City’s broken promises make life difficult, more expensive for mid-county residents

Early failures compounded by creating more density with less service

DON WESTON

The Mid-County Memo

Has the City of Portland lived up to the promises it made to mid-county residents during annexation in the early to mid 1990’s?

Apparently not, if you talk to the land-use activists who have fought to keep mid-county livable since it became part of the City.

In separate interviews with the Mid-County Memo, neighborhood land-use activists voiced their opinions on the transition period from annexation to cityhood, discussing the bumps along the way.

Portland annexed a major potion of mid-county, ostensibly to upgrade sewers, in the late 1980’s and mid 1990’s. The city annexed an area between I-205 East roughly to 182nd Avenue between Northeast Sandy and Marine Drive and between Southeast Stark and Powell. Gresham carved a section of mid-county West to about 162nd Avenue between Southeast Stark and Northeast Sandy. Portland added the Powellhurst-Gilbert Neighborhood between Southeast 111th and 142 Avenues and Southeast Powell and Foster.

Arlene Kimura, president of the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association, said Portland has not lived up to the service levels promised during annexation talks.

“We were supposed to have no change in improved service levels,” Kimura said in an interview with The Memo.  “Part of our agreement was we would get these services, and they aren’t providing them. The residents have to pay for them out of their own pockets.”

Pete Smith, who along with his wife Dorothy battled against annexation in the ‘90’s, said initially the City did not provide adequate services “but I believe they are beginning to catch up with their promises.

“They have started providing most of the services, not all of them,” he said.  “They had promised to keep up the current level of services, then they began to cut services. They just didn’t have the money, the tax base was too low.”

“My answer would be they’ve done very poorly,” said Bonny McKnight, co-chair of the Russell Neighborhood Association.  “But I’m speaking as someone who’s lived here for 35 years; I can’t speak on behalf of the neighborhood association.”

McKnight feels that neighborhoods in mid-county are not the only areas dissatisfied with city services. Others may be equally upset, she said, but mid-county may have higher expectations.

 “They’ve attempted to close the fire station (#45); we rebelled and they capitulated,” McKnight said. “They charged us to fix their storm water system when we did not participate in it at all.  After we were annexed they tried to put on a storm water runoff fee; we rebelled again and they capitulated. They tried to put on a road repair fee and we rebelled again. It isn’t a fee it’s a tax.”

“I think with some things they probably have met annexation promises, but overall I think not,” said Carol Williams, chair of the Parkrose Heights Association of Neighbors. 

“We were told nothing would change and that’s not true,” Williams said. “I think a classic example is when they closed Fire Station #45.  Former City Commissioner Gretchen Kaufory made an awful lot of people mad back then. She made a comment that if we wanted fire protection we should move downtown.  That was not the promise. The promise was that we would not lose services, and emergency services have always been one of our biggest concerns.”

“They said sewers would cost so much for people outside Portland that some people would lose their homes,” Williams added. “I don’t know how many people feel they got a price break on it.”

Most of the neighborhood activists identified higher density in mid-county as a major concern. It is likely the reason Portland has not been able to maintain the level of services in mid-county.

“The city’s wants density but they aren’t willing to pay for the infrastructure,” said Kimura. “The residents have to pay for it out of their own pockets.”

Higher density means trying to figure out how to crowd more people into shrinking pockets of available land. All mid-county neighborhoods are seeing an infusion of apartments and smaller homes built on flag-lots. The result in some cases has been homeowners looking out their back porch to see a new neighbor five feet away.

 The Russell neighborhood has been preparing for such land-use code revision for the last five years, according to McKnight.  She said either the current land-use code or the proposed revision would have an unfavorable impact.

The large 7,000 square foot lots for single family housing will be a thing of the past. There will be a push for development downwards of 2,000 square-foot lots.

“The current city code is aimed at reducing on-site parking,” McKnight said. “Cars will be parked on the street, not in driveways. Much of mid-county has no sidewalks, and some have no streetlights.

“You end up with narrow, dangerous streets. Our kids were able to play out in front of the house,” she said. “There’s no way kids can play out in the street now.”

“We’re way down on the list of road repair,” McKnight explained. “I’ve seen the list and the Portland Department of Transportation didn’t have anything on it for repair out here.”

Kimura  said  the  Portland  City Council shouldn’t put the onus on mid-county residents to fund everything. “I understand the city doesn’t have the money,” she said. “But it becomes a burden on the citizenship to create a Local Improvement District to pay for streets.”

Mid-county has a large number of seniors that tend to stay in the area, Kimura said. The new people moving into the area tend to be young. Neither group can afford the high costs of services for city street maintenance, water and sewer and upgrading costs associated with meeting city codes for correcting water pressure.

Streets are not the only problem aggravated by density, according to the neighborhood activists.

“The trouble with density is that we have no transit that serves density,” McKnight said. “Because there are no sidewalks people won’t walk to the bus, and they’re not going to bicycle on dangerous or poorly lit streets,” she said. “If they can’t get to transit, there’s no way for people to get around except to drive.”

Kimura has been a strong proponent of alternative transportation. A bus rider herself, she is dismayed at the inadequate transit service in mid-county, noting most residents live further than a quarter mile from a transit station, the distance Tri-Met has determined a mid-county resident will walk to catch a bus.

A recent example was the streamlining of Parkrose Heights’ bus route  #23, which Tri-Met wanted to end. “We fought and we got a loop run; it’s not as good as we had,” Williams said.

The other problem is most mid-county residents get intermittent service at best.

Kimura said only one bus route in mid-county has 15-minute service seven days a week and that is #71, which travels on 122nd  Avenue to Northeast Prescott Street, then West to Northeast 60th Avenue. “Almost all other bus rides go 30 minutes or longer, some only come by once an hour.”

Isn’t that a Tri-Met Problem?

The city is supposed to be working with the transit service if they want higher density,” Kimura said McKnight agrees. “When you put density out here without Tri-Met service, you’ve caused the problem,” she said. “The city has failed because they are putting people out here without the service.”