Month: December 2024

Construction

Legin Commons Apartment Building Readies for Construction

Crews with LMC Construction are preparing the future site of the Legin Commons apartment building on the southwest corner of Portland Community College’s (PCC) Southeast campus. The four-story building will offer 124 affordable housing units, including 63 family-sized apartments and 20 deeply affordable units reserved for people earning 30 percent or less of Portland’s Area Median Income (AMI). Workers on site will soon depave the former parking lot and clear many trees in preparation for principal construction.

In 1964, Kaiser Permanente built a one-story medical clinic on the property and operated there until 2014. PCC acquired the land several years before Kaiser’s closure and demolished the building in 2015. Since then, it has served the educational institution as an auxiliary parking lot with a large grassy spot where the building once stood. PCC had always planned to repurpose the space for more effective uses than parking. In 2021, College leadership worked to develop a twenty-year facilities plan for the educational institution’s properties. During that evaluation, PCC determined that portions of the school grounds should support low-income affordable housing. Instead of student-only dormitories, they opted to focus on attainable housing open to the community. From internal surveys of students, PCC staff learned that housing insecurity is a significant concern. They also observed that students often spread their education out over many years with inconsistent enrollment. Consequentially, PCC determined that tying housing programs to school affiliation would not help alleviate the housing insecurities among the student population.

Over the last two years, this housing project progressed with Our Just Future as the Sponsor and Developer. APANO and Edlen & Co. serve as development partners in the Bora Architecture & Interiors designed project. APANO, which has its offices a few blocks east of the site, will be the Service Provider at Legin Commons.

Our Just Future provided tree planting site map

Landscapers will surround the 110,000-square-foot building with trees and other plantings. However, many of the existing mature trees are either in the way of the future development or suffering from age and showing signs of a fungal infection. The project arborists will preserve a healthy mature tree on the corner of SE Division Street and SE 77th Avenue and three other trees mid-block on SE 77th Avenue. A net-style orange safety fence protects the remaining trees, including eight small street trees planted between the curb and sidewalk on SE Sherman Street. During community engagement, neighbors asked that project planners maximize onsite parking for residents, lessening the impact on street parking. They needed to remove and replace seven older trees with seven new plantings closer to the property line to accommodate that community request. The apartment will offer 32 parking stalls at the north end of the building and place ten new trees between parking spaces. It will take years before the tree canopy matures. However, the replacement tree selection emphasizes native, hardy, and drought-tolerant species to better fill in this parcel over the coming decades. Brian Shelton-Kelley, with Our Just Future, explained the city-approved landscaping design will eventually provide significant urban tree canopy thanks to a building footprint scaled back to adequately utilize the site’s housing density but not maximize it at the expense of green space.

  • Protected mature tree on the corner of SE Division St and SE 77 Ave
  • Mature trees along SE Sherman St slated for removal indicated by the white X mark

Towards the later part of the project, crews will replace some curb-tight sidewalk segments with walkways buffered by tree-planted furnishing zone strips. The developer received Portland’s approval to retain some curb-tight sidewalks on SE 77th Avenue, allowing the preservation of the three mature trees whose roots have grown up to the pavement’s edge. Unsuccessful challenges to the city-approved adjustments by some neighbors delayed groundbreaking and increased development costs. However, Shelton-Kelley explained that the project is back on track with all the necessary approvals to begin work on this new affordable housing. People should expect to see heavy equipment onsite early in 2025 to regrade the land and provide trenches for utilities, making way for a year of construction at this site.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

Update January 2nd, 2025: Some neighbors opposing the tree removal and placement of the housing project have created a website expressing their concerns and presenting an alternative design of their creation at savethegreenspaceat77th.org (Montavilla News has not checked or validated any claims made on the linked site).

Update January 6th, 2025: Arborists with Wind Thin Tree Service began cutting down the trees slated for removal. Crews operating a stump grinder are following the crane and bucket team chipping down the visible stumps.

Community, Construction, Infrastructure

Resident Provided Sidewalk on SE 80th

While pursuing needed home renovations to their 1955-era house at SE 80th Avenue and Harrison Street, Ellen Flint and her husband found they would need to spend all the contingency money they had budgeted on a new sidewalk. The couple knew they would need to add that missing section of pedestrian space along their property one day. Still, they had not anticipated combining it with this current accessibility project. This needed work could have stopped before it started if not for a $12,000 padding in their budget.

The Flints moved into the corner-lot home in 2013 when most of SE 80th Avenue south of their property was a gravel road. “80th South of Harrison was still unpaved, and people would literally practice dirt bike jumps. It was a rough road there, and there was no sidewalk. It was kind of sketchy,” recalled Ellen Flint. They had a sidewalk in front of their house facing SE Harrison Street. However, 100 feet of the property just had a raised concrete curb. Their large hedge along the east side of the lot allowed just enough room for people walking to exit the sidewalk north of their home and create a worn dirt path to the corner sidewalk ramp.

Design plans for the SE 80th and Mill LID showing limited improvements around the Flint home

The street is a critical connector for families with children at Bridger School, and it would soon play a significant role in the newly created 70s Greenway for people walking or rolling. In 2018, to improve the street’s condition, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) worked with neighbors to form a Local Improvement District (LID) on SE 80th Avenue from 100 feet north of SE Grant Street to SE Market Street. It included a section of SE Mill Street from SE 80th Avenue to SE 82nd Avenue to further help families navigate to the Portland public school. Adjacent residents in a LID pool their money with the city to build the improvements, lowering the individual costs for each property. The SE 80th and Mill LID would connect to the back of Portland Community College’s Southeast campus, where the institution constructed new sidewalks a few years prior. To the Flint’s surprise, the city did not include their home in the LID, with the project focusing on adding sidewalks to the east side of SE 80th Avenue. The LID work did reshape their sidewalk corner and added Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant curb ramps.

Ellen Flint was unsure why the city excluded her home from the LID, but she appreciated the new ADA corner curb ramps because of her mobility needs. “I’m coming up on 30 years with a variation of rheumatoid arthritis. That’s why I bought a one-level home,” explained Flint, who, on bad days, has less confidence in taking tall steps. The pedestrian connectivity added by the SE 80th and Mill LID gives her hope that she can remain in this home as the years go on. “Now I can walk to the bus, and I can walk to the grocery store, and I can walk to coffee or whatever, and stay here as long as I want to rather than have to move because I can’t function,” said Flint. However, the broken sidewalk connectivity on her property was always on her mind. “One of my priorities [when improving the house] was we need to fix the sidewalk situation.”

Cement masons finishing new SE 80th Ave sidewalk on March 5th, 2024

The Flints understood that adjacent homeowners were responsible for the sidewalk repair and installation. The LID would have also required their financial investment but with a five-year loan from the city to help pay it down over time. They are not upset about paying for the hedge removal and concrete work but felt it came at an inopportune moment. The Flints 2024 house renovations built several accessibility features for their home. They created wider hallways, allowing easier ingress and egress as they adapt to changes in mobility needs over the coming decades. “We need to be able to make it easier for us to stay here and not have an accident or be forced to sell our house and move because we can’t get into the bathroom or use the kitchen,” explained Ellen Flint.

This proactive project already had a large budget with a contingency fund for unexpected cost overruns. The project’s budget is what triggered the need for sidewalk improvements. The city code states that changes to the property that are 35 percent or greater than the assessed value of all improvements on the site will surpass the Significant Alteration threshold, and those projects have to include frontage improvements, like sidewalks. Property owners must build new infrastructure as close to city standards as possible within the existing right-of-way. For some sites, that could be curb-tight sidewalks, but in this case, there is space for a small planting strip between the existing curb and the new public walkway. The “assessed value” used in the Significant Alteration threshold calculations is less than the market value of a property. For example, a home like the Flints could have an Improvement Value of $200,000. In that case, any project with a building permit valuation over $70,000 would trigger frontage improvements.

View looking south on SE 80th Ave showing the existing sidewalk continued by the newly laid concrete.

Ellen Flint maintains a positive view of sidewalk requirements as a benefit to the community. However, she wishes the city had programs to lessen the impact on people’s finances. “I’m lucky I could pay for it,” said Flint. “I think being able to create options that don’t burden people who want to do it or who need to do it [would help].” She could see having interest-free loans for sidewalks and street repair as a way the city could help homeowners take on sidewalk installation. Regardless of how people pay for public infrastructure on their property, Flint feels investing in sidewalks is in the owner’s interest. “Anybody who’s worried about paying for [sidewalks], just take up your capitalist approach to it. They increase the value of my home. The better my neighborhood is, the more my home is worth.”

The Flints’ contractors completed home renovations and frontage improvements this summer. For the last several months, pedestrians using the Greenway have enjoyed the extended sidewalk on the west side of the street. The couple have noticed more people walking by their house and are glad they could contribute to the sidewalk connectivity in the neighborhood. With the primary work done, the Flints can now tackle the street-facing elements around the new pathway, making it even more inviting for people traveling on foot. “We’ve got this blank slate there where we can put in things like trees, and I’m really jazzed about having a little Free Library there,” said Ellen Flint. As the weather improves, look for those additions along SE 80th’s newest section of sidewalk.

Update: This article was updated to remove an inaccurate example of project cost that could trigger a frontage improvement and to replace the term “cost” with building permit valuation. Montavilla News regrets that misrepresentation.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

Promotion: Montavilla News is supported by contributions from businesses like Otter Wax, a neighborhood producer of small-batch specialty goods handcrafted in Portland. Using only natural ingredients, they make modern care products that are steeped in tradition. We thank them for their support.

Community, Transportation

A Sober Ride Home to Start 2025

TriMet will once again offer fare-free transportation for revelers heading out to celebrate the end of the year and will help get them home safe. Starting at 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, all MAX and bus trips are free until service ends early on New Year’s Day. For those outside the public transportation service area, the City of Portland has partnered with taxis, Uber, and Lyft to offer discounted rides.

For decades, TriMet has offered free rides to help people get home safely after ringing in the new year. This program removes the cost barrier to transit and extends service into the early hours of 2025 with more frequent trips. Most MAX lines run until 2 a.m. The MAX Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow lines will run approximately every 30 minutes. MAX Red Line trains will operate on a weekday schedule, with the last westbound train leaving the Portland International Airport at 12:31 a.m. and the last eastbound train leaving the Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds Station at 10:34 p.m. Some MAX lines have later service but will not travel their entire route. Riders traveling near the MAX line may also take the late night/early morning bus service along MAX lines, which TriMet started last August. TriMet buses will run on Sunday schedules for New Year’s Day. TriMet will not operate the WES Commuter Rail on January 1st and close its call center and the Customer Support Center at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Trimet will require fare payment after 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

Image courtesy TriMet

If you miss your bus or train and need a ride, the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Safe Ride Home program offers discounts to help. Starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 31st, people can use a discount code posted on the program’s website to save $10 on an Uber or Lyft ride in Portland. Revelers looking for a taxi ride can save $20 off that ride with a paper coupon available at participating locations throughout the city. Look for Safe Ride Home flyers at drinking establishments and then ask staff for a coupon. Broadway Cab, Flat Cab, PDX Yellow Cab, and Radio Cab will accept the coupons for rides originating in Portland during the program timeframe while supplies last. Discounted rides are not valid if started after 4 a.m. Wednesday, January 1st, 2025.

Image courtesy the City of Portland

People have many ways to celebrate the new year without driving, and it is best to have a plan to get home. However, if that plan falls apart, know your options and never drive impaired or ride with an impaired driver.

Construction, Infrastructure

Plantable Medians on SE 82nd at Ash

In late December, crews returned to SE 82nd Avenue at Ash Street, constructing a new median island to prevent left turns and provide pedestrians with safer crossing infrastructure. This mid-street raised infrastructure will contain new street trees and feature water-permeable soil cover to aid tree growth in sufficiently irrigated dirt. This in-road work is the final build phase for this intersection, where workers previously updated utilities and store water management before reconstructing the corner ramps and adding rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) signal hardware.

PBOT provided intersection design document

To install the new median, crews cut through all layers of the road in the center turn lane and excavated several feet deep. This large trench, placed to the north and south of two street-level pedestrian median cutouts, will provide space for new soil that future tree roots can expand into as they grow to maturity. Arborists working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will plant and maintain trees during their early years, watering and replacing them as needed.

RRFB request buttons and connective wiring are still needed at this crossing before PBOT can activate the signal lights. When completed, pedestrians and cyclists can activate the flashing yellow lights that indicate drivers on SE 82nd Avenue should yield. The raised median island also gives crossers a safe space to wait for traffic to stop as they travel across the five-lane road. These crosswalks at SE Ash Street are closed until workers complete the mid-street construction. During the closure, people should detour to the signalized crosswalks at E Burnside Street or SE Stark Street. Contractors are on track to complete this project in early 2025, but winter weather could push some final work to later in the year.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

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Community

Holiday Walking Beats in East Portland

This holiday season, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) extended its walking beats into East Portland, providing a visible representation of law enforcement in commercial corridors while allowing officers and Portlanders to interact with one another outside the confines of a criminal investigation. For the second year, PPB Chief Bob Day instituted walking beats following the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Last year’s foot patrols in downtown Portland resulted in mostly positive feedback from the community and PPB members.

Since Friday, November 29th, Public Safety Support Specialists (PS3s) and sworn officers of all ranks have received special assignments to walk shopping centers and holiday community events in designated areas. Citywide foot patrols consist of two daily shifts from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. These walking beats are based on officer availability and will run until the end of 2024. PPB members walking the area serve two roles. Uniformed officers can act as a deterrent to some crimes while giving shoppers confidence that the area is safe. It also allows Police to have positive interactions with the community, greeting shoppers and wishing them a happy holiday. Not everyone responded to greetings by the two officers walking the Mall 205 shopping center on December 19th. However, people working in the shops often waived or smiled at seeing the friendly police presence.

Sergeant Weinberger and Lieutenant Hettman Holiday Walking Beat at Mall 205 December 19th

Police leadership does not expect walking beat officers to locate crimes or investigate during the shift. Precinct command schedules sufficient officers to cover emergency calls and take reports. The special duty is in addition to regular operations. For many officers on the holiday walking beat assignment, this is a rare chance not to jump from one call to another. Since police staffing dipped four years ago, officers report shifts with near-continuous calls that leave little time for community interaction. PPB leadership sees pleasant interaction with Portlanders as a valuable duty for Police officers and one that current staffing has not permitted outside this seasonal mission. Chief Day considers this special program a way to change the dynamic between Police and the people they serve. However, this public relations supporting activity has the potential for a more significant effect beyond PPB’s perception.

Positive community interaction also benefits the PPB community, who may only see the citizenry at their worst moments during a shift. Persistent interactions with people who are frustrated at a system that allowed them to be victimized and seeing repeat offenders released to commit a new crime again can wear down the people who work in law enforcement. The effects of this condition are well known in policing circles, and it predates the calls for policing reform seen in the summer of 2020 with the subsequent drop in PPB staffing. For some Portland Police members, the walking beat can reset the compounding stresses caused by their work in this era of heightened law enforcement demand.

The program’s expansion into East Portland locations is significant for a community that has called for equitable policing. Some East Portlanders feel they receive diminished attention from PPB or the wrong type of policing. Holiday Walking Beats started as a downtown-focused program providing a soft-handed approach to public safety in an affluent area. By extending that program to East Portland, the PPB has made an effort to show parity towards the culturally diverse epicenter of the city.

With eight walking beat shifts per day in the city, many East Portland residents have already interacted with PPB members at the Montavilla Tree Lighting ceremony, Fubonn Shopping Center, Mall 205, and Gateway Shopping Center. Portlanders will continue to see PPB members in the community through the holiday season.

Article and photos

Jacob Loeb

Update: This article was updated to remove photos that inadvertently overlapped with the site where Portland police shot and killed Tyrone Lee Johnson II. Montavilla News apologizes for the insensitivity to that loss of life.

Community, Construction, Government

County Board Approves Harrison Community Village Project on SE 82nd

On December 19th, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to proceed with the Harrison Community Village‘s construction at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue. This temporary alternative shelter will support up to 45 adults residing in 38 sleeping pods and utilizing several converted shipping containers offering residents showers, bathrooms, kitchenette space, and a laundry facility. In a four-to-one vote, the County Board passed the resolution with one amendment requiring the County to work with community representatives to create a Safe Routes to School plan and negotiate a Good Neighborhood Agreement (GNA) before opening the shelter.

Sleeping pod images from December 19th Multnomah County Board of Commissioners presentation

Multnomah County purchased the former recreational vehicle dealership at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue in December 2022 for $2.015 million. This 34,000-square-foot parcel was the second Montavilla location the County bought that year for temporary shelter services while they land-banked the properties for future development. Newly seated County Commissioner Shannon Singleton explained during the lengthy board discussion on December 19th her recollection of County thinking in 2022. Commissioner Singleton served as the interim director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) around the time Multnomah County acquired the properties, and her experience as someone tangentially involved in the purchase offered unique knowledge to the board’s understanding of the site’s purpose.

Project budget slide from December 19th Multnomah County Board of Commissioners presentation

Metro Supportive Housing Services Measure money allocated from the Safety off the Streets – Emergency Shelter Strategic Investment budget will cover the shelter’s $4,128,197 cost. The bulk of funds will support the demolition of the existing building and construction costs for the power, water, and sewer hookups needed for the temporary structures. Presenters noted that planners allocated $1.4 million of the budget to reusable shelter sleeping pods and shelter support containers. Those items could be relocated to a future site when the County re-purposes the property for other uses. The JOHS team presented a firm timeline for the shelter’s opening, requiring this late 2024 vote to keep on schedule. Starting in January 2025, the project team will develop plans and seek City of Portland building permits ahead of construction slated to begin in July 2025. Crews should complete work in November, and the site could open to residents in December 2025.

Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards provided significant insight into community thinking around the proposed shelter, having attended a December 5th JOHS community meeting and communicated with area residents after the event. Commissioner Brim-Edwards agreed with some of the concerns expressed during that JOHS community meeting and in public testimony the board heard before their vote. She noted the JOHS had two years to engage with the public prior to this resolution but only held an initial meeting two weeks before the end-of-the-year vote. Additionally, issues delayed a mailed notice to surrounding neighbors that would have notified them of the December 5th meeting. JOHS staff hand-delivered notices to over 600 addresses because of the delayed mailing, in some cases just days before the event. Commissioner Brim-Edwards also echoed some area residents’ concerns that this section of Portland has an out-sized density of services for people experiencing houselessness. Commissioner Brim-Edwards represents Multnomah County’s District 3, covering most of Southeast and East Portland, including these shelter locations on SE 82nd Avenue.

In response to constituent concerns and to support a successful shelter site, Commissioner Brim-Edwards proposed an amendment to the Harrison Community Village resolution. The adopted amendment requires the County, shelter service provider, neighborhood association, business association, and Portland Public School representatives to develop a GNA before the site opens to residents. It states the County will coordinate with the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Portland Public Schools to preserve SE Mill Street’s access for safe travel to schools. Bridger Creative Science School is one block west of the Mill Street site, and Harrison Park Middle School is several blocks southeast on SE 87th Avenue. SE Mill Street is part of the Neighborhood Greenway bike and pedestrian network, providing one of only a few fully signalized crossings of SE 82nd Avenue in the area. Although County site planners have already started conversations with the two schools, the amendment solidifies their responsibility to “work with the nearby school communities to hear and address school community concerns.”

1818 SE 82nd Avenue site seen across a marked crosswalk at a signalized intersection (Jacob Loeb)

Commissioner Sharon Meieran provided the one no vote for the resolution, citing many concerns, including the rushed proposal, which she said had insufficient community engagement and lacked transparent planning. She noted that, in her observation, the County teams only come to the community and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners when required to by policy and at the last minute. She questioned the JOHS’s choice to place this shelter along 82nd Avenue over other options or by reinvesting in current locations, saying they lacked a cohesive shelter plan. However, Commissioner Meieran did acknowledge that “No one can argue we need every space possible.” Presenters argued that the 1818 SE 82nd Avenue site had been part of the Community Sheltering Strategy that came from extensive planning guided by electeds and service providers. Additionally, they plan to work with the incoming Portland Mayor, Keith Wilson, to complement his sheltering plan.

Site illustrations in this article courtesy JOHS

The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners recognized the need to add shelter beds quickly, particularly as other existing shelters close. That sentiment was at the root of why most commissioners voted in favor of moving the Harrison Community Village project forward. There was a general recognition that these shelters, with privacy fencing along the sidewalk, would negatively impact the City’s Build a Better 82nd efforts along the corridor by making a less active streetscape and continuing to underutilize the sites that can support substantial buildings. Several commissioners noted community members’ request to delay this site until the first Montavilla shelter on 82nd Avenue had time to generate useful information on how these sites will impact the neighborhood. However, the need for increased shelter capacity outweighed the calls for delay, with the added understanding that this second shelter site would open almost a year after the 333 SE 82nd Avenue shelter started operations.  Commissioners expect the County and JOHS staff to collect livability statistics from this site and others in the system to help inform operators and the public on shelter impacts.

Presenters anticipate Harrison Community Village’s GNA will include collecting key metrics around the shelter site, similar to the data required by the Oak Street Village GNA. By the time the 1818 SE 82nd Avenue site opens in December 2025, the 333 SE 82nd Avenue shelter will have already provided 11 months of livability data. With the Harrison Community Village approved for funding, the next milestone for the site will come when officials select a shelter service provider. At that point, the JOHS can schedule more community meetings to address site operation questions, and community groups can begin working on a GNA for this site.

By

Jacob Loeb

Promotion: Help keep independent news accessible to the community. Montavilla News has a Patreon account for monthly support or you can pay for a full year directly online. We invite those who can contribute to this local news source to consider becoming paid subscriber or sponsor. We will always remain free to read regardless of subscription.

History

Montavilla History Questions Answered: Christmas Gifts of the Early 1900s

Q – What were some typical Christmas gifts in Montavilla in the early 1900s?

Illustration from The Montavilla Times of December 19, 1929. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm

A – With Christmas and Hanukkah just around the corner, the spirit of generosity is in the air, just as it was a hundred or more years ago in Montavilla. But where to find just the right item for the friends and relatives on your gift list? Luckily, Montavilla merchants ran ads in local newspapers with a myriad of suggestions.

In 1906, a shopper could head to Dan McMillan’s dry goods store on SE Stark Street (then Base Line Road) and find a variety of inexpensive gifts for all ages: toys and games for the tots, handkerchiefs, fancy collars, purses, and stationery for the ladies, hats, shirts, ties and suspenders for the gents, and fancy holiday candies and nuts for anyone, just to name a few.

Dan McMillan’s ad in the Beaver State Herald, December 21, 1906. Source: Historical Oregon Newspapers

Stark Street was not the only place to shop for gifts. Merchants on NE Glisan Street also advertised a variety of suggestions. Grocery store owner Frank Sperger, of course, stocked food and confectionaries for holiday meals, but in the 1906 ad below, he boldfaced a Perfection Oil Heater as a useful present. Did this new store owner get a deal on heaters?

Frank Sperger’s ad and a photo of his grocery store appeared in the Beaver State Herald of December 21, 1906. The store was at the corner of NE Glisan Street and NE 79th Avenue (then Villa Avenue and Ebey Street).

In the 1920s, Montavilla merchants advertised a wide array of gift suggestions, from the luxurious to the practical, from high prices to low. They were also recommending products of modern technologies, such as cameras, record players, and radios.

The Dickson drugstore at the corner of Stark and 80th was a Montavilla institution run by members of the Dickson family from 1910 until 2004. In 1920, owner Leland V. Dickson ran a Christmas ad in the Oregon Daily Journal with gift suggestions ranging from perfume to flashlights to Kodak cameras and phonograph records.

Dickson Drug Company ad in The Oregon Daily Journal, December 11, 1920. Source: Historic Oregon Newspapers

For a wide array of inexpensive gifts, Montavilla shoppers could head for Gertrude Hamlin’s Montavilla Variety Store on Glisan Street near 80th. Toys, for example, cost only 5 to 98 cents.

Montavilla Variety Store ad in The Montavilla Times of December 16, 1926. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm

In 1926, Louis H. Balsiger, owner of the Jonesmore Pharmacy at Glisan and 71st, ran a short but eclectic list of gift ideas: stationery, toilet sets, candy, and leather goods.

Jonesmore Pharmacy ad (left) from the December 16, 1926 edition of the Montavilla Times includes toilet sets referring to a popular grooming item. An example of this item appeared in a Klamath Falls Evening Herald ad of December 8, 1938. Sources: University of Oregon Knight Library microfilm and Historic Oregon Newspapers

Balsiger ended his gift suggestions with radios, a new technology in the 1920s. Radio broadcasting had only recently arrived in Portland, with radio stations launched by the Oregonian and the Oregon Journal in 1922. (Earlier radio broadcasts had been available by telephone.) With broadcast radio, owners could listen to news and entertainment on radio sets in their own homes. In 1927, a store specializing in radios opened in Montavilla. There was no guessing about its merchandise since the store took the form of a 1927 radio.

The Hall Spiral Antenna Company radio-shaped store (left) and an ad for a console radio (right) in The Montavilla Times of November 3, 1927. Source: Historic Oregon Newspapers

Telephones, another newish technology, could make a thoughtful gift, according to the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company in a 1929 ad.

Pacific Telephone and Telegraph ad in The Montavilla Times of December 5, 1929. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm. Montavilla Variety Store ad in The Montavilla Times of December 16, 1926. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm

Frederick L. Howard, owner of The Howard Hardware and Paint Company at the corner of 76th and Glisan, thought an Electrical Christmas was perfect. He recommended electrical utensils, which would “save housewives many hours of work.”

Howard Hardware and Paint Company ad in The Montavilla Times of December 16, 1926. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm

The Montavilla Times reported in its December 22, 1927 edition that money was tight at that moment, yet Christmas shopping was greater than ever before. Why? Well, there was more advertising. But was it also because that year, every store featured beautiful lights and decorations?

For those who could afford expensive gifts following the stock-market crash of October 28, 1929, jeweler Gottlieb Brugger stocked “gifts that last.” He had one-of-a-kind items—like the $50 watch a customer bought for her husband. But he also offered inexpensive New Haven Alarm Clocks.

Gottlieb Brugger ad in The Montavilla Times of December 19, 1929. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm

As the U.S. headed into the Depression, newspaper ads more often highlighted inexpensive gifts, like the items in this 1931 Christmas ad by Leland Dickson. He boldfaced mostly low-cost items and listed “popularly priced” items—such as clocks, watches, and purses—in smaller type at the bottom of the ad.

Dickson Drug Company ad in The Montavilla Times of December 18, 1931. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library, microfilm

Should a husband not know what to give his wife, Santa—or rather Amy Bauer, owner of Bauer’s Beauty Shop at Glisan and 78th— had the answer: a permanent wave, which was quite the rage at this time.

Bauer’s Beauty Shop ad in The Montavilla Times of December 18, 1931 and an example of a popular permed style in a Lipman, Wolfe and Company ad in The Sunday Oregonian of December 4, 1932. Sources: University of Oregon Knight Library microfilm and Historical Oregon Newspapers.

If a $3.95 permanent was too expensive, how about a three-pound box of hand-dipped chocolates offered at the Granada Sweet Shop on Glisan for only $1.00? Or hosiery from Herman R. Rothenberger’s Stark Street shoe store for 50 cents to $1.00.

Shoe store owner H. R. Rothenberger’s ad in the December 18, 1931 edition of The Montavilla Times. Source: University of Oregon Knight Library microfilm

Here ends the story of Montavilla merchants’ suggestions for appropriate gifts between 1906 and 1931. The editions of The Montavilla Times available on the Knight Library microfilm end with the December 25, 1931 publication, even though this newspaper continued until 1937. However, this sampling of Montavilla newspapers’ Christmas ads from 1906 until 1931 shows what local merchants thought would appeal to their customers. By the 1920s, products of recent technologies, like radio, telephone, and electrical kitchen appliances, made it into the Christmas gift mix.

By

Patricia Sanders

This is an installment of Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post.

Promotion: Saturday, December 21st is the Merry Montavilla Soiree with many holiday shopping options and events. There is still time to find your holiday gifts in a Montavilla shop, no shipping required.

Government, Transportation

PCEF Funds to Support 82nd Ave BRT

On December 18th, the Portland City Council voted to authorize up to $300 million in grants from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) to address the impacts of a changing climate. Within those approved eight grant applications, the 82nd Avenue Transit Project will receive $55,500,000 towards its Federal Transportation fund matching requirement for a planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project on 82nd Avenue. The awarded amount is short of the $67 million requested but brings this project closer to meeting local funding goals, a critical step to securing federal support.

The 82nd Avenue Transit Project will replace the TriMet 72 bus line along 82nd Avenue from Clackamas Town Center to the Cully neighborhood with faster travel times. Planners anticipate project costs at approximately $362 million. Funds will purchase new 60-foot articulated zero-emission buses and extensive infrastructure along the BRT path. TriMet will reduce stops on its most used route and replace boarding locations with near-level bus platforms featuring shelters, lighting, digital schedule signage, and other amenities. Transit vehicles will spend less time in traffic through Transit Signal Priority upgrades to signal lights along the route, changing to green in sync with bus travel times. The project also funds $3 million towards training and apprenticeships in construction and clean energy careers for many PCEF-defined priority populations. PCEF’s designers recognized that people with low incomes, people of color, and people living with disabilities are some of the most impacted populations negatively affected by climate change.

In addition to improving the rider experience for the daily 11,000 72 bus line users, these transit improvements intend to reduce traffic congestion on 82nd Avenue and lower greenhouse gas emissions in the region. If fully funded, crews will reconstruct sidewalks and fill in missing walkway segments around new stations. Station design and sidewalk work will also include increased street tree placement to expand the urban canopy.

The 82nd Avenue Transit Project Steering Committee will vote on a final Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) in winter 2025, allowing local and regional governments to vote on the proposal. After project partners complete a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, they can pursue a Federal Transit Administration Capital Investment Grant matched by local funding bolstered by this $55,500,000 PCEF grant. 82nd Avenue Transit Project planners anticipate construction will begin in 2027, with service starting in the summer of 2029.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

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Community, Construction, Demolition, Government

1818 82nd Ave Shelter Meeting Concerns and Community Support

On December 5th, the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) held a community meeting about a new alternative shelter planned for the former RV sales lot at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue. This first community outreach gathering precedes a December 19th Multnomah County Board of Commissioners vote to fund the construction of this project. JOHS officials plan to have future community meetings and work on a Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) after the County selects a service provider to operate the shelter site—presenters at the event anticipated service provider selection to occur in early 2025.

Community feedback at the meeting included many levels of concern for the proposed shelter’s operations and placement but also included some community support for the added short-term accommodations. Several residents felt this second county site was too close to another Multnomah County-owned location 15 blocks north on SE 82nd Avenue at 333 SE 82nd Avenue. Crews working for the JOHS are currently building the Oak Street Village there, and staff anticipates that sites will begin accepting residents in late January 2025. Other meeting attendees asked if the JOHS could delay work on the second site to give the neighborhood time to work through livability issues with the first site and learn from that experience to improve future site relations.

Illustration courtesy JOHS

Presenters and project designers leading this meeting intended to focus on design elements for the shelter site. Demolition crews will remove the current sales building on the property but salvage some wood roof beams for reuse in covered outdoor spaces. Staff and residents will access the site from SE Mill Street, where crews working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation will install new sidewalks and street trees and provide other road improvements as part of a separate project. Designers of the shelter site intend to erect a 7-foot-high fence around the property and provide signage and artwork at the perimeter that reflect community interests and values. Workers will remove sections of the asphalt pavement in the parking lot to create green spaces and a pet relief area. Portable units that will house showers, bathrooms, kitchenette space, and a laundry facility for residents are placed along the SE 82nd Avenue perimeter to create a sound barrier. Onsite parking is available for staff and service providers only. This site will not provide space for residents to park personal vehicles. Some neighbors questioned the placement of the trash enclosure on the property. However, designers felt its placement was necessary for trash hauler access. Despite efforts to keep the meeting focused on site design issues, audience questions often addressed programmatic functions and concerns regarding the site’s placement in the community.

Illustration courtesy JOHS

Parents living in the area and other attendees at the December 5th meeting expressed concern for the proposed shelter’s proximity to two public schools and a park. Bridger Creative Science School is one block west of the Mill Street site, and Harrison Park Middle School is several blocks southeast on SE 87th Avenue. JOHS representative Rory Cuddyer explained that his engagement group has communicated with both schools and anticipates their participation in the GNA creation process. Other presenters at the meeting addressed concerns about drug consumption at the shelter, indicating that it was not allowed at county-funded sites. However, due to the shelter’s low-barrier referral-only admission process, operators do not require sobriety for placement in one of the 38 free-standing sleeping pods. That raised other attendees’ concerns regarding drug use in the surrounding neighborhood. Select audience members and presenters noted that not all houseless people are drug users and that the full-time wraparound services offered at the shelter work to connect users to recovery services, in addition to other programs intended to move people into permanent housing.

Multnomah County Commissioner representing Montavilla, Julia Brim-Edwards, attended the meeting as an audience member, listening to all comments and speaking to individuals after the meeting concluded. Montavilla News first reported on the County’s purchase of the two properties in 2022. However, many attendees did not learn about this planned shelter until days before the meeting. Cuddyer explained that the County had an issue producing a mailer ahead of the first meeting, and staff hand-delivered notices instead. They intend to have a broader mailing out to area residents later in the process but encourage people to join the Montavilla Neighborhood Association‘s email list and follow updates on the JOHS project page to stay informed about upcoming community engagement. Cuddyer also urged people to provide comments if they wished at the December 19th Multnomah County Board of Commissioners session. People intending to provide public testimony on the vote must register by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18th. To find the agenda item for this upcoming vote, check the County’s Board Meetings page the week of the meeting.

The article above originally published December 6th

Update December 18th, 2024: The JOHS posted a Frequently Asked Questions document on the 1818 SE 82nd Avenue shelter site’s project webpage addressing many questions received from the community expressed at the December 5th meeting. People intending to provide public testimony on the vote have until 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18th to register for Resolution R.1, seeking approval to “Proceed with Construction at the Harrison Community Village Project.”

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

Promotion: Help keep independent news accessible to the community. Montavilla News has a Patreon account for monthly support or you can pay for a full year directly online. We invite those who can contribute to this local news source to consider becoming paid subscriber or sponsor. We will always remain free to read regardless of subscription.

Construction, Infrastructure

New NE Davis Street Takes Shape

Within the last few months, road crews working on a Gateway District street improvement project have created a new segment of NE Davis Street between NE 97th and NE 99th Avenues. This is the first phase of a Local Improvement District (LID) that will create an urban-scale street grid, sidewalks, and other roadway amenities ahead of expected redevelopment. The new street is closed to through traffic, awaiting asphalt surfacing work and construction of the remaining unfinished sidewalks.

During construction, affected roads are closed to through traffic, and users of the Interstate-205 Multi-Use Path must detour around the E Burnside Street connection. At that intersection, path users will receive an enhanced crossing at the curved MAX light-rail tracks on the east side of I-205, permitting cyclists to cross perpendicular to the rail for added safety. Transit trains turn a corner around a sound-wall at this location, making the older street aligned crossing harder for operators and riders to see conflicts. Additionally, the thin tires of bicycles can catch in the road-surface-depressions around train tracks if bikes do not cross at close to a 90-degree angle. Crews with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will also rebuild the signalized crossing of E Burnside Street at 97th Avenue that Multi-Use Path users rely on for their north-south journey. Pedestrians on E Burnside Street will additionally gain a high visibility crosswalk in alignment with the I-205 Multi-Use Path west of the freeway. PBOT will install street lighting at that crossing and along the LID area.

PBOT provided graphic

Work already completed on NE 97th Avenue from East Burnside Street to the new NE Davis Street segment has changed the appearance and function of the formally curbless road. Portland engineers have long planned to vacate stub sections of NE Couch and Davis Streets west of NE 97th Avenue, which were rendered useless due to Interstate-205’s construction blocking meaningful street-grid connections on that side of the street. Cement masons have now poured a new wide and continuous sidewalk on the west side of NE 97th Avenue. It features curb ramps for crossing to sidewalk corners at the new eastward NE Couch and Davis Streets.

Most new sidewalks constructed in this project area feature regularly spaced street tree wells in the furnishing zone between the pedestrian walkway and curb. This phase of the project will add 43 new street trees with two-year watering care and support from a contractor. Future phases will add 35 new street trees along the new streets, ensuring future high-density development in this area will include a growing tree canopy.

Drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists traveling through this area should use caution and expect full road closures during work hours. The I-205 Multi-Use Path is currently closed between E Burnside Street and SE Stark Street, with a detour directing people to use SE 94th. PBOT’s project site notes the I-205 Multi-Use Path will reopen no later than December 20th.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

Promotion: Help keep independent news accessible to the community. Montavilla News has a Patreon account for monthly support or you can pay for a full year directly online. We invite those who can contribute to this local news source to consider becoming paid subscriber or sponsor. We will always remain free to read regardless of subscription.