My transect walk brought to light a handful of things I couldn’t have realized through my ethnography or maps. Most notably, seeing the world surrounding Congress Street was interesting. It is very clearly in the process of changing—old structures stand next to beautiful new ones, buildings under construction abound, and parking lots dot the streets. It seems an important time for the neighborhood. Though Portland is close to housing capacity, it will remain in high demand, and I think there is a real need and opportunity to provide affordable housing options or mixed housing in prime neighborhoods. As my walk focused on architecture, it’ll be interesting to see what it says about socioeconomics. I have lots of pictures I will want to sift through.
8:00—I start by exiting a car at the corner of Congress and Washington Ave. I proceed up the hill and, not having had breakfast, stop into Katie Made Bakery. Roughly 183 Congress Street. I am focusing on the architecture of buildings in the area, how it changes and (later) what it means. For now, it has a pretty coherent vibe: mostly wooden structures, tall and boxy, with nice details over the entranceways. Nice colors as well.
8:30—Took some picture outside of 171 Congress Street to highlight the wooden buildings and their brick bases. They are also generally pretty interesting colors, an eclectic mix for sure.
8:35—On the corner of Cumberland and Sheridan, I have turned off of Congress to explore the depth of Munjoy Hill or East End. I’m looking at 66 Cumberland Ave., one of the more interesting houses I’ve seen. It is clearly multi-family. It has a big porch, which is unusual. It is a bit rundown, it seems. Notably, it is next to a beautiful, brand new house made of gorgeous painted wood and slick metal.
8:40—Still on Cumberland, noticing lots of parking lots. And the buildings tend to have a decent amount of space between them too. It is airy, un-oppressive.
8:45—Some sort of repairs going on in the building next to 49 Cumberland.
8:50—46 Cumberland, standing opposite a not-too-attractive 49 Cumberland, is an amazing new house. Multi-fam, I can tell. Beautiful wood, balconies. I wonder what it costs!
9:00—I’ve turned back onto Congress, and am faced with “118 on Munjoy Hill” a new luxury development. This is very curious. It is much bigger than the surrounding apartments, though attempting a similar style. I have lots of pictures.
9:10—Having passed my coffee shop, I’m standing across from The Front Room, a pretty fancy restaurant. I’m thinking to myself that Congress Streeet up here seems pretty devoid of nice restaurants, and is surprisingly residential overall. Should I be surprised? Pretty building.
9:20—I turn down Emerson Street, and stand looking at The Emerson School, a big brick building. This is the only school I’ve seen, and it looks nice. Is it private or public? Across the street is a beautiful orange house (pics) with a yard, one of the first I’ve seen. At this point, I’m past the peak of the hill, and I wonder if they have water views yet.
9:35—Got a mental map, excuse the pause. I’m in front of the Eastern Promenade Apartments, which don’t look particularly fancy. They remind me of Brunswick Apartments. Brick façade. Squat. 30 Turner Street.
9:43—On the corner of Morning and Turner streets. I’m looking north, across the street, at a big empty parking lot. How long will it be there? Who is it serving? It’s private, but the houses next to it don’t seem to require that much parking. It seems like prime real estate.
9:50—I’ve reached the end of Turner Street, at the intersection with Eastern Promenade. There is a baseball field across from me. And a playground. Tons of kids around, though not for an organized sport. This obviously must add huge appeal to the neighborhood.
10:00—Walking along the Eastern Promenade ogling the massive houses. I stay on the far side of the street—somehow, being too close seems like trespassing. They certainly have more character than the rest of the neighborhood (if not gaudiness). Overheard: “The product should jump off the page, and your product could be the rental [unit].” (Two middle-aged women, one with a dog.)
10:10—At the corner of the Eastern Promenade and Congress Streets, in front of the monument, I notice many many private tour busses driving by, and stopping here, and then continuing.
10:20—It seems to me that even here on the Prom, many houses might be multi-family. I’m not sure though. It seems a phenomenon sort of unique to Portland, or at least not something I’ve seen, to have so many multi-unit building that look as if they are for one family. They are houses, not apartment buildings.
10:30—Although only tangentially related, down by the water there are tons of families, all young, with strollers and baseball mits etcetera. And many dogs. It seems very safe, very friendly.
I really like how you break down housing in the East End area with such attention to detail. Given the somewhat recent gentrification of Portland’s East End, I find it fascinating how small hints can indicate whether housing is a product of wealthy newcomers or the neighborhood’s middle class old guard. You seem to be asking all the right questions about the local school, new developments, and how recreation relates to the actual inhabitants of Munjoy Hill. I am curious, however, to see how all this architectural variation contrasts to East Bayside, where I saw similar trends, but entirely on a lower echelon of luxury.
Nice comments and questions. I’m interested in the parking lot; did it have any signs that it was going to redeveloped as something bigger? Given the large commuter population, parking is definitely a priority, but maybe the city could convert one parking lot into a vertical garage, thereby allowing some of the others to be redeveloped as housing and/or community indoor or outdoor public space. I like how you note the colors of buildings–I think Ben noticed that as well. Seems like we should encourage new affordable housing units to be built with aesthetically pleasing, vibrant colors to add to the character of Portland housing.
It seems like our transect walks followed pretty similar paths, and it was fascinating to compare my notes with yours. I ogled at the houses along Eastern Promenade as well, and although many appeared to be single-family houses, I noticed that some had multiple mail boxes (I noticed one with seven mail slots). I found it curious that such beautiful, large houses would be split into several units; I would have expected that larger houses would primarily be single family residences. I looked at these houses on Zillow to try and figure out how many were single versus multi-family and it was tricky to distinguish. I am interested to see if the Portland data dump has any more insight into this housing. I would love to see your pictures too once you sort through them!
I enjoyed your detailed focus on the subtleties of housing issues. Your experience in the Eastern Prom was likely representative of the position of many Portland residents – if you felt the need to walk on the other side of the street, in what way and with what feeling would Portland’s homeless occupy those zones?
I was also intrigued by the looming ‘118 on Munjoy Hill,’ ostensibly serving Portland’s well-off population. I agree with Claudia that low-income and public housing could use some aesthetic improvement. Though not a major solution to inequity by any means, it could serve to diminish disparities at least visually.