Photos clockwise from top left: 1) Nicole Possert, Executive Director of Restore Oregon and Sue Densmore, Executive Director of the Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau spent an entire day at the Capitol to talk with our Oregon Congressional delegation members about historic preservation. (Pictured with Representative Cliff Bentz). 2) Nicole and Sue posing in front of Capitol building. 3) Restore Oregon staff, Nicole and Katelyn Van Genderen, went to this awesome legacy business, Ben’s Chili Bowl, to enjoy D.C.’s food culture, and we were lucky enough to catch up and connect with our friend and ex Restore Oregon coworker Dan Everhart. Dan is now the Outreach Historian for Idaho’s State Historic Preservation Office. 4) Nicole in front of the famous Mountain and Clouds sculpture in the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building where Senator Jeff Merkley’s office is located. 5) Katelyn congratulating fellow Oregonian Chelsea Rose for the national award she received on behalf of the Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project at the national preservation conference in 2023. 6) Restore Oregon was also able to get in a little bit of Washington, D.C. sightseeing and got to experience the inside view from the top of the Washington Monument and explored the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Learning, Connecting, and Advocating in Washington D.C.
Update on Restore Oregon’s Work at the National Level
Last month, Restore Oregon sent two staff to PastForward, the national preservation conference in Washington D.C. It was the first in-person conference post pandemic. And it was an important time and place to connect with people doing the good work of historic preservation from all over our nation. Learning and connecting with others helps us bring innovation and new ideas to Oregon as well as share what we are doing. This collaboration and cross pollination for three intensive days of the conference was immensely helpful to our work.
And, we were delighted to be there when an Oregon project, The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, received a coveted national award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
For our Executive Director, there were two additional days in D.C. doing advocacy and meeting with Oregon Congressional delegation members or key staff. We advocated for our two most important federal policy issues – the improvement of the federal historic tax credit program and funding for the Historic Preservation Fund. We asked for support of these federal bills that are so important to the work of historic preservation. Restore Oregon also supported and helped advocate for federal funding for one of Oregon’s National Historic Landmarks with Sue Densmore, the Executive Director of the Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau. The rehabilitation of the Chateau has been a goal our Most Endangered Places program since 2012.
Restore Oregon is a member of the national lobbying organization, Preservation Action, and a statewide partner with the National Trust. We have been working closely with their policy teams to help amplify key national messages to improve the tax credit program. Our role was to “bring it home” for our Oregon representatives. We met with Congressman Cliff Bentz and staff members from Representatives Suzanne Bonamici and Val Hoyle in addition to staff for Senators Wyden and Merkley. We thank each of them for making time to meet, learn and connect. YOU can still help this advocacy effort by reaching out to your representatives, as we mentioned in our recent advocacy alert.
Last but certainly not least, we spent an entire day with our fellow statewide and local preservation organizations as members of the National Preservation Partners Network (NPPN). Restore Oregon was asked to present a “three-minute success story” about our efforts to save the Jantzen Beach Carousel. But the biggest focuses of this convening day of learning were housing and historic preservation! We heard from Sara Bronin, the chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, about the new Draft Policy Statement on Housing, the new White House initiative on climate, and the policy supporting the conversion of commercial office buildings to housing. Here’s a great quote from a recent news story:
“...historic preservation and affordable housing can go hand in hand. So, we think that through federal government incentives, like the historic tax credit, property owners can continue to create housing units in older buildings and also to rehabilitate existing housing units-where there already is housing… We also think states and local governments need to have partner incentives. Whether that’s tax credits, like the federal government uses, or perhaps tax deductions or even grant programs—for historic housing.”
Restore Oregon couldn’t agree more! We will continue to advocate at both the federal and state levels for any tools, incentives or technical support to keep and add housing to all communities across our state while simultaneously doing the right thing for our planet and reusing our older buildings.