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The Gateway and Hazelwood communities lost two good leaders last month.
Sara King, the Portland Development Commission’s team leader for the Gateway Urban Renewal Area announced last month that she was leaving her post as PDC team leader to the Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee urban renewal committee to take a similar position with the advisory committee for the Oregon Convention Center district. “It was not an easy decision, largely because of you guys,” King told the Gateway PAC last month. “I’m really going to miss you. You are the most constructive, pro-active CAC that PDC has. You guys really set the bar high. Thank you for trusting me, and helping put this vision of Gateway together. Thank you for making me and the PDC staff look good.”
Barbara Harrison, a member of the original Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee and the 122nd Avenue Project Advisory Committee, among others, announced her resignation from the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association board last month.
Planning Commission plans east Portland tour
Earlier this year the Portland Planning Commission had a long discussion with neighborhood representatives from throughout the city, who gave an earful. Now commission members are going out to see for themselves what the folks are talking about. Their first stop will be in east Portland.
On Sept. 26 the commission was scheduled to take a two-hour bus tour of the area. The tour, like the earlier discussion, will concentrate on three topics: Issues related to infill housing development, parks and city actions relating to tree preservation — or the lack thereof — and issues related to streets, sidewalks and parking.
Planner Barry Manning said the tour would skip the Gateway Regional Center and Lents Town Center because this is the area the commission is most familiar with. It would instead concentrate on “the unfunded part” of the area, outside urban renewal districts. “There are places that will be undergoing some massive changes,” Manning said. “We’ve already seen a lot of development here — some good, some not so good. When the city’s Comprehensive Plan was done, east Portland wasn’t even part of the city. (The Outer Southeast) Community Plan was done here, but it may need updating.”
Regarding tree loss, and city policy relating to it, he said, “The loss of a two-foot thick Douglas fir is not compensated by planting 20 saplings.”
102nd project begins in spring
Project Manager Dan Layden told the Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee last month that Phase One of his 102nd Avenue Project, a makeover of the street between Northeast Halsey and Southeast Washington streets, should begin construction “as soon as we get good weather” next spring. Phase One will go from Northeast Halsey to Glisan streets. Layden said the city has submitted a request for $1.9 million, which would provide enough funding to complete the entire project, from Metro’s Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Projects (MTIP) fund. Layden said his request is ranked fourth overall, and second among city of Portland requests, behind the proposed inner east side Burnside-Couch Couplet. This means there is a chance, though not a certainty, that the funds will be approved, he said.
The completed street will have four traffic lanes, two bicycle lanes and a left turn refuge interrupted by pedestrian islands at strategic locations, but little on-street parking. There will be extensive street tree plantings, street furniture and other amenities.
Outreach grants available
The city, through the Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement, has made $200,000 available for grants to neighborhood associations for special projects. The grants, for both neighborhood associations and other non-profits, are for projects that “build their organizational capacity, attract new and diverse membership, and sustain those already involved in their organizations.” Applicants are also encouraged to “establish partnerships among neighborhood associations and other community groups,” and to “provide opportunities for under-represented communities to become engaged in the neighborhood system.” The grants will be distributed through the city’s seven district offices, and the East Portland Neighborhood Office’s share of the pot will be $37,724, the second highest appropriation behind the Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Program’s $49,000. The deadline for applications is Nov. 1. For information on this program, call Brian Hoop at 503-823-4519 or e-mail bhoop@ci.portland.or.us.
TriMet hearing continued
In a very rare action, city Hearings Officer Gregory Frank set over a hearing on TriMet’s plans for the design of the Main Street Station of its Clackamas Town Center light rail line. Frank sided with community volunteers in deciding that there had not been adequate public notice of the date or subject matter of the hearing. At issue is whether a new traffic signal should be installed at Main in concert with the station.
Words don’t match actions at nuisance property
Last Spring Alan Sanchez told the Eliot Neighborhood Association in inner northeast Portland that he had purchased the Coliseum Budget Inn, 109 N.E. San Rafael St. Formerly the San Rafael Motel; it had been a scene of drug dealing and prostitution for decades under a series of owners. Sanchez said he would change all that. He would make it a pensioner — a European lodging offering cheap and basic, but clean, lodging. Sanchez made certain everyone knew that he was vice chair of the Gateway Area Business Association and a member of the mayor’s Community Connect and visionPDX project that is examining citizen involvement in Portland.
Some of those present were encouraged. Some were skeptical. Some were critical of Sanchez’s decision to hire a former employee of the motel as his on-site manager without first conducting a background check. One of those who spoke up for Sanchez was Officer Pete Helzer of the Portland Police Bureau. He said that the new owner had signed a “trespass agreement,” allowing the police to come on the property to investigate suspicious activity without first obtaining permission, something the police had sought for years.
About a month later, however, Sanchez abruptly cancelled the agreement following Helzer’s arrest of a man at the motel. Nearby residents say that conditions have deteriorated badly since then.
In a response to e-mail from one neighbor, Ashley Wilson, Sanchez said he had evicted one problem tenant, and noted illegal activity he had witnessed at neighboring properties. “Bad people are everywhere,” he wrote, “I believe some live in my neighborhood, but just because they have visitors at all hours and make a lot of noise does not give me the right to evict them.”
In fact, from a legal point of view, tenants in Oregon may be evicted upon 30 days notice for any reason except retaliation for defending their legal rights. Even in states with stronger tenant protection, the activity Sanchez alluded to would be grounds for eviction.
At a recent Eliot Neighborhood Association meeting, Helzer said that the Police Bureau might take steps to have the motel declared a “chronic nuisance” as the source of repeated complaints. In extreme cases the city can order a chronic nuisance to be vacated for a year.
When reached by the Memo, Sanchez said he was “thinking about reinstituting the trespass agreement with the police.” As of press time, he had not.
Harvest Festival features flying pumpkins
On Saturday, Oct. 7 the Rossi Farms Pumpkin Patch will feature free hayrides, a hay pyramid, and pumpkin tossing by a trebuchet (a catapult-like medieval weapon). Donations for tossing will go to a worthy cause — all at Rossi Farms, 3839 N.E. 122nd Ave.
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