The problem that Laurelhurst residents say they face is a relatively new one. They'll have more problems at the same time.'

'It could lead to a place where people who own the want to move out and turn them into rentals.

'Nobody will want to live here,' he says. Pratt warns that if Laurelhurst isn't allowed to decide what gets developed within its boundaries, the neighborhood will indeed become cheaper eventually-because it will become hideous. Scott Pratt wants to create a historic district in the neighborhood he’s lived in for 30 years. You don't get diversity if you make everything look alike.' 'I'm not saying we can't absorb some more density,' he says, 'but every neighborhood should not be equally dense. Pratt says he could support more density if it didn't change the neighborhood's look. In his view, stopping demolitions keeps small homes available for less wealthy buyers. Pratt argues historic preservation isn't really at odds with addressing Portland's housing costs. He fidgets as he talks sitting on the patio of the modest, periwinkle blue home that his wife bought in 1988 for $75,000. For years, he volunteered as chairman of the board of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Pratt, 61, is trim man with a mop of white hair, who most days still bikes to work downtown, where he has a small private law practice. 'The Laurelhurst of the future,' he said in a campaign video, 'will feature towering multifamily units on every block, fewer small, more affordable historic homes, fewer mature trees, and increased congestion on streets and in schools.' Last month, Scott Pratt won the presidency of the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association while warning of an impending dystopia. Some read 'Love Wins'-an anti-Trump, pro-tolerance slogan-or 'Black Lives Matter.' But the most common sign says, 'Laurelhurst: Historic Character, Progressive Vision.' These are historic designation campaign signs. Nearly every block is littered with yard signs. The Laurelhurst neighborhood looks as if it's in the middle of an election year. “The problem is, they’re not building anything affordable, because they don’t want to.” (Thomas Teal) “The developers are actually building like crazy,” says Laurelhurst resident John Liu. Whoever wins the fight for Laurelhurst, this much is clear: Your neighborhood may soon be next. 'The consequence is pretty clear: It isolates those neighborhoods from shared responsibilities to be a more welcoming community and to accommodate the housing that's needed,' Liberty says.

'We are facing a housing shortage with dire consequences,' Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) said last month, 'and frankly I am disappointed that this bill has run into some of the same old NIMBYism that helped create this crisis.'Ĭritics charge that by trying to save Laurelhurst from the wrecking ball, its residents are in fact erecting a wall to keep out newcomers, renters and people of modest means-making Laurelhurst an oasis of money in the midst of a housing shortage.įormer Metro Councilor Robert Liberty, who once headed 1000 Friends of Oregon, perhaps the state's leading land-use advocate, says Laurelhurst's agenda is contrary to that of progressive politics. Yet Laurelhurst's biggest opponents are those who share the same politics but think that neighbors are being selfish. Laurelhurst is a progressive Portland neighborhood, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 14 to 1, Bernie Sanders won 46 percent of the vote last spring, and where, in theory, residents share values that are part of the Oregon liberal DNA: smart land-use planning and dense neighborhoods. 'The city won't do anything about it unless we do.'īut Laurelhurst's effort may be for naught: The state Legislature is currently considering a bill that would deny neighborhoods the right to use historic designations to block housing developments. 'The whole street-it will look like Beaverton by the time they're done,' says John Deodato, a longtime Laurelhurst homeowner who says he gets 20 letters a month from developers seeking to buy his home.

The average home price here is now $750,000-and one house sold this month for $1.6 million.īy seeking to make the neighborhood a historic district, Laurelhurst residents are taking aim at what they see as the neighborhood's greatest enemy: a real estate developer with a backhoe, bent on tearing down 100-year-old houses to replace them with apartments, a duplex or a huge new house. Laurelhurst is one of many central eastside Portland neighborhoods where housing values have soared since the recession, and where developers are snatching up scarce vacant lots and a few modest homes they can demolish and replace.

Laurelhurst pizzicato