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North Portland’s rampant homeless problem has residents fleeing the city, according to a report.

Real-estate broker Lauren Iaquinta told KGW8 that she’s seen an uptick in residents packing up and heading to the suburbs because of a homeless camp in the neighborhood’s Peninsula Crossing Trail.

“You can be driving through North Portland and you’re in this lovely area where there’s no issues, and then you can make a turn around the corner and have homeless camps there,” she said. “It’s kind of sad. I’ve been doing this for 10 years here in Portland and it’s changed quite a bit.”

Iaquinta said she now has to vet areas when selling homes because clients don’t want to live near homeless people. She did not cite any data about people moving because of the homeless encampment.

“Most people don’t want to have to worry about if they can leave their car parked in their driveway overnight without maybe having it broken into,” she said. “It’s a pretty testy subject.”

The mayor’s office says there are about 6,000 homeless people in the Portland area, though many believe the number is actually much higher.

Resident Greg Dilkes, who lives near an encampment along the Peninsula Crossing Trail, said seeing homeless people near his home “makes you not feel that great about living here.”

“It makes living in the neighborhood harder, not as congenial as it could be,” he told KGW8, saying the encampment is ruining the area. “It’s the first time in a long time that we’ve actually seriously thought about moving.”

Another resident, Mark Smith, said he is scared to walk alone or tend to his garden because he shares a backyard with the encampment.

“Every day if you go from one end of the street to the other, you’re confronting some very difficult situations, people in really dire straits,” he said.

But a homeless neighbor told the location station that the residents’ fears are overblown.

“We are the most harmless people you’ll ever meet,” TT Sanchez, who lives on the trail, said.

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“They shouldn’t be scared of us for what because we live outside? That’s the only reason you should be scared of us because we live outside so if we lived in four walls and a house and stuff would you still be scared of us?” Sanchez continued.

Adre is a Portland, Oregon–based development company that is less than two years old. Under the guidance of its founder Anyeley Hallova?, it has quickly made its presence felt.

At the AIA’s annual conference in Chicago last month, Adre’s upcoming Killingsworth office building was named one of six winning proposals in the Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon, organized by the U.S. Forest Service and the Softwood Lumber Board. Killingsworth will promote social equity through its goal of working with 30 percent BIPOC- and women-owned subcontractors and securing 50 percent of its equity from women and/or people of color. That same month, the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission made Hallova? its first-ever Black female chair.

In April, the Meyer Memorial Trust headquarters in Portland, designed by LEVER Architecture, which Hallova? helped oversee as a partner at her previous firm Project^, was named to the AIA Committee on the Environment’s prestigious Top Ten Green Projects list. In July, this project was named one of ten winners in the Urban Land Institute’s 2022 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence and advances as a finalist in the organization’s 2022 ULI Global Awards for Excellence.

“Development is usually about making money for your investors or creating value for your nonprofit organization. That’s fundamental,” Hallova? told AN. “None of these ideas exist outside of the market sector, and that’s what’s actually interested me with the new company.”

You might say Hallova? is feeling lucky. After all, Adre takes its name from the number seven in the West African language of Ewe. Even so, this developer makes her own luck—not just with a portfolio of pioneering sustainable design projects but with a mission-driven approach. In Portland, with one of the smallest Black populations of any large American city, as well as a state-wide legacy of racial exclusion, that kind of leadership is even more noteworthy.

“Anyeley uses development to build community,” Michelle J. DePass, former CEO of the Meyer Memorial Trust, said. “She is a very proud Black female developer in the Pacific Northwest who knows that she is rare. She doesn’t shy away from holding that mantle and allowing other people to dream about the world that they want.”

Hallova? was raised in Florida near Fort Lauderdale, the daughter of a Ghanaian agricultural engineer. As a child, the family spent two years living in drought-stricken northern Nigeria, which inspired her interest in ecology and design. After high school, she first became interested in sustainable development while studying abroad in Costa Rica attending the School for Field Studies. “It’s where I had early training in thinking about the three-legged stool of sustainability: the social, the environmental, and the economic,” Hallová recalled. She then spent several years studying environmental systems (Cornell University), city planning (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), landscape architecture (Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design), before working as an associate urban designer in AECOM’s Atlanta office, creating master plans for several Caribbean cities.

Relocating to Portland in 2007, she landed at Gerding Edlen Development, helping to realize some of the first LEED-rated housing projects on the West Coast. Then, as a partner at Portland developer Project^ beginning in 2009, she married sustainability with design excellence on award-winning projects like the Origami multifamily complex by Waechter Architecture (which innovatively combined condos, townhomes, and ADUs) and a local headquarters for The Nature Conservancy, designed by LEVER Architecture.

“We would send her the plans of the building, and it would come back with maybe 200 red marks,” LEVER Architecture founder Thomas Robinson remembered. “She dives into the details of the design, always thinking of ways to make things better, but very thorough, very thoughtful, and really useful.”

Hallova?’s arguably most influential project with Project^ went unbuilt. Designed in 2017 by LEVER Architecture, Framework was poised to become the country’s first mass-timber high-rise after earning a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to test and prove cross-laminated timber’s fire resilience. The project, which was called off largely because of post-2016 changes in the tax-credit market for affordable housing, provided a hard-won lesson and an epiphany.

“I did every single thing that anyone could ever do to try to make a project go forward,” Hallova? said. “I thought, ‘What if I took that same energy and I poured that into the Black community?’”

Her final project before founding Adre was a new headquarters for one of Portland’s largest philanthropic organizations in the historically Black neighborhood of Albina. The effort was career-defining. The LEED Platinum–rated Meyer Memorial Trust headquarters, completed in 2020, was divided into two buildings—one framed with mass-plywood timber and the other traditionally stick-built like a house—so it would be easier to work with smaller contractors (many of them minority- and/or women-owned businesses) as well as journeymen and apprentices.

“There were a lot of eyes on us. I felt intense pressure to not be a gentrifier, and Anyeley completely understood that,” DePass recalled. At “any moment of disillusion, she was there to remind me we were doing this to prove that it could be done. And that really is Anyeley. She does not let anything stand in her way. And she does it with humor and grace.”

One of Adre’s upcoming projects takes the ideas of the Meyer headquarters a step further. Adre is developing a new headquarters, Building United Futures, for the nonprofit Black United Fund; the structure will house several other nonprofits and business-incubation space. There’s a bigger idea at work: It hopes to stem what L. M. Alaiyo Foster, president of the Black United Fund, calls a “talent flight” of young BIPOC Portlanders. “It’s an important part when you feel like you belong, when you’re part of something,” she said.

In July, Adre was named developer for the high-profile Williams & Russell redevelopment project on a decades-vacant land parcel where public officials forcibly displaced more than 120 Black families in the 1970s for a hospital expansion never built. In a historic public-private partnership, the land has been given back to the community, and Adre is developing the plot with the Williams & Russell Community Development Corporation (CDC). A LEVER Architecture–designed mix of offices, apartments, and townhouses cater to a variety of income levels, with a focus on intergenerational living and pathways to first-time homeownership. A variety of shared streets and landscape spaces will encourage a sense of community.

Adre was one of two finalists for the commission, and according to Bryson Davis, board chair of the Williams & Russell CDC and an attorney with PNW Business, the other proposal was more architecturally flashy. Adre won because of how Hallova? understood the big picture and how she listened. “Instead of asking the broader market, ‘What do you want to buy?’ Adre is asking the local community, ‘What do you think is needed here?’ Anyeley’s able to communicate all of that in a way that puts people at ease,” Davis said. “She brings a really optimistic energy.”

One upcoming Adre project lies far beyond inner-city Portland: The 80-acre Parrot Creek Ranch in rural Clackamas County will see its 30,000-square-foot multi-building campus rebuilt for a nonprofit that provides intensive residential care and treatment for traumatized youth. Designed by El Dorado, an architecture practice with offices in Kansas City and Portland, the project combines indoor and outdoor spaces and uses nature as a tool for healing.

“[Hallova? is] able to balance these social pursuits that she’s so passionate about with the capitalist machine that she’s working within,” said El Dorado partner Josh Shelton. “That’s one of the special things about Anyeley: her decision to tackle the world on her own terms.”

And those terms ultimately are about democratizing and spreading the impact of green design principles—not just to save resources or reduce carbon but to plant deeper seeds of change. “To me it’s not sustainable if it’s just environmentally sustainable [and] different constituencies and parts of the community don’t feel part of it,” Hallova? said. “It’s all about telling stories in the landscape.”

Brian Libby is an architecture and arts journalist based in Portland and has written for The New York Times, Metropolis, and Dwell.

Portland Port has welcomed a record 5,000 passengers in the first cruise call at its newly developed deep-water berth. The MSC Virtuosa has brought the greatest number of guests of any single vessel visiting the port so far.

She is also the first cruise ship to use the port’s new berth, which is part of a £26m redevelopment project to boost capacity and drive growth. Passengers have taken complimentary buses into Weymouth and the local area during the 12-hour stop over by the MSC Virtuosa.

Ian McQuade, Portland Port’s commercial general manager, said: “The arrival of the MSC Virtuosa marks a major milestone for the port. She has brought the greatest number of passengers of any single cruise ship by some margin, considerably more than our previous record of 3,500.

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“Guests from the ship have used our fleet of over 12 complimentary buses to explore the local area and its attractions. They are among a record 130,000 guests who will be visiting Portland on cruise ships this year.

“It is exciting to see our new berth in operation for the first time as part of the largest ever investment in the port and its infrastructure. Increasing our capacity and facilities is key to the development of the port, its continued growth and our ability to build upon our contribution to the local economy, which stands at about £10m from cruise calls alone.”

Redevelopment of deep-water quays at the port will enhance its cruise and cargo handling operations as well as its service provision to vessels including those from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. It will enable the port to meet rising demand and keep ahead of the trend for increasing sizes of cruise ships, including liners of up to 350m in length.

As well as 5,000 passengers, the MSC Virtuosa has 1,500 crew aboard. She calls into the island on a four-day ‘Portland and Cherbourg Getaway’ from Southampton. The MSC Virtuosa measures 331m in length, 43m across her beam and is 65m in height.

She last visited Portland in 2021 when she was the first cruise ship to call after the onset of the Covid pandemic although with fewer passengers. She is due to return later this year. The Weymouth Concert Brass were due to play and Nothe Fort cannons fire at the vessel’s departure today.

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Eight of the 12 largest school districts in the Portland area say they’ve met or surpassed minimum recommendations for ventilation in all classrooms.

Beaverton, Centennial, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Oregon City, Reynolds, Tigard-Tualatin and West Linn-Wilsonville all say they’ve achieved or exceeded bare minimum recommendations from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health of at least three to four air changes per hour.

Meanwhile, four other districts – Portland, David Douglas, Gresham-Barlow and North Clackamas – haven’t reached that threshold or didn’t provide The Oregonian/OregonLive with data or answers stating that they have.

Studies show the risk of transmitting COVID-19 or other airborne diseases grows considerably when a room’s total volume of air isn’t frequently replaced with fresh or filtered air every hour.

A bevy of experts and organizations told The Oregonian/OregonLive that districts should not settle for the minimum – and should instead target at least five or six air changes per hour.

Beaverton says it has reached at least five in every classroom. Hillsboro and Oregon City say they’ve attained at least six.

But while some districts didn’t explain their methodology, others said they calculated their classroom rates by using averages rather than checking each room. That means officials determined the overall air-handling capacity of their ventilation systems each hour, then divided that by the total volume of air in spaces served by those ventilation systems.

Experts say that’s an acceptable practice, if done with care and precision. Like in other districts, Hillsboro’s Operations Officer Casey Waletich said he’s confident his district’s numbers are accurate, with the district even hiring an engineer to double-check its airflow equations.

Only Portland, David Douglas and Oregon City say they hired consultants who went classroom to classroom to measure air changes.

Elliott Gall, an associate professor at Portland State University who specializes in indoor air quality, said he believes calculating air changes by room is most accurate because of complicated ventilation systems that can involve a “rat’s nest” of duct work that distribute air unequally between spaces.

“I think they deserve credit,” Gall said of the districts that measured airflow in each individual room.

Oregon City didn’t post airflow results on its website or keep written records of its numbers, said Director of Operations Michael Sweeten. But Sweeten said the district is confident all classrooms have achieved at least six changes per hour.

Both Portland’s and David Douglas’ websites include school-by-school reports outlining airflow in each classroom, cafeteria and gym.

Fully 25% of elementary and middle school classrooms in Portland Public Schools didn’t meet experts’ bare minimum recommendation of at least three hourly air changes, with portable air purifiers running. In the high schools, it was less than 1%.

In David Douglas, 7% of classrooms in elementary and middle schools and 6% in high schools didn’t meet the minimum of three air changes. But that was before the district placed powerful air purifiers in every classroom -- meaning the results look even better when compared to Portland’s. David Douglas plans to take measurements again at a date that hasn’t yet been set.

Experts say broadly distributing room-by-room numbers can create public-relations headaches – if the results are bad.

“In many places, they don’t want to make this information public,” said Jose-Luis Jimenez, an atmospheric chemistry professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and expert in indoor COVID-19 transmission. “The last thing you want is for people to know the ventilation is not good.”

Forbes released its annual round-up of the “best places to visit in America,” and Portland made the list.

The list spanned the country – including major cities, small towns, ski destinations and natural wonders.

Here’s what the article had to say about why Portland made the list:

“’Like a phoenix from the ashes, Portland, Oregon is reemerging in 2023 with unprecedented growth in the food and beverage scene, both in quality and variety,’ says [travel writer] Kay Kingsman.”

The food scene topped the list of reasons that Portland is one of Forbes’ choices this year, noting that Portland was ranked the country’s best foodie city last year.

Portland’s dining diversity, not just of food options, but of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ chefs and owners, offered another reason Forbes thinks travelers should add Portland to their list.

“One especially exciting trait of Portland’s new trajectory is how many of the new and rising businesses are owned and operated by BIPOC and LGBTQA+ trailblazers, reinforcing that a visit to Portland can suit every traveler,” Kingsman says in the Forbes article.

Kingsman also suggests a number of Portland favorites and up-and-coming dining spots for a foodie’s itinerary, like República, Kann, Nong’s Khao Man Gai and Erica’s Soul Food – among others.

The article recommended a stroll through Portland’s Japanese Garden and a visit to Deadstock Coffee Roasters as well.

The ‘other’ Portland – the one in Maine – also made the list for its dining, lovely hotels and New England charm. Did you know that the ‘other’ Portland “has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the country besides San Francisco?” Well, now you do.

Cheers to Portland travel – on both coasts.