HISTORIC

IRVINGTON
NEWSLETTER

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E I R V I N G T O N C O M M U N I T Y A S S O C I AT I O N

Fall 2016

FREE

Irvington walking tour

ICA Awards $20,000 in Grants for 2016

By Susan Hathaway-Marxer

t its meeting on June 9, 2016, the ICA Board

awarded grants from its Charitable Giving
Program to fourteen (14) organizations that
provide valued service to people living in the Irvington
neighborhood. Funds were budgeted for Charitable Giving
in the ICAs approved budget and $20,000 for grants was
budgeted and awarded.
The Grant High School All-Night Party Committee
received $1,500 for seed money to help fund the June
2017 graduation night party. Grant expects to graduate 380 students in 2017. The ICA has been a long-time
sponsor of this event, and many Irvington teenagers have
attended this party. A safe, fun and positive experience is
the Committees goal for high school seniors to celebrate
their accomplishments and high school graduation. The
ICA donation helps to make sure that every graduating
senior can attend the all-night party.
Kinship House, which operates from two small buildings located on NE 8th between Schuyler and Hancock,
received $1,000 to outfit two play and expressive therapy
rooms to help serve more children. The needs of foster
children and their families have increased mightily the past
few years, and Kinship House serves both biological and
adoptive families, doing its best to find each foster child a
permanent loving home.
Loaves & Fishes received $2,000 for the Meals on
Wheels program that provides meals served at and delivered from the kitchen facilities at its NE MLK, Jr. Blvd.
Center. They routinely deliver hot meals to homebound,
low-income adults and have recently seen a significant
increase in the number of seniors needing meals. Their
effort to provide seniors with adequate nutrition helps to
allow many people to maintain their independence and
remain in their own homes. Meals on Wheels service is
available to anyone age 60 or older, regardless of income,
who lives in their service area.
Irvington Preschool received $600 to establish a tuition
assistance program for low-income families to offset the
cost of monthly tuition. The preschool operates from
Augustana Lutheran Church and has been in Irvington
for over 50 years. They serve 30 children annually and on
average, over the past four years, 25% of their families have
qualified for full or partial tuition scholarship.
Metropolitan Family Services received $2,500 for its
Project Linkage program. Project Linkage provides inhome support and transportation services to low-income
older adults and people with disabilities, the goal being to
help them to continue to live independently. Operating
from its location at NE 24th avenue between Thompson
and Tillamook, Project Linkage provides rides for its clients to medical appointments, grocery stores, senior centers
and many other destinations, and their lift-equipped vans
and shuttle buses provided Irvington area clients with over
3,500 hours of service and almost 5,000 rides.
Home Forward (formerly the Portland Housing
Authority) received $2,700 to fund a major portion of the
cost of foot care clinics for the residents of Dahlke Manor
& Grace Peck Terrace. Over 200 low-income, elderly
or disabled people live in the two buildings located in
Irvington near the post office, and the grant helps to pay
for the much-needed services of a registered nurse. The

foot care clinics enable all the residents to be screened for

diabetes and its progression through regular examinations.

NE Child Development Center (NECDC) received $700

to fund the majority of the cost for its weekly Imagination
Yoga classes. They currently serve 34 families with children
ages one to five and have found that offering yoga to the
children in their care helps to build strength, flexibility, selfconfidence and calming skills. Now in its 35th year of operation, NECDC is a non-profit childcare center located in
Westminster Presbyterian Churchs building.
Hancock Street Preschool received $1,800. They will
use $800 to help fund their
general tuition financial assistance program and $1,000 to help with expenses
related to the hiring of a second teacher. Also located
at Westminster Presbyterian Church, the leadership of
this preschool has determined that they will continue to
maintain their program excellence and strive to keep their
tuition costs low in order to make the school as accessible
as possible to all families.
Beaumont Middle School Foundation received $800 to
help cover expenses related to fundraising for the 2016-17
school year. The Foundation is raising money to help pay
for staff hours above the level allocated by Portland Public
Schools, and it works with the principal to fill-in additional
staff hours across a variety of disciplines, including mentoring, music, PE and language instruction.
Irvington K-8 School requested and received $3,000
to acquire a stockpile of critical emergency supplies.
Irvington had an emergency situation last May 23 that
caused the evacuation of the building for nearly 2.5 hours,
and it revealed to the principal that the school building
desperately needs supplies that can be used to aid and comfort the entire school population of roughly 600 children,
staff and volunteers in the event of an emergency situation
during school hours. The shopping list includes buckets,
tents, Mylar blankets, water pouches, hand sanitizer and
toilet paper packets. Currently, the Portland Public School
District has provided only one emergency bucket per classroom and this money will build on those minimal supplies.
Community Warehouse received $1,000 to help the
organization purchase a 20 foot box truck with a tuckaway liftgate. Community Warehouse serves the Irvington
neighborhood by picking up household discards, such as
furniture and appliances and then making them available
to low-income and newly relocated families at no cost.
Their goal is to help people become self-sufficient, and
many people who need these items do not have transportation to get them home.
Sabin School received $800, which it will use to purchase books for its Grade K-3 students. The school principal wants classroom books that will be reflective of the
racial diversity of their students.
Beverly Cleary School requested and received $500 to
purchase a sound system for the cafetorium at its Fernwood
campus. The building has lacked a sound system for its
student musical and theatrical productions, and the principal wants her students to be heard by their audiences when
they perform. There have been as many as 900 people at
some performances, and there has been a great need for
this for a long time.
NE Villages received $1,100. This is a new group
launching in the community with a mission to develop

into an organization that will provide support to people

who wish to live out their lives in their own homes. They
will use the money to begin an awareness campaign of
their existence and seek support for member and volunteer
recruitment activities. NE Villages has a goal to enroll
35-40 fee-paying village members in the initial neighborhood recruitment.
The Charitable Giving Program of the ICA has been in
place since 1992 and is a committee of the ICA Board. The
Oregon Community Foundation advised the ICA Board
on the setup of the program and the guidelines for giving.
The guidelines are oriented toward serving the needs of
the young people and seniors in our neighborhood. The
program has defined criteria for eligibility, specifically (1)
that a recipient must be either a public school or a 503
organization under federal IRS rules, and (2) that a recipient must either operate within or be headquartered within
the boundaries of the ICA.
Grants are awarded each year in June after a competitive
process administered by the ICA Board that begins in April
of each year. Its success is completely dependent upon
the success of the Historic Irvington Home Tour. Thank
you to all who organize, manage and work on the Home
Tour Committee and thank you to all the homeowners
who offer their houses for the tour. None of these awards
would be possible without the efforts of these dedicated
volunteers.

Plans Underway
for 2017 Irvington
Home Tour

ach year, hundreds of visitors are fortunate to

be able to take a closer look inside the homes in
our neighborhood during the annual Irvington
Home Tour the longest continuously running neighborhood home tour in Portland.
Our Home Tour committee has already begun plans for
the 2017 tour which will be held on Sunday, May 21.
The first order of business for the tour is work with our
generous neighbors to select homes for the tour.
If youve ever considered volunteering your home for the
tour, or know someone who is interested in being on the
tour, wed love to hear from you.
Just send an email to committee@irvingtonhometour.
com and a representative from the Home Tour will reach
out with more details.
A Neighborhood Fundraiser
In addition to sharing the rich history and amazing
homes that make up Irvington, the goal of the tour is to
raise funds for the Irvington Community Association to
donate to charitable organizations which enhance the quality of life for the neighborhood. Youll find a list of the
worthwhile recipients of this years grants in this months
newsletter.
To learn more about the tour and see photos from
previous years visit www.irvingtonhometour.com.

From the
PRESIDENT
Steven Cole

ello neighbors. We begin another year for the Irvington Community Association (our year is more
August to June). Those of you who read my last presidents letter in the Spring issue of the newsletter may be wondering why I am writing another presidents letter when I clearly stated that my third
term was over and I was prohibited from serving again as president. Some of you may envision the ICA officer
positions as much sought after with board members engaging in Machiavelian-like maneuvers and under-the-table
agreements with fellow board members so as to win the much sought after officer positions. In reality, the officer
positions can be somewhat time-consuming and are not positions that every board member desires. Thus, it came
down to deciding to re-write our bylaws and have some of our term-limited officers serve another year, or go without a president and treasurer for a year. Since the ICA is a 501c3, which requires officer positions, it really wasnt
much of a choice.
Anyway, I am happy to serve again as I have more time to devote to that endeavor than other board members.
So, for good or bad, you will have me writing presidents letters for another year (they would have just become
the editors letter since the only thing harder than getting someone to agree to take an office is to get them to also
agree to write a quarterly article).
In this newsletter our Land Use Chair, Dean Gisvold has penned an article discussing the Residential Infill
Project (RIP) which the city is contemplating. While the ICA finds the desire to increase housing and affordable
housing in Portland to be laudable, it has concerns about the citys implementation of a rushed plan which will
alter long-term zoning in single family neighborhoods and possibly result in unintended consequences.
The board is forging forward on looking at the Klickitat Mall situation. We have spoken with the city about
possibly partnering with the city to form a group, a friends of Klickitat Mall for want of a better name, to take on
certain maintenance duties and look at improving the condition of the mall. We sent letters to the affected neighbors who abut the mall to let them know that we will be discussing the malls future.
We are still working on getting signs made up to let people know when and where we meet. As noted above,
we will be tackling our bylaws in order to update them to recognize the current realities, changes in technology
and communication, and just general tweaking to create improved bylaws.
I was hoping to write an article regarding the Better Broadway project which the ICA supported.
Unfortunately, we are still waiting to get some additional data from the project. Hopefully, I will have something
for the next newsletter. I can tell you that based on my observations, and the observations of others who were
involved, the project was largely successful. As many of you probably noticed, it underwent a couple of changes
throughout the week in response to issues and a lack of resources by the group implementing the project, Better
Blocks. Among other things, we gathered data about car speeds, delays when taking out a lane, what the street may
look like with a protected bike lane, and whether increasing marked crossings with shorter distances would encourage people to cross the street. In determining the future of Broadway, this was all important information to have.
Again, we will be taking a look at the potential impacts. I also forwarded all comments I received to Better Blocks.
Those of you who filled out block party applications may have noticed some new indemnification language in
the form. The city has gone beyond requiring the usual hold harmless provision and has included a requirement
that the signor agree to indemnify the city and pay for its defense if anyone sues the city for negligence based on
the injury being related to the block party. This is overreaching language not suited for forms involving everyday
citizens who are attempting to have a city-encouraged block party. We will be discussing this and likely asking the
city to remove that language.
We have decided to make the annual Holiday Party a permanent tradition. Instead of meeting in December at
our usual location at Irvington School, we are going to instead have the annual holiday party. In the past we have
hosted the party at the Irvington Club. We are hoping to be able to utilize that location again this year. We believe
it is important to have a couple of more informal gatherings in a more enjoyable social setting (not that our general meetings arent enjoyable). Hopefully, people who think they might not want to attend a general meeting will
attend our Holiday Party. I will be happy to chat about neighborhood issues.
It appears that Portland Public Schools is moving forward with turning Irvington School back to an elementary
school and having the middle school age students attend Tubman school. I have spoken to school board member Paul Anthony and we will be looking into forming a group to address the issue of getting the students to the
school safely. For Irvingtons purposes, we will be looking at increasing the safety of crossings at 7th and MLK
as well as some other spots in the Eliot neighborhood. I was assured by Paul that there will be vibrant options at
Tubman including a music program, which is great to hear.
Finally, I would like to welcome our newest board members, Sean Green, Bob Dobrich, Joseph Albert, Josh
Plager, and Huck Bales. And, thank you to outgoing board members Ryan Carson, Colin Burn, Meryl Logue, and
William Archer. In particular, William Archer gave a huge amount of time to the neighborhood and was a great
resource for historical knowledge. He moved back to Massachusetts, along with his husband, Arthur, and their
two Boston Terriers. They will be missed. I would also like to thank our new officers, Christine Coers-Mitchell
who will be acting as vice president and Joseph Albert who will be acting as secretary. As noted above, I will be
continuing as president, Jeff Jones will be continuing as treasurer, and Tiffanie Shakespeare will continue as communications and website officer. We have created a couple of new committees: social outreach, chaired by Bob
Dobrich, disaster preparedness, chaired by Huck Bales, and a bylaws committee. Dean Gisvold will be continuing
as land use chair. Susan Hathaway-Marxer will continue as charitable giving chair. Jason Messer will continue as
beautification and parks chair. Peter ONeil will continue as nominating chair. Barb Christopher will continue
as historic preservation chair. For further information
you can go to our website, irvingtonpdx.com or our
newly created Facebook page.
As always, anyone and everyone is invited to attend
our meetings. If you have a particular issue which you
would like addressed, feel free to contact me and I can
see if I can fit it onto our general meeting agenda or put
you in contact with an appropriate committee chair.
Our meetings are the second Thursday of each month
at Irvington School in the library.

Page 2

ica board members 2016-2017

OFFICERS
President: Steven Cole
stevencole86@gmail.com

503-754-7713
Vice President: Christine Coers-Mitchell
coers@comcast.net

503-335-1476
Treasurer: Jeff Jones
jcjones@pacifier.com
503-281-1023
Secretary: Joseph Albert
joseph_ica@homespdx.com
Communications: Tiffanie Shakespeare
tshakesp@gmail.com
DIRECTORS
Huck Bales
heybales@gmail.com
Jim Barta
jbarta@securesite.net
Barb Christopher
barbfc@comcast.net
Christine Coers-Mitchell
coers@comcast.net
Nathan Corser
nathan.corser@ch2m.com
Bob Dobrich
bobdobrich@gmail.com
Jon Eaton
jaeaton@gmail.com
Dean Gisvold
deang@mcewengisvold.com
Sean Green
seangreen@mac.com
Susan Hathaway-Marxer
susan.marxer@comcast.net
Pam Lindholm-Levy
pamlarrylevy@yahoo.com

Michela McMahon
michela_mcmahon@yahoo.com
Sally McPherson
cwhidbey@comcast.net
Jason Messer
j.messer@comcast.net
Peter ONeil
peteroneil@cbseal.com
Josh Plager
joshplager@gmail.com
Tiffanie Shakespeare
tshakesp@gmail.com

503-544-2429
503-740-5216
503-335-1476
503-493-0671

503-284-3885

503-281-5629
503-460-3100
503-287-6196

503-312-4175
503-471-3402

503-680-2840

COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Beautification
Jason Messer j.messer@comcast.net
Capital Projects
Nathan Corser nathan.corser@ch2m.com
Charitable Giving
Susan Hathaway-Marxer susan.marxer@comcast.net
Disaster Preparedness
Huck Bales heybales@gmail.com
Historic Preservation
Barb Christopher barbfc@comcast.net
Home Tour
Brian Schaeperkoetter brianschaeperkoetter@gmail.com
Land Use
Dean Gisvold deang@mcewengisvold.com
NECN Representatives
Steven Cole stevencole86@gmail.com
Peter ONeil peteroneil@cbseal.com
Newsletter
Steven Cole stevencole86@gmail.com
Newsletter Advertising
Tiffanie Shakespeare tshakesp@gmail.com
Parks
Jason Messer j.messer@comcast.net
Jeff Jones jcjones@pacifier.com
Social and Community Outreach
Bob Dobrich bobdobrich@gmail.com
Website
Tiffanie Shakespeare tshakesp@gmail.com
NEIGHBORHOOD RESOURCES
503-823-7309
Abandoned Vehicles (24-hour hotline)
Abandoned Vehicles (daytime)
503-823-6814
Animal Control
503-988-3066
Bicycle Program
503-823-2925
Garbage Service Info/Problems
503-823-7202
Graffiti Cleanup (Info/assistance)
503-823-5860
Graffiti Hotline (Police)
503-823-4824
Landlord/Tenant Mediation
503-282-1964
NE Coalition of Neighborhoods
503-823-4575
NE Crime Prevention
503-823-4763
NE Precinct (Police)
503-823-2122
Neighborhood Mediation
503-823-3152
Noise Reporting & Control
503-823-7350
Office of Neighborhood Involvement
503-823-4519
Parking Enforcement
503-823-5195
Rider Advocates
503-823-4223
Street Light Outages & Tree Trims
503-823-5216
Tree Planting Information
503-823-4489
Zoning/Code Enforcement
503-823-7526
LEGISLATORS
State Representatives
Lew Frederick
503-986-1433
Rep.LewFrederick@state.or.us
Barbara Smith Warner
Rep.BarbaraSmithWarner@state.or.us
503-986-1445
State Senators
Michael Dembrow
Sen.MichaelDembrow@state.or.us
503-986-1723
Chip Shields
Sen.ChipShields@state.or.us
503-231-2564

HISTORIC IRVINGTON NEWSLETTER

Fall 2016

THE
IRVINGTON
COMMUNITY
ASSOCIATION

P. O. B O X 1 21 02 , PORT L A ND, OR EG O N 9721 2

The ICA meets on the second Thursday of every month (except July and August),
7 p.m. in the library at the Irvington Elementary School, 1320 NEBrazee St.
Local issues are discussed and all Irvington residents are welcome to attend.

Are you looking for the minutes from our recent board meetings?
Minutes are posted in full on our Web site at www.irvingtonpdx.com.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Your Connections

Make all the Difference After a Disaster

ur newsfeeds are filled with stories on natural

disasters and their aftermaths, from floods
to earthquakes to heat waves. When natural
disasters strike, neighbors matter -- a lot. Research tells us
that those who fare best after a disaster arent those with the
most money, or the most power. Its the people who know
other people. When a major disaster occurs, local emergency
responders do not have the capacity to handle every situation.
Its neighbors helping neighbors and communities rallying
together that make the difference.
But, its not enough to be willing to support your neighbor during or after a natural disaster. Resilience is about
building these capacities before the storm, before the shocks,
before the stresses.
In Irvington, there are several groups of neighbors, some
self-organized and others officially organized and trained by
the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM),
working together to build resiliency and capacity, in the event
of an emergency. You can get involved too. No matter who
you are, or your level of readiness, you can make a difference.

Get Trained to Assist the

First-Responders
The largest and longest running of these groups is
Irvingtons Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET). NET
is a group of volunteers -- people like you -- who live in
the neighborhood and have received free training from the
Portland Bureau of Emergency Management and Portland
Fire & Rescue to provide emergency disaster assistance. NET
members are trained to save lives and property until professional responders can arrive. If you are at least fourteen years
of age and live or work in Portland, you can become NET
trained. You can find more information here: www.portlandoregon.gov/net.

those with relevant skills and interests to get involved now

as a volunteer--before a disaster--so that all of us can be the
most effective and resilient following an event.

information and sign up to volunteer here: http://www.portlandoregon.gov/beecn

Band Together With

Help Neighbors
Immediate Neighbors to
Communicate When Lines Prepare
are Down
After a major earthquake, modern communication
devices will most likely fail us. Cell networks will be damaged or jammed, landlines will be down, and our internet
wont be functioning. So how will we communicate with one
another? PBEM created the Basic Earthquake Emergency
Communication Node (BEECN) program to help deal
with the problem of post-quake communication. Within
24-48 hours following a major quake, BEECNs will be set
up around the city as a place to get information and request
emergency assistance. Irvington hosts a BEECN site at the
Irvington elementary school field, 1320 NE Brazee. You can
find a map of all the BEECN sites here: www.portlandoregon.gov/beecn.
PBEM provides the infrastructure, but the people operating the BEECN sites during an emergency are 100% volunteers. Consider volunteering to staff a BEECN. This is an
incredibly effective yet low-commitment way to help your
neighbors in the event of a major quake. If you feel comfortable using walkie talkies, we can use your help! HAM radio
operators are also desperately needed. You can find more

The newest group of neighbors working to build

Irvingtons resiliency is directly supported by the Irvington
Community Association (ICA). This ICA committee, which
meets on the second Tuesday of each month, is devoted
to Disaster Preparedness. The ICA Disaster Preparedness
Committees goal is to educate, leverage resources, and build
community.

The committee is just getting going, and one of its first

efforts is to help neighbors on a block to organize and prepare to help each other in an emergency. The group plans to
use a proven method called Map Your Neighborhood. For
more information on this, and to get your block going, visit
http://www.irvingtonpdx.com/diaster-prepardness/ or send
an email to prepared@irvingtonpdx.com.
Irvington is earnestly organizing to be prepared in an
emergency. These are just a few of ways to get involved,
from the simple to larger commitments of time and energy.
The important thing is to reach out and make connections.
Getting to know your neighbors is an important component
of resiliency in the event of a disaster, but that connectedness
also makes us a stronger community the rest of the time.

Interested in supporting NET but dont want to go

through NET training? Anyone is welcome to attend our
local NET meetings. Irvingtons team meets on the fourth
Wednesday of the month from 7pm-8:30pm. You also dont
have to be NET-trained to support NET efforts. NET invites

Fall 2016

HISTORIC IRVINGTON NEWSLETTER

PAGE 3

Fireworks in the neighborhood

By Steve Cole

his past July I received a number of complaints

from neighbors about their fellow neighbors
shooting off illegal fireworks both during what
are generally considered acceptable hours and what would
generally be considered too late for a weeknight. Some neighbors attended our September meeting and voiced their concern in person. While discussing the issue, one of our board
members remarked that half of her hedge was burned down
due to illegal fireworks being used by her neighbor while the
board member was out of town with her family. Fortunately,
another neighbor was present and was able to extinguish the
fire before any of the adjacent structures caught fire. The estimated damage is $5000.00.
Near my home there was a large group of neighbors
shooting fireworks into the tops of trees and onto neighboring roofs.
It seems as if the problem of illegal fireworks has
increased over the last couple of years. There are a couple of
issues which are often reported to me. First, people shoot
them off too late at night after many people are trying to
sleep because they have to get up and work the next day.
However, the more serious issue is the use of illegal fireworks
which can set trees and homes on fire. This is not an unlikely
hypothetical. Igniting trees and homes and hitting people
with fireworks which go astray is something that actually
happens every year. It is entirely possible for an ember from a

firework to smolder on a home and not ignite to full-blown

blaze for hours, after everyone in the home is asleep and
unware of the impending tragedy.
Because this issue involves risk to property and people,
The ICA plans on writing to the Mayor and city council asking that the police and fire department actually enforce the
law and issue tickets to the people shooting off illegal fireworks who apparently dont realize that they are potentially

endangering the lives and property of their fellow neighbors.

At least I am going to assume that they havent considered
the ramifications and that they are putting unwilling participants at risk. In any event, the ICA board members believe
that taking steps to reduce the chance of a tragedy outweighs
the thrill of shooting off a roman candle, or bottle rocket, or
whatever other illegal fireworks people are fond of.

Home Tour Thank You!

By Phaedra Cole

n Saturday, May 14, 2016, a special gathering was held to thank those Irvington neighbors that generously
allowed their homes to be showcased during the Irvington Home Tour held on Sunday, May 15, 2016. In addition to the homeowners, home tour sponsors and supporters of the tour were also present. The gathering would
not have been possible without the generous donations of food and drink that were provided by neighborhood vendors. Each
year these vendors generously donate towards the pre-tour event and it is with sincere thanks that the Irvington Home Tour
Committee and Irvington Community Association would like to acknowledge the following organizations:
Great Wine Buys
Chameleon Restaurant & Bar
Pastini Pastaria
Foster & Dobbs
Milos City Cafe
CoCo Donuts
Lucca
Grand Central Bakery
Acadia
Cadillac Caf
Russell Street BBQ
Green Zebra Grocery
15th Avenue Hop House
Sweet Basil Thai Cuisine
Our neighborhood is indeed lucky to have such wonderful community partners. If you have a chance to visit any of these
wonderful establishments, please thank them for being such supportive partners of the Irvington Home Tour.
We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the following area businesses who donated to the Irvington Home
Tour. We would not be as successful without them:
Albertinas Restaurant & Shops; Amenity Shoes; Atiyeh Brothers; Eastbank Communications; 8 Inch Nails Construction
Inc.; Arciform; Backyard Birds; Braces by Joe; Broadway Ace Hardware; Broadway Books; Classic/Arcalus; Craftsman Design;
Craig Anderson Plumbing Inc.; Cutty Hyde Construction; Dana Austin Griggs; Drew Prochniak, MA LPC; Earthquaketech;
Eyes On Broadway; Fifteenth Ave Hophouse; Footwise; Foster & Dobbs; Fresh Air Sash Cord Repair, Inc.; Garden Fever!;
Hammer and Hand; Interworks; Landscape East & West, Inc.; Legacy Medical Group-Broadway; Living Room Realty;
Youn Hee Lee-graphic designer; Madrone Modern; Maloys Jewelry; Neil Kelly; Northeast Village PDX; Old Portland
Hardware; Olson & Jones; Ox Restaurant; PDX Commons; Pets on Broadway; Pete Wilson Stoneworks; Philip Emmerling;
SRC; Suzanne Goddyn, Broker; The Arrangement; Third Angle -Porch Music; Tice Industries, Inc.; Timmco Insurance;
Trade Roots; Tarah Reed Massage Therapist; Verdigris Restaurant; Vicki Simon Interiors; Weinmann Painting; Windermere;
Wolf and Son Cabinetmakers; Wooddale Windows LLC; Architectural Heritage Center; Great Wine Buys; Hancock
Street Preschool; Milos Caf; Northeast Broadway.Com; Pastini Pastaria; Bloke; Piano Plus music lessons; Billy Grippo
Windermere; Hasson Company; Knott St. Journal; JGP Wealth Management Group; Pratt & Larson; and Willco.

Great Gifts For Gardeners!

Page 4

HISTORIC IRVINGTON NEWSLETTER

Fall 2016

Scenes from Mays

Better Block project

Trade Roots

Providing Support for Our Communityand around the World

Shop Local-Think Global
Clothing, jewelry, accessories and gifts
~1831 NE Broadway~
www.traderootsinc.com

Lloyd Tower
825 NE Multnomah Street Suite 120
Portland OR 97232

Fall 2016

HISTORIC IRVINGTON NEWSLETTER

PAGE 5

Residential Infill Project

By Dean Gisvold with assistance from Jim Heuer

our ICA land use committee (Committee) has

been busy this summer with post-Comp Plan
projects, the most notable being the report/
proposals from the Residential Infill Project Stakeholder
Advisory Committee. We call the project RIP.
General
One of the goals in the Comp Plan requires so called
middle housing within one-quarter mile of centers and
along corridors where appropriate. The centers and corridors are already zoned for increased density. RIP effectively
rezones most of Portland east of the river and significant
portions of southwest Portland in one sweeping proposal.
Housing advocates want middle housing everywhere,
including R5 residential neighborhoods. Homebuilders and
remodelers will support any opportunity that provides access
to buildable lots.
RIP advocates believe that RIP will generate more supply, and such supply will reduce prices and rents. This belief
is put forward without adequate justification or research or
data. Well intentioned, perhaps, but without full information, we are left with speculation and many unanswered
questions. My belief is that RIP may make more housing
available, but there is no guaranty it will be affordable, and it
will lead to more demolitions.
According to RIP, the term middle housing refers to
housing in-between single-family houses and larger multifamily buildings. It can include accessory dwelling units
(ADUs), duplexes, triplexes, smallplexes and cottage clusters, as well as courtyard apartments, bungalow courts and
townhouses.
Middle housing forms are now generally allowed in R1,
R2, and R2.5 zones. Limited forms of middle housing are
also allowed in R5, R7, R10, and R20 (ADUs, duplexes, or
attached homes on corners).
What RIP does not do
1. RIP does not resolve the housing issues for low
income households, those under 80% area medium income
(see ORS 456.270), which means that the discussion about
affordable housing does not include the most vulnerable
among us.
2. The current zoning has a combined development

capacity that is double the expected growth, after considering constraints. See 2/25/14 memo from BPS to PSC. In
short, twice as much development capacity exists now even
before the Comp Plan changes take effect, which changes will
increase further the development capacity, including density
and heights, in many areas of the City. RIP does not discuss
the issue of existing capacity that BPS noted early in the
Comp Plan update process.
3. RIP does not tell us what the implications and consequences will be to existing R5neighborhoods, especially
the so called inner ring neighborhoods (which includes
Irvington), all well established, some historic.
4. RIP does not mention, let alone discuss, historic and
conservation districts, or the implications of RIP for such
districts. Although the Irvington Historic District (IHD)
has been around for almost six years, others have existed for
many more years, such as Ladds Addition. More than 400
property owners in IHD have filed historic resource review
applications and have followed the rules in good faith and
have spent a lot of money on improvements. We and they
and many other such owners across the City deserve better
treatment and much more information.

Statistics for House s in R5 Zone Areas on lots

over
4800 square feet and less than 7500 square feet
Neighborhood Na me

Call today for a tour: 503.280.2216

Since the City did not supply any data about where
the narrow lots are located, Jim Heuer, a member of the
Irvington Land Use Committee, using available public data,
did his own number crunching, which locates the neighborhoods with the most historically narrow lots.
The top 26 neighborhoods with historically splittable
lots in R5 zones are listed below:

Counts of Single
Family Residential
Properties on
Multiple Original Tax
Lots

Multiple

Grand
Total

Estimated Percent
of Homes by
Neighborhood
on Two or More
Original 25 Tax
Lots

342

1344

1686

79.72%

CONCORDIA

841

946

1787

52.94%

KENTON

385

942

1327

70.99%

ST. JOHNS

1122

791

1913

41.35%

MONTAVILLA

1024

780

1804

43.24%

BRENTWOOD-DARLINGTON

1025

767

1792

42.80%

PORTSMOUTH

488

637

1125

56.62%

WOODSTOCK

1737

546

2283

23.92%

PIEDMONT

960

488

1448

33.70%

ROSE CITY PARK

1889

465

2354

19.75%

MADISON SOUTH

812

368

1180

31.19%

MT. TABOR

1350

346

1696

20.40%

BEAUMONT-WILSHIRE

1269

295

1564

18.86%

RICHMOND

1112

278

1390

20.00%

ARBOR LODGE

1227

275

1502

18.31%

SELLWOOD-MORELAND IMPROVEMENT LEAGUE

1481

269

1750

15.37%

UNIVERSITY PARK

653

256

909

28.16%

EASTMORELAND

769

169

938

18.02%

NORTH TABOR

386

138

524

26.34%

ALAMEDA

1041

136

1177

11.55%

CATHEDRAL PARK

372

125

497

25.15%

MILL PARK

330

120

450

26.67%

20

119

139

85.61%

LENTS

837

116

953

12.17%

WOODLAWN

899

113

1012

11.17%

14

104

118

88.14%

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The most egregious proposal regards splitting many R5

properties for skinny lots and skinny houses. RIP wants to
allow houses on historically narrow lots near centers and
corridors. Although some inner neighborhoods were developed (platted) primarily on 50 by 100 lots, such as Irvington,
many neighborhoods were created or platted with 25 by 100
lots. These smaller lots were usually sold in twos, resulting
in your standard 50 by 100 lot for building purposes. RIP
would encourage lot splitting and demolitions of perfectly
fine housing stock to get two buildable 25 by 100 skinny lots
for two new skinny houses. More supply, but more demolitions.

ROSEWAY

FAR SOUTHWEST

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At Holladay Park Plaza,
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1. Lot splitting and skinny houses (Proposal 7).

Singles

WEST PORTLAND PARK

Its a retirement thing.

Comments on three of the specific RIP proposals

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Page 6

HISTORIC IRVINGTON NEWSLETTER

Fall 2016

These 26 neighborhoods have 10,933 homes on lots

between 4,800 and 7,500 square feet which consist of multiple historic tax lots, the 25 by 100 lots discussed above.
This list is just neighborhoods with 100 or more such homes.
The total across Portland is 12,510, suggesting that nearly
17% of all R5 homes in the city are subject to this kind of
lot splitting and eventual demolition.
The lot splitting proposal does not require onsite parking
and does not allow front loaded garages for houses on narrow
lots, which means more parking on neighborhood streets, but
there is no discussion of current parking issues or how to deal
with the parking issues sure to arise if RIP becomes a reality.
Under the lot splitting proposal, the definition of near
centers and corridors is being expanded to include everything within a quarter mile or 1,320 feet of a high frequency transit corridor or a MAX station or a Center (like
Hollywood). But since high frequency transit is defined
so generously, the potential area for more density from
this proposal incorporates nearly all of the neighborhoods
inside of the I405/I205 loops, plus many areas in southwest
Portland. Our experience with applications for new construction that are within 500 feet of busy transit streets, such
as Broadway or NE 15th (no onsite parking required), shows
us that 70% of renters in such development (many in bike
friendly buildings) have cars and that each person in ownership of a house or condo unit will usually have a car.
The Committee has found the current codes use of
500 and 1,000 feet to be generous for developers and difficult for the IHD. Parking has become a major problem
for multifamily areas and many of the blocks with primarily
single family houses. The proposed new standard is clearly
inappropriate for historic districts and many of the inner ring
neighborhoods, and likely to be a problem for all Portland
neighborhoods.

R1 - 193

RH - 59

CX - 21

CS - 36

CN - 5

EX - 4

Standard front yard setbacks in the Irvington R5
zone (a standard for the neighborhood) is 25 feet.

Within its boundaries, IHD has numerous apartments and condo buildings, the Irving and Irvington School
parks, four churches, Irvington Grade School, Madeline
Parish School, preschools at Westminster and Augustana
churches, public housing projects at Grace Peck Manor for
the elderly and disabled, and Dalke Manor with 115 one
bedroom units, a branch Post Office, a Chinese noodle factory, a heavy metal brew pub, many good restaurants, Great
Wine Buys, and three recreational marijuana dispensaries.
Extremely diverse neighborhoods like Irvington are illserved by the one-size fits all approach to setting limits on
the maximum square footage of new house construction or
expansion.
The Committee has for six years used City Code
33.846.060 G to determine whether what is proposed is
compatible with what exists on the ground. The ten criteria
in subsection G require new infill and additions to be compatible in size, scale, and massing with the existing historic
fabric. Pursuant to the Code, we first look at the resource,
then nearby resources, and then the district as a whole. We
would find 2,500 square feet out of proportion in parts of
Irvington, and confining in others. In a highly diverse city
like Portland, this situation will arise all the time.
3. Allow more units within the same form as a house
near Centers and Corridors (Proposal 4).
This proposal would:

Finally, the lot splitting proposal is nothing more than a

rezoning of existing R5 zoning with historically narrow lots,
25 by 100, without benefit of the normal rezoning process.
This broad-brush approach to rezoning all R5 zones ignores
the underlying development of inner neighborhoods, which,
in most cases, are denser than the City average, and have a
sizeable amount of existing middle housing. Such rezoning
will lead to the destruction of neighborhoods that have developed over the years with structures from many different eras,
but with plat maps showing historically narrow lots.
Considering that the existing R1, R2, and RH zones in
the IHD are not close to being at capacity and that many
structures in these zones are non-contributing and thus available for redevelopment even though in the Historic District,
the Committee envisions substantial increases in our density
with the zoning exactly as it is today and objects strenuously
to those RIP attempts to jam yet more density before the
capacity that already exists is developed.
2. Limit the size of houses while maintaining flexibility
in form (Proposal 1).
Proposal 1 would establish house size square foot limits
proportional to lot size. For the standard R5 lot, 50 by 100,
the house size would be limited to 2,500 square feet with
no thought to the context of where this lot is located. The
2,500 limit excludes basements, nonhabitable attics, and
detached structures from the size limits.
The common response we have heard from many neighborhoods is that RIPs one size proposal does not fit all. That
is certainly true for the IHD. Here are few facts about the
IHD to illustrate this response.
After 3 years of volunteer work, IHD was approved
by the federal government on October22, 2010.
IHD is the largest historic district in the State of
Oregon.
IHD has 2,813 structures within its boundaries,
Broadway, NE 7th, NE 27th, and Fremont, 85% of which
are single family residences, ranging in size from 900 square
feet to 5,579 square feet and averaging 2,215 square feet.
Approximately 25% of the houses and duplexes are
located on corner lots.
IHD is more than twice as dense as the City wide
average.
IHD has eight zoning designations with the following number of structures:

R5 - 2,390

R2 - 60

Fall 2016

Allow two ADUs per house one internal to the

house and one detached.
Allow one accessory dwelling unit (ADU) with a
duplex.
Allow duplexes on all lots and triplexes on corner
lots.
Allow an additional bonus unit for providing an
affordable unit, an accessible unit or internally converting an
existing house.
Conclusion
RIP is a poorly considered proposal and will cause a further deterioration of the public trust. Perhaps worse yet, the
provisions seeking to achieve more affordable middle hous-

ing appear to offer false hope to the thousands of Portland

residents who currently spend an inordinate amount of their
incomes on housing.
The profound defects in the current proposal call for a
complete reassessment of the work of the RIP task force. We
encourage all Portland residents concerned about problems
of affordability to demand a more thoughtful and potentially
effective and balanced approach to dealing with this serious
problem.
The Committee has gone on record as supporting
the RIP responses of the Portland Coalition for Historic
Resources and the position paper on lot splitting and density
increases in R2.5 and R5 zones prepared by Jim Heuer.
You will be hearing more about middle housing this fall
and for much of 2017. If you want the report, the 20 pages
of proposals, or what other neighborhoods are saying about
RIP, please let me know, and I can send the links to you.

Lorraine Henriques
Hearing Aid Specialist
Tel: 503-236-3368 Fax: 503-236-2877
lorraine.henriques@lunafamilyhearing.com
www.lunafamilyhearing.com
2100 NE Broadway, Suite 305
Portland, OR 97232

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Antique &
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October 29 & 30
Portland Expo Center - 900 booths
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Clark County Fairgrounds - 250 booths
The unique items to complete your vintage
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HISTORIC IRVINGTON NEWSLETTER

PAGE 7

Fall 2016

One Neighbors Experience with

Disaster Preparedness
By Jerry Porter

e have a great block of neighbors on 25th Avenue just south

of Fremont, with dedicated coBlockheads (Im honored to be one now).
Our annual block meetings have always had
emergency preparedness on the agenda, and
Howard, our neighbor on the Neighborhood
Emergency Team, always shared great
information on the supplies we needed to
prepare. But after 10 years of such prompting, Id done essentially nothing. Until I
was inspired (scared, goaded,...) by the New
Yorker and OPB pieces (www.newyorker.
com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
and www.opb.org/television/programs/ofg/episodes/2701/). I figured that there must be a few
others as incompetent as I was, and maybe we
could band together for mutual encouragement.

I sent an email to the block, expecting maybe

5 or 6 would be interested. There were 19 people in my house at our first meeting! And 28
neighbors on two streets eventually subscribed
to the email list created for this effort.
After monthly meetings between January
and May, 2015, many households are now feeling more prepared, with three weeks worth of
stored water, food and other emergency supplies, and communication plans in place in the
event of a disaster. And the sharing of ideas,
goals and progress increased our already strong
sense of community. (The snacks were good,
too).
Though we have more to do, both individually and as a group, here are some of the key
elements in our progress:
Motivated Leader: Though I didnt
know what I was getting into, its
helpful to have one or two people
responsible for keeping things going
and running the meetings.
Good communication: An email listserv made it easy to plan meetings
and share information. Goals, meeting
minutes, and other documents were
shared online. Meetings (mostly) kept
to the agenda.

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Design Remodel Small Projects Repair Maintenance

Broad Goals: At our first meeting, we

agreed on the main areas that required
preparation. We added onto the list
from time to time. Our main areas are
Supplies (Water, Food, First Aid, etc.),
Communication Plans, Evacuation
Plans, and supplies/plans for if were

Smaller Goals: We picked small pieces to work on each month. At our first
meeting, all we could talk about was
water (how to store, where to store,
purification, how much, how long to
store it). So our first months goal
was to prepare our water supplies.
Information: Meeting discussions were
productive and animated because people had lots of questions, and we had
diverse experience and information to
share. Between meetings neighbors
would research issues and share information by email or at the next meeting.
Progress Tracking: We created a
shared online document to track progress on various goals. It was fun and
satisfying to see many people marking
off the completed tasks towards our
goals.
Since many have accomplished the most
important goals, we no longer meet monthly.
We will continue to use email and less frequent
meetings to further prepare and to monitor our
readiness.
For tips and support on organizing your
block, and resources, contact irvington.prepares@gmail.com or go to http://www.irvingtonpdx.com/diaster-prepardness/.

P.O. Box 12102

Portland, OR 97212

Fine Home Remodeling & Maintenance

away from home when a disaster

occurs.

PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 88
GRESHAM, OR

Irvington Community Association

HISTORIc

IRVINGTON