You may have glossed over the headlines about the City Council’s infatuation with new arenas for minor sports. The deal being crafted is for public financing and subsidy to convert the current baseball stadium (PGE Park) into a soccer venue and to construct a replacement stadium in either Lents, or at the Rose Quarter.
General Membership Meeting Minutes 2008-10-13
City and Metro Planning Activities
Writing this column about land use issues in our neighborhood tends to get my dander up because our neighborhood seems to bear the brunt of some poor land use policies and decisions. The problem with that is that I want to discuss more issues in more detail than space in this column allows. I have been encouraged therefore, to participate in the Eliot web site land use blog to supplement the Eliot News column and to provide more timely news. I haven’t blogged before, so you may have to bear with me. As a result, I am going to try to just present highlights of current land use and transportation issues in Eliot News and provide more background, detail, and discussion on the web site.
Building Green
Around the Neighborhood…
I recently found out that the Irvington newsletter has featured a column of the same title (Around the Neighborhood) for several years. Apologies to Dick Levy, but I decided to keep using this title anyway.
This column is for Earth Day, April 22nd. One of my pet peeves in the land use/development world is how politicians and businesses get away marketing themselves as “green” when they are anything but. Recent articles have extolled how “green” Oregon and Portland are. Also, several recent housing developments in Eliot have made the same claim. The combination finally set me off.
Developments on Hold
The real estate slump is hitting Eliot, gently so far. Two major developments have been put on hold for now including The Kaiser Group (Ben Kaiser, architect/developer) projects at Fremont and Vancouver and the planned development on the Wonder Bread site across the street.
Central City Concern’s Ramada Inn
Central City Concern is moving forward with redevelopment of the old Ramada Inn at the Rose Quarter into workforce housing. At least that is what it is supposed to be. Recent news articles indicate it is being used for a shelter for homeless women and is planned to host Hopper Detox.
Street Car Routes
The city has undertaken a comprehensive look at potential new streetcar routes. This process is a first step to identify possible routes potentially as a way to begin a longer term planning effort to designate preferred routes and plans to expand the system. Two routes through Eliot were identified, the Williams/Vancouver couplet and MLK.
Interstate Development Plan
Development along the Interstate Max line has not met expectations thus far, so the City asked Planning staff to look at the current zoning to stimulate it. Staff held an open house in the fall to provide a first look to area residents. Gary [ENA Chair] and I both attended separately. However, we both came away with the same impression, namely there was not a lot of support for the proposal.
Emanuel Hospital Expansion
Emanuel Hospital has announced plans to expand its children’s wing and add a large new parking structure. The expansion follows that of other area hospitals and will allow the hospital to eliminate shared rooms and a small increase in the number of beds. The new wing will occupy a surface parking lot.
Bag of Books Sale
The Multnomah County Library Title Wave Used Bookstore on Knott street is having a Bag of Books Sale. They are selling books and audiotapes.
They’ll give you a bag for $10 and you can fill it up with books and audiotapes. There is a limit of 10 bags per customer. Books have to fit in the bag completely. The sale is Saturday, Jan 26 from 10am – 4pm or until they run out of books. It’s a great deal and helps to support the Multnomah County Library. Title Wave is at 216 NE Knott, phone 503-988-5021.
Eliot Neighborhood 