Opinion: What I Think
At home one evening, I listened to the neighbor kids foot racing each other down the street. It made me appreciate the residents before me who made this neighborhood feel friendly and safe. Why then, do some people want to drastically change it?
That is exactly what the group Portland: Neighbors Welcome is planning for the Eastside neighborhoods from roughly 12th to 60th avenues and from Fremont Street to Powell Boulevard. Their plan, Inner Eastside for All, calls for upzoning all single-family residential properties in this designated area to allow apartment buildings and with no off-street parking requirements. Beaumont-Wilshire could see this kind of development in its quiet neighborhoods south of Fremont.
Does this upzoning apply to the entire city? Nope. For decades the City of Portland has dumped its problems on the Eastside. Projects such as the construction of I-5 and the Rose Quarter, the destruction of Black Main Street, and the annexation of Cully and the outer Eastside all helped the city but without much benefit to the existing communities.
Now it’s the Eastside’s burden to solve the city’s housing crisis. What about the West Hills, Multnomah Village, and Eastmoreland? Well, those are deemed “environmentally sensitive” areas, so the city can’t build apartment buildings in those neighborhoods. Strange, huh?
For years the city has made transit corridors and neighborhood centers — including NE Broadway and NE Sandy — the focus areas for high-density housing. Now, it seems they are intentionally neglecting these areas, instead trying something different, while many buildings sit vacant along these two transit corridors.
Back to those kids carelessly running down the street — will they still feel safe doing so 10 years from now in the denser “Inner Eastside?”
Tim Root has lived in B-W since 2007. His family is comprised of his wife Jean, a teenage daughter, three cats, and a dog. Tim serves on the BWNA board and chairs the land use committee.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association