Zoning Overlay and Oregon Street

I spent almost 3 hours preparing for a meeting we had with a City Planner regarding proposed zoning changes. I found out Friday this was a complete waste of time. It is complicated but although our properties on Oregon Street would be included in the proposed Zoning Overlay for historic and view corridors to the current zoning laws we won't be affected in our current height variance of 35'. My concern was when the real estate market turns around and the condo's being developed on either end of this street begin to sell again, more development would mean more on street parking will disappear. This would de-value our property unless we could add a garage which would require our current building height to go up to allowable 35' tall. John and I have no desire to do these additions but if forced to sell we obviously don't want to sell short because of a zoning change. In the end this is a non-issue. It looks like these zoning changes will go to City Council in September and most likely pass.

Here are some of the pictures I took of Oregon St for this meeting.

Monastery Apt was where John lived in the 90's for a couple of years.

View looking up Oregon Street from Monastery entrance.

Only 1 of these $800.0 K to $1M condo's have sold in 3+ years. The retaining wall supposedly cost over $1M. There were planned to be 12 units.

The retaining wall view Oregon Street residents, including our tenant have out their front door.

425 Oregon St... demolition was at least a year ago... the construction is slow. I just looked up the listing for this on huff.com today : "3500 square foot gem with rare 22X19 2car side by side garage, granite counter tops and elevator. Hurry still time to make interior changes." All this for $1.3M.

I believe this building will eventually need to be torn down.

Our little apartments on Oregon St. On the right hand side (415) is the first property I bought which was in 1990. I lived there for 10 years. John actually lived down the street in Monastery Apartments but we never met while we both lived on Oregon Street. I bought the attached property (413) in 1999. They are both really cute on the inside and rent well.

City View Tavern has a colorful past. I am going to post the article Jim Steiner wrote about City View in his Hill Yes column of the Mt Adams Newsletter from September 2008 at the end of this blog entry.

The house next to City View and one of the 5 buildings (including our and CV) that are only 1 story. This is where the incline used to come up the hill. It is such a bummer not one incline was preserved. Pittsburgh saved one of theirs and it is still operable and used today.

Condos (bay windows) and apartments (brick). One of these condo's is for sale,listed today at $239.5 for a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom and no parking.

The Oregon Street Highland Towers apartments on the non-view side of the street.

This notice was posted on an abandoned rehab building. The rumor (from City View) is that the contractor ran out of money and the IRS has been unsuccessful in finding him.

According to this notice the fire department has declared the building a fire hazard and the police noted illegal activity is going on inside.

When the market does turn around I bet someone will buy this building for cheap. Added bonus will be that the neighbors will welcome the construction inconvenience.

The adjacent completed condos are pretty and have stunning views. The only thing I think is odd is that the contractors did not level the floors.

But the brick condos on the end on stunning. This picture shows how they condo's on Oregon and lower street Baum accommodate views with the hillside. Building on "stilts"the Mt Adams new construction way.

These condo's began after the modern ones at Monastery entrance to Oregon and sold out quickly and completely. Part of the reason probably is they are on the view side of the street. Additionally could be side by side parking garage. At any rate they sold in the $800 - $1M range so it wasn't that they were less expensive. One of these condo is listed for sale today at$895.0 for 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom 2 side by side garage and elevator. These are the homeowners that will most welcome construction traffic when someone buys the abandoned rehab building.

I wonder if this will get developed in the next 20 years. I bet it will...some of the best views of the river and downtown. At the end of Oregon are 10 condos called the Palisades.

These are the most expensive condos for sale in Mt Adams. They start at $2.3 million.

This drawing from one the Palisades sign's makes me a little nervous b/c of the yellow line drawn on the street. If Oregon St becomes 2 way that would take all the off street parking.

Close up of one of the Palisades garage entrances. Now the article about City View

Hill Yes!

A look back at Mt. Adams

Jim Steiner

Urban myths have a way of getting a life of their own. I had always heard about Charlie Manson and his time on the Hill. He was banned from the City View Tavern for getting wasted on tequila and starting fights. Was it true or was it legend? I decided to see what I could find out by interviewing Deb Henning, the current co-owner of the City View Tavern on Oregon Street. Why Deb? She bought the place from the guy who was the owner when Charlie frequented the establishment. Deb and I met in the Tavern and began a conversation.

The building that houses the City View was built circa 1875. In 1891, it was owned by Thomas Spain, a coppersmith who lived on Celestial Street. Mr. Spain ran a grocery store; he added a couple of bar stools and began selling beer as a sideline in 1901. Bernard Recklingloh bought the place in 1906, and it became know as Recklinloh's Grocery. Beer was still sold. Today , we put an Arby's in a gas station and think we're doing something new.

In 1917, George Lagemann, a butcher who worked for Mr. Recklinloh and lived above the grocery, bought the place. George raised his family on the second floor while running the grocery and saloon. One of George's sons, Ted, took over the place when George could no longer run it.

During the Christmas holidays, Lagemann's sold trees as a family project. Everyone pitched in and helped. There was a cousin who was, in the vernacular of the time, "slow". He was a good worker as long as he had specific directions. After Christmas 1946, as was the custom, the remaining trees were burned in the backyard of the grocery. Ted told the cousin to take care of burning the leftover trees. Unfortunately, he didn't tell him to move them from the side of the building. The second story of the building was destroyed by fire and never replaced. After the fire, Ted added a porch to the back of the grocery and renamed the place City View Tavern.

Ted ran the business his way. he did not tolerate foul lanquage as there were children around, and he wanted to encourage family business. He closed at 1 am because his philosophy was if you couldn't get a buzz on by then you weren't really trying. He also discouraged drunks from hanging out because he believed they chased his good customer away.

Ted didn't believe in Happy Hour; he felt that it was always happy hour. Ted had the song "Sweeter than the Flowers" by Moon Mulligan placed on the juke box in honor of his wife Murt. He played the song all the time; it's still on the juke box today. In the early 1960s, Charlie Manson lived on Oregon Street near the corner of Oregon and Monastery. He frequented the City View and drank exclusively tequila... lots of tequila. One evening, he tried to fly off the back porch. Ted stopped him and then banned tequila from the place because "It wasn't Charlie who was the problem; it was the tequila." This event is known as "The Legend of Charlie and Jose Cuervo." You still can't buy tequila today at the City View Tavern.

Ted's health deteriorated in 1985, and he told Deb Henning that he was ready to sell the place to her. She bought it and began the process of cleaning it up and restoring the facade to reflect the way it looked in 1917. She retained the old tables and chairs and the knotty pine paneling. There are lots of old pictures and memorabilia that Deb treasures. She replaced the porch with a deck in 1990. Deb took on a business partner, Silas Evans who began work at the Tavern in 1999 as a bartender.

Deb worked for Ted from time to time before buying him out and learned much about the bar business from him. She continues to practive many of the things Ted taught her and his memory can still be felt at the City View Tavern.

What started out as a story on the urban myth of Charlie Manson, tequila and the City View Tavern ended up being a story of Ted Lagemann, his very special tavern, and his legacy passed down to the present.

Stop by the City View and enjoy the ambiance. Order a Big Ted burger, which Ted named after himself, but do NOT order tequila.