Council set to extend east-side renewal

Additional millions, streetcar loop, affordable housing emphasized

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Jul 4, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The City Council is poised to initiate a series of major and controversial changes to Portland’s central east side over the next two weeks.

A majority of the council has indicated it plans to support two measures that will increase public spending in the Central Eastside Urban Renewal Area by $51 million over the next two decades, helping to fund a new streetcar loop and laying the groundwork for the construction of up to 4,000 new homes.

“Council approval means the east side will grow with the rest of the city,” said Tim Holmes, a professional photographer who chairs the Central Eastside Industrial Council, a coalition of area business owners that advises the Portland Development Commission — the city’s urban renewal agency — on projects in the area.

Not everyone supports that amount of additional spending, however. Debbie Aiona, a member of the League of Women Voters of Portland, said $50 million is too much.

“That level of spending will change the character of the neighborhood. It will lose the industrial feel we are trying to preserve,” said Aiona, who served on a citizen advisory committee that worked on the plan.

The council is scheduled to vote on the streetcar project Wednesday. It will take on the spending increase July 13 in the form of an amendment.

Milwaukie-area state Rep. Caroline Tomei, a Democrat, fears the streetcar project will take public money away from a southern light-rail extension that has been discussed for years. As planned, it would connect downtown Portland to Milwaukie over a new bridge across the Willamette River.

The streetcar route expected to be approved by the council — formally known as the Eastside Transit Alternative Analysis Locally Preferred Alternative — stretches from Northwest Portland across the Broadway Bridge to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry along Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The construction cost is currently estimated at $169 million. Congress has been asked to fund 60 percent of the project.

“I’m not anti-streetcar, but those of us who live in and around Milwaukie have been promised light rail for a long time, and we don’t want to see another project taking priority over the funds,” said Tomei, who plans to testify before the council votes Wednesday.

Commissioner Sam Adams defended the increased spending and streetcar loop as in the best interests of the entire region. He noted that around 1 million new people are expected to move to the Portland area over the next 25 years.

“We need to be able to create jobs and housing in existing urban areas. The central east side could be the next Pearl District or South Waterfront,” he said.

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