New header
Issue #20
Posted March 22, 2008
Serving Hillsdale. Supported by The Hillsdale Alliance
In This Issue
A wayward "S"
Food Front update
Tons of food given
Clean-up planned
Auction success
Remington commentary


Commentary:

Taking Stock

What are the strengths and weaknesses in the Hillsdale Town Center commercial area?

I was among 11 members of the Hillsdale business community who sat down recently to take stock.

We were attending the March meeting of the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association, an organization that began in 1974 and which meets monthly. You probably know it for its main event of the year, the Customer Appreciation Pancake Breakfast on the last Sunday in July.

But pancakes were the farthest things on our minds as we broke into three small groups at the Three Square Grill to fill out a challenging questionnaire distributed by the Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations.

The APNBA questionnaire asked us to review our commercial community's balance sheet.

On the ledger's plus side, we found ourselves describing Hillsdale as a place where neighbors and businesses often work together. We agreed that neighbors display considerable customer loyalty.

We listed several community assets: the library, the schools, several services, community organizations, a trails network, faith communities, newspapers and the farmers market.

Another strength is that the owners of the bulk of the commercial property here are involved in the community and the active management of their holdings.

On the negative side, the group agreed that too few businesses are actively involved with the business association. The Town Center itself lacks a visual cohesiveness and the streetscape needs serious attention. Overhead utilities wires, poles and transformers as well as a hodge-podge of signs were mentioned. Participants also listed fragmented parking and pass-through traffic that doesn't treat Hillsdale as a destination.

Among APNBA requested "threats," we cited apathy and national chain stores whose managers seldom get involved.  A minority of commercial property owners have chosen to isolate themselves. Finally city government is frequently unresponsive and has no follow-through.

Asked about opportunities, we said that Hillsdale has the potential for a visual identity. One person called for more trees. Some wanted more people to read this on-line publication. (I agreed, but didn't initiate the comment. By the way, we now have 330 subscribers and average 12 "visits" a day.)

We agreed that the much-anticipated Food Front Co-operative will provide a locus for involvement, change and innovation. And our Metro Town Center status could lead to mixed commercial/residential and transit-oriented development in the commercial core.

At the end of the exercise, our group agreed to thank the Alliance for asking us to take stock through its series of pointed questions.

Without questions, there can be no answers.

Rick Seifert
Editor
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With help from Hillsdale

Multnomah Village to open
Farmers' Market in June

Tye at Multnomah site

Organizer Tye Steinbach at the future site of the Multnomah Farmers Market

Multnomah Village will have its own farmers' market starting Thursday, June 5th.

Located next to the Multnomah Arts Center's covered basketball court, the market will be held every Thursday in the summer, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., said Tye Steinbach, one of the organizers of the market.

The market will run through the last Thursday in September.

Steinbach said Eamon Molloy, the Hillsdale Farmers' Market's manager, has helped with plans for the market. Molloy will manage the Multnomah market as well as the Hillsdale market. Equipment, which the Hillsdale Farmers market stores in a truck, will also be available for use in Multnomah.

The Multnomah Village Business Association is loaning it $3000 as part of the start-up, Steinbach said.  A market board of directors will comprise representatives from the neighborhood and from the business association.

The City of Portland is leasing the Arts Center space to the market for $200 a month, Molloy said.

Organizing has been spearheaded by Steinbach, who is a co-owner of Thinker Toys in the village; Michael Walsh, director of the Multnomah Arts Cener; Molloy; and Chris Dearth, Steinbach's nextdoor neighbor in Multnomah.

Molloy said he hasn't approached vendors about the Multnomah market yet, but he believes the market will attract a loyal following from surrounding neighborhoods. The choice of Thursday could have particular appeal. The only other mid-week market is downtown on Wednesdays, he noted.

The Hillsdale Market is on Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Rieke Elementary School parking lot.

New sign displays a not-so-glaring error

Flipped "S"
Sharp-eyed Hillsdale residents and commuters have noticed that the new "Hillsdale" sign attached to the Watershed senior housing building is not exactly "letter perfect."

The sign's "S" is upside down.

Sheila Greenlaw-Fink, the exccutive director of Community Partners for Affordable Housing, the building's developer, said that she hadn't noticed the flaw until it was brought to her attention this week.

Nor had others who were involved with the construction of the building. Project managers have been going through "punch list" check-offs for final approval but somehow they overlooked the sign's letters.

Greenlaw-Fink has notified the managers of the problem so that it can be fixed."We plan to 'right' ourselves as soon as possible," she said.

She said that once you are aware of the wayward "S," "it can drive you crazy. It's hard to let it go."

In early March the problem was brought to the attention of readers of The Red Electric Blog (which this Hillsdale News editor publishes on most days).

Greenlaw-Fink said it's ironic that the letter would be overlooked because Community Partners for Affordable Housing has made letters and words part of its annual fundraising auction/banquet. The event is titled "HomeWord Bound, an Event of Literary Proportions" and will be held Friday, April 4th.  It will feature several local writers. For more information, go HERE.
Lower interest rates helping

Food Front managers urge earlier board vote


Staff at the Food Front Co-operative are so eager to open a new Hillsdale store that they may ask the Food Front board to expedite a decision to proceed.

Lee Lancaster, Food Front's finance manager, said projections and plans for the new store, to be located in the old Wild Oats site, will go to the board at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting, Monday, March 24.

Lancaster said it's conceivable the board, which had planned to vote on whether to move ahead in May, would give the go-ahead a month early, or possibly hold a special meeting to vote in mid-April.

If the decision is made to proceed, the earliest the store could open is July, and not in the first part of the month, Lancaster said.

"We'd like a decision to proceed soon. There are a lot of things to be done," he said.

The Hillsdale store would hire a staff of from 40 to 50, he said.

The estimated costs of opening the store have fallen slightly and bids have been in line with expectations, he said. Interest rates have dropped a percentage point in the past month. Lower rates lessen the lending costs associated with opening the store, Lancaster said.

The state of the economy is a concern, he noted. In past recessions, customers have seen natural foods as a luxury and have cut back spending on them. On the other hand, he added, "People are more concerned about buying local than ever before. That will could counter balance any downturn in the market."
SW Hope food drive exceeds goals

The recently ended food drive to help the hungry in Southwest exceeded its goal by 23 tons of food or the cash equivalent.

Organizers of "SW Hope: Feed the Hungry" set a goal of 75,000 pounds.

What they got was at least the equivalent of 122,000 pounds, said Rick Nitti, executive director of Neighborhood House.

The food will be distributed through the Neighborhood House emergency food box program. Recently Neighborhood House has been distributing more than 300 boxes a month. The numbers have been increasing markedly as the economy worsens, Nitti said.

The food drive, which ended March 15, was organized though various Southwest Portland faith communities.
Litter busters needed

SOLV/SWNI prepare for spring cleaning


When you see the litter along our major roads, think May 10.

That's when the SWNI/SOLV spring Litter Pick-up will be held.

You can fight the litter by joining a morning work party.

Plan to meet at the Portland Christian Center parking lot at 9:00 a.m. at Dosch and Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. Bring work gloves. Orange safety vests, litter bags and grabbers will be provided.

Food, drink and raffle prizes are part of the event.

Gray auction nets $13,000 for school

The Robert Gray Middle School Foundation Auction got it right from the start.

The first ever auction at the school, on March 8, raised more than $13,000. Some 120 attended the event.

The fund-raising also attracted $6,000 in cash donations, above the $13,000 raised in the auction.

The money will be used to support Arts and Technology at the school next year.
Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
[email protected]