Albina Vision / Rose Quarter Redevelopment

[maccoinnich]

Here's the resolution.

[maccoinnich]

Renovation to VMC submitted for Historic Resource Review (via Portland Maps.)

The applicant is requesting historic resource review for limited exterior changes to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The applicant is also requesting six modifications through the historic review. The attached narrative provides a detailed project description and addresses all applicable approval criteria. Stormwater: On-site infiltration.

[maccoinnich]

Portland and Trail Blazers will consider 5-year extension to Moda Center lease



From sale speculations to the realities of life without Damian Lillard, the future of the Portland Trail Blazers is a hot topic. Next week, Portland City Council will address one unknown: the fate of the soon-expiring lease at the Moda Center.

The proposed five-year lease extension with the city, which owns the land the Moda Center occupies, illuminates challenges the team’s management have faced in trying to finance major renovations to the 29-year-old arena and offers a short-term promise to keep the team in Portland.

“This keeps the Blazers playing in Portland until at least 2030,” said Karl Lisle, the city’s facilities program coordinator. “We don’t want a team that is actively looking to relocate. It’s a win for the city to secure the team for those extra five years.”

The team also considers the proposed agreement a win. That’s mostly due to changes in how the Moda Center can recoup city dollars to jump-start renovations at the aging arena.

...continues at OPB.

[maccoinnich]

Portland advances Moda Center ground lease extension for Trail Blazers



The Portland City Council Wednesday advanced a proposal to extend the ground lease at Moda Center, seeking to keep the Trail Blazers local for at least another five to 10 years.

Wednesday wasn't the final word on the short-term lease extension, which will now be hashed out before the topic returns, likely in the summer, for final approval.

Commissioners unanimously voted through a resolution that eases the way for a short-term ground lease extension at Moda through, at most, October 2035. It will also transfer ownership of the sports arena to the city from a private, Blazer-associated entity, meaning the city will own both the dirt and the arena there. The city already owns Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Providence Park, according to Karl Lisle, Portland's spectator venues program manager.

...continues at the Portland Business Journal ($).

[maccoinnich]

Oregon Legislature considers allocating $25M toward revitalizing Portland's Albina neighborhood
The funding would be used toward redeveloping the Portland Public Schools headquarters and building 1,000 housing units in the historically Black neighborhood.



SALEM, Ore. — On Wednesday, Oregon lawmakers announced their intent to approve $25 milllion for revitalizing Portland's historically Black Albina neighborhood, according to a press release from the office of Democratic Sen. Kayse Jama, who represents areas around East Portland.

If approved, the funding would be allocated to the Albina Vision Trust (AVT), a nonprofit that advocates for large-scale restorative development in the area, aiming to revitalize and reconnect the historically Black Albina community. They'd use it to purchase and restore the old Portland Public Schools headquarters building.

The funding would be part of the $376 million Emergency Housing Stabilization and Production Package, which consists of three bills: Senate Bill 1537, Senate Bill 1530 and House Bill 4134.

...continues at KGW.

[Jakz]

"The group plans to convert the aging building into 1,000 affordable housing units, an education hub, communal green spaces and mixed-use commercial opportunities, with the goal that the Albina neighborhood would be a riverfront destination for Oregonians to live, work and play."

Just bad phrasing, right? Or is there really a plan to reuse the existing building?

[maccoinnich]

Unless there's a huge change I haven't heard about, it's a mistake in the article.

[maccoinnich]

Feds grant $450 million toward I-5 freeway caps in North Portland’s Albina district



The Oregon Department of Transportation received a surge of funding Friday that will go toward rebuilding Lower Albina, the historically Black community destroyed decades ago for a series of urban development projects.

The U.S. Department of Transportation approved $450 million in federal funds toward building caps for the Interstate 5 freeway near the Rose Quarter. The freeway covers are part of a broader plan by local nonprofit Albina Vision Trust to revitalize the neighborhood, once a thriving hub for Portland’s Black community.

Albina Vision Trust Executive Director Winta Yohannes said the funding marked a “momentous leap forward” in the effort to rebuild Lower Albina.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[subterranean]

Wow, that's a wild amount of money.

[downtownpdx]

So great to see this moving forward.

[urbanlife]

While I think this Rose Quarter expansion is a waste of money that isn't gonna fix anything because the bottleneck will still exist, I am happy to see the Feds giving money for the buildable caps since that was always something in danger of getting cut with this project. Caps over the freeway will help fix the scar this freeway has left on this area and will help it heal and become an urban district again.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

While I think this Rose Quarter expansion is a waste of money that isn't gonna fix anything because the bottleneck will still exist, I am happy to see the Feds giving money for the buildable caps since that was always something in danger of getting cut with this project. Caps over the freeway will help fix the scar this freeway has left on this area and will help it heal and become an urban district again.

Isn't it fixing the lane drop? That is the biggest bottleneck issue I experience when I drive this way.

I forget what exactly they are doing, it's been a while since I looked in detail.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by PhillyPDX

Isn't it fixing the lane drop? That is the biggest bottleneck issue I experience when I drive this way.

I forget what exactly they are doing, it's been a while since I looked in detail.

It doesn't fix the lane drop, it just connects the off ramps from 84 to 405. Heading into the area from the north will still drop down to two lanes. What will be different is people driving on 405 to 84 and vice versa won't have to merge to make that transaction. So it will help with that, but even ODOT has said that it won't actually improve travel times during rush hours, nor will it improve the accidents rate because the majority of the accidents happen outside of rush hours when people drive faster through the area.

I would rather see two billion invested into transit and expanding the MAX and building at least one tunnel through downtown (even better would be to have it tunnel under Hillsdale and Multnomah Village.) But since this Rose Quarter freeway expansion is going to happen, I am happy to see that the buildable caps will be a part of the expansion and that Albina Neighborhood will have a real shot of return as hopefully a very dense and diverse district.

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

It doesn't fix the lane drop, it just connects the off ramps from 84 to 405. Heading into the area from the north will still drop down to two lanes. What will be different is people driving on 405 to 84 and vice versa won't have to merge to make that transaction. So it will help with that, but even ODOT has said that it won't actually improve travel times during rush hours, nor will it improve the accidents rate because the majority of the accidents happen outside of rush hours when people drive faster through the area.

Did ODOT say it wouldn't decrease accident rates?

I drive the 84 to 405 exit to the Fremont and reverese commute 2 to 4 times a week. The wild merging between 84 and 5N with the Moda/OCC exit in such a tiny amount of roadway and is incredibly dangerous. I've seen more than my share of bumpers bumping and close calls over the years. The reverse is a little easier to navigate but there is still a strangle when it drops to two lanes next to the Moda and then an exit only lane to 84 appears shortly thereafter creating another stretch of dangerous vehicle crossings in a constrained amount of space before the lanes break off to the exit. Would think smoothing this out would greatly decrease the number of accidents.

[Jakz]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

Did ODOT say it wouldn't decrease accident rates?

I drive the 84 to 405 exit to the Fremont and reverese commute 2 to 4 times a week. The wild merging between 84 and 5N with the Moda/OCC exit in such a tiny amount of roadway and is incredibly dangerous. I've seen more than my share of bumpers bumping and close calls over the years. The reverse is a little easier to navigate but there is still a strangle when it drops to two lanes next to the Moda and then an exit only lane to 84 appears shortly thereafter creating another stretch of dangerous vehicle crossings in a constrained amount of space before the lanes break off to the exit. Would think smoothing this out would greatly decrease the number of accidents.

WW, as always, has the story. TL;DR: No recent fatalities from vehicle-on-vehicle collisions (through 2017); lots of fender benders.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2017...ut-that-claim/

FWIW, ODOT could probably cap the freeway with the $450mil and include an auxilary lane on each side if they were willing to settle for three lanes with fairly typical shoulders. That would be about a 45'- 48' roadway width for each side, only 7' -10' wider than the current roadways. They'll get that width just by making the sloped embankments vertical, which they'll have to do anyway. Problem is ODOT really wants 55' roadways which can be restriped to four lanes in the future. That extra 10' on each side adds a lot of cost.

Credit to Joe Cortright (who exaggerates a little bit, as always): https://cityobservatory.org/rq_hidin...%20feet%20wide.

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by Jakz

WW, as always, has the story. TL;DR: No recent fatalities from vehicle-on-vehicle collisions (through 2017); lots of fender benders.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2017...ut-that-claim/

I agree with that assessment.

Stupid fender benders because of poor roadway design cause increased costs to insurance providers and ultimately their policy holders, aka us. The frequent bumping instead of fatalities is due to the traffic traveling slow in a very congested area. Ultimately it still leads to a ton of delay for those traveling the freeways. More congestion, more pollution, more time sitting in cars, trucks and delayed freight instead of being productive.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by Jakz

WW, as always, has the story. TL;DR: No recent fatalities from vehicle-on-vehicle collisions (through 2017); lots of fender benders.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2017...ut-that-claim/

FWIW, ODOT could probably cap the freeway with the $450mil and include an auxilary lane on each side if they were willing to settle for three lanes with fairly typical shoulders. That would be about a 45'- 48' roadway width for each side, only 7' -10' wider than the current roadways. They'll get that width just by making the sloped embankments vertical, which they'll have to do anyway. Problem is ODOT really wants 55' roadways which can be restriped to four lanes in the future. That extra 10' on each side adds a lot of cost.

Credit to Joe Cortright (who exaggerates a little bit, as always): https://cityobservatory.org/rq_hidin...%20feet%20wide.

Wow that City Observatory link, such vitriol. Tell us how you really think....

[maccoinnich]

Congressional delegates visit Portland’s Albina district, celebrate funding wins



An Oregon congressional delegation on Friday affirmed their commitment to rebuilding Lower Albina, promising to stick with the project for as long as it takes to redevelop the historically Black Portland neighborhood destroyed half a century ago by the construction of Interstate 5.

“Let it go out far and wide that Oregon’s delegation is all in on this project, and we’ll stay on it until we reach every bit of potential,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.

Wyden, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici on Friday stopped by the offices of Albina Vision Trust, the nonprofit that’s working to redevelop the community and return it to the residents who were once displaced from there.

They celebrated the group’s recent successes, chief among them securing a $450 million grant to build freeway covers that would reconnect a portion of the neighborhood that was razed for the development of the freeway, destroying hundreds of home and taking generational wealth away from thousands of Black Portlanders.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[downtownpdx]

Would also be great to see a night life area form next to the Moda Center from this development.

[urbanlife]

I would love to see the Rose Quarter/Albina District image become reality. It would be amazing seeing a residential skyline develop in that area and have the whole area feel like an urban extension of downtown.