the duo has dou- state standards for open meetings. turn to page 23 BY DAVID KROGH chased the fledgling Phoenix Pharmacy business in 1911 and commissioned the An old boarded up triangular brick construction of the brick building with its building on Foster Rd. is about to be re- unique windows. RIP’s search for land: Responsible born. Located at SE 67th St., it originally Under Leach’s direction, the business got its start as the Phoenix Pharmacy in grew and expanded beyond pharmaceu- Growth or Demolition Derby? 1922. ticals to household goods including cam- Though it has gone through several eras, phonographs, and sporting goods. By sion of “Portland for everyone” has suc- incarnations over the years and has been 1935, the building housed the headquarters BY GABE FRAYNE ceeded beyond expectations in providing sitting vacant since 1999, it has recently of the area YMCA. housing for upper income arrivals, but the been sold to Foster the Phoenix LLC for Mr. Leach retired in the late 1960’s On a quiet street off of NE Glisan, a rush to greater density has not been as kind the purpose of a total restoration to pre- and sold the pharmacy business and moved one-story, century-old cottage fell to the to middle and lower-income residents. serve its architectural integrity. across the street, but was still located on wrecking ball three years ago to make way The Bureau of Planning and Sustain- Pharmacist John Leach, whose home Foster. His former pharmacy building was for a modern single home and a duplex be- ability (BPS) believes it has at least a par- was at the current Leach Gardens site, pur- turn to page 22 side it. tial solution to this dilemma: the Residen- This routine housing conversion ex- tial Infill Project (RIP), which will publish emplifies what pro-growth advocates con- its draft recommendation in August. sider a wise use of land: where once there In tandem with recently enacted state was one dwelling there are now three, cre- bill HB2001, the report will recommend ating more “housing choice” for a rapidly zoning and building size changes that will growing city. incentivize construction of so-called mid- The only problem with this proposi- dle housing: duplexes, triplexes, fourplex- tion is that the original dwelling was an af- es, and ADUs throughout the city. fordably priced rental, and the house and These changes immediately raise the duplex recently sold for 587 and 933 thou- question: where will builders find the land sand dollars respectively. for up to 20,000 units of new middle hous- Clearly, the YIMBY/developer mis- ing? RIP has struggled to come up with solutions to the severe affordable housing shortage in a city with a growing popula- Volunteers cleaning up Hawthorne Blvd. tion and a finite amount of land. The National League of Cities de- fines infill as “new development sited on Paint the Town Green vacant or undeveloped land within an ex- BY ALLEN FIELD a box spring and four passenger tires near isting community.” As Morgan Tracy, RIP 82nd Ave. project manager notes, “there’s not a lot of Approximately two hundred and fifty Along Hawthorne, Division, and vacant land out there.” volunteers, young and old, fanned out from Clinton, fifteen pounds of cigarette butts Tracy tends to see the problem more locations near 82nd Ave. and the Central were collected and sent off for recycling. in terms of underutilized capacity, meaning Christian Church on SE Cesar E. Chavez Volunteers dropped off their litter bags at essentially, single-family homes on 5,000 Blvd. to clean up litter and graffiti as part predesignated locations, which Metro’s square-foot or larger lots. Yet he strongly of the second annual Paint the Town Green RID (Regional Illegal Dump) collected denies that the city is, or will be, facilitat- event. later in the day. Graffiti was cleaned off ing more demolitions. The day was organized by nine of utility poles and boxes, and the City’s “There’s nothing that’s promoting a neighborhood associations: Lents, Foster- Graffiti Program worked with Graffiti demolition agenda, and actually, with the Powell, Mt. Scott-Arleta, Brentwood- Removal Services to remove graffiti off of FAR [floor-to-area ratio] and size limita- Darlington, Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, buildings. tions we’re proposing, there are disincen- Richmond, Sunnyside and HAND. After the cleanup was over, tives for demolition,” Tracy explains. The event was sponsored by Metro, volunteers gathered at Glenwood Park He claims the demolition epidemic KINK FM radio, Portland’s Graffiti for food provided by Shawarma Express, began with the proliferation of McMan- Program within the Office of Community and at Central Christian Church for lunch sions and that the RIP recommendations and Civic Life, the Bureau of Planning and provided by Pepino’s Mexican Grill and would incentivize building affordable Sustainability’s Keep It Pretty Rose City a free raffle with prizes donated by many multi-family units on the same amount of program, SOLVE, and SE Uplift. local businesses. In two hours, volunteers picked up a The hope next year is to expand this turn to page 22 half a ton of litter, including two mattresses, event to even more neighborhoods. 2 THE SOUTHEAST EXAMINER AUGUST 19 State Bills Passed in 2019 BY DAVID KROGH bill by December of 2020. Cities transportation permit issuance. would need to follow this model HB 2007: regulates diesel A stress filled and some- unless they adopt their own ver- truck emissions with the inten- times chaotic 2019 Oregon State sions. tion of requiring updated engines legislative session is now over. This bill and HB2003 (see and emission systems over time Several bills that passed are note- next discussion) will greatly so as to reduce excessive exhaust worthy and will be briefly exam- change the future of residential emissions. ined as follows. planning and zoning in Oregon. HB 2716: a bill that im- HB 200: proposed by HB 2003: requires the State poses transparency for campaign House Speaker Tina Kotek to Housing and Community Ser- advertising. Campaign ads or mandate densification of single vices Department to develop a messages must clearly identify family zoning in most cities with- regional housing needs analysis the names of the primary donors in the State in order to address by September of 2020 in order or campaign committee. housing shortages. to establish guidance for cities to HB 3427: creates a Corpo- Palmer Mason with the De- better address housing needs. rate Activity Tax based on com- partment of Land Conservation DLCD is required to report mercial activity conducted by and Development (DLCD), says on the analysis as it relates to the businesses for purposes of school cities over 25,000 in population housing assessments of cities. programs. and cities in metropolitan service Cities of 10,000 or more in popu- The tax is $250 plus 0.57% districts (such as Metro) are man- lation will be required to adopt on taxable commercial activity dated to update zoning codes and housing capacity analyses and above $1 million. It reduces the plans by June of 2022 to allow housing production strategies in Personal Income Tax rates for the middle density housing within all response. three lower brackets from 5%, areas previously zoned for single SB 870: signed by Gover- 7%, and 9% to 4.75%, 6.75%, family housing. nor Brown, makes Oregon the and 8.75% and creates a Fund Middle density housing 15th state to approve a measure for Student Success to allocate includes duplexes, triplexes, honoring the national popular funds/grants for school class size fourplexes, and cottage clusters. vote. This means Oregon’s seven reductions, special needs assess- Cities outside of metropolitan electoral votes would all go to ments, and other program im- service districts and with popu- the popular vote winner for US provements. These tax changes lations of between 10,000 and President. first take effect with tax year 25,000 shall modify codes and If enough states adopt this 2020. plans to permit duplexes where measure so they represent the SB 608: caps how much single-family housing is allowed amount needed to elect the Presi- landlords can raise rent and by June of 2021.