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Volume XXXXI
Number 37
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www.portlandobserver.com
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Wednesday • September 26, 2012
43
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
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Main Street
Transformation
City prioritizes business and
diversity in Cully neighborhood
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
by
One of Portland’s most diverse neighborhoods that in the
past has suffered a lack of investment, Cully is scheduled to
undergo a main street transformation to perk up the northeast
neighborhood’s sparse business district and make street
travel easier and safer for residents.
After hearing recommendations from Portland’s Bureau
of Planning and Sustainability and Bureau of Transportation
and talking with the Cully residents, the city has adopted the
Cully Commercial Corridor and Local Street Plan.
Scheduled to take effect in October, the plan addresses
the neighborhood’s need for better roads and zoning changes
along Cully Boulevard while also keeping in mind the risk of
housing price inflation and gentrification.
Unlike most Portland main streets that offer a plentiful
range of local-serving mom and pop shops and commercial
staples, the diagonal-running Cully Boulevard is a scatter of
residential homes, auto bodies and ethnic eateries.
According to Debbie Bischoff of the city’s Bureau of
Planning and Sustainability, the mostly residential neighbor
hood lacks business support largely due to zoning restric
tions.
While Northeast Cully Boulevard was identified as a
“Main Street” in the city’s Metro Regional Plan, 75 percent
of the main street is zoned as residential. Only 2 percent of
Cully is zoned for commercial business, while typically a
neighborhood would have 10 percent, said Bischoff.
Zoning changes along Cully Boulevard and Killingsworth
Street will allow more commercial, residential and mixed-use
development, as well as employment uses in the area.
In three public hearings with about 75 of Cully’s 13,000
residents in attendance, Bischoff says the community ex
pressed a desire to create more local-serving businesses that
reflect the needs and diversity of the neighborhood.
“Residents wanted more opportunity for local people to
benefit,” said Bischoff. They desired to see more cafés, pizza
parlors, dental offices, bookshops, barber shops, grocery
stores, and ethnic stores that serve the Cully’s diverse
population of Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians and
African immigrants.
The plan also includes a local street plan to increase street
connectivity, develop new designs for improving local streets
and prioritize routes to notable community destinations.
According to Bischoff, Cully has the second highest
number of unpaved streets in Portland. Annexed to the city
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
in the mid 1980s, she says Cully lacks a lot of urban services Luis Rodríguez (left) and Nathan Teske o f the non-profit Hacienda Community Development Corporation are
that the city requires (like sidewalks) and that other neighbor- advocates o f a plan to improve the quality o f life for diverse populations in Cully. A commercial corridor and
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>0Cal street plan calls for the devel°Pment o f affordable housing in the northeast Portland neighborhood, and
fosters plans for new businesses that reflect the needs and diversity o f the community.