Art Beats Housing

Quimby will not have to pay for the housing units she is eliminating.

"The Portland City Council early this morning voted 6-3 to allow Roxanne Quimby to renovate a run-down apartment building on Congress Street into studios for an artist-in-residence program without having to pay more than $400,000 in city fees earmarked for affordable housing.

The vote at approximately 12:30 a.m. followed the “heart-wrenching” testimony of roughly 50 people divided equally between housing advocates who opposed the exemption and supporters of the arts who favored it, according to City Councilor David Marshall, chair of the council’s Housing Committee.

Councilors John Anton, Kevin Donoghue and Nicholas Mavodones Jr. voted against allowing the exemption."

- Portland Press Herald