2024 ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE CENTER CANDIDATE SURVEY RESPONSES
Patrick Hilton Candidate for City Council in District 3
LIVABILITY: Stewardship of Portland’s built environment is a key quality of life issue. The preservation and reuse of existing buildings is an important component of sustainable development and helps to maintain strong, livable communities.
Q1
Agree: Preservation is a progressive value. Vintage neighborhoods and urban trees are an asset that help us sustain our economy over time. The story of our city, which is truly embodied in its buildings, is a vital, foundational piece of what gives our city a high quality of life. Intentional stewardship of the amazing legacy of high quality buildings from the past will help us to keep Portland a high quality city into the near and distant future.
ADAPTIVE REUSE: Do you think the conversion of empty or underused commercial buildings (e.g., offices or warehouses) into new uses can advance two important objectives:
a. alleviate Portland’s affordable housing shortage;
b. help to revitalize the city’s downtown.
Q2
Agree: Yes, definitely. We have an amazing pool of talented designers and artists that call Portland home. Our government needs to work with our creative community to reinvent and reimagine new uses for underused commercial buildings downtown and beyond. Remote work is not going away. Our government can facilitate this exciting opportunity to recreate what an American downtown is and what kinds of human activities happen there. I have faith that with the right leadership, Downtown Portland can be thriving as a safe, fun, and kinetic place embedded with affordable living and business spaces that make visitors and residents think, "This is so Portland. How did they think of this?"
SUSTAINABILITY & CLIMATE: Building reuse, instead of demolition and replacement, equates to taking thousands of cars off the road (EcoNorthwest Study). Promoting reuse should be an important component of achieving Portland’s sustainability goals.
Q3
Agree: We need better incentives and policies that will maintain our older buildings, add new buildings around them and/or add additions to them. We need re-use to compete better with demolition and replacement. Keeping our buildings from the landfill has many benefits, among them true sustainability, maintaining affordability, stopping renter displacement, keeping building ownership local, and offering diverse spaces for diverse activities. We need to create long-term policies that accomplish these goals. Short-term solutions sound good and are easier to do but they can lead to more future liabilities that will be costly. Portland has a history of being a city that thinks and creates policy for the long term and it has worked. We need to get back to this way of thinking and creating policy.
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES: To make building conversion and reuse economically feasible, many believe we need better financial tools, such as a state rehabilitation tax credit – a tool used by 39 other states. Would you support making that a priority on the City’s legislative agenda?
Q4
Yes: Yes, I would support this and many other incentives to make this happen. We need policies that help local designers and builders compete with large global design/build firms. Keeping much of our economy local is important to keep inequality in check as the global economy continues to make the gap bigger between the haves and the have-nots.
DEVELOPMENT IMPACTS: We need more affordable housing. However, proposed zoning changes (e.g.significant increases to building height and scale) can incentivize demolition, displacement, gentrification, and erasure of cultural heritage. How concerned are you about these potential negative consequences?
Q5
Very concerned: This is one of the main reasons why I am running to be a city councilor. District 3 holds the neighborhoods that represent what Portland is to the world. To let these areas get redeveloped in such a dull, thoughtless way is truly an epic, historic mistake. Hawthorne, Belmont, 28th, Clinton, etc. are what I call "Keystone" Neighborhoods. These areas are the economic engines for not only the city but the region. Inner SE Portland is our "Left Bank of Paris". This is the place tourists want to see and where local retailers and entertainment businesses thrive. If you went to Paris and they tore down their charming, vintage areas and replaced them with dull, non-style globalist, apartment buildings, would you ever go back? Would you tell people to visit Paris? We cannot let this happen to our charming, vintage main streets and neighborhoods of Portland. We need to infuse these areas with affordability through innovative design and policies, but the future of our economy depends on keeping these areas for tourism and for the high quality of life that these neighborhoods provide to everyone, not just those that live in these areas. Once these areas are gone, they are gone forever. It takes many generations to create a place like Hawthorne or Belmont. They indirectly bring billions of economic activity to our state. If they are turned into "Vertical Suburbia" we will lose trillions of dollars in future economic benefit that we could've had if these areas are cared for and maintained as attraction areas. It's not too late, but it's getting there.
PLANNING KNOWLEDGE: How familiar are you with Portland’s Comprehensive Plan, zoning codes, land use regulations, and current policies for historic properties?
Q6
Extremely familiar: I have been educating myself on this for years and have much to still learn.
INFILL DEVELOPMENT: In Portland’s historic areas, it’s important that new infill construction fit with surrounding context and retain the districts’ unique qualities and identity.
Q7
Agree: Yes, like I stated above, these areas are vitally important for our economy. Tech has changed how we do almost everything but human beings still need to be near other humans and I think having these "attraction areas " are the best places for new local businesses to start up and succeed. Foot traffic is the lifeblood of a local business that doesn't have global brand recognition. Local businesses and the identity these areas give us need special consideration when adding new buildings to these areas.
CONSERVATION OF PORTLAND “MAIN STREETS”: Portland’s unique identity is due in large part to its many distinct and diverse neighborhoods and “streetcar-era main streets.” Many were the original main street when these areas were separate cities before being annexed into the larger City of Portland. Recent rezoning, increased height limits and no historic protections make these areas vulnerable to demolition. Would you support the creation of mini-Conservation Districts (typically 1 or more blocks) to help retain these iconic commercial main street centers?
(For Reference: Conservation Districts have greater flexibility than Historic Districts given that they still allow for growth and change but can support more context-sensitive development. New Conservation Districts would have demolition review for contributing resources, objective design standards, and the height limit of the zone).
Q8
Yes: I would support not just mini-conservation areas but larger conservation and innovation areas in order to keep Portland a unique city with diverse neighborhoods and experiences to offer.
TOURISM: Historic buildings and public spaces are a significant economic asset as a major attraction for tourism. What priority should this be given when planning and setting policy?
Q9
High: I touched on this in my answer for Question 5 above. I haven't heard any government official ever nor any other candidates talk about how important historic areas are important for tourism or the film/tv industry. Like I said above as well, these areas bring in billions of dollars in economic activity each year because our city has many fun main streets and neighborhoods to visit. It is especially important for urban economies in the future due to jobs not being tethered to physical places anymore. I will keep this a vital issue if I am elected.
BONUS: Tell us your favorite building, neighborhood, or place in Portland.
Q10
RESPONSE: There are many of course but I got involved in local politics because I found out there weren't historic district protections on my favorite block in Portland; the south side of Belmont Street between 33rd and 34th. Such a cool block but also the neighborhood around it. I can walk around there endlessly and always see something new.
