Dear Neighbors-

TriMet is hosting three light rail open houses in February and March.

Come check out their progress!

Dear Neighbors:

Please make a point to attend the BAC General Meeting tomorrow, Wednesday January 25, at 7PM at the Loaves and Fishes center at 3925 SE Milwaukie Avenue.

Highlights:

• Portland-Milwaukie light rail update from Tri-Met
• Community policing update from Jacob Brostoff
• News on the Portland Skatepark Plan from Colin Sharp
• Community Garden update from Lee Kamrass
• Nonconforming Sewers update from Mike O’Connor
• News on a possible neighborhood Octoberfest and Criterium Bike Race with Tom Rousculp
• Portland Harbor Superfund Site update from Von Summers of the Portland Partnership

…and our annual neighborhood action public brainstorming session!

Please bring all of your project/grant ideas, complaints, wishes, etc to the meeting and be ready to discuss!

SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!

-The BAC

The BAC would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Rainbow Painting and Bob Puzis. Bob offered to provide DISCOUNTED LABOR to spray a protective clearcoat over our entire mural which our artist Lew Jones painted on the SE 9th Ave pedestrian bridge last summer. The mural was made possible by a $2,046 grant from Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement.

You’ll all be receiving the Brooklyn Neighborhood News on your doorstep soon, and we’ve included the following message to him on a BRIGHT YELLOW POSTCARD that will probably fall out of the newsletter in your lap. Please read it, sign it, stamp it, and mail it, (or drop it off at City Hall).

You can send an email of the postcard by cutting and pasting some of the message below, along with some personal comments, into an email and sending it to Mayor Adams at: Samadams@portlandoregon.gov

REGARDING INCREASED TRUCK TRAFFIC ON SE 26^TH AVENUE

Dear Mayor Sam Adams,

Over the past several months, representatives from the Brooklyn Neighborhood have contacted both the city and the railroad about the increased heavy truck traffic using the stretch SE 26^th Avenue between SE Powell and SE Holgate Boulevard to access Brooklyn Yards. The increase in noise and safety problems has greatly impacted the livability of our neighborhood. The street is designated a “Safe Routes to School”/bicycle route for Cleveland High School and Creston Elementary, and having these trucks rumbling down SE 26^th Avenue instead of SE McLoughlin and 17^th Avenue violates the residential designation of the street.

Our communications with the railroad thus far have convinced us that UP’s management does not feel it has a legal or moral obligation to ensure that their facility complies with the freight plan and residential street use guidelines.

We would like the City of Portland to enforce its own freight plan by increasing police presence in the area, installing “Trucks Prohibited” signs, and informing UP that they must obey the freight plan or face enforcement actions. We need to prioritize our safety and livability over convenience for trucks and the railroad.

Signed

If you are a homeowner in the area, maybe you’d like some flexible living space for a family member, or maybe you’d like to have some additional rental income, or maybe like me, you actually want to live in a smaller space that you built yourself and rent out the larger house. It’s also notable that building an ADU is one of the most ‘green’ decisions you can make for your city. Last month, Energy Trust of Oregon recently added ADUs to their list of residential structures eligible to receive a monetary incentive for energy efficient design (for qualifying structures, this incentive can be ~$2K).

In the course of building, and now living in, my ADU in NE Portland, I became so passionate about seeing more of them built that I have begun to offer classes to help other homeowners who want to build one. The one-day class is an on-ramp to the elaborate process of designing and building an ADU. The class will cover the spectrum of information that homeowners need to know to design and build an ADU on their property and is intended to help homeowner’s understand the ADU design, permit, management, and building process.

If you’re interested in learning more about building an ADU, visit http://pdxadu.blogspot.com/p/adu-class.html or http://accessorydwellings.org/

Class: Building an Accessory Dwelling Unit on Your Property in Portland, Oregon
Saturday, January 21st. 9am-5pm.  Register here: http://pdxadu3.eventbrite.com/

The first BAC Board Meeting of 2012 will be held at 6:30 PM on January 11 at the Thelma Skelton Loaves and Fishes center at SE Milwaukie Boulevard and Center Street. At this meeting the board will be discussing a request by the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association for a letter of support regarding moving the proposed location of a cellular telephone antenna tower that is slated to be installed a few yards from a residence. We’ll also be discussing which movie to show at our Movie in the Park this summer, as well as planning our General Meeting to be held on January 25. We have two proposed topics for the January General Meeting. David Harvey from Greenbriar/Gunderson will be on hand to update the neighborhood on the Portland Harbor Superfund Cleanup and solicit our comments and questions regarding this important issue. We’ll also open up the floor for general comments regarding what neighborhood issues you think the board should know about and/or do something about. What’s working in the neighborhood? What’s not working? What are we doing right? Where could we use help? Finally, we’ll have updates on the Community Gardens, our annual budget report, and anything else you want to bring up. See you at both meetings!

Thanks!-BAC Board Chair Mike O’Connor

Our Fates Are Connected suggests that an individual’s experience is in fact part of a larger, ongoing, universal  narrative. Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival has frequently inspired me and it’s text forms the poetic structure for this show.

Parzival tells the initiation story through two characters. One of the characters represents the individual’s relationship to that which sustains the aspiring aspect of the human spirit,.  primarily, pursuit of one’s calling and the striving towards the divine. The other character represents the development of soul through each type of relationship to others and the world around us. The need to pursue worldly sustenance presents us with all those mundane to epic worldly challenges.

An individual’s maturation is in a way the heartfelt wedding of spirit work and soul work.
Our Fates Are Connected no doubt exposes my individual story, hopefully it also speaks to the shared universal narrative as well. Enjoy the work!

When I paint (oils, egg tempera, and these watercolors), I mix many of my own paints with pigments from my father’s ancestral homelands. I frequently use my mother’s maiden, and my middle name  Wegner, to honor my mother’s lineage. The watercolor shapes reference ocean life forms.

The November/December Brooklyn Neighborhood Newsletter can be downloaded at this link.

Hello Neighbors,

Please attend the upcoming meeting about the Brooklyn Community
Garden. Major decisions need to be made before we move forward,
including partnership options. I would like to communicate information
I’ve gathered from ODOT, the Portland Water Bureau, Portland Parks &
Rec Community Gardens, and Grow Portland, and then hear your feedback.
These are choices that will affect the short and long-term viability
of the garden.

DATE: Monday, November 7
TIME: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
PLACE: Loaves & Fishes Center at the corner of SE Milwaukie Ave. and SE Center St.

I hope you can be there.

Lee Kamrass
Brooklyn Community Garden Coordinator
503 230 1064

–Starting Monday, October 31, continuing for a few weeks, Northwest Natural Gas plans to work on the north side of Holgate, on both sides of 17th Ave. This will include closing the sidewalk on Holgate adjacent to the TriMet bus garage for a few days.

– Starting November 7, continuing for a couple days, Portland Water Bureau plans to work at the southeast corner of 17th & Holgate. They also plan to work in the intersection during the weekend of November 12 and on November 21.

– November 14-18 there may be more traffic on 17th Ave. ODOT plans to close the exit from eastbound Ross Island Bridge to southbound McLoughlin, and will direct this traffic to 17th Ave. (This is unrelated to light rail construction; I’m not sure what project is prompting it.)

Of course, construction schedules are always subject to change, but this is what we’ve heard is currently scheduled. There will be more private utility construction in January, followed by TriMet’s contractor beginning work on sewer pipes in the intersection, probably in early March.

Great news! Ms. Lee Kamrass has agreed to be the coordinator for our new community gardens. To get them ready for spring planting, we need volunteers to help with preparing the site (building raised beds, clearing, hauling) as well as with administrative activities such as volunteer recruitment and publicity.

Please send us an email with:
Your full name
Your street address
Phone number(s)
Area(s) of interest
Best days/times for you to attend a meeting and/or work on the site

Additionally, please let anyone you know who might be interested in the garden to contact us by email with ideas, questions, concerns.

We look forward to meeting and working with you on this incredibly exciting project.

October is National Crime Prevention Awareness Month, which is the official month for recognizing the practice of crime prevention, as well as promoting awareness of important issues such as victimization, volunteerism, and creating safer, more connected communities. To celebrate, there are some exciting FREE activities happening all around Portland.

There’s fun to be had for the whole family, and we look forward to seeing you throughout the month of October. Stay tuned for more information about upcoming events. Find us on Facebook (City of Portland Crime Prevention Program), follow us on Twitter (@pdxpreventcrime), or visit our website.

The Office of Neighborhood Involvement Crime Prevention Program and our public safety partners are planning the following events for the month of October 2011:

Presentation: Crime Prevention 101 and using 9-1-1 and the non-emergency number to get assistance from police
New to Crime Prevention? Want to learn the basics? This is the presentation for you.
Wednesday, October 12th, 12-1pm
Portland Building, 1120 SW 5th Ave, 2nd floor auditorium
Contact: Michael Boyer, 503-823-5852, michael.boyer@portlandoregon.gov

Training: Bicycle Safety and Security
Wednesday, October 19th, 5:15-6:15pm
Multnomah County Building, 501 SE Grand
Bicycle theft is all too common in Portland. Learn how to protect your two-wheeler.
Contact: Havilah Ferschweiler, 503-823-0540, havilah.ferschweiler@portlandoregon.gov

Forum: Public Transit Safety
Thursday, October 20th from 6:30-8:30pm
East Precinct, 737 SE 106th Avenue
Portland has a great public transportation system, but people don’t always feel safe riding it. This forum focuses on how to be safe waiting for, riding on, and exiting from buses and light rail. Bring your questions.
Contact: Katherine Anderson, 503-823-3432, katherine.anderson@portlandoregon.gov

Clean Up: Graffiti Removal
Saturday, October 22nd from 9am-1pm
Mt. Scott Presbyterian Church, 5512 SE 73rd Avenue
Help improve the livability of your neighborhood and experience the satisfaction of removing graffiti.
Contact: Dennis LoGiudice, 503-823-9666, dennis.logiudice@portlandoregon.gov

Turn-In: Gun Turn-In
Saturday, October 22nd, 10am-2pm
Rose Garden/Memorial Coliseum, Benton Parking lot
Turn in a working firearm and receive a $50 gift certificate from Ceasefire Oregon. Firearms will be destroyed.
Contact: Mary Tompkins, 503-823-4763, mary.tompkins@portlandoregon.gov

Party: Community Policing Reception honoring SW Portland officers
Monday, October 24th at 7pm
Multnomah Center, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy, auditorium
This annual reception honors the wonderful officers who patrol SW Portland.
Contact: Stefanie Adams, 503-823-3131, stefanie.adams@portlandoregon.gov

Hands-on: Engraving party
Wednesday, October 26th from 7-9pm
Kenton Firehouse, 8105 N. Brandon Street
Learn how to mark your property so you can reclaim it if it is stolen. Bring items you’d like to engrave.
Contact: Mark Wells, 503-823-4098, mark.wells@portlandoregon.gov

Turn-In: Prescription Drug Turn-In
Sat, Oct 29th, 2011 from 10am to 2pm
3 locations: Fred Meyer, 7404 N Interstate; Fred Meyer, 1111 NE 102nd Avenue; and Portland State University, 1880 SW 6th.
Time to clean out the medicine cabinet! Dispose of unwanted meds while protecting young people and water quality.
Contact: Jenni Bernheisel, 503-823-2781, jenni.bernheisel@portlandoregon.gov

We’re looking for ten volunteers to help us clean up graffiti in the neighborhood from 9AM to Noon on Saturday Sept 24.

We’ll meet at 8:45 AM at the Thelma Skelton Loaves and Fishes center at SE Milwaukie and Center Street.

We’ll kick off the event with refreshments and brief instructions.

Please join us! Just send an email with your name and contact info and we’ll send you a reminder on Friday.

WE ALSO NEED FOLKS TO CATALOG GRAFFITI AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD BEFORE SATURDAY! PLEASE EMAIL US THE LOCATIONS OF ANY GRAFFITI YOU’VE SEEN!

You can also sign up by calling the helpline at (503) 241-4540 and leaving a message.

See you at the Graffiti Cleanup!

• Ice Cream Bars for 25 cents!
• Inflatable Slide and Bouncy House
• Face Painter and Balloon Sculptor
• Giant Toy and Game Giveaway
• Merchant Gift Certificate Giveaway
• Rock Wall and Fire Engine
• Hot Dogs, Polish Dogs, Chips, & Soft Drinks
• and live music from the Ice Cream Socialists