I, Anonymous May 28, 2014 at 4:00 pm

Developmentopia

Comments

1
Where can you sign up to find a way to keep SE from turning into the Pearl? Right here, dumbass. How can you be thirty-something and not yet have learned that it's all about money? The way you stop SE from turning into the Pearl is this: buy the lot, and keep Cartopia there, all the while paying the Trimet tax, the Portland Business license tax, your income tax, and doing it for the happiness of others. Can't afford it? Start putting your cigarette money in a jar on the nightstand. Band together with your thirty-something friends and form a collective to buy it---a Nature Conservancy for funkiness, if you will. I wish you would, I love Cartopia and I don't want to see it (or Good Food Here, for that matter) gone, either. I want SE to stay quirky and funky, too. I'm just not naive enough to think it will unless I'm willing to outspend other people with money to keep it that way.
2
You mean like the city handing our money to the developers?
3
Yup. Put your money where your mouth is. If you don't have enough money, then find a way to get it, then put it where your mouth is. It's as simple as that.
4
sometimes the city has compassion. The city DID block Walmart from moving into 82nd across from Madison High School and instead sold the property to the Buddhists. So sometimes it's not all about money.
5
I think I read in the original article that no one knew it was being evaluated for selling and that it was a surprise even to the cart owners. I'm for it! Any way we could do it now or is it too late? Maybe we could pool our money for a lot around the same area.
6
Being Funky is a nomadic lifestyle. I was chased from the very cool NW Portland when you were 5. I have watched Hawthorne, Belmont, and now Division get swallowed up. So move. Right now, East of Tabor, abd 82nd are ripe for the picking. If you wait for someone to make it cool, then you have less time to enjoy it. You be the trailblazer. Get your friends, stake your ground, build your funk, the carts will follow. And if you are lucky, you will be able to enjoy it for 10 years.
7
The Mayor of Portland has to be one of the worst, I mean he wants a street tax, and then they are proposing a license for any shop that is open after 10:pm? Talk about trying to squeeze the last penny they can out of the small businesses! Portland is starting to suck.
8
I agree with just about everything all of you are saying, and I like the point about the city showing compassion on 82nd. But the city doesn't own the Cartopia lot, some private person does. Aubrey, if you want to start a crowdfunding/kickstarter thing to buy a lot for carts, I'll contribute!
9
Isn't this called gentrification? And it's happened in pretty much every neighborhood in close-in portland. But when you misplace the minorities it's not that big of a deal. Misplace some funky hipsters and people get PISSED!

Also, I'm not sure where the OP is eating, but if they can't find a meal under $20 in Portland outside of that cart pod, they're drinking too much.
11
This is the biggest 1'st world problem rant I have ever seen. "Where else can I enjoy bourbon, craft artisan beer and duck fat fried french fries for under 20 bucks now? WAHHHHHHH, they are chasing off all the jobless tattooed fake artist people who all work at Starbucks part time, and replacing them with people that can pay bills!!! I don't want to shop at Zupans, I want to shop at the FUCKING FRED MYERS ON HAWTHORNE, because it is so much less cooperate!" There are no other neighborhoods in OREGON that a California transplant that has read the Mercury once could move to and get better rent, great restaurants and amazing community. Where else should I live, if I can't live in ONE OF THE ONLY TWO DISTRICTS IN PORTLAND THAT IS MAJORLY FEATURED ON PORTLANDIA!" lol, fools. This happens when tons of people move from out of state into a city, ballooning its population and making it's popular city centers and districts more desirable and populous. This facilitates growth and gentrification. So... UNLESS YOUR A NATIVE OREGONIAN, BORN AND RAISED SHUT UP, YOU CAUSED THE PROBLEM! And if you wanted to solve it, you would just move back home.
12
Or...keep talking. It's revolt that has kept the Trustfundians at bay! Communication is always the seed for a revolt that works. People can do much with diplomacy. You do realize that communities have meetings, including local governments...the public is welcome, they do represent the public. I know because, as the lone resident in my old hood to show up at one such meeting, I made a strong enough point to make THE difference. A one man revolution! People need to show up! That's how it works. You had better believe these rich developers send their puppets.
13
What does being born and raised in Medford have to do with NOT gentrifying SE Portland? You had me pretty hard until you did that weird out-of-state thing Oregonians cling to.
14
All that was great about Portland 10 years ago has been dead for a while now, this is just further evidence of that. There's no stopping it at this point. Soon Portland will be indistinguishable from San Francisco and Seattle. Moving out to almost-Gresham won't help. Just start looking for next-Portland and go enjoy it for a decade or two before it suffers the same fate (and if you find that, let me know... I'm still looking).
15
What the? You can eat almost *anywhere* in Portland for $20 or less. This city has more cart pods than it knows what to do with, yet this particular one closing down signals the end of an era? Good lord.. laying the drama on mighty thick.
16
There's no stopping gentrification, but it does seem like the city could manage it better. What is happening on Division is a travesty. Every other block has a giant apartment complex going up. How could the city planning department ok this amount and type of development on a two-lane street that is already heavily trafficked?
17
It's like before 15th on Hawthorne is cursed. While walking home today, I saw so many going out of business or closed locations that appeared to be going strong just a few weeks ago. I wonder if more land has been sold?
18
Also, while looking into that, I found this: http://fun-dit.com/save-portland-food-cart-pods/
19
You can sign up by contacting Mayor Hales. Those who voted for him are responsible, because he is responsible.
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/mayor/60975
mayorcharliehales@portlandoregon.gov
20
Yeah it sucks when things change. The thing that people don't seem to get (in the Pacific Northwest anyway - people understand it perfectly in New York City) is PEOPLE MOVE PLACES. THINGS CHANGE. Also, money rules in our society. Those who have it can do whatever they want and those of use who don't have it, have to move further and further and further away from places we want to live because PEOPLE MOVE PLACES. THINGS CHANGES. MONEY RULES OUR SOCIETY. When I lived in Seattle all everyone did was bitch about it - and now, years after I had to leave, it is worse than ever. Blame Amazon.com Blame Portlandia. Blame Congress. Blame racism. Blame classism. Blame capitalism. Blame the man. All the whining, moaning, and bitching in the world won't change it.
21
Cities become cities when lots get in filled with buildings and single family houses get torn down for higher density apartments. It's progress and by keeping development close-in urban sprawl is avoided (which is good). I'm a third generation Portander. This is not a badge of honor but rather a bit of perspective; ask my grandmother or my dad if Portland has changed much. Yes, the city has changed significantly. However, the changes have made the city more fun. The new people here are my friends.

We can't pick our favorite sunny day in Portland and preserve it in amber. Enjoy it now. The next thing is always coming and it could be anything.
22
June 11 there is a meeting about infill and demolitions on NE Holman, 6:30-8:30 pm. The city is pushing high density at any cost and the result is loss of important architecture and affordable housing for the average person.
23
No place is safe, developers will always ruin the party. In this case, Hawthorne was super cool in the late 80s, the street itself had almost no retail, just a few good shops here and there. Then in the early 90s, the Hawthorne Bus. Alliance was formed, a consortium of rich investors who basically bought up every building on the entire strip. They were well connected to media ((NYT, for example), and worked with them to plug the area in feature stories to the masses. They were also well connected in City Hall and the neighborhood associations which allowed them to evict and remove undesirables (the food line at FM, for example). Their plan succeeded in bringing tens of thousands of new, relatively wealthy, white, young, law-abiding, money spending transplants into the area. This marked the birth of the service industry version of Hawthorne with subsequent loss of bohemian culture, and when the overcrowding started. Now you the people who caused this all are complaining about it. Hawthorne was actually cool 25 years ago, hard to believe when looking at it today.
24
(Continuing) The Hawthorn Bus. Alliance also worked with police to harass individuals. At one point in the early 90s, they put a neighborhood officer (Knudsen, I remember because he'd introduce himself) to walk around and harass people for no reason, stopping anyone without cause, taking names and checking IDs. They also had the police harass the homeless: there was a homeless camp at the property of Greystone gallery where the owner let homeless take shelter and set up tents; this was removed by order of the police and initiated by the Hawthorne B.A. (the owner had been getting fines and thus had no choice). Lastly, the police began walking around, knocking on every door in Sunnyside to chat with homeowners to ask if they knew of anything suspicious about their neighbors. This is how Hawthorne was gentrified by owners of land leasing to the "cool" shops and carts you see now.
25
Everyone HATES gentrification (unless it happens in your neighborhood, and makes your house more valuable).
26
^ BLOOP there it is!
27
Brett Meyers said that one day, Portland would be indistinguishable from Seattle and San Francisco. Unlikely. Portland is at least 3 massive economic booms behind either city, and both of them are on the ocean. Portland will remain a sleepy, small city for quite some time even if it's a gentrified one.

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