I've followed with some interest the efforts of the City of Portland and Portland State University to create an urban renewal district that would encompass, among other not very blighted areas, the buildings and grounds of Lincoln High School. (Professor Bogdanski has commented in some detail on the City's efforts, here and here.)
I don't begrudge Portland State trying to get something for itself, not just because state support of higher education has dwindled so dramatically in the last twenty years. I am, however, mystified by the participation of the Portland School Board in a process that would move Lincoln High School somewhere else, at great expense, for the Lincoln High School building is, I think, the second-newest Portland public high school, having been built in 1952. Only Wilson is newer.
It's true that the Lincoln building is 60 years old, but it's still modern by Portland standards: a little Googling shows that the new portion of Cleveland opened in 1948, Roosevelt opened in 1921, and Franklin opened in 1917. Rich as the Lincoln parents may be, the school district has facilities needs far more pressing than rebuilding LIncoln. Metaphorically speaking, it would be gratifying to see the school board insist that no matter how much it may desire a facelift, Lincoln must defer to its elders.