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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2015)
April 15, 2015 Page 5 Historic Church to be Demolished Residents say goodbye to local part of history by A group calling itself “Save PDX Diversity” tried to fight a proposal to demolish this historic church at Northeast Failing and Eighth Avenue in the King Neighborhood and replace it with condos. O livia O livia T he P ortland O bserver A northeast Portland church lo- cated in the King neighborhood is set for demolition despite the ob- jections of hundreds of communi- ty members. St. Paul’s Evangelical and Re- formed Church, located at the corner of Northeast Failing and Eighth Avenue should have been subject to a mandatory 120-day demolition delay because of its age – the building was built in 1904 and was declared a historic building in the 1984. However, on the same day the demolition application was turned in to the city, the developer, Peter Kusyk, requested the property be removed from the Historic Re- sources Inventory list. Removing the property from the list could mean that the building would no longer require a 120-day delay, al- lowing the building to be totaled without much time for the com- munity to object. A group called Save PDX Di- versity and History started a peti- tion to stop the church from being C ontinued on P age 13 demolished and taken off the His- toric Resources Inventory list. The developers plans, the group feels, will “significantly change the character” of the neighborhood. “Your company intends to replace this historic 111-year-old church property with a two-story duplex with a tuck-under garage for one unit and a ‘parking pad’ for the other,” reads the petition, pointing out the discrepancy between what currently exists and what could take its place. In the comments of those who signed the petition, one neighbor decries the new building plans, “We need to keep our history alive The Osman and Dilla families join together on the bench at Pacific University that honors their daughters who passed away in a traffic crash last year near the Forest Grove campus while they were en- rolled at the university. Ayan Osman’s father is in the brown jacket on the left. Ayan’s mother is in the head wrap in the middle. Kiden Dilla’s father is on far right in the purple shirt. Students Honored for Making a Difference Ceremony marks one year since fatal crash Nearly 75 community members joined the families of Kiden Dilla and Ayan Osman to celebrate the dedication of a memorial bench in honor of the former Pacific Uni- versity students on the one-year anniversary of the fatal car acci- dent that took their lives. Dilla and Osman were traveling to campus on April 7, 2014 when as a people and continue to val- ue and hole on to what little the black community has left,” writes Danialle James who now lives in Gresham. Another displaced resident says, Angela Crow, writes, “I lived in that neighborhood for 20 years-- before I was priced out and had to leave - the demolition of all the historic buildings in the NE seems to be the goal of every out of state developer. And you would allow that-?! I should hope not. We have a mighty thin histo- ry of our black community in this their passenger vehicle was struck at the intersection of Highway 47 and Verboort Road north of Forest Grove. Both were killed instantly. The close friends from Portland and Beaverton were founding members of the university’s Black Student Union in the fall of 2013 C ontinued on P age 13
