East Side Portland Parks get Better

Earlier this month, Portland finished improving several east side parks, changing their rusty and dated equipment to bright, big play structures and soft surface ground, fixing up trails, and adding water fountains.

The newer, better parks are here, all east of Highway 205:

East Holladay Park at 12999 NE Holladay St.
The East Portland Community Center at 740 SE 106th Ave.
Gilbert Primary Park at SE 134th Ave.
Lynchwood Park at SE 170th Ave and Haig St.
Parklane Park at SE 155th Ave and Main St.

More parks that have been fixed up are:
Argay Park, Cherry Park, Ed Benedict Park, Glenfair Park, Midland Park, Ventura Park, and West Powellhurst Park.

In November 2011, Portland Parks and Recreation got the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation, given for the city's well-managed park system.

Use Portland's park finder to see which ones have the features you are looking for.

Portland Southeast Neighborhoods: Montavilla & Tabor

Mt. Tabor's volcano top features a green park

The area of Mt. Tabor encompasses the streets on or near Mt. Tabor itself, under their various names: Tabor, Taborside, Tabor West, North, or East. Montavilla is roughly bordered by Halsey in the North, a few blocks east of Hwy 205 in the East, Division in the South, and about 60th Avenue or so to the West.

Stark St and 80th looking NW in 1939

An inactive volcano, Mt. Tabor formed a minor physical barrier to the original developers of the late 1800s east side Portland, and Tabor hill was used mostly for winter tobogganing by the neighborhood kids for decades. Now the hill and all it's sides are built in, and chunks of the ancient volcano's dried lava innards end up in local yards.

Homes directly near or on Mt. Tabor tend to be more upscale than those found in Montavilla, and folks placed along the peripheries will claim to be in "Tabor," (Tabor Park, Taborside, East Tabor) regardless. The top of Mt. Tabor is set aside for a walkable park commemorating the volcano, and the homes built onto it's top and sides have some of the finest views in all of southeast side Portland. Some of these homes are from late 19th Century, while most were built in the mid-20th century and have a coastal/Hollywood feeling, making the most of the views from their extensive patios.

Stark Street in Montavilla feels like a 
vibrant small town mainstreet

Montavilla's homes are more diverse in size, condition, and upkeep than those of Tabor, yet Montavilla's great advantage is having a westward running "main street" (Stark Street), which lends the area the feeling of a small midwestern town. Right now it's amenities are all independently owned and designed businesses, reflecting the undiscovered and unexploited nature of Montavilla: the Country Cat, Ya Hala and Flying Pie Pizza restaurants provide the food, while the rest of Stark street hosts eclectic shops, antique stores, bars and coffeehouses, 
wellness and service businesses, among others, and the Academy Theatre.

Montavilla bungalow

Montavilla was once it's own separate town, and the most eastern one nearest to Portland. Though Portland has grown out way beyond the Highway at 205, Montavilla remains one of the few outer eastern areas with an actual neighborhood heart and a walkable center. 

A classic Montavilla 
house with porch

Homes here are a mixture of the decades of the 20th century, all mostly modest and small in scale: with one and two bedroom working class Edwardians, bungalows, Cape Cods, Tudors and ranch homes.

Retro Academy Theatre 
shows 2nd releases

Empty lots or scrapable houses continue to be filled in with new building, and large lots are often carved into sections, encouraging denser populations so close to Portland's center. Rentals are well represented. Some homes are placed along unimproved roads running east and west, linked to the paved numbered streets. These give the neighborhood an especially country-town-in-the-middle-of-the-city atmosphere, although these dirt streets are currently on track to be paved (without storm drains or sidewalks), under future improvement plans initiated by former Mayor Sam Adams.

The iconoclastic Bipartisan Cafe 

Montavilla also has it's own recreation center and a variety of parks nearby, and runs a warm season Farmer's Market the whole area supports and enjoys. This Portland neighborhood is ideally situated between the funky and eclectic Southeastern inner neighborhoods and the suburban box amenities east of Highway 205: it has the best of both worlds.

Every few years Montavilla is "discovered" as the next hip and walkable neighborhood, but it continues to hold on to it's independent hometown character, which is exactly what it's habitants like about it.

The Potlatch Tradition in Modern Portland Lives On

The coastal and river-living tribal people of the upper Northwest lived in such a superabundant place that they were one of the most materially blessed tribes in North America. They traded with the Russians for textiles and fripparies, caught no end of bounty in seafood, and carved both household goods and immense, totemic art works from fallen cedars and redwoods.  

Pacific Northwest design
representing a Potlatch

Every school child learns about coastal tribes' potlatch ceremonies: a tradition of throwing a big party and giving away one's own overabundant material items, both to secure local relationships and to spiritually challenge the giver to live more authentically with less stuff. It's a way to redistribute wealth.

The inner Southeast neighborhoods are all about living authentically with less. Some folks make an art of it. When my son and I moved here, we grabbed a disco-era oak shelf sitting out by the road, and it was our first piece of furniture before we were able to U-haul the rest of it to Portland. 

A structure outside the hostel on Hawthorne
like those used for give-aways

Settling in, we noticed several cob-style, rounded, covered structures in and around the Hawthorne area, where people leave behind their unwanted gear. The Portland give-away tradition, it is, an unconscious carry over from the native Potlatch, a tradition imprinted on the whole region surviving in its own, modern, transformed way.

Here's what we've found (and taken home!) from our local Potlatch Station:

• a glass jar of apricots canned in the summer, handwritten on romantically in French
• a hardcover book about the river Ganges 
• a shockingly hip olive green dress with a maroon velvet ribbon
• a nearly new snowboard.  You heard me: a snowboard. Right about the time the boy had been wishing to find a way to go try it out with no particular means to do so. That's called magic.
• a child's tatty antique sticker scrapbook about Hawaii
• a sheer, hot pink curtain
• a hemp messenger bag
• a small ivory and black painted wood dresser (wait until you see how I transformed it)
• a stainless steel Dualit toaster (Those things cost a fortune, just ask Williams Sonoma.)
• a whole pound of rich ground coffee, just as I was about to run out
• a guidebook for travelers to Japan--the girl will be visiting there next year!
• a sewing table from the 1920s
• 38 new, flocked clothes hangers--when it was what we most needed
• 2 enormous potatoes

And, we have left plenty behind, as well: flannel shirts and balls of yarn, magazines, and skinny jeans. Nothing quite so costly as a snowboard, though.

This gives a feeling of connection with those who have left something behind, and with those who take my things home. We not only eat and live in this area, but we, even anonymously, leave our mark whether in acquisition or in culling our own plenty. The place has the magical ability to provide things at just the right moment in time. 

The Potlatch Station is one of the pleasures of living in our inner Southeast Portland neighborhood.

Portland Neighborhoods: Hawthorne / Belmont / Sunnyside

Welcome to my weekly run down of the character of Portland's neighborhoods. Meet me here every Thursday through February to catch the flavor of Portland's inner Southeast. 

Southeast Stark Street, Hawthorne Street, Belmont Street, and Division Streets, from approximately 12th Avenue to about 60th Avenue in southeast Portland, is the range of neighborhood we're talking about today. 

To the south is Division St, and to its north is Stark St, containing Hawthorne and Belmont Streets, and this quad of East/West running streets forms the locus of one of Portland's most eccentric and trend-reflecting areas of town--while still, overall, having a feeling of intimacy and inclusive community. 

Belmont and 50th in the '20s

East of the river began to be settled in the late 19th century with large, impressive farmhouses, and gradually filled in with simple, middle- to working class homes from the '10s through to the '50s, with the last bits of free space taken by mid '60s apartment buildings, all built on a grid street system. 

Apartments on Belmont

By the 1920s and '30s the main arteries of Hawthorne, Belmont and Division were established as the commercial areas, and they still haven't lost their importance in the daily life of these Portland neighborhoods, as they are still where people shop, meet, eat, and get their needs met. 

New construction today tends to be either scraped-off, newly constructed condominiums, or modern design apartment buildings along Belmont and Division. As the city has not been requiring developers include on-site parking lots for all the people living in these structures, streets nearby them are or will certainly be filled in with cars to their very limits. 

Close-in, Southeast Portland neighborhoods are generously landscaped: trees were important in the early days, and they shade nearly every street or yard, even when structures are newer. Some streets are lined with huge trees planted last century, especially those taken up with large Edwardian or Craftsman style homes, while others reflect 1920s developments with cute brick Tudors, while still other streets are an eclectic mixture representing a range of yard-design trends in the 20th century.  

Typical '20s Tudor with few large trees

The bone structure of the areas closest to the business areas is delicate, with narrow streets lined with parked cars. Drivers must be especially mindful of numerous bicyclists in every kind of weather and season. Many houses have their own driveways, yet finding parking can be a challenge here. On the other hand, this area is imminently walkable, with a near European feeling of pedestrian-friendliness.

Sunnyside bungalow in iconoclastic colors

The urban farmer is well established in these neighborhoods: some backyards have chickens, or front yards given to sprawling permaculture, neat rock gardens, or planted-in retaining walls. 

House colors reflect the inner character of their owners: you will find a bright lilac Victorian with prayer flags hanging off the porch and a buddha surrounded by plastic animals as an altar in the front yard, just as you will find a restrained, oyster hued, late 1940s Cape Cod with a stately burgundy door and nickel fittings planted in the center of a neat grass yard. Diversity of expression rules, here. 

Stately Stark St Cape Cod 

Twenty or thirty years ago, Hawthorne street was inhabited by scruffy hipsters. The houses have now gone to working professionals, while the rentals may still be hipster inhabited. The boomtime of the '90s to about 2005 added multi-unit housing to Belmont street, upscale organic grocery retailers, and university-town style chains (Laughing Planet Cafe) or independent coffee/cupcake/ethnic gift/trendy clothing shops, along with national franchises (Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Starbuck's, Zoom Urgent Care) to Hawthorne, replacing some of the independent run businesses, but generally expanding the diversity of commercial amenities, while strengthening the position of independent run businesses.  Alongside big box grocery and drug stores live the regular-joe or distinctive places of character like The Horse Brass Pub, Nick's Coney Island, The Waffle Window, and The Bread and Ink Cafe, as well as shops: Memento, Powell's Home and Garden bookstore, and Presents of Mind. 

Hawthorne's Bagdad Theatre at dusk

McMinamin's neon-lit Bagdad Theatre anchors mid-Hawthorne with its movies, restaurant, bar, and author's nights. The economic base of this area is diverse: from well-to-do Ladd's Addition and Laurelhurst Park surrounds, to the eco-interested families and working partnerships that define the blocks surrounding the Sunnyside Environmental school. Apartments are well dispersed within these neighborhoods, too.

Multnomah County's beloved and well-used Belmont library branch is located between Belmont and Hawthorne on Cesar Chavez Blvd.

Division is well known as a hub of independent restaurants and food carts. Another food pod lives on Belmont at 42nd Avenue, and another at Hawthorne and 20th Ave.  Food cart eating is an essential part of the inner Southeast lifestyle, and has made Portland, Oregon America's preeminent independent food city of the moment: Portlanders eat well, here.

Local Stumptown Coffee on Belmont

This is an area of Portland with a sense of initiative and humor: besides having many of the most unusual and notable restaurants, shops with clever and inventive inventory that showcases local artists and illustrators live here.

What makes this area so desirable is its proximity to a wide range of human expression: everyone is welcome in inner Southeast Portland. You might see a dreadlocked cellist or a bearded man in purple tights making balloon creatures, couples or families shopping, professor-y old friends meeting to talk, or skinny-jeaned hipsters bent over their computers, writing, in coffee shops. It's a wonderful neighborhood to live in.

Jan. 12 - Buying a Home in 2013 Seminar

I'm hosting a free seminar for people interested in looking into the home-buying process this year.

 January 12th, Saturday, from 9am to noon.
 1639 NE Weidler, at the Prudential NW Properties office. 

Coffee and muffins for breakfast. Be entertained and informed.

Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. So true, if you've been dreaming of owning a home: your imagination paves the way to creation. But maybe you haven't even allowed yourself the dream, assuming you don't have the money, credit, or income history to own a home. A bit of knowledge can help turn hopeful dreams into actual reality, or at least let you know where you stand, and how you might take action to get where you want to be.

If you're renting and tired of popcorn ceilings, smelling other people's pizza, not being able to have a pet or garden, come to this seminar! I will be sharing scads of special loans and grants and programs that make it easy for the first time home buyer to afford a home at the same or less than they pay for rent. Hard to believe, but true: and no tricks. 

My mortgage representative can pre-qualify you during the same session, and help you get on track to restoring your credit, if that is a concern. 

Come meet your allies in buying a home in Portland!

Debt Relief Pulled Away from the Fiscal Cliff

The final act by the 112th Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff was a significant victory for homeowners.

As a part of the legislation that cleared the U.S. House of Representatives late last night, Congress extended the cancellation of the mortgage debt relief provision for one year, through the end of 2013.

What does this mean? If a lender forgives some portion of a homeowner’s mortgage in 2013, either as part of a short sale or foreclosure, or in a loan restructuring that reduces principal, the owner/seller will not be required to count that forgiven amount as income for tax purposes.

Why is this important? Homeowners shouldn’t be forced to pay a tax on money they’ve already lost with cash they never received – and will never receive.  More than 20% of current homeowners with a mortgage are in a distressed financial situation and owe more on their homes than the current market value. The housing market, while recovering, is still fragile enough that this tax relief is necessary to provide stability in the coming year. To learn more, please visit www.realtoractioncenter.org which provides a summary of all notable real estate-related provisions that were included in the legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Go-To Source for ADUs

Here is your local, Go-to Source for ADUs. 
A one-stop source about ADU's, granny flats, backyard cottages, in-law units, accessory dwelling units…

(So...what's an ADU? An Accessory Dwelling Unit.) I also like: Alternative Dwelling Unit.

But, especially good is Martin John Brown's article: Appraisal Journal on ADUs, making the point that appraisals of ADUs have lagged far behind the touted trend, continuing to depend on property comparisons rather than income-based assessments. Income-based appraisals spell out what a good return rate on investment ADUs make.

Now, why do people in the industry think ADUs are a headache: too hard to deal with, or even illegal?
Besides those folks in the industry repeating things they have heard but not proven, and those wanting to make transactions easy as possible...(laziness, in other words, or, to be more generous: lack of structures to deal with the unusual) it also originates from those sellers who end up disappointed when their hand-built basement flat fails to enhance their selling price.

Jeff's house at Tiny House Design
Well Done. Lovely ADU.

There are a million and one ways to build against code, and real estate brokers and appraisers have seen them all. But one of the most common is attempting to build a space that can be "legally" separately occupied. Let's say a homeowner has built in the hot water heater closet within a bedroom (this was true of the first house I bought), creating a potential explosion hazard. Who knew it has to have a separate entrance? The weekend builder didn't know, but a professional would have.

Despite good intentions, jerry-rigged spaces can end up having no closets in the bedrooms, no separate, lockable entry, a multitude of seemingly "it'll be good enough" problems that end up deflating the value  and livability of an ADU. Mostly because the space is not clearly thought out as to its potential long range uses, and because it ends up as an irritating (or nightmarish) code violation when the property changes hands. It's not that ADUs are a bad idea; it's badly executed ADUs that are the problem.

Countless properties have pulled off an ADU successfully. But what sticks in the memory of experience of appraisers and brokers are those that became a drag to negotiate during a sale. And it is street-level prejudice, like stereotypes, that can take the longest time to dissolve.

ADUs have been making the rounds in cutting edge living magazines for decades as the "latest new idea," but they still haven't made it to the grown-ups table at Thanksgiving. I predict this is about to change, and gain momentum with speed. There is a perfect storm of several components making ADUs necessary now:

• general hip coolness of living super small among "Millenials" - it's trendy but it shouldn't be underestimated how powerful this movement is and how its influence will grow
• current recession and economic tightness, school loan debt of same
• aging population, and greater numbers of the Woodstock Generation without own homes
• lack of affordable housing within metropolitan areas
• for those with smaller family size and larger property: an interest in maximizing income generation with one's own assets
• a recognition that maximal spaces require maximal resources, time, and effort to maintain/a desire for smaller, compact living that emphasizes experience over acquisition

In a way, the single worst thing to happen to stymie ADUs as an everyday solution (imagine they are an alternative that we take for granted, whose support is a given among the industry, and the strategies for making them happen with ease are already in place) would be for the economy to dramatically recover and begin booming, and soon. Because whenever that has occurred, society has forgotten the reasons that made ADUs attractive in the first place, when space becomes cheap and "living large" cycles back into trend.

The economy is probably not going to switch direction overnight, which means ADUs are on track to make the transition from intriguing trend to common alternative. Gradually, the botched jobs will get fixed, and the real estate industry will become well practiced in appraising, listing, and selling ADUs.