Comment:
Hillsdale Alliance serves as model
Earlier this week we had our quarterly meeting of the Hillsdale Alliance.
Nineteen representatives of various Hillsdale-related organizations sat around a very long table in the Remax/Equity Group office's conference room on a cold Wednesday night.
It was out of just such a gathering that this publication was started with a small grant awarded to the Alliance. (Alliance members are listed below)
I wish you could have been at the meeting because the organization's representatives decided how to use the $9500 many of you have spent at three Alliance-sponsored book sales. The books came from many of you as donations. By the way, another sale is coming up on Dec. 9. (See story in this issue).
The Alliance is remarkable in its uniqueness. Everyone from city commissioners to Metro councilors to visitors are taken by the Alliance's efforts at coordination and communication among our nine Hillsdale organizations and institutions.
At Wednesday's meeting, the visitors consisted of a three-member delegation from the Food Front, which has expressed strong interest in taking over the old Wild Oats space. The delegation told the Alliance gathering that Hillsdale's main appeal is its community spirit and identity.
Three months ago, our elected Metro Councilor Robert Liberty found the Alliance concept so compelling that he invited the entire seven-member Metro Council to meet in Hillsdale on Thursday, Nov. 29, at Wilson High School. Hillsdale's grassroots civic engagement could be a model for the Metro region's 29 other town centers, he said.
A caution should be added to the recognition. For all our energy, the Alliance and its membership have no formal authority. We are not a government. No one elected us. If we have a legitimacy, it results from our member organizations' accomplishments, which are numerous. The CVs of organizations like Neighborhood House, Southwest Trails, The Hillsdale Farmers Market, and the Rieke PTA, to cite just a few, are long, deep and impressive.
The Alliance cannot simply vote on something and expect a government bureaucracy or private investors or property owners to carry out our wishes. Our power, to the extent we have it, comes from our involvement, awareness and power to communicate among ourselves and to the wider community.
And that's where this little publication comes in. Its goal, like that of its print counterparts, is to keep you informed, to encourage your involvement and to be a forum for advocacy and discussion.
A final note: One measure of the Hillsdale News' progress, and that of the Alliance and the Hillsdale community at large, is the size of our e-mailing list. With this issue, it stands at 190 and counting . . . .
Rick Seifert
Editor
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Links to Alliance Members
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The planned garden could have as many as 17 spaces.
Stephens Park to get community garden
By next spring, or by the spring of 2009 at the latest, Hillsdale will have its own small community garden.
According to plans, the garden, with its 15 to 17 plots, will be next to Bertha Boulevard where Chestnut intersects it. The site is also the entrance to the Stephens Creek Nature Park.
The presence of gardeners will add to the safety of the park, which is now getting more use because of recently completed steps and a creek crossing.
"I want more eyes on the park," said Wes Risher, who has worked developing the park for years.
Plans for the garden site (see above) include a small parking area and path that leads to a park overlook.
While the site is small, approximately a quarter acre, its location near apartments and low-income housing are pluses.
Leslie Pohl-Kosbau, community gardens director for the city parks bureau, says the demand for community gardens plots is strong and will continue to grow. She cites a waiting list of 10 gardeners for the Fulton Park Community garden plots and a list of 30 in line to get plots at the Gabriel Park garden.
The Stephens Creek site has the advantage of already having a metered source of water available. Such a water supply costs $16,000 to install. Still, Pohl-Kosbau estimates that it will take "at least" $25,000 to prepare the site for a garden.
Much of the funding could come from the recently passed Metro bond measure and its "Nature in the Neighborhoods" program, said Risher and Pohl-Kosbau.
Among the improvements needed are accessible parking space, a pathway to the overview, a garden fence, a Bertha Boulevard crosswalk, the removal of invasive shrubs, and the moving of two trees and the existing kiosk.
Risher would like to see the plots ready for planting next spring, but Pohl-Kosbau says that's ambitious, adding that planning and getting approvals will delay the opening until 2009. "A lot of talking has to go on," she said.
The new residents of the Watershed senior housing center could be Stephens Creek gardeners, though Risher hopes they will help Rieke Elementary students improve their school garden. At Wilson, Students for Environmental Action (SEA) have a grant to help upgrade the Rieke gardens.
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Book sale, open house at Watershed
Sunday, Dec. 9, is shaping up to be a special day in Hillsdale.
The new Watershed Senior Housing complex will hold an open house in conjunction with three traditional Hillsdale events: the annual Hillsdale Holiday Book Sale, the Holiday sing and the Chili Feed.
The sale and chili feed will move from the abandoned Estby gas station to be the warmth of the Watershed's community room.
Several schools are planning to provide musical entertainment during the events.
Sale and open house hours will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
In the meantime, book donations for the sale will be accepted at four Hillsdale Farmers Markets, Oct 18, Nov 4, Nov. 18 and Dec. 2.
The Holiday Farmers Market will be on Sunday, Dec. 2.
Proceeds from the sale go to the Hillsdale Alliance, a coalition of major Hillsdale organizations including the public schools, the branch library, the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, SW Trails, the Hillsdale Farmers Market and the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association.
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Community asked to "Light up Hillsdale!"
A "Light Up Hillsdale" campaign will to be launched soon to help pay for lighting the vertical "Hillsdale" sign on the new Watershed building as well as for installing a glowing cylinder at the top of the building's prominent tower.
The estimated cost of the lighting projects is $17,000. The Hillsdale Business and Professional Association has pledged $3000, and grant applications for city money are expected to bring in another $5000.
Members of the community are invited to donate to the lighting projects, which will be visible to thousands of neighbors and visitors each day.
The difference between the cost and the funds raised has been pledged, in the form of a loan by the Hillsdale Alliance.
The Alliance has $9500 available from three community book sales. The coalition of major Hillsdale organizations and institutions will turn to the community help pay back the loan. A list of Alliance members, with links to their sites, is in the column to the left.
The Alliance has long-term plans to use book sale proceeds to establish a Hillsdale Community Foundation. Another sale is planned for Sunday, Dec. 9 at the Watershed (see previous story).
Another community-sponsored project at the Watershed is a drinking fountain at the corner of Bertha Court and SW Capitol Highway. SW Trails has pledged $1000 and the Hillsdale Farmers Market will contribute $2000 to the fountain. An additional $1300 is needed to cover the cost. The fountain will have three spigots and basins at different heights, one each for adults, children and dogs.
Those interested in contributing to the projects should contact the editor of the Hillsdale News, which is affiliated with the Hillsdale Alliance.
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Short Takes
"Reshaping" Schools conference Nov. 6
Several Hillsdale schools activists are encouraging friends and neighbors to attend a Tuesday, Nov. 6, "Plan for the Future" work session to be held by the Portland Public School District at the Oregon Convention Center.
The topics will include school size, community/joint use of schools, historic preservation, sustainability and building repair.
The event will take place in two sessions: 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Those planning to attend should email RSVP@pps.k12.or.us or call 503 916-3325.
Crosswalks, speed limits are topics of Oct. 16 meeting
Those interested in pedestrian safety in Hillsdale are encouraged to attend a meeting at St. Barnabas Church's Grafe Hall, 2201 SW Vermont, on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m.
The meeting with City of Portland transportation officials will consider a 5-mph reduction of speed limits on several major roads in the Hillsdale Town Center as well as new crosswalks.
The Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, which is sponsoring the meeting, has requested the speed limit changes and crosswalks. In urging attendance, Neighborhood Association president Don Baack labels several streets "raceways and unpleasant places for people to walk."
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Letters to the Editor
Wanted: Two venues for the Performing Arts in the Hillsdale
Did you get a chance to take in the concerts held at Willamette Park this summer? They were fun events.
Some of us in Hillsdale want to expand the offerings beyond those at Willamette Park by exploring the possibility of holding plays, concerts or other summer events at the Rieke Bowl, the natural amphitheater just west of where we have the Sunday Hillsdale Farmers Market.
If you have an interest in helping to explore this exciting community possility, please drop me an email of call me. I anticipate we will be meeting within the next month. If you just want to track the effort, drop me an email as well.
While we are thinking about possibilities, the Wilson High School drama department is considering refurbishing the Wilson Auditorium. What if the Wilson Auditorium were remade to be available to the community as a year-round theatre, much like the theatre at Tigard High School?
Would you get out more if you could go to the theatre right here in SW Portland? Give me your thoughts on this as well!
Don Baack
503-246-2088
Baack@pacifier.com
Become a Grocery Store Owner!
As a member of Food Front for 21 years and a regular shopper in Hillsdale, I welcome the possibility of a new Food Front Cooperative Grocery store in Hillsdale. While I know that Food Front has more than 250 member/owners in Southwest Portland, we will need many more to make our Co-op a success.
Of course, anyone can shop at Food Front (a majority of Food Front shoppers are not member/owners), but member/owners receive several benefits.
in addition to the satisfaction you get from shopping at a store that you, your neighbors and community members own, member/owners receive annual dividends based on the amount they spent at the store and the size of the store's surplus (profit). In addition, there are Owner Appreciation Days several times a year when member/owners receive discounts on everything.
Community members in Southwest Portland can show support for a new Food Front store by purchasing owner shares. Shares cost $150 and can be purchased in installments for as little as $5 per month after an initial $5.00 payment. No one can purchase more than one share.
There are no additional dues or annual payments.
Owner Shares are fully refundable. If a member/owner decides, for any reason, to no longer own a share, every dollar they've paid will be refunded..
You can go to Food Front's website (www.foodfront.coop) and click on the "About Us" link and then the "How to Become an Owner" link. That opens a PDF file which you can print out and mail in or bring to Food Front at 2375 NW Thurman. Or call 502-222-5658 ext 133, and Tom, the Community Outreach Services Coordinator, will mail you an application. You can also email your request to Tom at ownership@foodfront.coop.
Let's get as many people as possible behind this effort to bring a new community resource to Hillsdale. We need a good grocery store, and Food Front is our best bet.
Alan Locklear
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Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
editor@hillsdalenews.org
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