My neighborhood, it's all in the direction that you look.

Yesterday on one of my walks in the sunshine, I took a photo looking each direction, while I stood at the corner of NE 22nd Avenue and NE Flanders Street. This one looks north towards NE Sandy Blvd. where NE Glisan Street intersects it a few feet west of where NE 22nd intersects with NE Glisan--it's one of many unique multi-street intersections in Portland. The tall hedge corners the southwesten border of the front yard at Albertina Kerr--the steps I go up and down on my walks are to the right of that red sign in the distance. Those great wooden benches where I rest are up those steps.



Looking south on NE 22nd Avenue. The streets in my neighborhood, known as Kerns, are wide enough for two-way traffic and parking on each side. 



Looking east on NE Flanders Street. I am blessed to live in a neighborhood with sidewalks in such great shape and so level, too! And how about all of these trees! Soon I'll be walking this way, making it the whole two blocks down to NE 24th Avenue and back. Eventually I'll make the loop which will total six blocks! I return to work on Tuesday, May 26, so my goal is to increase my stamina incrementally, and making the loop will certainly help.



Looking west on NE Flanders Street. That's my building to the right. When I leave for work each morning, I go out the side door of the building which is down this sidewalk a little ways. I walk down to the intersection with NE 20th Avenue--where you can see blue and white way down the sidewalk. I turn right, push the walk signal button and wait to cross NE Sandy Blvd. so that I can turn right after I've crossed the street and walk about 15 feet to the bus shelter. Oh, I forgot to point out that when I go this way, I walk right by the back door of The Blue Diamond PDX, my neighborhood bar--the best one in Portland as far as I'm concerned! Since surgery, I've been going to the front door of the Blue Diamond on NE Sandy, though, because it's a longer walk by a couple of hundred feet--I need each of those steps, not only now when I'm recovering but always!

Change in the neighborhood

March 5, 2011. 2248 N.E. Glisan. Those signs across the front demanded that I take a photo or two.



March 5, 2011. Interesting that the front of that car, that bumper cover or whatever you call it, sort of matches the color of the house. Hmmm. Do you suppose it is Rose Ivory De Vine's vehicle?



May 6, 2015. After hearing from Janessa last week that the house with all the signs about the psychic was gone, I decided to head that way on one of my walks Wednesday. I could see the chain link fence from the corner of Albertina Kerr's front yard, where I shot the photos posted yesterday of the tiny cairn that I built.

Here's some info I found online, about the house having been sold in November, 2014. This 1064 sqft single family home has 2 bedrooms and 1.0 bathrooms. It is located at 2248 NE Glisan St Portland, Oregon. Facts Lot: 4,500 sqft Single Family Built in 1923  Last sold: Nov 2014 for $805,000

And here's something I found online about the plans for the lot where this house stood, as well as the lot next to it to the west, where another house had also stood since 1923.

Proposal: The applicant is proposing mixed use development at this 8,460 square foot site currently developed with two homes. The project will consist of an apartment building with 35 dwelling units and 2 ground floor live/work units. The building will have 7 parking spaces located at the rear of the ground floor and accessed from NE Glisan Street. Mixed use buildings are an allowed use in the CS (Storefront Commercial) zone which has a height limit of 45 feet. The proposal consists of an overall 4 - story building and a partial 5 th floor containing 4 - units located on the front half of the building facing NE Glisan Street. The height of the building measures 54.5 feet to the top of the 5th floor dwelling units. The rear portion of the building measures 43.5 feet to the top of the 4th floor dwelling units. The building is set back a minimum of 3 feet from the side property lines and 11 feet from the rear. The applicant proposes one Adjustment to increase the maximum allowed height from 45 feet to 54.5 feet for the 5th floor dwelling units located on the NE Glisan - facing side of the proposed building. As rationale for the proposed Adjustment, the applicant points to the relation of the site to NE Sandy Boulevard and the Main Street Corridor Overlay Zone which allows residential buildings that front on NE Sandy Boulevard to be up to 65 feet in height.

The following administrative decision was issued on July 22, 2014: Approval of an Adjustment to 33.130.210 to increase the maximum allowed height from 45 feet to 54.5 feet, in substantial conformance with the approved site plans, Exhibits C - 1 through C - 2, signed and dated July 18, 2014, subject to the following conditions: A. As part of the building permit application submittal, each of the 4 required site plans or included as a sheet in the numbered set of plans. The sheet on which this information ap pears must be labeled "ZONING COMPLIANCE PAGE - Case File LU 14 - 157812 AD ." All requirements must be graphically represented on the site plan, landscape, or other required plan and must be labeled "REQUIRED."


A January 27, 2015, article about the sale and proposed plans for these two lots, read when you click here.

A May 1, 2015, article about the demolition of the two homes and plans for these two lots, read when you click here.

An October, 29, 2014, Portland city government Bureau of Development Services' final notice about the appeal of an earlier decision, read when you click here and see the architectural drawings for the building to be erected on the site.

That last link takes you to the most interesting info about what is planned for these two lots which are probably 500 feet from the building where I live--it includes site plan, architectural drawings.



The two houses which have been demolished. The short video that I shot shows what's there now, behind the chain link fence. I wonder what the building will be named.

The new apartment building in my neighborhood, which is known as Kerns. I took this photo March 25, 2015.

After work on Wednesday, I got off the 12 bus and walked south on NE 20th in order to quickly take this photo before walking on home. This is five-story apartment building I mentioned in yesterday's post, the one with the parking lot which was already there in that space. I found this online from March 2, 2013, about plans for the building: The units will be mostly studios or one-bedrooms, although there may be a few two-bedroom units, and each will have a deck or patio, he said. He is Joe Westerman who owns the lot and made the decision to ditch the food trucks for the apartment building. I see nothing to make me think deck or patio. I wonder why that's seems to be the case. Elsewhere online I found in an blurb dated August 22, 2013, that the building is named 20e. Hmmm.

About the parking lot, I just found this online at the Kerns Neighborhood Association Web site, posted February, 2015: Neighborhood Notes Land Use: At our January meeting, Joe Westerman who is building the apartment complex at 20th & Everett (where the parking lot/Green Castle Food Cart Pod was) talked to us about Phase 2 of the building. He now owns the other half of the parking lot (on Davis) and will be building a second apartment building, which will have 56 units, 18 parking spaces and 19 bike spaces. It will look similar to what is currently being built but with a different pattern. It will have two levels, then the top two floors will be set back. They will plant more trees along 20th.

Interesting but not unexpected with developers, if you ask me; this is a huge change if I understand what I'm reading here below, in 2014 he doesn't mention building another apartment next to the one in the photo, he puffs up the parking possibilities, but, look back at the previous paragraph where he says there's a phase 2 which, again, if I'm reading this right, will be built on the parking lot you can see in the screen shot on yesterday's post. I'm basing my confusion on what I found on the Kerns Neighborhood Association's Web site, posted February, 2014: Update on Green Castle Food Cart Property @ 20th: We heard back from Joe Westerman who has plans to develop the former food cart pod into residential. He came to a meeting last year and showed us some plans. According to an email from one year ago, Joe told us: "I will do everything I can to maximize parking at my apartment community. I am installing steps to the ground floor units facing 20th so people can park on 20th and walk right into their unit rather than go around to the main building entrance. The parking on 20th is used very little so this is a good opportunity for me to make better use of it. I will still have the parking lot next door that we currently use for Green Castle customer parking. I think this will take a big load off the streets around my apartment community. I'm also hoping to install a Zip car space so people in my building and the neighbors will have access to ready transportation without having to own a car or look for a space to park it. We would like to have a dedicated space for a Zip Car. Every little bit helps. Lastly I will have at around 10 surface parking places on site which in addition to my other options will certainly add to our total parking solution."

What I saw while on a NE Portland Kerns Neighborhood Walk with Lamont, Sunday, January 5, 2014, No. 2

These three photos show a span about two feet wide along the top edge of this thick, moss-covered limb which is well over my head as I stand on the sidewalk, entranced by the sunshine lighting up first one cluster of ferns, then another.
 

The second part I wanted you to see, this other cluster of ferns with one curved up into nearly a silhouette against the streaky sky. When I checked it on the camera, I saw what I had to take the next photo of there on the left edge of the image.
 

You can see why I got excited when I realized that I could take a decent photo of this lone soldier, this fern all on its own, glowing in the sunshine. Thank goodness for my zoom lens.
 

Have you been wondering about the background above the limb in the first three photos? I certainly did as I checked out each photo on the camera's screen. Once I realized what caused it, I decided to take this photo of the sky and the myriad branches on the tree which splendidly blurred the background when I focused on the various ferns. You can see the ghostlike blur of green in two spots along the top edge of the limb--ferns as ghosts. I love it!

What I saw while on a NE Portland Kerns Neighborhood Walk with Lamont, Sunday, January 5, 2014, No. 1

The flick of a squirrel's tail caught my eye about two thirds of the way up a utility pole on the corner outside my apartment building--the two of us were headed inside to eat a bowl of homemade chili before Lamont walked back to his house in Southeast Portland. Quickly the squirrel stuck the landing after jumping onto the wire. I didn't get my camera up in time to catch that leap, but I did manage to capture most of its quick journey.

I wish that I had been able to get that photo. But even more, I would have loved to have photographed another squirrel that Lamont and I saw at the beginning of our walk. As we passed beside a slender, leafless tree, I heard a rustling sound to my right where Lamont walked. I asked him if he'd hit a low branch on the tree. He told me no, that he thought it was a squirrel. We both stopped, look back around at the tree, just in time to see the squirrel leap from that slender tree right across the entire sidewalk into the side of a thick hedge! Both of us laughed out loud it total surprise at what we'd seen.
 

The squirrel sort of leaped along the wire, heading west.
 

That bushy tail must help balance the little creature as it speeds along. It appears to be vibrating--look at that blur.
 

Easy to see how a squirrel can sort of disappear in the branches--coloring and speed play a part for sure. And no, the squirrel's legs haven't all of a sudden become longer. I quickly leaped from the wire onto that limb.



When it jumped back to the wire, it landed sort of out of balance for a split second before continuing on its way.



Little feet flying on that narrow wire high up in the air.
 

Quickly the squirrel scurried out of sight. Standing beside me on the sidewalk, Lamont asked if I got any photos of that quick trip and was tickled when I showed this last one to him. I told him that I thought I had enough to make a post called, "The Tale of the Tail." Pretty cool to get this series of photos in my neighborhood since I've seen few squirrels in the almost three years I lived here. And I wonder if it was the same squirrel who had vaulted overhead from three to hedge at the start of our walk?

Some of what I saw, No. 5

Dogwood in bloom, near my apartment building, May 14, 2011. The photos speak for themselves.















Look at the H made by the tiny branches. My last name, both maiden and married, begins with an H. I love this serendipitous surprise. It's even underlined by that other branch. Neat!