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Dear Bob... |
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NEW DEAL FOR ROOSEVELT |
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For a little while it looked like the 56 elderly and disabled residents of Roosevelt Plaza had won a reprieve. The deal to convert the downtown apartment complex into a hotel--and displace 56 low-income tenants in the process--hit a snag this week. After reading about the proposed sale of the Roosevelt to a California hotel chain in last week's Willamette Week ("No Room," News Buzz, WW, July 2, 1997), city planner Mike Saba checked the zoning map. Whoops. The Roosevelt, which sits on the corner of Southwest 9th Avenue and Salmon Street, is in a residential area that strictly prohibits hotels. The prospective buyers made a mistake. "Some things are presumed," says Barry Brenneke, who manages the building for its current owners, Hans and Kenneth Juhr. Housing activist Susan Emmons suddenly saw a glimmer of hope for the 56 Roosevelt residents, who were told by Brenneke last week that they had to be out of the building by Nov. 1. In order to convert the Roosevelt to a hotel, its new owners--a hotel chain whose identity Brenneke would not disclose--would have to get a zoning change from the City Council. Not only is that process very public and potentially political--particularly with three avowed affordable-housing advocates on the City Council--city regulations would require the building owners to replace all lost housing. But the prospective buyers have another plan, according to Brenneke. "They have not changed their posture about redeveloping the land. It's likely they will make it condos or high-end apartments if not a hotel," he says. City regulations allow such a conversion without a zoning change or any conditions to replace lost housing. Emmons, executive director of the nonprofit Northwest Pilot Project, an agency that specializes in relocating displaced elderly Portlanders, was crestfallen to learn of the hotelier's decision to plow ahead with condos. "I was ecstatic because I thought, Here's our chance to save the housing," says Emmons. "Now I'm terribly disappointed." For Emmons, it's back to the original plan: Pry some money out of the new owners to help defray the relocation costs of low-income tenants who lack the money for moving expenses and deposits on new housing. "Northwest Pilot Project is prepared to do anything to maintain affordable housing at the Roosevelt," Emmons adds. "But many residents have already shifted gears and applied for housing elsewhere. They aren't willing to gamble." Emmons will also concentrate on saving another affordable housing site owned by the aging Juhr brothers--the 90-unit Oak Apartments, on the corner of Southwest 3rd Avenue and Oak Street. The Juhrs also plan to sell that building, and the city is welcome to bid, says Brenneke, if it wants to preserve the Oak Apartments for affordable housing. -BY |
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Follow-ups: Right to Be Dim |
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Portland lawyer Robert E. Barton is apparently tired of his client being the butt of newspaper jokes, but is having a hard time doing anything about it. Barton represents Western States Chiropractic College, which Willamette Week chastised last month for treating its male students differently than its female students (Rogue of the Week, WW, June 25, 1997). According to a lawsuit filed by a Western States student, the college allegedly coerced male students to submit to invasive proctological exams while paying outside "models" for gynecological exam course work. When contacted last month, Barton refused to comment about the case to WW. Then, after the article appeared, he filed a motion to seal the court record and to prevent the other side from making any comments to the media. He also asked for sanctions against the plaintiff's attorney, Renee Jacobs, even though she was not quoted in the article. In a five-page order signed June 27, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Marsh told Barton where to stick it: "Defendant's request for an order sealing the entire court record falls yards short of the legal standards required for such an order," he wrote in an unusually spirited denial. Marsh, who noted that the facts of the case were contained in public records, similarly rejected claims that Jacobs was to blame for the bad press. "I find no evidence that plaintiff's counsel engaged in any sanctionable conduct," Marsh wrote. "Although I do not know what she told the Willamette Week reporter, nothing factual in the article is false. Although the reporter took a dim view of defendant's policy, it appears to have been an independent opinion of the author." The trial is set for Aug. 26. --MO |
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Corrections |
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In "The Good, the Bad and the Awful" (WW, June 25, 1997), we mistakenly reported that state Sen. Thomas Wilde had changed parties from Republican to Democrat in order to run against his wife. In fact, Wilde has never been a Republican. Last week's story about Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon ("Losing Faith," News Buzz, WW, July 2, 1997) identified the Rev. Anthony Thurston as head bishop of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland. Thurston's correct title is dean of the cathedral. WW regrets the errors. |
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