A rundown complex in Portland’s Hazelwood neighborhood fueled an intense dispute between Multnomah County commissioners Thursday.
County officials came to the board seeking $550,000 to fund plans for the demolition of the Hansen Building, the asbestos-laden former Sheriff’s Office headquarters located at the corner of Northeast Glisan Street and 122nd Avenue. Those dollars, paired with a $1 million request to fund the project in the 2026 fiscal year, are resources Commissioner Meghan Moyer would rather see spent on a memorial for Chinese Americans and immigrants once buried in Lone Fir Cemetery.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for this when we are not funding the Chinese (Block) 14 memorial, which is necessary for the harm that we have done to the Chinese community,” Moyer said.
Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards said she respected Moyer’s position, but defended the use of county funds to tear down the abandoned complex. She said the building is a blight to a neighborhood that has already suffered from crime and gun violence and that the commission already agreed to fund the demolition last year.
The county doesn’t currently have a plan for what it will do with the land the building sits on, officials said.
“I feel like I need to speak up for the neighborhood of Hazelwood,” Brim-Edwards said. “I’ve mentioned in public meetings that I support the funds for Lone Fir, but I don’t see this as being at the expense of Lone Fir because frankly there’s lots of other one-time money as well and this is part of a larger project.”
In February, the board signaled support for an apology to Portland’s Chinese community for the county’s historical mishandling of a section of Lone Fir Cemetery reserved for people of Chinese descent, known as Block 14. Under Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s proposed budget, the county would spend $1 million to fund a memorial for the grounds where at least 2,800 people of Chinese ancestry were once buried. That’s still over $1.3 million short of providing the full funding that the Metro regional government has said is needed for the project.
The dispute comes as the board is contemplating tough financial decisions for the 2026 fiscal year. Vega Pederson’s $4 billion proposed budget would eliminate staff positions, deeply reduce health and homeless services, cut the District Attorney’s Office budget and end three county programs in an effort to close a significant budget gap.
Officials said the Hansen property would be worth between $5.3 million and $6.4 million if they demolished the building. Moyer asked if the county could sell the property as is to save money on the project, but Director of Facilities and Property Management Dan Zalkow said it would be risky to sell it without bulldozing the building first because of the hazardous materials inside.
Agreeing with Brim-Edwards, Vega Pederson, who previously served as the commissioner for east Portland, said the county needs to fund the Hansen building’s demolition. She told Moyer that she would be unveiling an official apology to the Chinese community in June and that there will be more opportunities to discuss the memorial moving forward.
“It doesn’t make sense to pit things against each other because there are multiple needs and responsibilities that the county has,” Vega Pederson said.
In April 1928, Multnomah County purchased Lone Fir Cemetery and promptly closed the section of the burial ground reserved for people of Chinese descent. Officials spent the decades that followed disturbing and paving over the block of the cemetery where early Chinese Americans and immigrant workers were buried, according to research compiled by the Chinese American Citizens Alliance and shared with county commissioners.
The story of the site has come to public attention as its history has been unraveled piecemeal by research and reports from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Lone Fir Cemetery Foundation, The Oregonian, Metro and others.
The Chinese American Citizens Alliance wrote in a press release last week that they appreciated the $1 million in proposed funding in Vega Pederson’s budget, but also pointed out that those dollars wouldn’t cover the project in full.
“Let’s stand together to ensure that Multnomah County acknowledges the past and takes meaningful steps toward healing,” the organization wrote.
Moyer, who took office in January, argued that the tight budget would require trade offs like this moving forward.
“I’m just going to say, I think unless you’re saying that you’re in a month going to propose an additional $1.5 million — which would be amazing — you have allocated all the funds that we believe are available,” Moyer said. “I think it is absolutely a conversation about trade offs.”
Brim-Edwards was quick to shoot back in one of the most public disagreements between commissioners since the revamped board took over in January.
“I’m sorry, but it’s not,” she said. “This was money appropriated last year by the commission and it’s moving the money to a different account. This is not a budget trade off vote. And to imply that we’re voting against Lone Fir by approving this is just a misrepresentation of what it is.”
The board ultimately approved the funding for the demolition 3-1, with Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon absent from the meeting. The Lone Fir project continues to remain underfunded in the proposed budget.
Officials will continue to hash out potential changes to the chair’s budget over the next four weeks, with a final vote to adopt the fiscal plan taking place June 12.
— Austin De Dios covers Multnomah County politics, programs and more. Reach him at 503-319-9744, adedios@oregonian.com or @AustinDeDios.
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