Private Pavement

For some weird reason I have been looking at this tree on the southwest corner of N.W. 23rd and N.W. Johnson a lot. It's just north of the Thrift Store pictured in my previous post. It's a pretty moss-covered tree with a bike permanently hitched to it, as if they were an old married couple.

When I was trying to make sure I had the cross streets right, I came across this document from the Portland Office of Transportation:

NW 23RD AVENUE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Existing Conditions and Proposed Improvements
Sheet 3 - NW Johnson to NW Lovejoy

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=127179

This document shows the existing conditions of many different corners near this tree, and if you look carefully, a new curb ramp is drawn in right on top about a third of the current treewell area. I had to look closely to see what this document was trying to communicate, because in Office of Transportation lingo, tree wells are called "Private Pavement." (take a look at the legend, you'll see what I mean). Hum. I thought that trees planted in treewells were Public, and they are certainly not Pavement. This will be my homework assignment: to find out more about these reconstruction projects.

Blank Canvas

I love this ugly little building on the corner of N.W. Johnson and N.W. 23rd Avenue. It's weird how bad architecture can make you see the green architecture a little better.

Stumped

I went for a little jog around the neighborhood this morning, with the goal of seeing something that I hadn't seen before. What I found were condos, condos, everywhere. And where there are condos, there are stumps. I took picture of stumps at two of them, one near, Savier Gardens, at 2555 NW Savier St., and the other in front of Rainier Park Condominiums, at 2445 NW Lovejoy. There are a couple of things that these two different projects have in common: 1) both are redevelopment projects that add onto/remodel an existing building; 2) both have trees in their front planter strip that have been cut down; and 3) both have fire hydrants just a few feet away. I believe the urban forester requires that newly planted trees be sited at least 5 feet away from fire hydrants, so these trees may have been improperly sited in the first place.

The Savier condos have replanted the front planter strip nicely, except the stump still hanging out in front of their parking lot advertises to people like me what once was. A little sleuthing on PortlandMaps.com turned up an aerial photo from 2005 that showed several fully leafed-out street trees, and one very large tree in the courtyard.

The Rainier Park Condos are still under construction so the planter strip was a big mess. But I'm sure their permit requires them to replant at some point.

This got me thinking about the purpose of this blog. Capturing all pre- and post- development plantings seems somewhat nutty, especially for a one-person outfit like me. But it is no accident that there are stumps all around these development sites--and these are redevelopments, mind you, not scrape-and-clean new construction, a la The Vaux (More to come on this development at 24th and Savier). I can get pretty fired up about trees and especially disappearing trees, but it also occurs to me that policing whether developers/contractors are abiding by their permit requirements is more than I can take on.

So, after a bit of mulling, I think that a more simple goal of this blog is simply to document what has been lost, when I perceive it. And to document what is here today. I still am conjuring on the best way to be systematic about what I see.

Faux Spring

This week I have looked for and found plenty of REAL cherry blossoms as I walk around the neighborhood. So I was sort of surprised and amused by this fake flower lei hung up in a cherry tree on NW Johnson.

Irving Street Parking Garage Voted down

I walked out of my apartment building on NW Irving Street on Tuesday morning and discovered a flyer had been taped to the front door about a City Council hearing on the proposed Irving Street garage. This 3-story garage would demolish an old building at 2311 N.W. Irving Street. Well, the news this week is that City Council voted against the garage. One of the approval criteria related to pedestrian safety was a deciding factor. Here is a picture I took of the proposed site (which is located just West of Papa Haydn restaurant) this morning on my dog walk.

My favorite quote from the Oregonian article covering the City Council vote came from Vera Katz, who sent her testimony on a disk: "I have to smile when I hear people say we need garages to reduce traffic," said Katz. "That's not the Portland way." Some good background on the dispute in a Mercury article appears here:

http://portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=55918&category=22101

I'm curious to see the actual testimony presented. The City of Portland's website publishes archives of City Council meetings on City Net 30. The meeting on Wednesday night (2/21/07) hasn't been posted yet but check back later here:

http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=28259

As you can see from the photo, there are no street trees on this site to speak of, but what you can't see from this picture are the three old Portland homes just to the West of the pale blue low-pro structure. Also, just steps from the proposed site there is a Bigleaf Linden Historic Register tree, which I snapped a photo of.

I have to say, I'm feeling sort of conflicted about what's worse: the impact of lots of new cars (and benzene release) in the neighborhood, or the continued impact of careless street parking on trees large (and small).

Perspective

I have been wanting to take this photo for a while. I don't think you get the opportunity to make a big truck feel small every day.