Yesterday I posted about the rapid change on North Williams and the decades-long process that has replaced black-owned businesses with fancy new stores, restaurants, and apartments. One current example is the major new building planned for Williams and Skidmore.
The lot on that corner has been vacant for at least 10 years, but community elder/hilarious person Paul Knauls talked with me recently about what used to be there. In the 1970s, Knauls owned four buildings on North Williams and Vancouver, including Geneva’s, his family-run restaurant on that corner. The rest of the lot was a community garden for neighbors. “Anybody who wanted could have a 20 by 20 plot,” said Knauls. He burst into laughter reminiscing about the annual potluck they held were people brought dishes made from their gardens’ bounty: “It didn’t go over too well then, because people weren’t as into the vegetables.”
Only one retail space is on North Williams today that was there when Knauls moved to Portland in 1963: The Tropicana BBQ joint.
Now, Knauls’ old vacant lot is slated to be developed by the same owner who converted the former House of Sound lot into the 72-unit Albert Apartments, which are still under construction on North Williams and Beech. The initial designs for the new four-story, 84-unit building look like this:
At a meeting last month, neighbors raised various concerns about the building design. Here’s a pdf of their criticisms, but one of the major issues comes down to massing: They believe the building looks too big for the street and should be split into smaller buildings, have its top half set back from the street, and build ground-floor pedestrian spaces. Architect Trish Nixon, of LRS Architects, says the team is “currently working on some options” to respond to neighbors’ concerns, but nothing is set.
Also I’m guessing there will be a total of 6 parking spaces planned to accomodate the 84-unit building.
So? Just because you like cars doesn’t mean that everyone else does? If you want parking, live in Beaverton.
More NIMBY nonsense here. If the market demands denser housing, let them build it.
” if you want parking live in Beaverton” wow. That’s fresh
@1 The blue text in the article leads to more information – sweet! Look, 66 parking spaces. So much easier to be snarky and prop up straw men then to actually take 5 seconds and understand the issue.
@pdxMB – Dammit it, you’ve ruined our fun.
Chris, if they can somehow ensure that the tenants won’t have cars, they can build as many of those as they want. But they do have cars, and they leave them in every available street spot for three or four blocks.
But this building has parking. So, carry on.
@2, @4:
“WHOOOOSH!”
@Chris: Just because you *don’t* like cars (and presumably, don’t like Beaverton either) doesn’t mitigate the need for a reasonable number of parking spaces with a development such as this one. If you want a lack of parking, live in Manhattan…
I do want a lack of parking, so I live in Portland, where we don’t have the ridiculous parking minimums that you “free market” idiots keep harping about.
@4– Actually, I can’t find any plans for parking for the second proposed building. The one that is already being built, on the East side of the street, has 66 parking spaces for 72 units, which is inadequate.
Also, the city numbers for parking the Mercury cited was for the whole of Williams– but all the development is happening between Fremont and Alberta, which has significantly fewer spaces. Some of us have businesses to run in this area, as well as residents, all of which have inadequate parking. I would recommend to build the new apartment complex maybe eight blocks down the street. Williams can still be accessed, but it won’t be in the area where there is a crunch already.
Friday, a bus broke down on Williams and Beech. A lane was blocked and the traffic backed up all the way to the Fremont Bridge. Is it really a good idea to continue forcing more population and business in this small area?