Vestas lights too bright for Pearlies
Portland is a funny place. Now that the taxpayers have handed Mark Edlen another bundle to renovate the Meier & Frank warehouse for the moribund European windmill manufacturer Vestas, its neighbors in the toney Pearl District say the lights on the company's logo on the walls of the place are too bright. The story is covered in a mere photo in the current Northwest Examiner, here. The caption:
Ten new signs at Vestas, three of them lighted, have drawn the ire of the Homeowners Association at The Avenue Lofts, located two blocks north. The signs were approved by city staff last fall after notification was sent only to those property owners within 100 feet of the Vestas building. Neighbors object to the number, size and brightness of the signs and question their compatibility with a national historic landmark building.
Another smash success for "urban renewal," Portland-style. Don't worry, Pearlies! The Chinese will probably turn the lights off.
| Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink |
|
Comments (12)
I wonder if they are bright enough for us to see the irony.
Posted by Allan L. | May 29, 2012 11:46 AM
Vestas is just doing their bit to keep usage up. After all, BPA is requiring wind generators to stop supplying power when hydro generation is above a certain point because distribution system can't use it all and there's no storage for the excess electricity. Win-win-win!
Posted by Andrew | May 29, 2012 12:36 PM
The Pearlies are always moaning about something; the train horns are too loud, the garbage trucks make too much noise, (now less of a problem?) the traffic needs "calming"...
If you want to love in the country, don't complain about the pig farm that has been next door before you were born!
Posted by portland native | May 29, 2012 12:55 PM
It's a very stark, cold, white facade. I saw it during daylight and it appeared to be lit so I can't judge how objectionable it would be after dark. I noticed the original brass plaques with "Meier & Frank" remain on the building.
Posted by NW Portlander | May 29, 2012 1:15 PM
. . . notification was sent only to those property owners within 100 feet of the Vestas building.
This is de rigeur for hearings in Portland and it never fails to irritate me because it relegates anybody who doesn't own property (but who may well live/rent/lease within 100 feet of the proposed building) to non-entity status. In fact, if you don't own property, you can actually be *living* on the property in question and the city is not obligated to inform you of any hearings relating to the fate of the building in which you live or the property on which that building stands.
It's even worse than the internalized and legalized idea that a new or refurbished building need have little to no parking spaces for cars if it's located within a certain distance of public transit.
Agghhh.
Posted by NW Portlander | May 29, 2012 1:22 PM
Brass plaques? You mean the tweakers havn't found them yet?
Posted by ConcordBridge | May 29, 2012 1:27 PM
"The signs were approved by city staff last fall after notification was sent only to those property owners within 100 feet of the Vestas building."
In other words: property owners within one-half of a block from the Vestas building.
Posted by TR | May 29, 2012 1:52 PM
According to their latest financials (1Q 2012), Vestas burned through 295 MN euros and had only 20 MN left in working capital. At the current free cash flow burn rate, they will have no equity left in 8 quarters.
Posted by Robert | May 29, 2012 2:32 PM
Hey, those may be the only lights on after Vestas gets bought out and they move everything to China.
That neighborhood is weird, though, the apt bunker (as Mr Bog so endearingly calls it) is only like a 6-7 story building and they were griping it wasn't higher.
Posted by Steve | May 29, 2012 3:58 PM
NW Portlander -
The lovely Powerpoint that Edlin's office put out boasts that the entire second floor is a parking garage.
Several years ago the SWNI land use committee tried to get some traction for a code change to require all city bureaus doing notices for any purpose mail to both property owners and to account holders (clumsy term, but best I can do) for water / sewer bills for all properties within 1,000 feet of a site for which an application requiring notice was made.
That would have picked up a lot of renters / lessees, but not all.
The usual gang of developer suspects, with the active connivance of Bonny McKnight, the chair of the citizen citywide land use interest group (that's not the Planning Commission)and the staff at the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability killed any consideration of the proposal.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | May 29, 2012 5:08 PM
Nonny Mouse,
What was Bonny McKnight's reason why she would be against requiring notices to be extended further as you stated 1000ft. to surrounding areas? It is bad enough to have staff killing beneficial policies, seems the city can always find some citizens to go along.
I would think that SWNI would have found another person to take over that Chair position. Who appoints these people?
Posted by clinamen | May 29, 2012 6:30 PM
Ironic how they are supposed to preach responsible use of electricity and then they use totally unnecessary lighted signs.
Maybe a neighbor should put up another sign that says "Thanks to the wind not blowing, those Vestas signs required XXX amount of coal fired electricity courtesy of a power plant timed to open prior to new environmental regulations going into effect - which is now the #1 source of air pollution in the Columbia Gorge. Thanks!"
Posted by Erik H. | May 29, 2012 7:59 PM