Despite a brief downturn in the Great Recession, the Pearl has been home to mostly upscale condos mixed with a few (required) mixed-income and low-income developments. The typical urban amenities followed - Whole Foods, eclectic pubs, restaurants and shops, built into the remnants of the warehouse district that once defined the area - before it acquired the shi-shi title of "The Pearl".
And the gentry moved in. Empty nesters, young professionals, hip older professionals, wannabes. When they started having kids, the 1-2 bedroom condos didn't quite fit, so some moved out, but for those that stayed, Jamison Park became their de facto back yard complete with dogs and kids, although the thought of kids playing in grass laced with dog poop makes me squirm.
The dream of Portland planners and City Hall of dense development, walkable neighborhoods, rail transit, urban amenities - the Manhattanizarion of Portland - was idealized in the Pearl. This was where the planning elite showed off their forward-thinking, smart city.
But a game-changer is in the works: Preserve the Pearl, LLC, is now in play.
I hope that as you read the excerpts here, and the complete article online, that you consider the parallels to the arguments residents in Lake Oswego have over out-of-scale development in downtown LO, and in our neighborhoods. The problems are not limited to any particular city, any specific height or density in an area, but are proportional to a given neighborhood and town.
This gets to the heart of people's connection to the physical place on Earth they call home - the visceral, primitive need to connect with others around them and form a community, centered in a particular place. It is the place they create, love and care about, and the place they will defend against what threatens it.
Planners talk a lot about "connectedness", "community-building" or "a sense of place", but the terms never get past words on a page of a textbook because theories of development do not match the reality of how people live. This is why the public dislikes how elitist politicians and planners destroy the uniqueness of their neighborhoods and the cities they call home - no matter what their size or where they are.
Preserve the Pearl faces 'Godzilla' of development
Group fights city approval of new 150-foot tower
Portland Tribune, March 12, 2015 By Michael Bancud
“The word is out,” Burton Francis, a lawyer who lives in the Edge Lofts, says from a table at Urban Grind Coffee in the Pearl District. “Portland is on the block, it’s for sale. And this is our great opportunity to become like ... Seattle!”
Francis and neighbors Seth Johnson and Tom Lawwill, citizen members of Preserve the Pearl, have galvanized around the Portland Design Commission’s approval of Seattle-based Security Properties’ design application to build a 15-story, 150-foot apartment/office tower on what’s known as Block 136.
Preserve the Pearl LLC has filed an appeal to that decision; Francis wrote the brief.
The area west of The Edge Lofts, where the three live, previously had 75-foot building height limits.
The tower portion of the building would be up to three times the height of surrounding mid- and low-slung buildings. Nearby historic areas such as Northwest 13th Avenue will become like “Disneyland” as their original fabric is lost, they say.
Our concern is losing the uniqueness of the Pearl, which is already gone north of Lovejoy,” he says
Tom Lawwill is a longtime Portland real estate professional and a Preserve the Pearl supporter. He recently sold Pearl developer John Carroll the Jim Stevens Auto Body Shop, where Carroll plans to break ground on a 14-story apartment building
“I work it from both sides,” he says. “This isn’t about loss of views, and we aren’t anti-development. We’re just asking for respectful density. That’s all we’re asking for.”
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