Our Ramen Vision Gill Landry Rides 29th Time Zero a Dark Horse Year Page 12 Page 2 Page 18 APRIL SOUTHEAST EXAMINER 2018 southeastexaminer.com “Your Neighborhood News Source” Vol 29 No 4 Portland, OR Council Ponders URM Retrofits BY GABRIEL FRAYNE JR. public information officer for BEM. That standard is known as “collapse The city-wide dilemma concerning risk reduction,” which would require the how to mandate seismic retrofits for Port- majority of URM owners to brace parapets land’s nearly two thousand unreinforced (sections of exterior wall that rise above masonry buildings (URMs) without forc- the roof line), cornices and chimneys, and ing their demise will take a step towards attach roofs and floors to the walls within a policy resolution when the issue comes a fifteen-year time line. A higher standard before the city council later this month. of retrofit would be required for “essential” This phase of a nearly three-year buildings such as utilities, schools and hos- long process follows the release of a final pitals. report by the URM Policy Committee who Although the standard falls short of makes a series of recommendations for ret- the “life safety” standard for all URMs the rofitting different categories of buildings BEM had advocated for previously, the depending on their use. recommendations remain problematic for The council will be hearing from a many URM owners. variety of community stakeholders, which According to Kathy Rogers, co-chair includes URM building owners. Whatever of Save Portland Buildings (and, with her mandate eventually results from the coun- husband Marc, the owner of the Morlee Larry Kirby on his elliptical bike cil’s action will only relate to commercial Court apartments on Hawthorne Blvd.), buildings, churches, schools and other “Our stance is that we want to have the saf- public buildings and multi-family apart- est buildings possible, but we have to be Around the World on the ment buildings. Single-family residences able to do something that is financially ten- will not be affected. able.” URM refers to older brick and ma- Of course, financially tenable means Streets of Portland sonry buildings built before the 1960s, different things to different owners. Rog- when city codes began to require steel-re- ers estimates that under current building inforced construction for larger buildings. code 24.85, she will spend approximately BY NANCY TANNLER and the country were his to explore and he Fifty years on, the designation has come to 300 thousand dollars to retrofit her build- did just that until high school when riding symbolize many of the remnants of Port- ing when she replaces the roof sometime Just as we are waking up, we some- bikes wasn’t so cool. land’s early history, including Union Sta- within the next five years. “It’s no small times catch a glimpse of our neighbor Lar- His older brothers both went to Mt. tion, the Crystal Ballroom, Rejuvenation piece of change, but it’s something that’s ry Kirby returning from his daily exercise Angel seminary for high school partly be- Hardware, St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, doable,” she says. – riding his elliptical bike. On February 24 cause the local priest of their parish was and the Historic Belmont Firehouse – the It seems the main point of contention of this year, he hit 24,901 miles. In other a recruiter for the seminary. The brothers latter three in SE. between Save Portland Buildings and the words, he rode around the world. Kirby has both told Larry he would like it there since The fact that these buildings pose a BEM is the proposed requirement to attach been riding for 2,031 days logging 2,084 he was the intellectual type, so he ended up potential danger to the public in the event roofs and floors to the walls, which is both hours. Way to go Larry! attending Mt. Angel too. of a major earthquake has been the under- expensive and disruptive. Larry is the fourth of six children Cycling with a friend in 1982, they lying reality of the Bureau of Emergency While the current building code who grew up in Fossil, Oregon. His parents decided to go on a bike trip from the Dalles Management’s (BEM) attempt to reach a might suffice to reduce the risk of debris were from Hood River where is mother’s to Bend across the Cascades, to Lincoln compromise with URM building owners falling on passersby, the collapse risk re- family were some of the first pioneers. City, up the coast to Astoria, west on High- (including public agencies) over building duction aims to limit the risk of buildings When he was a baby, his dad got transferred way 30 and across the St. John’s Bridge. code changes. pancaking down and killing or injuring the to Fossil. They thought it would only be for “We rode 700 miles and if I wasn’t in “The standard that the policy com- occupants inside. a year, but the place got a hold on them and shape at the start of the ride, I sure was by mittee ultimately proposed for many of the In any event, nobody seems to know they ended up staying for forty years. the end,” he beamed. What made the jour- buildings is better than doing nothing, but exactly where the funding for this massive “Fossil was a great place to grow up ney even more amazing than all the sights it’s not so high a standard that we can guar- citywide mandate will come from. in,” Kirby said. That’s where he got his first he said, was that he travelled it all on his antee that the buildings will be function- SB 311, enacted by the state legisla- refurbished bike with a brand new seatcov- own steam. ing after an earthquake,” says Dan Douthit, ture last fall, allows municipalities to give er he thought was “pretty cool”. The town turn to page 23 partial property tax exemptions to building owners for the purpose of seismic retrofits, but few URM owners believe this will be adequate to support contracts that could run over a million dollars. The funding SE Updates problem is even more onerous for school districts and hospitals, which would need BY MIDGE PIERCE of institutional living, spoke of the to retrofit to a higher standard. obstacles they face in securing housing. For URM owners without deep pock- No Easy Answers for Renters Without a rental history or a ets, the only alternative may be selling savings account to cover the steep their buildings at a discount to real estate Briefcases borne by the well- deposit requirements, or references to developers, which would in all likelihood dressed, on one side of an eastside gym counter restrictive screening policies, mean demolition. last month sat in Fellini-like contrast it’s virtually impossible. Douthit notes that many California cities “have gotten rid of all these build- to those burdened with financial and Housing advocates spoke of the ings” as a result of similar mandates, in some cases, physical challenges b fine line between the rent-challenged though Portland would have a consider- as they waited to contest rental policies and the homeless. They decried ably longer timeline. they claim make it difficult to find practices in which landlords turn away The politics of seismic risk reduction housing. potential tenants or failed to return remain somewhat murky as the City Coun- Portland is considering new security deposits. cil prepares to hear testimony. While some regulations on rental screening and Landlords spoke of the necessity claim that URM owners are protecting a security deposit criteria. In public of security deposits to offset damage vested interest, others point out that an ex- testimony before the Rental Services and the importance of walk-throughs orbitantly expensive mandate would create Commission, both sides made heartfelt to ensure tenants understood their a bonanza for the real estate development and compelling appeals and no easy responsibilities to leave property they industry. The council itself has been tight- answers emerged. way they found it. Participants in wheelchairs, several turn to page 21 of who had experienced lengthy periods turn to page 22 2 THE SOUTHEAST EXAMINER APRIL 18 Vision Zero Has Miles to Go BY DON MACGILLIVRAY achieve safe driving speeds is duced on 26 residential streets the core action of Vision Zero. and eight arterials. The City will The plan calls for street design continue to make speed reduc- In 2016 Portland adopted changes paired with posted speed tions where it is appropriate. the Vision Zero program. The ac- reductions on four to six streets A two-year pilot program complishments in its first year are each year. is underway for automated speed impressive. The first annual report says and safety cameras on four high Vision Zero’s intent is to that despite initial efforts, 2017 crash corridors. There has been a end all roads related deaths and was the most deadly traffic year decrease in speeding by 59 per- serious injuries in Portland by since 2003. Even with the good cent averaged over the SE corri- 2025. beginning progress it will take a dors. Reaching zero will take a while to see positive results. In Speed safety cameras are concerted, aggressive, creative, 2017, the Oregon State legislature important part of advancing eq- and collaborative action. passed a $5.3 billion statewide uity goals because they enforce It is a fact that slower driv- transportation funding package the speeding laws without any ing speeds help prevent crashes, that will include investments in racial profiling. There are now and when crashes occur, the harm safety for Portland’s High Crash pole mounted automated camera that results will be less.