For decades, Portland was the major West Coast city slightly behind the times, somewhat out of step with its urban brethren--from Vancouver, BC, to San Diego. Known as a blue-collar town, much employment tied to the Port, Portland never boomed. Portland, the joke goes, was always coming out of a recession, or entering one.
When I removed myself here in the 80s, I surmised little was ever torn down to make room for the new. The eastside of Portland was chockfull of cozy bungalows, pre-WWII garden homes, some even pre-dating WWI. Plus an amazing lack of apartment buildings.
But in the last five years the picture changed dramatically. The city that once expressed the feeling of a town is falling to the wrecking ball, left and right.
The economy is booming (as everywhere). Early on, Portland built out a light rail system that has urban planners across the country drooling. Yearning for less cars and more mass transit, the City Planning Bureau has only one mantra: infill, infill, infill. Towering cranes dominate the inner-city skyline and one mega-building after another, filled with hundreds of apartments, goes up. Only streets seem to constrain the size of these apartment complexes.
With the mania for infill driven and abetted by City Hall--might a real estate estate syndicate back east with some loose change that decides, Let's do Portland! face roadblocks from the City fathers? Not a chance. This outside money attention looks like progress.
But I wonder if we are witnessing the birth of Portland's future tenements?
One precedent is that Portland underwent extensive gentrification, beginning in the 70s. Single-family residences in close-in Portland command a premium. Many of those displaced moved to apartment complexes that went up on the outskirts of Portland. Built in the 50s and 60s, but losing their lustre as more desirable tenants move away or into the city.
I won't predict these mega-apartment complexes going up will cycle and become eyesore tenements. But I see some worrying trends afoot. As of last week, the State of Oregon has statewide rent control (which economic theory would suggest dries up rental housing stock and associated upkeep). Add in a credible political movement to outlaw single-family residences. Duplex, triplex, quadplex, additional dwelling unit (ADU) on your R-1 lot? No problem. What does wishful "affordable housing" really look like? Single-room occupancy?
Where does it go? Might a race to the bottom implode our housing stock?
Image credit: pdxmonthly.com
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection (and feel free to share with a friend) The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
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