Better Know A Neighborhood: Piedmont

Who’s ripping off Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report now? None other than your host of Portland A-Z, aiming to copy Stephen’s wildly successful 435-part series highlighting each of the U.S. House of Representatives’ districts. “Better Know A Neighborhood” is my 95-part version, aiming to tell you a little about each of Portland’s Neighborhood Association areas – every one wonderful, interesting, and different.

Background for the Better Know A Neighborhood series:

Several years ago, when I first determined I would run for City Council in 2006, I decided one way to learn more about the city would be to help with a volunteer project in every one of Portland’s 95 identified neighborhoods. I’d realized from experience in SW environmental projects, helping with school events, and leading a youth group for teenage girls at The Salvation Army, that not everyone who cares about an issue can be seen at a meeting called to discuss it. By going to different neighborhoods and working alongside folks in projects organized locally, I heard from many people I wouldn’t otherwise have met.

So I started doing volunteer projects in neighborhoods all over the city, pretty much every Saturday morning. Since it’s my challenge to myself to volunteer in all 95 neighborhoods, I set my own rules. It has to be part of a project organized by a group – heading out to somewhere and picking up trash by myself wouldn’t count. It has to involve hands-on, practical improvements, not just sitting in a meeting. It has to offer the opportunity to spend time with residents of the neighborhood, listening more than talking. And it generally has to take at least two hours.

To date, I’ve done volunteer projects in 81 of the 95 neighborhoods, plus 1 in one of the few areas of the city unclaimed by any Neighborhood Association. That leaves 14 still to go. I’m a person who likes to complete the job even if the reason it started has evaporated, and I plan to keep watching for neighborhood-sponsored events in the 14 areas left on my To Do list. And the last aren’t by any means the least, because now I have this blog and can share a few of the insights I gain through volunteering.

Today: Piedmont

The Piedmont neighborhood is in North and Northeast Portland, bounded by I-5 on the west, MLK Blvd to the east, Columbia Blvd to the north and Ainsworth Street on the south. Williams Avenue separates North and Northeast Portland. The Piedmont Neighborhood Association chooses to align with the North Portland neighborhoods rather than the Northeast Coalition, for services and funding allocations from the City via the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.

Historic Piedmont was platted in 1889, the same year as my neighborhood in SW. One of its core attractions is Peninsula Park, 16 acres with an Italian-style community center, octagonal bandstand, and an impressive rose garden with almost 9,000 plants reminiscent of England’s finer stately homes. I went to Peninsula Park in summer 2005, hoping to help pick up litter after one of their popular free concerts, only to find the entire park clean as a whistle. Portland Parks & Recreation notes that in 1957, the city zoo housed its Humboldt penguins in the center’s pool for six months because the zoo lacked the proper facilities when the birds arrived from Antarctica.

The 2000 census showed 2,518 homes and 6,427 residents in Piedmont. PortlandMaps has lots of interesting information. Two-thirds of the residents own their home; 51.6% listed themselves as white. The largest age group is 22 – 39 year-olds, and most households have one or two people. There’s a nice photo of the park, one of a typical delightful bungalow-style home, and lots of information about the neighborhood here.

A few years ago, the Piedmont Neighborhood Association worked with the city’s Bureau of Housing and Community Development and the Portland Development Commission to plan the redevelopment of the Villa St. Rose convent, designed by renowned Portland architect Joseph Jaccoberger and constructed in 1917. The main building was saved and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with a $22 million, 100-unit low-income senior rental housing faculty renamed Rosemont Commons retrofitted inside it. The Rosemont site grew into an urban village for all ages and incomes, with 18 family rental town homes, 10 Habitat for Humanity homes, seven Home Ownership a Street at a Time (HOST) homes, and 30 market-rate houses.

I planted trees opposite some of the new development this Saturday, on N Congress. I didn’t know any of the history I just transcribed – but I left my Friends of Trees crew to do the work while I looked at the homes, I was so struck by the way they fit in to the character of the neighborhood. They are on lots that are only 40′ wide; the designers chose to provide small detached homes with space between them, when they could have put in apartments under the zoning. Few of them have garages, all have small or full front porches. They’re simply charming, and the whole development seems to be encouraging restoration of homes around it. One of the fun things about spending time in Portland’s neighborhoods is thinking what it might be like to live there, and my experience in Piedmont on Saturday was definitely “this is neighborly, historic, and delightful”.

Obviously, one can’t know a neighborhood from a few visits and an afternoon of Google searches. I encourage residents and others with in-depth knowledge of my Better Know A Neighborhood posts to note additions or corrections in the comments, or to e-mail me so I can post them. The series won’t be funny like the one on Comedy Central, but I hope you enjoy it as you travel around with me.