Depave in the News

• Posted by depaveor on October 25th, 2007 filed in Local Breaking News

An article in the Portland Tribune!

The Portland Tribune: Jackhammers Welcome
Web site urges people to see green where it’s gray.

By Nancy Hill

Inspiration struck the moment Arif Khan looked into the concrete backyard of a Northeast Portland house that was for sale.

“I’m attracted to potential and transforming things, and this house offered me both,” he says. He quickly made an offer, bought the property, and immediately began figuring out how to transform the concrete into an organic garden.

He admits he had no idea of the sore muscles it would entail, but he persisted, knowing he’d soon be growing vegetables and herbs, and fruit trees would offer both shade and food.

What he didn’t know at the time was that transforming his concrete jungle into a productive garden also would bear the seeds of a new avocation - acting as an advocate and source of information for others who envision a world with less pavement and more land for food, nature and wildlife.

“The first thing I had to do was to figure out how to demolish all that concrete, so I went onto the Internet for information,” he says. “There was very little about the subject, so I had do a lot of digging. I realized that the information I was uncovering might be useful to other people as well, so I started DePave, a Web site where others could turn for information.”

Concrete ups runoff
Khan started tackling the 2,500 feet of concrete in his yard.

“I did it in stages, so it wasn’t that bad,” he says. “I’d never operated a jackhammer before, and the first time I used one was quite an experience. It was tiring work, but nothing was difficult.”

At the time, Khan was an urban planner and was well aware of storm-water runoff problems associated with concrete. “Water can’t go through concrete, so the storm water carries pollutants to the Willamette and Columbia rivers and all their tributaries,” he says.

Khan points out that Portland has a combined sewage overflow system, which means that all of the city’s pipes carry both storm water and sewage. When there’s too much to handle, it all goes into the rivers.

“This is a serious environmental problem,” he says. “If you ask people what the connection is between concrete and salmon, they’d probably be hard-pressed to answer, but the fact is, that the extra storm-water runoff caused by concrete pollutes our rivers and has a negative effect on everything that lives in them, including, of course, salmon.”

Communication officer Linc Mann from Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services reports that impervious (i.e., water-repellent) surfaces in Portland, including pavement and structures, cover approximately 23,000 acres.

The average annual storm-water runoff totals nearly 17 billion gallons. Public and private storm-water management facilities like cisterns, storm-water ponds, and swales manage about 64 percent of the annual runoff, but that still leaves huge quantities of storm water going directly into our rivers.

“Storm-water runoff is a huge source of pollution in our rivers and tributaries,” Mann says, “and DePave sounds like a good idea.”

Concrete also increases the temperature in cities and requires a good deal of energy to produce, and it can contribute to flooding.

Projects taken on citywide
Not long after Khan began to get rid of the concrete in his yard, people began asking him for information and help removing concrete from other areas.

Word about his knowledge and efforts spread, and soon a core group of about 20 volunteers gathered together and partnered with the City Repair Project, a nonprofit group of citizen activists who help others to transform the places where they live.

Working with City Repair as its fiscal sponsor, DePave has taken on several projects to help organizations turn concrete surfaces into areas with plants and trees. DePave broke up 100 square feet of concrete at the Villa de Clara Vista Apartments, an apartment complex operated by the nonprofit Hacienda CDC, in the Cully neighborhood.

It also broke up 60 square feet of sidewalk at the corner of Southeast Lincoln Street and 47th Avenue and has removed concrete to make way for gardens at private homes.

Efforts were scaled back when Khan went to Africa for several months in his new position as an international relief worker.

“But now I’m back and will be putting more energy into DePave,” Khan says. “I have a few more people who have agreed to be on our board of directors, and we’re taking steps to get nonprofit status rather than working under an umbrella group. We’ll continue to act as an information clearinghouse as well as an advocacy organization, and we’ll help businesses and homeowners alike turn some of their concrete spaces into green area and gardens.”

When Khan was ridding his own yard of concrete, he was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to dispose of it.

“That turned out to be a nonproblem,” he reports. “I put a free ad in the newspaper, and people took every bit of concrete I had. People use it for building retaining walls, making steppingstones, raised beds, fire pits, and all sorts of other things. Some artists use it in sculptures, too.”

Khan admits he is not a purist about concrete and asphalt. “I am a bicyclist and appreciate riding on good roads. I also drive to some extent, but I don’t like the aesthetic of concrete and think we have an over-reliance on cars and should be using our urban land more productively.”

Paving options are available
Developers and homeowners increasingly conscious of environmental impacts can consider alternative materials for patios and driveways. Khan suggests bricks, stones or cement paving blocks that allow water to seep through cracks and into the ground.

Pervious pavement is another option. Khan acknowledges it’s more expensive than concrete and asphalt but says the extra cost is worth the savings to the environment.

“The removal of cement is a great metaphor of restoration,” Khan says. “I don’t think many people really think concrete is beautiful, and personally, I would rather eat tomatoes than a bowl of cement.”

For information, go to www.depave.org.