City Portland Public Buildings Are Also Unsafe

PORTLAND, Ore— Since 1993 the city of Portland has known it has some highly used buildings that are not earthquake proof and could be considered risky.  They include Union Station. The Pittock Mansion, Keller Auditorium . Multnomah Arts Center, The Children’s Museum and Mt. Scott Community Center.  This comes up as property owners of brick and masonry buildings filed a Federal lawsuit against the city over a new ordinance  forcing them to label their buildings as unsafe and having them sign off on an encumbrance   attached to their ownership  contracts.  The owners says this is an offense to their first amendment  rights.   Some of the possible fines would be cost prohibitive if owners don’t comply.  For example a 20 unit apartment building could face a $12,000 a month fine for not complying with the sign and contract encumbrance.   The Bureau of Developmental Services  says it has not finalized all the code enforcement rules yet or the fees.  It hopes to have something firm in place by the end of the month.  As to whether the city is able to  bring the buildings visitors and Portlanders love up to earthquake safety standards that would require a big wallet too.  Property owners seem to be asking for some level of equality in the city’s thinking .