REBUILDING PORTLAND A LITTLE AT A TIME

Rebuilding Portland means one thing: acknowledge what’s broken and fix it.

What’s broken?

The biggest thing broken is believing Portland is worth the effort.

But how do you rebuild trust? You need to go out and find it.

One place to look is the Rebuilding Center.

REUSE + REPAIR = RESILIENCE

ReBuilding Center is a climate justice nonprofit organization.
We make reuse and repair affordable for all, reduce waste and wasteful
consumption, and make the best use of our planet’s limited material resources.

Another place is N. Mississippi Ave.

Luckily they are found together in the same resilient neighborhood.

The only thing blocking the way there is fear.

Too many folks see a tangle of freeway bridges, on ramps and off ramps, and keep driving.

Urban navigation is not for them, but I find it fascinating in a civil engineering kind of way.

Portland has had a few starts and stops on freeway bridges.

There’s nothing better than urban planning history to see what the city could have been.

This link shows old film of Portland freeway plans.

This link points to the old Harbor Drive along the Willamette River through downtown.

Old freeway plans would have torn up city neighborhoods if they hadn’t been canceled.

Portland Neighborhoods Saved

Old city neighborhoods have their own kind of music.

It’s not for everyone.

But if you want to dance on N. Mississippi in Portland, take the 405 exit off I-5 north and cross the Fremont Bridge.

Stay in the right lane and take the Kerby exit to a sharp right turn that loops under the east end of the Fremont.

One side of Mississippi looks like this:

The other side looks like this:

It’s a neighborhood spared from the wrecking ball, the same ball that took out South Portland.

Older streets come alive with new business, new customers, and the will to get out.

Ditch the big box store one time and take a list of needed materials to the Rebuilding Center, then cruise for lunch.

You won’t have to cruise too far.

Rebuilding Portland takes a little nerve, but not anymore than it takes to live in Oregon.

What kind of city Portland turns into depends on one thing:

Vision.

A Vision For Rebuilding Portland

The McMenamins have a Portland vision.

The Oregon Historical Society has a vision.

A man named Haussmann had a Paris vision.

A public administrator with no training in architecture or urban planning, Haussmann turned Paris into a titanic building site for 20 years. Even though he was forced to resign in 1870 as the emperor faced growing criticism for excessive expenditure, work on Haussmann’s plan continued until the late 1920s.

The Haussmann vision of Paris reflected on cities around the world.

Haussmann’s plan for Paris inspired the urban planning and creation of similar boulevards, squares and parks in Cairo, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm, Madrid, and Barcelona. After the Paris International Exposition of 1867, William I, the King of Prussia, carried back to Berlin a large map showing Haussmann’s projects, which influenced the future planning of that city. His work also inspired the City Beautiful Movement in the United States.

Portland has been exposed to major league urban planners like Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.

In 1903, his adopted son John Charles Olmsted came to the Pacific Northwest at the invitation of the cities of Portland, Seattle, and Spokane. In Portland, JCO (as he is known by his admirers) responded to a request by Portland’s volunteer park board to develop a master plan for Portland’s parks. JCO toured the Portland landscape rapidly and with great intensity! He was squired around by Colonel L. L. Hawkins in his carriage the “Tally Ho Jupiter!” JCO’s Report to the Park Board was delivered in late December 1903.

Big Vision Portland From Robert Moses

One of the biggest names in city development came to Portland in 1943.

Moses’ vision for Portland was more or less the same one he had for New York: an industrial metropolis developed around massive highways, with residents thrown into shadow underneath the throughways or, better yet, pushed out to the city’s periphery.

The big losers would be streets like Mississippi and the businesses that thrive there.

His 1943 proposal for Oregon’s biggest burgh — commissioned by the Portland city council, the port authority and the Multnomah County commissioners — included widening the Ross Island Bridge and the construction of a Skidmore Street bridge, an interstate bridge, a “foothill throughway” linking the Ross Island and Skidmore bridges, another highway connecting McLoughlin Boulevard with the Skidmore bridge, seven new schools and an 11-block Union Station/bus-depot plaza. The estimated cost started at $75,000,000.

He also proposed a “24-block civic center between S.W. Salmon and Columbia streets, extending from Front [Naito] avenue to 6th avenue, with a connection to the south Park blocks,” The Oregonian reported. To top off his proposal, Moses recommended construction of a $10 million, state-of-the-art sewage system.

Rebuilding Portland The Right Way

Who will stand up in Portland like Haussmann stood in Paris, like Robert Moses stood in NYC?

Phil Knight works in Beaverton.

What if he pulled up stakes and moved to downtown Portland after claiming a few blocks for a new campus?

Downtown would sparkle, light rail would be packed, and Mr. Knight could add Hero Of Portland to his lists of accomplishments in education, sports, and medicine.

Portland could use a hero more than a bulldozer and a wrecking ball.

Seattle has their Three Bs.

 Jeff Bezos now joins Bill Boeing and Bill Gates as the three most significant entrepreneurs in Seattle history. Together, they have established our region as an inventive powerhouse, spearheading entirely new spaces.

The companies that the “three B’s” developed are world-beaters: Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon. And they remain at the very heart of the Pacific Northwest economy. 

Who will be remembered for rebuilding Portland?