Carbon Ahoy!

We calculated the environmental “boatprint” of Fleet Week.

and the Landscape, charted the building’s history in a 2017 book he edited, John Yeon Architecture: Building in the Pacific Northwest.

In its day, Gragg notes, the building won national acclaim, its Northwest style combining glass and local wood products to capitalize on its riverside location. But the accolades faded. The building leaked. The Men’s Garden Club ripped out native plantings and replaced them with “exotic roses.”

“The later history of the Visitors Center is an unfortunate chapter in the region’s stewardship of architecture,” Gragg wrote.

The city of Portland took it over from the chamber of commerce and, in the 1970s, leased it to a restaurant named McCall’s. Yeon himself argued that it should instead be torn down because the space wouldn’t work as a restaurant (it didn’t, despite offering $4 appletinis) and he feared the intrusion of commerce into a city park.

The building limped along until 2010, when two city commissioners, Nick Fish, who ran Portland Parks & Recreation, and Randy Leonard, who ran the Water Bureau, worked out a swap: Parks turned the moribund structure over to the Water Bureau, which used ratepayer money to refurbish it and turn it over to the Rose Festival on a 25-year lease—$1 a month for rent and $667 for improvements. (A recent audit values the lease at about $2.6 million.)

The rehab coincided with a successful petition to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places.

The sweetheart lease later became a focal point of a ratepayer lawsuit that argued the Portland Water Bureau had misspent public funds. The city paid back some of the money (read an interview with Leonard on page 20). But the Rose Festival staff remains ensconced in the building, planning and organizing for the following year’s festival, while keeping watch on the one at hand.

Longtime Rose Festival spokesman Rich Jarvis says being located right where the organization hosts the city’s annual shindig is better than previous locations on Southwest Macadam Avenue and under a parking garage on Southwest Market Street.

It’s also never dull. “We’ve had some break-ins and we’ve made some friends with people who live along the river,” Jarvis says. “The view is wonderful, though. You can’t beat that.”

BY LEE VANKIPURAM and JAKE MOORE

On June 7, sailors will return to Portland. So will the gases they belch.

Yes, we’re talking about carbon emissions—the dirty little secret of Fleet Week. This year, Portland is set to welcome the largest fleet of military ships since 2015. That’s 10 ships from the U.S Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy, arriving in the Portland Harbor from ports in Oregon, Alaska, Vancouver, B.C., and likely San Diego.

Altogether, the 10 vessels will release 3,923 tons of carbon into the atmosphere on their two-week voyages to Portland. (That includes trips from home ports and back, as well as their moorage in the Willamette River.) That’s the same amount released by 773 cars in a year.

Emissions for active vessels are not easy to calculate given that the Navy and other authorities are not eager to give away many details surrounding them—including the names of the destroyers arriving in Portland this weekend. But we calculated the figure by piecing together information about each ship’s fuel type, fuel capacity, and emissions per gallon of military fuel.

We also estimated the social cost of the sailors’ holiday. The “social cost of carbon,” originally proposed by climate researchers in 2007, estimates the damage caused by emitting one additional ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (Each ton does $185 damage to the planet, according to a recently updated estimate published in Nature.)

This year’s Fleet Week in Portland alone is set to cost the humans living on this planet approximately $726,000 That is just taking into consideration Portland Fleet Week. Seven other similar events are scheduled for 2023 in cities likely to attract as many ships as the Rose City.

USCGC Elm

Coast Guard

Type: Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender

Arriving from: Astoria

CO2 emissions estimate: 21.44 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 4 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $3,966.77

USCGC Orcas

Coast Guard

Type: Island-class cutter

Arriving from: Coos Bay

CO2 emissions estimate: 62.48 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 12 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $11,557.97

USCGC BaileyT.Barco

Coast Guard

Type: Sentinel-class cutter

Arriving from: Ketchikan, Alaska

CO2 emissions estimate: 128.52 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 25 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $23,775.88

USCGC Bluebell

Coast Guard

Type: Inland buoy tender

Home port: Portland

CO2 emissions estimate: N/A

Equivalent CO2 emissions: N/A

Social cost of carbon: $0

HMCS Nanaimo

Royal Canadian Navy

Type: Kingston-class defence vessel

Arriving from: Vancouver, B.C.

CO2 emissions estimate: 317.71 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 63 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $58,776.17

HMCS Yellowknife

Royal Canadian Navy

Type: Kingston-class defence vessel

Arriving from: Vancouver, B.C.

CO2 emissions estimate: 317.71 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 63 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $58,776.17

HMCS Edmonton

Type: Kingston-class defence vessel

Arriving from: Vancouver, B.C.

CO2 emissions estimate: 317.71 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 63 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $58,776.17

U.S. Navy ships and home port, based on previous attendees:

U.S. Navy Vessel #1 likely similar to USS

Pinckney

Type: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

Arriving from: San Diego

CO2 emissions estimate: 839 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 165 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $155,215.77

U.S. Navy Vessel #2 likely similar to USS

Pinckney

Type: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

Arriving from: San Diego

CO2 emissions estimate: 839 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 165 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $155,215.77

U.S. Navy Vessel #3 likely similar to USS

Coronado

Type: Littoral combat ship

Arriving from: San Diego

CO2 emissions estimate: 1,079.35 tons

Equivalent CO2 emissions: 213 cars in a year

Social cost of carbon: $199,680.33