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Some high- and lowlights from the 3425 SE Hawthorne demolition, Oct 15th and 16th, 2015
Top left: Day 1 of demolition. At this point, a protester was on the roof, having climbed the Monkey Puzzle Tree, and the crew went around back and pulled the back porch off just to make a point (and possibly so the crew would actually get paid for something).
Top right: Day 1 of demolition, across the street. The woman in white and blue stripes with blonde hair was extremely entertained, asking others near her if Oregon often has protests over home demolitions. She said she was from out of state and then expressed happiness that she could have “lunch and a show”. I told her that was a terrible thing to say. She did not enjoy hearing that.
Bottom right: Day 2 of demolition, taking the front of the house. By this point the back wall house is gone, they’ve been smashing windows. I saw no evidence of salvage. As far as I know, all this debris went to a landfill. They filled the red truck with debris by 2:45 PM.
Hemorrhaging historic housing on Hawthorne
I stopped blogging because I couldn’t keep up with the demolitions; I neither had time to visit the sites nor the brain energy to face the depressing downslide of affordability coupled with the skyrocketing rents and property values. In August, I heard that the foursquare-style house on SE Hawthorne Blvd just east of 34th was going to be demolished. This is right by where I live. There was an initial protest, but then nothing happened and nothing kept happening till yesterday. I will post a few pictures from yesterday and today with descriptions.
The Portland-style remodel*
So thanks to the Portland Chronicle, which I heard about on Stop Demolishing Portland, I found a demolition list for Portland. You can see the date the permits are issued and assuming they’re in compliance with the law, they have to wait x number of days. I think x currently equals 35? The demolition permit on this house was issued before the new law, so they were able to start picking it apart earlier.
In late April, I first walked by intending to document the process. Sit back and enjoy, because allegedly this is a remodel, not a full demolition.
3772 SE Taylor
The broken front window.
The tree and some spare bits?
First week in May: No major changes.
Week of May 3rd, 2015.
I was out of town and missed some developments, including a lot of debris being let down into the living room. Someone I know got pictures, but sadly, they’re not mine to share. This is from the next time I saw the house.
The roof is raised. Razed.
My comment when I posted this picture to Facebook was, “This is…novel.” It definitely was coming apart slower than other demolitions I had seen. Were they trying to abate toxic substances? Were they salvaging anything
And fast forward to May 28, 2015.
Nothing but the foundation.
This counts as a remodel, people! The house is *gone*.
Seattle-Ballard reporting in: The Density Debate
I was searching for actual data on the real impact of high density and infill development, because while income inequality and demolition angers me to no end, this is really still a blog about density…right?
So it is with much enthusiasm that I read this. I didn’t know Seattle had a displacement *coalition*. I must see if Portland does. We sure need one.
Stemming the flow of character and solid construction?
This is from February, but relevant nonetheless.
So there’s a pledge to look into things, but the measures will be slow, and demolition is happening now. Hmm.
Dateline 2010, before the Abernethy no-parking complex: Demolition of the building with the orange roof
I love how they ask what the future may hold for this lot and say that it has great parking. Haha, joke’s on you!
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/12/southeast_portland_times_are_c_1.html
News flash: Portland is still putting a bird on it.
Technically not a high-density headache, but a headache nonetheless:
http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.ssf/2014/12/blackbird_pizza_taking_over_20-yea.html
…I really thought people had gotten past putting bird names on everything here. Don’t you have other woodland creatures to drive into the ground?
highdensityheadache 