Erik Sten defied expectations this afternoon by appearing to win over the majority of 150 hostile Old Town neighbors at a meeting to discuss his proposed new homeless center in the district.
LION’S DEN: STEN PREPARES TO TAME OLD TOWN NEIGHBORS…

Weathering his fair share of rhetorical stick and apologizing for not including neighbors in the choosing of a site, Sten ultimately drew a round of applause for challenging neighborhood stakeholders not to create further division by blaming the process for their own misgivings about the center. “I implore you not to let your dislike of various aspects of the process kill this opportunity,” Sten said.

For the first time, Sten explicitly linked the development of a new $30m access center on block 25 to the future demolition of the city’s recently acquired Grove Hotel on Burnside, and ultimately, to the regeneration of the entire neighborhood with up to $400m of urban renewal money—should the city agree, as planned, to expand the River District urban renewal zone out of the Pearl in March.

“I think the Old Town you guys know and love won’t be here in 10 years,” Sten told the neighbors. “To me, Old Town feels like inner Northeast Portland felt in ’94—I think it’s going to move. And we’re not about to put $3-400m into this neighborhood without shoring up [its homeless services].”

He even said he didn’t want the center to turn into another stalemate like the Chavez rename…

Sten said the new center doesn’t amount to building new services for the homeless, only to rebuilding the existing services at Transition Projects, Inc—currently on Nw5th and Glisan, and the Blanchet House, which is kitty corner opposite—and to trading new affordable housing units above the new access center for the ones he eventually plans to demolish at the Grove. “Those buildings are, frankly, a mess,” he said. “And I’m not a big fan of the Dirty Duck (the bar to be demolished to make way for the new center) either.”

Some Old Town investors arrived at the meeting concerned that the new access center didn’t fit in with the 1999 Visions document for development in Old Town, which specifies no net gain or loss in social service housing in the neighborhood. But Sten refused point-blank to restart a search for a site, when Anne Naito-Campbell of the Naito Company cited the Visions document as she asked him to do so. Others at the meeting were less than optimistic about prospects for the center.

“What you’re talking about relies on the cooperation of the homeless, and the homeless don’t cooperate,” said property owner John Beardsley—who, incidentally, owns the building at 11 Nw5th about to be leased by Randy Leonard for a new, temporary day access center for the homeless. Surprisingly, this subject did not come up at all during today’s session. “This is a sociological problem that I don’t think is solvable,” Beardsley continued. “Are we so welcoming here that we’re a magnet?”

Richard Harris, Executive Director of Central City Concern answered Beardsley’s question, citing CCC’s successful building at 8 Nw8th, which provides sober housing for 170 people with chronic alcohol and drug problems, and has received praise for blending into the neighborhood so well that it’s easily mistaken for high end condos. “I just don’t agree with your assessment that people don’t want to change their lives,” Harris said. “They do.”

Research shows that those undergoing alcohol and drug treatment are four times as likely to succeed in rehabilitating if they are in sober, supported housing.

Sten also faced a question from Paul Verhoven of the Saturday Market, asking whether "building a city out of homelessness" is similar to building freeways to build a city out of congestion.

“It’s not like congestion because you can’t end homelessness without building housing,” Sten responded. “The magnet theory that if you actually try to help people, they’re more likely to come to your city, has been disproved over and over again.”

Stephen Ying of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association added that building the new center on block 25 would “damage the image of Chinatown.”

“It’s hard for me to imagine a worse gateway to the district than there is now,” Sten responded. “We will have failed unless the new building looks really really good, and it functions really really well.”

The meeting concluded with a statement from Lou Elliot—who works for the Naito company. “The manner in which these decisions have been imposed upon this neighborhood is going to divide this community,” he said.

Sten hit back: “I think it’s unfortunate but brave that you decided to end it this way,” he said. “The argument that it’s solely the process that’s causing this problem, I don’t buy. It just isn’t true, Lou.”

“Let’s say the process is entirely wrong, I’m challenging you to figure out how to bring this neighborhood together,” Sten continued. “If this thing implodes, I’ve seen stalemate over and over. Just before this I saw a stalemate called Cesar Chavez. We have an opportunity to do something right here. But if your position is that it’s the process that’s causing this problem, then you’re creating that reality, not me.”

The reaction to Sten’s performance was positive. As he left, Mike Kuykendall of the Portland Business Alliance smiled, shook Sten’s hand and said: “You just give me a call.”

“Honestly, I thought that was possibly the best political performance I’ve ever seen,” says Patrick Nolen, community organizer for Sisters of the Road. “And that might sound like a negative statement but I mean it positively.”

“At no point did I think that Sten lost control of the meeting or the people in the room,” Nolen continues. “Even that guy right at the end, Sten said ‘if that’s the way you want to make it, that’s you, not me’.”

“What people really need to think about,” Nolen says, “is I make $30k a year, and I can’t afford to live in this neighborhood. But four years ago I was homeless and made nothing, and did live in the neighborhood. That’s what low-income housing can do for people. It gives them the opportunity to become productive members of society.”

We'll keep you posted on developments.