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Publisher’s note: Welcome to Perlman’s Potpourri for September — a roundup of news items from the Gateway and Parkrose neighborhoods of mid-Multnomah County from veteran Beat Reporter Lee Perlman.
Coming up, the same group that successfully fought off a new Wal-Mart on Northeast 82nd Avenue near Madison High School now tackles the world’s oldest profession. Good timing, as a woman was recently arrested on 82nd Avenue for knifing a man to death, allegedly a pimp who had previously assaulted her. Welcome to 82nd, our Avenue of Roses.
An overdue report of traffic solutions related to pedestrian safety around Russell Academy — including hefty homeowner costs for speed bumps — was completed last month.
Remember the Memo Pad report from the June issue about the information kiosk recently installed in Knott Park? Well, it seems park vandals have sent their own message to neighborhood grant-getters: Destroy it.
And, in a related story, neighborhood leaders gear up to give away more city general fund money for neighborhood grants for projects that increase the capacity of community groups and assist in outreach to under-represented communities, such as immigrant groups.
On schedule is the word for the ongoing construction at Adventist Medical Center, likewise for the 102nd Avenue Improvement Program.
The Portland Airport planning group takes a stab at helping the Port and city easier regulate expansion at Portland International Airport.
And finally, Perlman reports on some of Mid-county’s National Night Out parties held Tuesday, Aug. 5.
But first, to 82nd Avenue we go...
LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
82nd neighbors seek new prostitution-deterring strategies
The Save 82nd Avenue Coalition (formerly Save Madison South, an offshoot of the Madison South Neighborhood Association) will have a prostitution summit beginning at 6 p.m. Sept. 15 at Vestal School, 161 N.E. 82nd Ave. Confirmed speakers include Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer, East Precinct Commander Mike Crebs, Commissioner Randy Leonard and Lila Lee of the Council for Prostitution Alternatives. Organizer Dawn Rasmussen says the focus will be on positive solutions to the problems rather than war stories. Although the emphasis will be on Northeast 82nd Avenue, much of the conversation should be relevant to areas to the east suffering from similar problems.
Crebs gave one hint of a possible strategy under consideration last month at a Madison South meeting. The city and county are working to provide some jail beds to incarcerate people arrested for soliciting or drug dealing, he said. When brought to trial, they would probably be released on probation. However, this status would make them subject to re-arrest for any violation of the law, from littering on up.
The strategy has some elements in common with the discarded drug- and prostitution-free zones, whereby people cited for these crimes were forbidden to return to designated geographic areas — except for legitimate reasons — for 90 days or until they went to trial. The subject of considerable controversy, the zones were abolished last year by Mayor Tom Potter. Asked if there would be an effort to reinstate the zones under Mayor-elect Sam Adams, Crebs said that as far as the police bureau was concerned, the controversy surrounding the zones made them more trouble than they were worth as a law-enforcement tool. One of the key criticisms — that they imposed penalties and restrictions on people without benefit of a judicial hearing — would not apply to the new strategy, he said.
Menu proposed for Russell Academy pedestrian safety
Last month — five months late — Portland traffic engineer Scott Batson completed a report analyzing pedestrian safety around Russell Academy and offered a menu of possible solutions.
The report is part of a Safe Routes to School program initiated last year for Russell and was largely a response to a walkabout, or walking tour, of the school grounds and the streets around it. This walkabout was undertaken last winter by Batson and accompanied by school staff, parent volunteers and LeeAnne Fergason of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. As the Memo went to press, Batson was scheduled to present and discuss his report at a public meeting at the school on Aug. 27. The staff and parents will then pick their priorities from among the proposals, which is necessary since the Safe Routes program allocates $20,000 for improvements, whereas the total cost for all of Batson’s recommendations is just under $1 million.
Much of the problem, Batson found, is either in the school parking lot or on Northeast 127th Avenue in front of the school’s front entrance. There he discovered congestion, unsafe practices and violations of traffic and parking regulations — largely by school parents — during child drop-off and pick-up times. His recommendations included installing visible pedestrian paths in the parking lot, removing “five minutes: driver to remain at wheel” parking restrictions, making 127th one-way and dividing parents between two access points.
Elsewhere, he found speeding and unsafe pedestrian crossing points. Addressing the former, he recommended installation of a system of speed bumps. In the case of five of these streets — Northeast Russell, Siskiyou and Stanton between 122nd and 127th avenues, Brazee between 127th and 132nd, and 140th Avenue between Halsey and San Rafael streets — the city could pay the majority of the costs. Even here, however, property owners would have to pony up $3,520 for four bumps on Siskiyou and $2,640 for three on each of the other streets. On seven other identified high-speed streets, the owners would be on their own, and the cost to them would be as high as $15,400 for seven speed bumps on Northeast 131st Place between Glisan and Halsey streets, or 132nd Avenue between San Rafael Street and Morris Court.
For seven identified intersections, Batson recommended a combination of curb extensions, pedestrian islands and sidewalks where they do not currently exist. At two of these — Northeast 122nd Avenue and San Rafael Street and 132nd Avenue and Halsey Street — he also proposed installing pedestrian signals that count off the seconds to the light change and a “leading pedestrian interval,” with which all traffic is halted to give pedestrians a head start in crossing the street. These would be similar to the signals recently installed at the intersection of 122nd Avenue and Halsey Street.
Batson’s cost estimates assume improvements built to city standards and paid for at going commercial rates, neither of which are necessarily a given. At other Safe Routes projects, the schools created pedestrian paths made from crushed gravel in place of conventional paved sidewalks, or secured free or reduced price material and/or labor from sympathetic members of the community.
Information kiosk under siege
Last year the Parkrose Heights Neighborhood Association used a $2,500 neighborhood grant to install an information kiosk in Knott Park. The kiosk would allow individuals and groups in the community to publicize events and exchange information, an exercise in community building. It was also seen as a way to symbolically reclaim the park for the community, where there has been extensive gang activity and many people fear to come alone.
It would appear that gang members got the intent of the installation or saw it as an invasion of their turf and decided to do some proactive activity of their own.
Within days of being installed, the plexiglass cover on one side of the kiosk was cracked and the installation was covered with graffiti. The damage was repaired, but more followed of a magnitude that suggested a motive of deliberate destruction rather than mischief or personal expression. By August all the plexiglass on both sides of the installation was broken out. The legs of the device had been imbedded in concrete three feet deep, but someone had somehow uprooted the entire base, concrete and all.
Options to protect the kiosk seem limited. Parkrose Heights tried to start a citizen safety patrol a few years ago, according to neighborhood association Chair Carol Williams, but were unable to maintain it. Their resources stretched thin by public safety issues and property crimes, the police give low priority to vandalism practiced against public property. When the kiosk was installed, the Portland Bureau of Parks and Recreation disclaimed any responsibility for its maintenance. The bureau’s local supervisor does care, Williams says, but a lack of resources to deal with the problem has her pulling her hair out.
Neighborhood leaders have considered either moving the kiosk from its current location near the playground, in the park’s interior, to a more visible location near the entrance or else abandoning it altogether. However, either tactic would send a message to the vandals that their destruction is being rewarded, and that the park really does belong to them.
Thus, at last month’s Parkrose Heights meeting, the group eventually decided to use the $500 remaining in the grant to repair the kiosk and “see what happens,” Williams said. One hope, she said, is that a return of wet weather will discourage outdoor activity, including the illegal kind.
Neighbors gear up for new grant cycle
Meanwhile, east Portland neighborhood leaders have been reviewing their rules for distributing another $34,000 in neighborhood grants. The money from the City General Fund is distributed to each of the city’s seven neighborhood offices through the Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement. Individual grants are intended to pay for special projects that strengthen, or increase the capacity, of community groups and assist in outreach to under-represented communities, such as immigrant groups.
According to Woodland Park Neighborhood Association Chair Alesia Reese, at a recent planning session, she and other east Portland neighborhood leaders decided to clarify the criteria by which grant applications will be judged. They agreed that under some conditions it is appropriate to grant less than the full amount an applicant asked for.
When the applicant is one of the neighborhood groups the office serves, they decided it is not appropriate for that group to advocate for funding of the project.
Projects on time, schedule
Work is progressing on new additions to Portland Adventist Medical Center. A new parking garage on its north side was completed in July. Also, an adjacent new medical pavilion is on time and on schedule for opening next spring, said Adventist spokesperson Judy Leach. The new structures will “double our emergency room capacity,” she said, as well as provide cardiology and surgical facilities in addition to physician offices.
Work on the 102nd Avenue Improvement Program is also on time and on budget for completion in November, said project manager Dan Layden. It’s worth remembering as work continues this month on the Northeast Halsey Street jug handle, requiring some detours for northbound traffic seeking to turn west at this point. Work should also be underway this month on new sidewalks and street furniture along 102nd Avenue, Layden said.
Panel suggests new airport review process
A subcommittee of the Public Advisory Group, a citizen panel charged by the city and Port of Portland with providing public input on a new Airport Master Plan, has proposed a new set of regulations for the facility.
The PAG’s Land Use Subcommittee, chaired by Rose City Park neighborhood activist Fred Stovel, has proposed that the city create a new plan district to govern new development at PDX. It chose this course over creating a special zone for the airport or continuing the airport’s existing status as conditional use.
This last course, city planner Jay Sugnett told the Portland Planning Commission last month, has proved frustrating for both the Port and concerned neighbors. “In the past, to change the location of a parking facility required a Type III Review,” he said, the most extensive and expensive the city has. “For the Port, it meant a lot of time spent on process and a lack of certainty. At the same time, the city was unable to weigh in on the most important issues. An issue is what authority does the city have here, and there’s a lot of gray area. We can’t say the airport can no longer operate, but we can say that to expand physically, they must come to the city for a permit.” The Port needs more flexibility to act than it currently has, he said, but really big decisions should be in the hands of an elected body, and not an administrative officer.
The city already has 27 plan districts, each with its own special regulations. “We can tailor them to whatever the needs are,” Sugnett said. “It became clear that this would serve us best. The PAG became convinced that this was the best tool for public input.” For instance, he said, “We know there will be wetlands lost with airport expansion,” but within this reality, “we can decide what is the best way to preserve and enhance the Columbia Slough watershed.”
During commission discussion, member Andre Baugh questioned the amount of parking at the airport, suggesting that it encouraged people to drive there and thereby increase its impact on neighborhoods and nature.
Sugnett replied, “There are 11,000 workers at the airport, and many must arrive before light rail is operating.” Furthermore, if passengers ask friends to drop them off rather than storing their own cars in long-term lots, it doubles the number of trips, he said.
East Portlanders hold successful Nights Out
Several mid-Multnomah County neighborhoods held highly successful National Night Out celebrations on Aug. 5. In Argay, neighborhood association Chair Valerie Curry said she initially thought the day’s high heat would keep people away, “but we got many more than we expected, maybe 450 to 500.” They also received a visit from an obviously weary Mayor Tom Potter. “I’ve been to a lot of these things,” Potter told the crowd, “but I’ve come to Argay, and I can officially announce that we’re among friends.”
The same night, Woodland Park’s Alesia Reese said her neighborhood association was able to have a street closed to traffic for their annual block party, something she would like to repeat in future years.
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