Empty Buildings are not helping the community
I live a block off NE MLK, Jr. Boulevard. In my daily commute on the #6, I always pass empty, boarded-up buildings. It’s depressing to see, especially when there are other signs of revitalization happening in small pockets.
With all the planned building projects scheduled to occur in the coming months and years, I know things will look better, but getting there will be a series of struggles.
According to today’s Oregonian, the Walsh Construction Company has pulled out of a project on NE MLK, Jr. Boulevard where Planned Parenthood would be the anchor tenant due to the barrage of anti-abortion protesters. I have seen the anti-abortion protesters with their signs showing aborted fetuses, signs saying Planned Parenthood is killing the black community (riiiight…) and so on.
While the Walsh Construction Company made the decision based on the fear of repercussions from anti-abortion protesters who may stop at nothing, I hope other businesses and firms are not scared away.
This area needs more small businesses to come in and serve the community. Not only by offering jobs, but also allowing people who live in the neighborhood to see how they can support local businesses and keeping their dollars spent close to home.
Do I want the area to become another Pearl District? No, and it probably never could become that way due to a number of factors. That said, it would be wonderful to look out the bus window and spy a shop I want to check out after work rather than seeing another abandoned building.
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I have thought the same thing while living in North Portland. A few years back, we walked most of the length of N Interstate and noted all the abandoned buildings and properties. I believe it was 11 or 12. Now it is down to 5-7. Some of the abandoned buildings have been razed, but after 3 years, the lot just sits abandoned collecting trash. That to me isn’t the way to do things. I foresee this happening on the corner of N Williams/Fremont where the Franz bakery was razed. Do the developers have the $$$ to actually build?
Check out the corner of N. Interstate and Skidmore next time you are in that area. 9 now boarded up single family homes…..
I once heard a developer refer to area just off the east end of the Burnside Bridge as a potential “mini pearl”. Nice pun, bad idea.
Maybe if we stopped leveling the whole neighborhood (and “rehabbing” the rest to all look the same) it would be a little more inviting to small businesses.
That would definitely be the ideal, however, I wonder if some of these building project deals are made with the caveat that developers can do what they wish with the land (within reason), including leveling current structures rather than a respectful restoration.
Of course, the catch-22 in that situation, if such an instance exists, is a developer who wants to invest in the area wouldn’t want to cave to the restoration request and look elsewhere. This line of thinking comes from my experience in living in Washington, DC, which went through a similar sort of revitalization/gentrification in the late 90s/early 00s.