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Red Apple Bar license likely
Despite continuing and widespread community opposition, David L. Thompson will probably receive a liquor license for his proposed Red Apple Bar and Grill at 16126 N.E. Sandy Blvd.
At last month’s meeting of the Wilkes Community Group, Oregon Liquor Control Commission inspectors Dan McNeal and Laura Lee Gravey said that they would recommend approval for the license because they had no basis under the law to do anything else. Among other things, Gravey said, the city of Portland’s Police Bureau and Office of Neighborhood Involvement had taken a “no endorsement” stance — which OLCC interprets as a neutral position — rather than outright opposition.
Gravey also said that there was not a history of problems at a bar Thompson once operated in the Cully neighborhood, as Wilkes Chair Ross Monn has claimed. The record does show that in 1999 Thompson was cited and fined because his bar generated excessive noise, and in 2004 he was cited for “a history of serious and persistent problems” caused by his establishment.
If the city had opposed the license, Gravey told the Memo, the matter would have to go before the OLCC, with an opportunity for public testimony. As it is, OLCC Director Steve Pharo has authority to approve it.
“It doesn’t look like there’s much we can do under the current state law,” Monn told the Memo.
Senn’s Dairy Park will get, among other things, a community garden
Last month Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees Portland Parks & Recreation, promised completion of the master plan for Senn’s Dairy Park, including creation of a community garden, within a year.
The pledge followed an exchange of communications between bureau officials and Christine Charneski, who was the ramrod for development of the park on Northeast Prescott Street at 112th Avenue as a target area coordinator. In a September 26 letter she wrote to Saltzman aide Matthew Grumm, “We felt kind of cursed every step of the way” due to the bureau’s intransigence. “We lost key volunteers who became frustrated and embittered by the unreliability of PP&R staff...(waiting for bureau action) wasted our project resources and alienated the neighbors still further.... There’s an argument to be made that PP&R owes this community some reparations for past mistakes and costly misjudgments.” In addition to the community garden and fencing it off, the park plan calls for tables, benches and a drinking fountain.
In a Nov. 7 reply, Saltzman promised to ask the rest of City Council for Systems Development Charges funds to complete the park. (Council subsequently voted for the funds.) “Subject to weather conditions and bidding environment, Parks hopes to complete the community garden construction in time for the spring 2007 planting,” he wrote. “The remaining park improvements will be submitted for bid in sequence with our playground improvement bid packages. Due to the timing of this body of work, we anticipate bidding early next fiscal year for construction during the 2007 construction season.”
Central Gateway Development Strategy moves forward
Last month, Consultant Justin Douglas of Parametrix continued an ongoing discussion of a development strategy for Central Gateway with the Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee.
The I-205 freeway, Northeast Glisan and Southeast Stark streets, and 102nd Avenue are the boundaries for central Gateway, otherwise known as Prunedale. Much of the area’s property is in poor condition, and nearly all of it is in much less intense use than the zoning allows.
Douglas reported that the Bureau of Environmental Services had done a “quick and dirty” survey of environmental contamination in the area; the bureau found that contamination does exist in several locations, but probably nowhere to such a degree that it would be a “fatal flaw” for redevelopment. Planners have determined that for good transportation the area needs four new streets, two each going north to south and east to west. They are starting to identify needed public facilities for the area — such as new parks — to look for potential sites for these facilities, and to think about acquisition. They have held one open house and are otherwise trying to do outreach to property owners, a key necessity since, unlike areas such as the Pearl and South Waterfront, Central Gateway has a relatively large number of small property owners and property acquisition would be necessary for any major development.
A key to much of this is funding, and Douglas told the Opportunity Gateway PAC, “It’s no secret that there isn’t a lot of money available.” Certainly there isn’t much tax increment funding, the usual source of funds in an urban renewal district. Thus, he said, the city is looking at the use of Local Improvement Districts, which assess property owners in proportion to their holdings in a given geographic area to pay for specific projects.
Stuart Gwin of the Portland Office of Transportation told the PAC, “In theory, you need the approval of the owners of at least 50 percent of the property. In reality, Council wants a much bigger majority.” LIDs are frequently used to fund new local streets, and one was part of the funding for South Waterfront’s aerial tram. However, he said, “We’ve never done an area-wide LID for an area like Gateway. We’re learning as we go.”
PAC member Dorene Warner said that it might be best to recruit a relatively small developer “like our good friend Dick Cooley.” (Cooley, a former PAC chair, was sitting a few feet away.) “I wouldn’t want to bring in a developer like Gerding Edlen and show them an auto wrecking yard.”
Cooley offered that in terms of further planning work; “We’ve reached the point in Gateway where we’re down to seeking practical solutions.”
“We don’t need more visions,” PAC member Frieda Christopher agreed.
One thing the area does need, many agree, is a better image, recognition and “branding.” In support of this, local graphics designer Christopher Masiocchi presented a new logo he had developed, a simple design utilizing Gateway’s famous arch and the words “regional center.”
Masiocchi told the PAC his new logo, was designed to be easily incorporated into other things, such as the logos of local businesses.
The PAC members were enthusiastic. Bob Earnest said, “It’s a good step toward re-branding the area. We’ve missed the boat in not calling ourselves a regional center. (Gateway is so designated by Metro.) I never liked the name ‘Opportunity Gateway,’ and this is a good way to say adios to that.” He said that at the Oregon Clinic grand opening, the guests included visiting doctors who “didn’t have a clue what Gateway was.”
In a related matter, Megan Gibb introduced herself as the new Portland Development Commission staff for the area. She arrived recently from Ann Arbor, Mich., and has been working in the South Waterfront area.
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