You’re standing on the corner of West Burnside and Broadway when it happens: The Cascadia Subduction fault line snaps. The fault has been straining underneath the Pacific Ocean for hundreds of years—and now centuries of geologic force are rumbling towards Portland. The ground starts rolling. Cars swerve into nearby buildings as you stumble across the splintering sidewalk. Dust from lurching buildings rises into the air. You grab a telephone pole and watch as bricks rain down from the Stewart Apartments building. The façade of Bailey’s Taproom falls onto the street, crushing several pedestrians below. You hear a tremendous crash as the Burnside Bridge collapses into the Willamette. After five agonizing minutes of the ground shaking, some of the buildings around you have completely collapsed.
Those brick buildings, also known as unreinforced masonry buildings or URMs, make up nine percent of the buildings in Portland—1,650 buildings in total. They’re the most dangerous places to be in or near during an earthquake, as their building materials snap like a piece of chalk during seismic activity—activity that could happen within the next 50 years, according to geologists.
But those buildings have an architectural style that represents a part of Portland history, and many don’t want them erased for the sake of a “someday” disaster. The structures also provide low-cost options to small businesses and renters, something in short supply in a rapidly gentrifying city.
Retrofitting URMs will cost millions. And the high price of retrofits could exacerbate Portland’s housing crisis as landlords pass costs along to renters, or opt to simply tear down the aging buildings. Doing nothing, however, could cost hundreds of lives.
How URMs will be fixed—and who’s going to pay for them—comes down to local elected officials. On June 13, a city council vote could decide the fate of these buildings, and change the character of the city.