The Laurelhurst Historic District got some podcast attention! The podcast is Keeping Kurrent. The podcaster, who lives near Portland, covers a variety of topics in weekly episodes. To listen to his podcast on Laurelhurst, click below: For those who have been followed the Historic District effort for some time, all this will sound familiar. But if your friends, or neighbors newly arrived in Laurelhurst, want to know what the historic district effort is all about, point them here. For more about some of the topics addressed in the podcast: Demolitions: City-wide Of historic houses In Laurelhurst Lead contamination Tree destruction Density without demolition: Accessory dwelling units Histori
We've been reporting how much in $ dollars has been raised for the historic district nomination work. Right now we're about $36,600. But what does that mean - how much of the work have we actually funded to date? Here's a cool chart that shows this. Let's explain this. Our consultant, Peter Meijer Architect (PMA), is doing this work in phases, as follows: Phase 0 - Pre-Work Phase: Background research on neighborhood, get State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) input on survey and nomination plan. FUNDED! DONE! Phase 1 - Pilot Survey: Train initial volunteers, perform the "Reconnaissance Level Survey" (RLS) on a small part of the SE quad, as a "pilot". The goal is to test and debug the
Laurelhurst's urban forest is an integral part of our neighborhood. As soon as the neighborhood's curving streets were platted in 1909, the founders began planting trees. Many of our two thousand street trees are are old or older than the houses around them. This tree canopy covers 34% of the neighborhood, providing shade, shelter for people, birds, and animals, oxygen and well-being. Did you know that the city of Portland maintains an inventory of all 3,694 of Laurelhurst's trees? The most recent report, from 2014, can be read here. The findings won't surprise most of us. "Many of the stately trees and their towering canopies are from 100-year old plantings when the area was first deve
