Been by the corner of SE 20th and Morrison recently? What was once the Cemetery Gates cafe is now an empty lot covered in construction equipment.

The new development across the street from Lone Fir Cemetery leveled two buildings constructed in 1907 and 1891 to build a two high-density residential buildings home to 71 apartments total. I was surprised to find out that the previous buildings were so old—I never had any love for the one on the corner, which had been covered with an ugly wood facade (and pretty cool mural) some time much more recently.

As a sign of the times, the 71 apartments will have only 15 parking spots! According to the Buckman neighborhood association, the developer will be "aggressively marking this property to tenants without cars, and will also be offering some perks to its residents such as TriMet passes."

Maybe they heard that free parking is for socialists? Anyway, hooray for dense building that doesn't waste space and money on surface parking lots.

Here are a couple images of the planned apartments, via the neighborhood association:

20thmorrison_lookingnw.png
20thalder_lookingsw.png