April 2018 Meeting

May 31, 2018 Comments Off on April 2018 Meeting

STNA Meeting 4/19/2018

Written by Sandra Hay Magdaleno on 4/19/18, 3rd edit on 5/16/18

Board Members Present: Duane Hanson, President, Tina Kimmey, SE Uplift Delegate, Ute Munger, Treasurer, Sandy Hay Magdaleno, Secretary and Sustainability and John Carr. STNA Land Use Delegate.

Members Present: Amber Reichert.

Guests Present: Mary Kinnick, Diane Redd, both with Friends of Mt Tabor Park, Jessica Vega Pederson, Multnomah Co. Commissioner District 3 and Hayden Miller on staff District 3, Paul Valdez and Mike Rains with Portland Police Bureau East Precinct, Joe Ruhoff with Pizzicato Community Involvement.

Meeting opened at 7:02 pm with introductions by Duane Hanson.

Joe Ruhoff with Pizzicato Community Development first delivered pizzas for the group! Joe started working with Pizzicato at the Sylvan location near the zoo. The restaurant chain grew, expanded and went public, then got back down to the heart of the matter and went back to private and their core roots with 15 locations in the metro area where they now as in the beginning days focus on community recognition and community events providing local neighborhood synergy and great food. Remember, they are more than just pizza, with delicious sandwiches, salads, drinks and more. (They provide gluten free pizza and sandwiches too.) Remember Tuesday nights are Dough for Dollars where 20% of the profits going to our public schools. Just an FYI for STNA, often you’ll find Franklin High School students and graduates working on their degreesworking for you at Pizzicato. They hire locally throughout the organization. They are green certified and have a local private charitable, compost, recycling and community participation program. Joe also handed out some coupons for escalating discounts. Thank you Pizzicato for the many donations you’ve made to STNA over the years. We appreciate you and thank you for your generosity.

Next, we heard from Jessica Vega Pederson our District 3 Multnomah Co Board of Commissioner in her 2nd year as county commissioner. She started her political career as the 1st Latino to our State Legislature and served 2 terms before becoming a commissioner. Her education and experience prior to public work was in the technology industry and she wanted to use that expertise to be a voice for safe sidewalks and streets, education and funding and the lack of affordable housing, park access and other issues so dear to east side residents. She finds the County an interesting place that deals with the crux of issues such as housing. It, the county, is the biggest provider of health services in the state especially in mental health issues whether coming from the criminal justice system, new to the country or long-time residents. Last June a resolution was passed to make Multnomah Co. 100% renewable energy by 2050 which is part of the Pathway to 100 that many cities and counties have adopted across the nation. She asks the questions of “How do we fight?” for transportation, energy, building and other issues for those that don’t have their fair share.

She’s looking ahead toward solutions that focuses on safety, equity and climate and an investment in community educations, shelter, affordable housing and much more. This is a joint venture with the county and local cities with a 3-prong approach of getting people off the streets and into supportive affordable housing and preventing homelessness.

There’s been a lot of fear with presidential change and she wants to provide integration services for all. These are problems that took time to develop and will take time to solve. A new shelter is opening with much public involvement and a “Good Neighbor Agreement” going into force. This is something where all must work together. One solution being looked at is starting local Section 8 housing within the city/county.

Another guest mentioned a solution her grandson had where every person in the city gives $2 per year towards homelessness – something everyone could do. Police officers Mike Rains and Paul Valdez, reported that car theft was on the rise in our neighborhood. Subaru’s, Toyota’s and a few others are easy to start/get access to and are ones most sought. Police will only pursue vehicles that are involved in felony crimes, otherwise it is not worth the risks to the community when a chase is forgoing. Officer Rains let us know that Sargent Teig heads the neighborhood response teams when homelessness population calls come in.

There are specific protocols and a certain order of actions that must be followed. Please use the Portland Reporter app at: www.pdxreporter.org to report abandoned vehicles, camps, graffiti, etc.

With www.pdxreporter.org you can take a picture and if you’ve got location turned on your device (or if you type in the location) it will be plotted on the city map for police reference. This is a great way to get ahead of the issues before they become problems. The police do look at each report and look for patterns and follow through with appropriate actions according to protocol.

Officer Rains and Valdez said there are currently 115 officers in process of being trained. It takes about 1 year to go through the hiring process and 2 more years of on the job training for an officer to work alone. They also mentioned that Richmond Neighborhood district has a graffiti cleanup program that works aggressively to remove graffiti within 24 hours or less. Remember go to www.pdxreporter.org to report graffiti as well.

Diane Redd and Mary Kinnick with Friends of Mt Tabor Park spoke regarding “The Mt Tabor Stewardship Program” that seeks to raise funding for ongoing oversight of the Weed Warrior Volunteer Program.

Weed warriors remove invasive plants throughout Mt Tabor Park. The program has been in place since 2005 when it was determined that the park was in a severely degraded ecological condition.

This project was greatly helped when the City of Portland committed dollars to fund a stewardship coordinator to aid in the recruitment and training of volunteers and crew leaders, mapping and projectplanning.

This resulted in a significant increase in the number of volunteers and volunteer hours and has been beneficial for ecological balance in the park. Although progress has been made it is an uphill battle and much work is still needed.

City funding ended in 2017. Friends of Mt Tabor Park raised the money for the coordinator position for the rest of 2017 and for 2018.

They are asking us as STNA and as individuals to donate to The Mt Tabor Park Stewardship Program.

The goal is to raise an endowment fund where interest accrued can be used to permanently fund the Weed Warriors Program. Friends of Mt Tabor will continue to fund 1/3 of the cost with the remaining 2/3rds coming from the Stewardship Fund.

The stewardship fund effort started with help from local businesses and is now soliciting support from neighborhood associations and other non-profits. They will then begin asking for individual donations, organizing house parties and a “Go Fund Me” Campaign to complete their goal of $100K or more. To personally donate or get your business or organization involved go to:

www.TaborFriends.org/Stewardship

.

It was noted that City Commissioner, Amanda Fritz, withdrew the possible rezoning of the several acres of Park near the west entrance north of the lower reservoirs which has a building that is currently being rented well below market value and has significant delayed maintenance issues. It was agreed at the meeting with a large local attendance that it is a major issue that needs to be dealt with across the city.

Next, John Carr, our STNA SE Uplift Land Use Delegate, reported on the final hearing on 4/19/18, regarding the old 7 Dees site on 62nd and Powell. Originally the final decision was slated for 3/15/18. However, the developer of the 900 Unit Self-storage project as well as another self-storage developer asked that they write the filing and the final hearing was moved to 4/19/18. The city did deny our appeal (expected) and did add conditions of approval that were helpful. It appears that the developer and an additional developer of self-storage have hired attorneys to likely appeal through the state land use board (LUBA). The STNA Land Use Committee will continue to stay abreast of the development and keep you informed of the process.

A great time was had by all that attended the Celebration party for John and all the people who worked on the appeal/project.

THANK YOU, John, and ALL INVOLVED!!

Tina Kimmey reported on the Kellogg School Pre-Demolition Open House and the table/speaking opportunity for the event on Saturday, May 5, 2018 from 10-11:30am at Kellogg School, 3330 SE 69th Ave., Portland, OR 97206. STNA’s experience with these events is that there is very low turn-out. Tina will check with Foster Powell and possibly have flyers available for the event.

MOTION: Duane made a motion to 1.) accept the STNA 3/15/18 minutes with the spelling error corrections and 2.) to approve the neighborhood litter pick-up for May 19, 2018 from 10am to 2pm with base of operations to be at Division Street Dental, 7600 SE Division St., Portland, OR. Motion seconded by Tina. Approved unanimously.

THANK YOU Tin Le, DMD for generously providing your space and facilities.

Ute Munger, Treasurer, reported our current bank balance is $4,571.82. She is still working on the 2018–2019 budget and will report back at the May meeting.

MOTION: Sandy made a motion and Tina seconded the motion to approve the Treasurers report. Motion carried unanimously.

Please note: the next South Tabor Emergency Preparedness meeting will be Saturday, 5/26/18 from 10-11:30am, place TBD. If you would like to be on the email list, email: sustainability@southtabor.orag or email wchirstine052@gmail.com.

MOTION: A motion was made by John Carr and seconded by Ute Munger to approve a $200 donation to The Mt Tabor Park Stewardship Fund. Approved unanimously. Remember, to give individually or to involve your business or organization go to: www.TaborFriends.org/Stewardship .

The meeting was adjourned at 8:43pm.

REMEMBER, next Land Use Committee Meeting is Tuesday, May 15 and the Annual Meeting and Elections is Thursday, May 7, 2018. They will both be held from 7pm to 8:30pm at Trinity Fellowship, 2700 SE 67th Ave., with entrance from the parking in the rear. We are in need of Vice President, Secretary and Communications Chair. Email: president@southtabor.org to get your name on the slate. See you there.

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