Today while waiting for the train, I watched this gentleman use a blanket to sweep the detritus from the trees onto the sidewalk. It wasn’t the most efficient way to clear the sidewalk, but it was pretty inventive for someone who didn’t have a broom, and it also looked like a good meditative practice.
You can see the difference. To the left of the couple, the sidewalk is covered with the green stuff from the tree.
Thanks, sir, for making the downtown Portland sidewalks look nicer.
Work is doing a survey that involves mailing to many Portland residences. A lot of them come back to us as vacant. On this one someone helpfully added “demolished.” It’s not surprising.
Here’s my best guess as to what 3951 N. Vancouver looks like. It’s been absorbed on PortlandMaps.com into 3535 N. Vancouver, which is currently the Brass Tacks restaurant.
This building could have been torn down in the past few years, or it could have been torn down as part of the “improvement plan” in the 1960s that gutted a historically Black neighborhood and resulted in empty lots for decades.
Something will appear here though, and probably sooner rather than later as this area is hip, happening and nearly fully gentrified. We can’t have weedy, empty lots in that kind of neighborhood.
It’s just past seven o’clock a.m. and I can tell that I’m the third person to walk to the train this morning.
It wasn’t enough snow to be a bother, and not nearly the amount of snow that was predicted. This is the snowstorm that has reminded me why I never let myself get excited about Portland snow forecasts. Often they are much ado about nothing.
At the corner of North Denver Avenue and North Lombard street in Portland Oregon, there’s a run-down building which until recently housed The Barn, a local bar.
On the sign with the full name of the bar (The Farmer’s Barn) we see the reason for the demise: Pat has died.
I didn’t fully realize until this moment that it was called the Farmer’s Barn. This is because until that sign was changed to Pat’s memorial information, it said, “Do not need a farm to enjoy the barn”
Both Yelp and Facebook have confirmed the closing of this bar. I learned from the Yelp reviews that they only served beer and wine, accepted no credit cards and had a happy hour from 7-11am. I usually saw people heading in around seven on the days when I rode my bike to work and took Denver. That explains that.
I will be interested to see if this building is replaced. My guess is yes.
R.I.P. Pat, and your Farmer’s Barn.
A.K.A not long for this world.
I love this little house, one of three on this block. It’s 756 square feet and was built in 1926. The last time it was sold was in 2006 for $160,000. It’s a rental, the owners live in Vancouver.
The woman who lives (lived?) here has yard sales multiple times per year. There is a new four-story apartment complex next door, and since this is zoned CM3, this lot could hold something up to six stories. (Although then you might also need to buy the two houses next door.)
Here’s the asking price: $349,900. If the sellers get that, they will have doubled their money in 12 years. It’s been for sale for some time, so I’m guessing the price will drop a little.
I include the picture of the sign so you can see someone has crossed out with a big “NO!” the words “with development potential.” Since the MLS listing doesn’t include any pictures of the interior of the house, I would be very surprised if this becomes someone’s home.
When a former strip club and front for a prostitution ring is torn down in order to build affordable housing, it’s a very good day for the neighborhood.
Even better? When a bunch of small organizations were the ones who bought the property in the first place, because they knew that good piece of land would be better served by a different sort of building.
This is a lot I’ve been watching since 2015. I used to ride by it regularly as I bicycled to work. The lot was sectioned off from the house next door and sold during that time. Not much has happened since then, though that fence is new.
Today I was interested to notice this for sale sign which not only advertises the price of the lot as just south of $300k, but also has already drawn plans for a three-unit modern condo development. My mind boggled a bit trying to mentally fit three houses in here so I spent some time studying the renderings.
This seems to be an example of vertical living. On the main floor is the kitchen/dining area, followed by the living room/office on the second floor. Then you climb to the third floor to get to the first set of bedrooms and then to the fourth floor to get to the master bedroom.
I did the math and the square footage works out to 376–441 square feet per floor. That’s a little bit bigger than the footprint of my studio apartment.
This is an interesting development in infill housing. It doesn’t provide parking, which I still feel should be at least a small priority for each lot. I do rather like the idea of three normal-sized houses on one lot, rather than one big one.
I’ll keep my eye on this property and see what appears.
News has come recently that one of the biggest food cart pods in Portland will be disassembled to make way for new construction. The 10th & Alder block–now ringed with food carts–will become another high-rise building.
This, I made it a priority to snap this picture of the original cart on the block.
Here’s what I saw on my walk to Laurie and Burt’s house.
We last saw this house in July, it having been stripped down to the just the front facade. It is now rising up again, adding a new level. I look forward to seeing the final product.
I gasped with joy when I walked around the corner and this beautiful mural came into view. I want a beautiful mural on my house too!
The Brigadoon House. I tell the story of this house in July 2014. Short version: while partaking of my morning jog during my first years in the neighborhood, I found a house I loved. And then I couldn’t find it again. Where had it gone? Had it been torn down? Disappeared for 100 years? Eventually I figured out I was choosing the wrong street and the house was still there!
Today however, it was not.
I hate to see houses like this go, because I love sub-1000 square foot houses. According to Portland Maps, this house (7033 N. Fenwick) is 480 square feet. Or was. It sold for $150,000 in 2009 and–this is why we have so many homeless people in Portland–$285,000 in September of 2017.
Fun PortlandMaps extra: historic plumbing permits, including one from 1942.
I will miss the Brigadoon House, and I’m sorry it did not survive long enough for me to buy and live in it.
I snapped a picture of this building and then did some research on what’s happening with it. As usual the Next Portland site was very helpful.
1727 NW Hoyt was originally built as a maternity hospital, most recently was an office building and has been vacant since 2007. In 2014 the developer applied for a demolition permit, but was rebuffed. The most recent update is from 2015, with talk of converting it to boutique hotel rooms. It’s certainly got good parking for that purpose. However, the time that has passed has me wondering if that is what will come to pass.
