Infill expo shows the options

Mayor Charlie Hales says he loves the old houses too
at the infill expo hosted by the German American Society. 

Mayor Hales kicked off the June 4 industry event, saying all the right things about Portland's dwindling inventory of affordable well-crafted homes that have served generations—and could shelter many more if allowed to stand. The infill expo, with its crowd of people interested in creative, quality ways to provide housing, highlighted the many attractive and environmentally sound alternatives to demolition, whether it's building auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs), renovating homes, or crafting additions.

United Neighborhoods for Reform took part to show the damaging effects of demolition on neighbors and neighborhoods and what we are doing to curb or mitigate them.

Some scenes from the evening:

UNR steering committee members go one-on-one explaining anti-demolition efforts.

UNR works to stem the wasting of well-crafted, -sited, and -designed housing,
such as this unique 1928 home slated for demolition. As the sign points out, it's
not very Portland (historically, anyway) to throw away or, more likely, burn houses
just to make room for more expensive, much larger, and lower quality structures.

UNR members (from left) Barbara Kerr, Jim Gorter, Barb Strunk, Jim Brown,
and Janet Baker (obscured) talk with concerned neighbors at the infill expo.