Several exciting tours of model projects and neighborhoods from throughout the greater Portland region and surrounding communities will be included as part of the 2016 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. Tours will be scheduled on Thursday and Friday afternoons (February 11 and 12), and on Sunday morning (February 14).
Please note: An exciting day-long Columbia River Gorge Tour will be held on Wednesday (February 10).
What constitutes a complete neighborhood? Are they shaped through a conscious, planned effort, or do they develop organically? This mobile workshop will consider these questions as participants are led through several of Portland’s more iconic neighborhoods – the Sunnyside neighborhood, Belmont District and the Central East Side. We will traverse by bike and streetcar to explore the successes and the challenges as this part of the city transforms. Stops along this tour will include maker’s spaces, the famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Redd on Salmon, mixed-use developments, bike corrals on Hawthorne, and more, all indicating the embrace of alternative modes of transportation by Portland’s neighborhoods. Bikes, bike-safety equipment and snacks will be provided. Warm, casual attire and comfortable shoes are encouraged. Cost: $35
So you think you know downtown Portland? Not until you’ve seen the South Auditorium District. This unique area of downtown is a study in 1960’s planning practices featuring residential “towers-in-the-park,” a mid-block pathway system with low-rise residential, offices and retail, a large performance auditorium and two beautiful Lawrence Halprin fountain landscapes. The tour is rich in topics:
On this tour, participants will learn how to use the MapMatters smartphone app to document and assess the walkability of the tour route. It will also cover how the walkshop fits into the context of a community-planning charrette process. The MapMatters audit results will be reviewed and discussed in a high-tech/high-touch tools session conducted by PlaceMatters/National Charrette Institute the following day. That session will include demonstrations of several of the most effective high-tech participation tools. Light refreshments will be provided. Wear warm clothing and walking shoes. Cost: $18
A Portland neighborhood is often defined by its environmental assets – environmental education, parks and transportation options. Portland’s sustainability movement makes purposeful investments in certain places and people, but it has not prioritized equity or built environmental wealth in low-income communities like the Cully neighborhood. Cully is one of Portland’s largest neighborhoods (4.5 square miles, 13,300 residents), and has clear environmental disparities, where 24% of its residents live within a quarter-mile of a park compared to a regional average of 49%. Cully children lack places to play and experience nature. Living Cully, a collaboration among four long-time community-serving organizations – Verde, Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, the Hacienda Community Development Corporation and the Native American Youth & Family Center – believe that sustainability can be reinterpreted as an anti-poverty strategy, and as a means to address multiple disparities by concentrating environmental investments at the neighborhood scale and braiding those investments with traditional community-development resources. The tour will visit Cully Park, a new project to transform a former landfill into a 25-acre park in one of Portland’s most diverse, park-deprived neighborhoods, where participants will learn about community involvement in this unique park project throughout the planning, design and construction process. The tour will also include a visit to three other community-development projects in the neighborhood. Tour will be by bus with some walking. Participants are encouraged to dress warmly. Snacks will be provided. Cost: $38
Lents developed as a blue-collar neighborhood on the fringe of the city. In the 1970’s, the I-205 freeway tore the neighborhood in two and devastated its commercial center. The Portland Development Commission created an urban renewal area in Lents in 1998 and has spent upward of $100 million on infrastructure, including light rail, street improvements, parks and housing. Despite that, the Lents Town Center has seen little private-sector development and the commercial district consists of a handful of businesses surrounded by empty buildings and vacant lots. The Lents tour will display competing visions: the urban renewal, building clearance for mega-developments, chain businesses and market-rate housing favored by the city’s redevelopment agency, or the community-driven approach that emphasizes sustainability, civic participation, affordable housing and displacement prevention. ROSE CDC and OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon are working to leverage partnerships to create community-inspired projects that help create a strong sense of identity in Lents, improve transportation alternatives, mobility and air quality, and develop initiatives that embrace asset-based community development. Transportation includes light rail and walking. Light refreshments will be provided. Warm, casual attire and walking shoes are encouraged. Cost: $18
This tour will explore how food-system development efforts at different scales are increasing food access and supporting entrepreneurship in historically disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. Participants will visit three sites in Southeast Portland, where organizations are addressing food-system challenges through urban farming, community-kitchen business incubators, specialty retail and the development of a food-processing and distribution hub. Zenger Farm offers programs for low-income residents in outer southeast Portland, including a SNAP-accessible CSA farm, the Lents International Farmers’ Market, “Healthy Eating on a Budget” classes, a farm/food education partnership with the local school district, and a new community-kitchen micro-business incubator. The Portland Mercado (a project of the Hacienda Community Development Corporation) is a community hub and business incubator that provides affordable retail space for 19 businesses representing a range of Latin American foods and products. The Redd is an Ecotrust project to transform two city blocks in the central industrial district into a processing and distribution hub for the regional food economy – a place where food entrepreneurs can connect with their peers,, access services, and grow small businesses. Transportation will be by bus with some walking throughout the tour. Snacks will be provided. Comfortable shoes and warm, casual attire are encouraged. Cost: $38
Just across the river, in the inner Northeast Portland area known as the Lloyd District, there’s an innovative, thriving coalition of businesses, residents and organizations that have come together to create the most sustainable live-work district in America. The Lloyd EcoDistrict was one of five original EcoDistrict pilot projects developed by the Portland Development Commission and EcoDistricts. With collaboration between multiple stakeholders, it set far-reaching goals, including zero waste, building energy efficiency, alternative transportation, district-wide green streets, community identity, and more. The area features light rail, the Oregon Convention Center and Hassalo on Eighth. Hassalo on Eighth is a new, thriving and pedestrian-friendly community comprised of one million square feet of deep green, mixed-use development that includes over 600 apartment units, 44,000 square feet of retail and 1,200 below-grade parking stalls. This mobile workshop will include an overview of Portland’s growth management strategy, a tour of Hassalo on Eighth and a series of rapid-fire presentations that will cover the EcoDistricts Protocol, Lloyd’s regeneration and presentations by key stakeholders who are investing in the neighborhood and helping it to achieve a shared vision and goals. The workshop will end with an interactive session that gives participants an opportunity to apply what they have learned on a selected project using a scenario planning and strategy workbook. Transportation will be by light rail. Light refreshments will be provided. Warm, casual attire and comfortable shoes are encouraged. Cost: $15
Outer Southeast Portland defies many of the contemporary stereotypes associated with a latte-sipping city that is one of the nation’s smart-growth leaders. Downtown Portland began its revival in the 1970’s, and by the 1990’s, the city’s once-moribund inner neighborhoods were experiencing a turnaround that most cities envied – and emulated. Outer Southeast Portland was largely ignored, and evolved as the place to where low-income citizens and ethnic minorities flocked. With Portland experiencing another building boom, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is being planned along Powell and Division streets in Southeast Portland to Gresham, and financial pressures are finally edging into this forgotten quadrant of the city. This tour will focus on strategies aimed at shaping the inevitable gentrification in ways that give long-term residents and diverse racial and ethnic populations a voice in the future of their neighborhoods, and allow them to stay and build and sustain successful businesses and wealth. Participants will learn about Jade District and the Division-Midway Alliance’s use of creative place-making as a community-organizing tool to highlight inequities in the community, build support and buy-in for the proposed BRT, and shape policies to ensure that its construction does not displace businesses and residents. Participants will also learn about collaborative efforts on transit-oriented development opportunities, a rebranding campaign to highlight the cultural richness of these neighborhoods, and local economic-investment strategies. Transportation will be by TriMet bus. Refreshments will be provided. Cost: $18
Some of Portland’s most beloved and affordable housing types include accessory dwelling units, courtyard clusters, duplexes, triplexes, quads, bungalow courts, townhomes and internally divided large homes. In scale, these traditional housing types fall between single-family homes and four-story apartments. They were reasonably common in close-in neighborhoods until WWII, and are exactly what we need given today’s smaller households, escalating home prices and a strong demand for walkable, vibrant neighborhoods. But they are rarely, if ever, built today. This mobile workshop will take participants to close-in on Southeast and Northeast Portland neighborhoods to explore and document the range of housing types referred to as “Missing Middle” housing. Participants will complete photographic and sketch documentation using a template provided by the organizer. Group discussions will cover:
This exercise will train participants to explore and document these housing types in their home communities, understand their role in walkable urban living and household affordability, and identify ways to remove barriers to their creation. Transportation includes bus and approximately 1.5 miles of walking. Refreshments provided at “The Ocean” micro-restaurants. Cost: $45
Portland is known around the world as a hub for placemaking activity – from neighborhood greenways to intersection paintings to recent tactical-urbanism projects downtown. Community groups are working closely with the City of Portland to engage people with each other and the city. Join representatives from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, City Repair and Better Block PDX for this dynamic tour of magical places. This tour will inspire creative placemaking by sharing real-world ideas that challenge our assumptions about the possibility of cities. This tour will first take participants by bus to Share-It-Square to hear from City Repair and see the first intersection street painting in Portland and public space projects implemented by an entire block of residents. We’ll then return downtown to see several Better Block transformations to hear first-hand about the effect these projects had on community, safety and economic development. Transportation includes walking and bus. Light snacks included. Cost: $38
What could be more illustrative of smart-growth principles than the revitalization of a once-vacant school into a vibrant, community-oriented space? Washington High School is such a project. Having sat vacant for decades, the Central Eastside neighborhoods long desired the school be returned to an active, community-enhancing use. In 2013, this wish came true when the school district sold the building to a partnership that planned to preserve its historical integrity, restore the exterior façade, and breathe new life into the building’s interior core. This $20-million renovation includes office space, retail and, at the heart of the building, a historic auditorium that hosts performances and corporate events. Join us as we learn about the redevelopment of this historic Portland landmark from all the individuals who labored to bring it back to life. For more information about the project: http://washingtonhighschoolpdx.com. Transportation will be by bus. Light refreshments provided. Cost: $38
Tour Villebois, an award-winning, 500-acre, European-inspired, mixed-use community comprised of morethan 2,700 homes at buildout (1,300 to date). See how the redevelopment of the site –the former Dammasch State Mental Hospital – has led to a 21st-century model for smart growth with real-world examples of diverse housing, quality architecture, integrated community housing, low-impact stormwater management, natural resource conservation/restoration, tree preservation and parks planning. Learn about the unique public-private infrastructure financing partnership that resulted in over $140 million in combined infrastructure needed to serve the project. Over the past several years, Villebois has gained recognition for its innovative approach to community-building, emerging from the Great Recession with record-setting home-construction activity (over 300 single-family homes built in 2015). On the tour, participants will be joined by the city’s mayor who has provided critical leadership when it comes to making vision reality; the master planner who created the master plan, architectural pattern and community elements books which guide development in the Village; the president of a homebuilding company who is developing various housing products throughout the project; a nonprofit affordable-housing advocate who has delivered community housing and affordable housing units; and the city’s planning director, natural-resources manager, development engineering manager and the project’s arborist. Transportation includes bus and walking. Refreshments are included and sponsored by the City of Wilsonville. Cost: $38
Discover how the Interstate MAX light-rail line has helped to focus development and revitalize a historic commercial area in North Portland. Hear about the variety of revitalization tools used by the local development commission, the transit agency and the regional government. Participants will ride the Interstate MAX line north to the historic Kenton neighborhood, talking along the way about the planning process and community input used for locating TODs along the corridor. The tour make a stop at an affordable-housing project that was one of the first developments along the light-rail corridor, thanks to a unique funding package that included using transit funding for affordable housing. Once in the Kenton neighborhood, participants will walk to the newly completed Northwood apartments, which have received strong community support because the project is integrated into the neighborhood. Participants will hear from the developer about the challenges of bringing the project from concept to reality. The tour will then head over to Kenton’s main street to stroll the historic commercial district. Participants will discuss the revitalization of the commercial area and how streetscape design, education and coaching of business owners have all worked to improve the local business climate. Transportation will be by light rail. Light refreshments will be provided. Cost: $15
Dan Burden has worked in more than 3,500 communities and led more than 4,000 walk audits throughout North America. The inventor of walk audits and the “Johnny Appleseed” of spreading the virtues of walkability around the continent, he was named a “Transportation Champion of Change” by the White House last year. His work helps define the future of transportation, and is now exemplified by thousands of new innovations that give full support to walking, bicycling, transit, living in place, driving less, and enjoying life more. Named by Time in 2001 as one of the world’s six most important civic innovators, Burden is currently Director of Innovation and Inspiration for Blue Zones, LLC, and was previously Director of Innovation and Inspiration at the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, and co-founder of Walkable Communities, Inc. and the Bicycle Federation of America. This walk audit – also known as a “walking workshop” – will explore techniques and methods of discovery by foot, while trekking portions of Portland’s public realm. The group will discuss features of the built environment that matter most, such as streetscapes, urban development, urban infill, public space, parking and traffic management principles and practice. Light refreshments will be provided. Wear comfortable shoes and clothing suitable for a morning in Portland. Cost: $15
Located on the Portland region’s west side, Hillsboro enjoys award-winning urban planning, an affordable cost of living, a strong economic base and one of Oregon’s most diverse populations. Hillsboro helped reshape America’s image of suburban development with Orenco Station, which opened in the late-1990s. Join us on a tour of transit-oriented development there, including the recently completed, mixed-use Platform District and Orchards at Orenco – a workforce-housing project that features the nation’s largest “passive house” structure and one of the biggest in the world. On the trip to Orenco Station via light rail from downtown Portland, you’ll learn about the region’s renowned light-rail system, transit-oriented developments and the City of Hillsboro’s urban planning aspirations. Tour will be by light rail, with walking around the Orenco Station area. Light refreshments and drinks will be provided. Cost: $18
