CRITERIA FOR THE NORTHWEST SLA:BTOWN PLAN
submitted by Mary Czarnecki, Slabtown Committee Member
Monday, August 23, 2010

Creation of Slabtown Sustainable Development* includes:

A walk to open public square on 21st ave. with pm sunlight away from the traffic
Increasing sustainability through density: 7 to 8 stories on the mainstreets.*
Integrating transportation and land use, and extending the existing tolley to 21st
A diversity of Housing with shared parking
Car-free areas
Locally-owned stores with 100’ max development scale
Walkable neighborhoods
Universal accessibility
Neighborhood stormwater systems and waste treatment, + food production
Common sense and the “Original Green” – places that people love.
Human scale development based on neighborhood DNA and places that work
Connection to the River with variation from the grid
Formed based and “generative” codes
Deflected and terminated vistas for a more personal scaled and civic engagement
Community Center on the square
Street scale equal human scale.
Green streets system
Safe places ala Jane Jacobs with “eyes on the street”
“Greenwall” for buffering the Freeway
**Use of “characterist features” of the existing NW neighborhood
Ionic Symbols resulting from the making places for public engagement and civic pride.

*An urgent call to action by Doug Farr in “Sustainable Urbanism”* offers the creation and enhancement of a walkable neighborhood and diverse places with the need to build high-performance infrastructure and buildings. This is a source book that explain where cities were and where they need to be with data on livability standards for 20 minute neighborhoods.
**The Vocabulary of Architecture | Northwest Renovation
The vocabulary of architecture is rich and varied. In the Portland area, …. Holly Chamberlain is the Membership and Programs Coordinator for the …
nwrenovation.com/architecture/the-vocabulary-of-architecture/

1. How about adding a streetcar route along 14th and 17th! The development along 14th is growing and some kind of transit seems like a good fit!

2. How about the elongated vacant land strip located between Front and Riverscape streets be dog parks and/or a nature area instead of more buildings in that area!

Nice work and thanks – I’m a slab town resident and would like to see the area undergo a rejuvenation

Following up on discussion of Media Outreach after Allen Classen’s breakthrough cover story in this month’s NW EXAMINER on the discrepancy between DEQ report of ESCO’s handling of the baghouse crisis and Carter Webb apologizing on behalf of ESCO for announcing the company took precautionary measures when they did not halt operation for crucial days of emissions before the remediation began. I have not heard any coverage of
this very timely incident within the context of the BP Gulf spill nor seen any in
the Oregonian or alternative press beyond the NW Examiner. I called OPB
as I never received a response to my July missive submitted on the OPB
web page as their staff does not list their email addresses, informing News Reporter Kristian Foden-Vencil and News Editor Eve Epstein of the ESCO
emissions and the work and meeting of the NW District Environment Committee.

I reached Eve Epstein today. She said she had not seen any material come in on the ESCO situation and the neighborhood committees attempts at remediation. She also said she was leaving on vacation tomorrow (8/21/10)
but agreed to provide our committee with her email address and Kristian Foden-
Vencil’s so that we may provide their staff with backgrounder info such as the email from Carter Webb and Sharon’s replies along with Allen Classen’s coverage of the failure of DEQ to perform its regulatory functions and by implication from Carter Webb’s apology, DEQ’s disinformation to the community.
Need I note this is all after President Obama had to finally review such breach of
public trust to perform regulatory functions in the financial sector and at Minerals
Mmgmnt Srvc, though any substantive overhaul of either remains to be seen
http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/US_overhauls_agency_in_charge_of_offshore_drilling_999.html I will be emailing committee chair Sharon the OPB email addresses of Eve Epstein and Kristian Foden-Vencil as I promised Eve there’d be no unnecessary distribution for fear of spam or harassment. Eve said she’d be very interested to see what the committee has been doing and to review any issues pertaining to lack of coverage by OPB of DEQ failures and ongoing environmental damage caused by lack of regulation and/or corporate malfeasance. Actually, from a News Editor standpoint, what surprised me most about the lack of coverage of last week’s fire at ESCO and the earlier baghouse crises is that this story is the rare case of a corporation seeking to communicate directly with neighborhood watchdogs even when the DEQ is spreading disinformation after failing to function properly. It would appear Carter Webb and ESCO’s Board of Directors are more sensitive to the temporary BP-induced fear of mishandling ecological
and environmental disaster brought on by less-than-best-practices than the governmental (state of Oregon) regulator, DEQ.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/06/portlands_air_pollution_the_hi.html

My comments to it are under “Jt”

Also, I just wrote a letter to Comissioner Fritz:

Dear Ms. Fritz,

Well done! I just read the article in the Willamette Week, and kudos to you for standing up to the waste and misdirection of funds in the City. After reading the article, I really felt like, finally! there is someone in there that represents me and my views on things. I like the way you get to the truth of the issue and ignore the politics. I like that you take the time to “do the math”, and that you have a lot of common sense.

If I had not read that article, I would not be writing this, as I would expect it to fall on deaf ears, but my impression of you from that article is that you or your staffers might just take this on, and it could be that thing that you “try to get 3 votes on” and win.

I have been watching how Sam Adams is trying to push Portland as a “green” “sustainability” hotspot. I tend to be a little cynical when I read about “green curbs” bike lanes, and a sustainability center. Don’t get me wrong, these all sound fantastic, but they are just dabs of icing on the cake… when the cake hasn’t even been put in the oven.

One of the big elephants in the room is Portland’s bad air quality. I’d much rather see the city address that in a big way well before it starts beautifying curbs. Water gets a lot of attention in this city, but more toxic to more people is the bad air.

I’ve lived in NW Portland for 13 years. I always used to say, I love NW Portland, but I’d never raise kids here because of ESCO. I don’t know how familiar you are with the air quality issues surrounding ESCO. But, US News and World Report did a nationwide study of air quality around elementary schools, and the air around Chapman elementary was in the bottom 2%. That’s pretty stunning to me for a city calling itself as “green” as Sam Adams says it is.

What is also stunning is how much community involvement there has been about this problem. I start to just throw up my hands and gasp, what does it take?! Just ask Sharon Genasci, who seems to work tirelessly on this problem (she even made a documentary and launched a scientific study of the air quality – see link below). I’ve been to many seminars at Friendly House, at Chapman School, and at the NW Neighborhood meetings. I’ve seen signs in people’s yards. And, I talk to a lot of people casually at the playground in Wallace Park. EVERYONE in this area knows “the ESCO smell”. Yet, we are all somehow powerless to get ESCO to move out of the neighborhood.

It always sounds bad to want to “kick someone out of the neighborhood”, and those affiliated with ESCO, who see themselves as contributors to the community, take offense at the notion. Most neighbors and frequenters of the neighborhood though, take offense at the ESCO smell.

If it were just a problem of stench, then I wouldn’t think it quite so important, but the content of the ESCO smell is truly toxic, and that is well documented. If you are smelling it, you are ingesting it into your bloodstream. That’s the creepy feeling I get walking in the neighborhood with my toddler, as I hold my breath, but she doesn’t know how to.

So far, the citizens have tried to get DEQ to penalize ESCO to the point that they will find it so hard to do business there, that they will move. DEQ seems clearly allied with industry though, and I know that route will never produce any change.

Others have tried to pressure ESCO on ethical grounds, saying that ESCO is poisoning our children, and should “do the right thing” and move. That just goes nowhere, because the ESCO people see themselves as good folk earning an honest living, and after all, they were here first. If we the neighbors care about kids so much, we should all just move.

The arguments go in circles, and nothing changes. There were 7 newborns in a 2 block radius of me in 2007. The neighborhood is flush with wee ones. They only get one shot at being tiny and vulnerable. I think something has to be done now.

Here’s my solution. I want the City to intervene. If the city has enough money to build a Sustainability Center, they should have enough to create a financial incentive strong enough to get ESCO to move to Rivergate.

1) The City has taxation power to create an incentive, as well as other money focused tools. Further, if there was a concrete monetary goal, that when reached, would ensure ESCO would move, then you can be sure the citizenry of this area would tirelessly hold bake sales until the money was found.

2) I don’t think the City can force ESCO to move through zoning laws, but they surely can entice them to. And, once they move, the city can create a zoning buffer between the elementary school and the NW Industrial Area.

3) I used to work for an Aluminum Foundry in Rivergate, called Consolidated Metco. They recently went under and vacated their foundry. It might be a potential spot for ESCO to consider. There is rail access out there too.

4) Imagine the cheers from the neighbors here, and imagine the headlines about a city taking GREEN seriously enough to incentivize a heavy polluter away from the elementary school.

I’m interested in a win-win. I don’t think ESCO is the devil’s spawn. I just don’t think these arguments make a whole lot of sense:

1) ESCO has been there for a very long time, so they should always be there, no matter how the city changes around them.

2) ESCO provides jobs, so the health costs to the community should be ignored.

3) ESCO isn’t really polluting. It’s all in someone’s vivid imagination.

4) If the neighbors don’t like it, they can always move.

I’m really hoping you’ll look at this carefully, and “do the math”. I think it could be a great visionary feather in Portland’s cap to take this on in such a way as to make it that the neighbors get clean air, and ESCO gets a new and improved site that benefits their bottom line. All businesses operate on the bottom line. If the deal was made sweet enough, I can’t imagine why ESCO wouldn’t want to take it. We need a clever commissioner, like yourself to come up with that sweet deal, and make it work.

Personally, if you decide to take this on, I’ll do everything in my power to help you.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Tierney

Here are some links for background :

http://lawlib.lclark.edu/podcast/?p=208
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/06/portlands_air_pollution_the_hi.html
http://www.northwestdistrictassociation.org/?cat=5
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/heart/articles/2010/02/26/air-pollution-its-not-just-your-lungs-that-suffer.html

One problem the old transportation committee refused to address and used bylaws to put up road blocks to dealing with is drivers idling and lining up and blocking public streets.

This is from August 4, 2010 “The Oregonian” “Letters to the Editor”:

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance stands wholeheartedly behind Kevin Kasowski’s invocation to fellow cyclists to bike safely, legally and with consideration for other road and path users (“Lack of real rules invites bike mayhem,” Aug. 2). We educate thousands of adult cyclists each year on laws and safe riding practices through the Share the Road safety class and our bike commute workshops presented on-site at Metro-area businesses. We also educate thousands of youths at more than 70 Oregon schools each year through our 10-hour bike safety education program.

While bike licensing fees piloted in other communities have proved to be more expensive to administer than reasonable user fees cover, institutionalized traffic safety education is definitely the way to go. We will continue our community-based education efforts at the same time as advocating that future Oregon drivers and cyclists all have access to bike safety education in school through the broadening of K-8 Safe Routes to School efforts and high school driver-education programs.

If we are successful in introducing walking and biking as lifelong transportation options to our youth, we will save far more money in transportation system costs than any licensing fee could ever generate.

STEPHANIE NOLL
North Portland
Noll is programs manager at BTA in Portland.

AND THIS RESPONSE TO MS. NOLL:

Dear Ms. Stephanie Noll, Programs Manager, BTA, Portland,

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/saferoutes/

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TS/saferoutes.shtml#Safe_Routes_Facts

I live in the neighborhood affectionately called “The Kid Zone” because more than 100,000 children walk on its sidewalks every year to go to all the kid-friendly activities in this neighborhood … from PGE Park, to the NW Children’s Theater & School, to Downtown parades.

NW 18th is the main transportation corridor into NW Portland for motor vehicles coming from W Burnside, and PGE Park. NW 18th is the northbound part of a couplet … so tractor-trailers, motorcyclists, and drivers speed up NW 18th in a rush to make the light at NW Everett and then turn right and onto I-405.

NW 18th is also the main transportation corridor into NW Portland for pedestrians and cyclists coming from MAX, W Burnside, Downtown, PGE Park, and Goose Hollow.

And the part of NW 18th we’re talking about is fully inside a school zone.

I’ve been trying for quite some time via emails and phone calls to enlist Cathedral School, Mayor Adams who’s in charge of transportation, the neighborhood association, NWDA … and both the BTA and K-8 Safe Routes to School to help solve a problem … not an “issue” … not a “concern” … but a problem.

The problem is what I see at the end of every school day … scroll down to “Some Statistics” from this link to NHTSA: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and you’ll read that 50% of all accidents near schools are created by the parents themselves.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/Safe-Routes-2002/forms.html

I see this problem because I live across the street from the campus of “regional magnet” Cathedral School in NW Portland. I see drivers sit in line in the middle of public streets in their black SUV’s (cliche but true) on NW Couch, NW 18th, and NW Davis.

Unbelievably these drivers own a full city block of parking right at their campus.

But rather than park and walk a few seconds to give their kids a “hug and hello” these drivers sit in their vehicles and line up.

In fact, they even get out of their SUV’s and stand in the middle of the street socializing and chatting … just to be able to pull up to the door and “load and go”.

(And on another note isn’t laziness … also called “sloth” … one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Wouldn’t this lazy “load and go” go against their own Catholic Dogma? And wouldn’t teaching your child to sit in a vehicle rather than walk be teaching your own child to be obese?)

And these drivers also force motorists to take blind turns off a busy, busy street … into equally busy oncoming traffic lanes.

So, why have I tried to engage BTA to help end this lining up?

Because these Cathedral School drivers totally block the bicycle sharrow … and they blind cyclists, other drivers, and each other … from seeing what’s happening at intersections up ahead and they force cyclists into the tractor-trailer/through-lane and they force a potential “right-hook” at NW 18th at Everett.

And these drivers block the many stroller moms in The Kid Zone from safe crossings at intersections … and the drivers block walking parents and children from seeing oncoming traffic … and block oncoming traffic from seeing the moms and kids.

Why have I contacted K-8 Safe Routes to School?

For the same reasons that I contacted BTA.

Why have I contacted Mayor Adams?

Same reason … public safety.

For more than two years all my neighbors and I have had are excuses, explanations, and bureaucratic mush … neither BTA, nor K-8 Safe Routes to School, nor the mayor’s office are stepping up and doing whatever it takes to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

Is it that much of a political hot potato that we have to wait for the first … and maybe second deaths … before this dangerous blocking and congesting on high-speed couplet public streets ends?

So, Ms. Noll, over the years as I see from my window what’s happening to cyclists, and neighborhood parents and kids who walk or cycle, I see the failure of BTA to show some courage and protect its own.

And because actions speak louder than words, due to the failure of BTA to protect its own, when BTA says that collecting bicycle registration fees are administratively prohibitive how can I believe that what BTA is saying is the truth?

What I do believe about BTA, K-8 Safe Routes to School, and Mayor Adams is that they have good teams skilled at the art of public relations and “bureau-speak”.

I have emails … lots of emails … that I’m happy to share … and years of watching the ongoing dangers around Cathedral School … to back me up.

Pete Colt

I thought you might find this interesting. I still think underground parking would be great for the northwest district.

http://www.woehr.de/en/projekte/budapest_m730/index.htm

Well, the answer is this … if you live in Portland Metro you know the moniker “close in” is used to describe the most sought after *residential neighborhoods* in Portland.

>And Historic NW Portland is the “Crown Jewel” of all of Portland’s close in residential neighborhoods.

Because it’s the “Closest In” in of all the “close in” residential neighborhoods.

And because Historic NW Portland is even more than “Closest In”.

>It’s the closest in “Complete Community” to Downtown.

It’s a rarely seen amenity.

A “Complete Community” is one that’s developed organically … it already exists … it has a vibrant mix of housing types and prices … and you can walk to amenities.

>A “Complete Community” means that a young couple can marry and rent an apartment … then have children and continue to rent or they can buy a single family home, or a family-friendly condo, and their kids can walk to school and to several parks.

>Then, when that couple become “empty nesters” they can downsize and move back into an apartment or condo … AND … because of the vibrant mix of housing types and prices … their kids can do what they did starting out.

Yep.

How about the health benefits of incorporating daily physical activity into your already too busy life by being able to walk to work Downtown for an amenity?

>Because from Historic NW Portland you don’t even need to bicycle, drive, use a streetcar, use light rail, or get on a bus to get to your Downtown office … just a comfortable pair of shoes will do.

>And you can walk to the Willamette River and walk to Forest Park, Washington Park, and the Zoo.

>And you can walk to Keller Auditorium for Opera and Broadway Across America, to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for the Oregon Symphony, to the Portland Art Museum and to the Cultural District’s museums.

>And walk to Gerding Theater, Artists Repertory Theater, Body Vox, White Bird, Third Rail, and all the live theater, dance, and entertainment in Historic NW, or in Downtown, Old Town, or in the Pearl District.

>You can walk to every single movie theater, coffee house, and restaurant in Historic NW Portland, Downtown, Old Town or the Pearl District, too.

>And you’re able to walk to the Portland Saturday Market on the Willamette River and to the Park Blocks and Portland State University for the Portland Farmers Markets.

>And you can walk to the stadium … PGE Park … for Major League Soccer and other events.

Yes!

>You can walk to the Downtown Retail Core and Pioneer Place Mall, Nordstrom, Macy’s, and all the great clothing stores like Columbia Sportswear, Nike, Banana Republic, The Gap and Gap for Kids, and tons of locally owned great apparel and specialty stores in Downtown, Old Town, and in the Pearl District.

Well, from NW Portland you can walk to amazing camera shops like Pro Photo Supply, Shutterbug, and Camera World and you can walk to electronic and computer stores like the Apple Store in Pioneer Place Mall, Computer Lift, and Old Town Computers.

>You can walk to Office Depot and Office Max.

>And Ace Hardware is located right in Historic NW Portland.

Glad you asked. You can walk to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and Fred Meyer, and to the locally owned co-operative Food Front.

>And the Historic NW District has three commercial “Main Streets”.

>One “main street” is pedestrian-friendly and upscale NW 23rd also called “Trendy Third” thanks to unique local and national retail, beauty boutiques, apparel shops, shoe stores, bakeries like Two Tarts, and restaurants and sidewalk cafes.

>Another Historic NW Portland “Main Street” is the heart of the district … NW 21st.

>Just like on NW 23rd the national chains are at the south end of NW 21st near W Burnside … so that’s where you’ll find Walgreens and Fred Meyer.

>But NW 21st also has the European-style Pasta Works grocery and the upscale specialty food store City Market and Trader Joe’s … and both seem to compete to see who can force the most gorgeous floral arrangements to spill out onto, and brighten, the sidewalks.

>NW 21st has Cinema 21, lots of sidewalk cafes, terrific restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries like Ken’s Artisan Bakery.

>And pedestrian-friendly NW 21st has beauty salons, barber shops … and even a good old fashioned cobbler … which means car-free living even for the most rarely used amenities.

>And for all these reasons and more in May 2010, when famed urban planner/architect Andres Dunny walked on NW 21st he called it “The Glory of Portland”.

>Historic NW Portland’s third “Main Street” … NW Thurman … is like a trip back in time to Mayberry.

>On this quiet pedestrian-friendly street you’ll find homes, Friendly House, a public library, Food Front, cafes, restaurants, and St. Honoré Boulangerie.

>You’ll also find an entrance to Forest Park on NW Thurman and near the park entrance … a trout stream.

>And there’s more you should know about Historic NW Portland … there’s a corner of it affectionately called “The Kid Zone”.

Yep. It’s the part of Historic NW Portland where 100,000+ kids visit each year.

>They come to learn, worship, play, and create.

>They learn in several regional magnet public or private schools.

>They worship in beautiful and historic regional magnets like Temple Beth Israel, St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and First Emmanuel Lutheran, or nearby St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Congregation Havurah Shalom, or Celebration Christian Church.

>They come to play in the early childhood development playground in Couch Park or to go to a sports event at PGE Park.

>And 20,000 of these 100,000+ kids every year come just to go to the NW Children’s Theater & School to create … or to be entertained by other kids.

<Wow! Thanks for all the information!

<Now I see why I've heard Historic NW Portland called "The Crown Jewel of Portland" and "The Jewel Gardens".

<I can live here car-free and have everything I need within a 20 minute walk!