In Memoriam
Dianna Ponder
Richard German
I am sadly reporting the deaths of two cherished, widely beloved neighbors and friends.
In Hillsdale, we worked side-by-side with Dianna Ponder, who was the first president of the Hillsdale Community Foundation and was a long-time member of the Hillsdale Farmers Market Board, on which she served as treasurer.
Dianna brought a mix of cheer, energy and resoluteness to the many tasks she shared with us. And she was ever alert to the little needs we all have from time to time. Dianna particularly enjoyed times of celebration.
In recent months, Dianna, at age 56, struggled with depression, which grew deeper and deeper until it finally overwhelmed her. She died by her own hand on Tuesday, July 12.
She is survived by her husband, Mike Ponder; her daughter, Merry Graham; her stepsons, Evan and Sean Ponder; her sisters, Brenda Perry and Christie Claassen; and her parents, Merlin and Mary Ragsdill.
A date in August for the celebration of Dianna's life will be announced later.
Richard German, who worked at Annie Bloom's Books from the day it opened in 1978, was a bicycling raconteur. Our paths crossed often, and we inevitably stopped to share the news.
Richard was full of sprightly, often pointed, opinion, which he offered freely.  His bicycling adventures seemed epic to many of us. Richard's often wry humor, his energy, his sense of adventure and his free-wheeling ways were great gifts he shared with a multitude of friends.
On Friday, June 25, at age 63, Richard was suddenly stricken by an aortic aneurysm while bicycling in the San Juan Islands.
A wake was held for Richard on July 5 at O'Connor's Restaurant in Multnomah Village.
Commentary:
"Sustainability"
writ large
 Under City of Portland guidelines, the new Hillsdale Main Street effort will emphasize "sustainability" as it goes about revitalizing our local economy. It is an urgent need.
As we know, waste, over-consumption and, I dare say, greed threaten humanity's very existence.
In the months ahead, I'm certain our Main Street minds and actions will turn to solar panels, stepped-up recycling and energy-efficiency. I'm certain too that we will find our own unique Hillsdale initiatives.
But we should not lose sight of what else we need to "sustain" our community. Our perspective on "sustainability" must acknowledge both old and new realities.
I put the words "sustainability" and "sustain" in quotes because words, as always, shape our thinking. Indeed they ARE our thinking.
It turns out that the word "sustainability" didn't come into the language until the late 1980s. The term addresses environmental issues exclusively.
"Sustain" or "sustainable" have been around for centuries in one form or another. Yet I fear that the young word, with its narrow but important environmental meaning, is narrowing the meaning of the old words.
Do words allow us to fully answer the question of what it means to "sustain" a community?
I hope so. My answer goes beyond solar panels, compacter trash bins and LED lights.
To me, "sustain" and, by derivation, "sustainability" mean being prepared for disasters (earthquakes, terrorists attacks, floods), educating the young for the future, having active and open forums for communication, providing food, shelter and health care for the poor, and assuring a just, fair and, yes, celebratory relationship amongst neighbors.
(I might add that without a world free of the scourge of war, none of this will matter. We must continue our quest for peace - and then lasting peace.)
If, and only if, Hillsdale's Main Street program encompasses all of the above will it truly help sustain and revitalize our community.
Rick Seifert |
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Realtors:
Hillsdale price decline slows
The Hillsdale residential real estate market, like the market city wide, is down - way down.
If there's good news, according to two local real estate agents, it's that the decline is slowing.
They point out the obvious: Before the market can reverse, it must slow. And even then the exact bottom doesn't announce itself. "It's hard to tell until you are past the bottom point," says Pat Weiss of RE/MAX.
She and Dustin Miller of The Realty Group have been riding the ups and now the downs of the market in the greater Hillsdale area.
Both report that for many buyers Hillsdale and the hilly Southwest have lost some appeal, particularly to younger buyers.
For the young, the big draw is the inner east side with its sidewalks, bike boulevards and easy-to-reach local businesses. "Close-in east side is really a hot market," says Miller.
The east side, out the avenues as far the 60s, offers:
� Smaller, easier to maintain lots
� The charm and character of cottage and Craftsman style architecture
� Substantially lower real estate taxes
The west side is known for the quality of its schools, says Weiss, but young buyers with very young children or no children at all, aren't thinking about schools. That comes later and by then they may be locked into where they live, relationships with neighbors and their record low interest rate.
When it comes to schools, while west side schools are considered better than those on the east, Lincoln and its cluster schools are a somewhat bigger draw for buyers than Wilson and its cluster.
Another difference between older and younger buyers is that large lots, in addition to representing extra work, don't resonate with the young, who often grew up in cities, notes Weiss. Their parents are more likely to have been raised in small towns or even the country, where expansive lots and greenery were valued.
But the market is in flux. For one thing, the government's incentives to first-time buyers ran out in April.
And the rate of foreclosures is slowing, which means fewer low-priced bank sales, which drive down the rest of the market.
Another piece of good news, says Weiss, is low interest rates. They are as low as she has seen them in her many years in real estate.
What can real estate agents say to reassure a potential buyer reluctant to buy a house in a market where prices are declining? Weiss cites today's low interest rates as a a reason to buy now. She says that when interest rates go up again - and they are certain to - the payments on a less expensive comparable house with a higher interest rate will be similar to payments on today's more expensive house at the present low interest rate.
On the west side, less expensive houses, those under $400,000, are selling the fastest. The sluggish market for expensive homes has lead to drastic price cutting. Weiss says that homes that were listed initially for $1.5 million have now been reduced to below $1 million.
Miller says that $399,000 is an important price point for the few buyers who can qualify for a loan.
Loans are another problem. Weiss says that while it is marginally easier to get a loan today than a year and a half ago, "it is way harder than it was." Five years ago, lenders didn't even have to verify income. "All you needed was a pulse," she says.
Today the banks and regulations on lending are much, much tougher. Many potential buyers walk away because they can't get pre-approved for a loan.
And appraisers are also far more thorough, pointing out problems that spook buyers and lenders.
Buyers also shy away from homes in need of repairs and upgrading because getting loans for improvements are also hard to come by.
The homes that are selling, says Miller, are under $400,000 and either are large, though they need improvement, or are relatively small but come with modern upgrades and extras.
But the main problem is a lack of qualified buyers, the two agree. "Where are the buyers?" asks Miller. The sore economy isn't producing them. As Weiss puts it, "All we need out there is employment." |
Reflections
Frances Cook has an archive of photos from her life in Hillsdale
Frances Cook:
Witness to Hillsdale's transformation
By Valeurie Friedman
Frances Cook reflects on Hillsdale's past from the living room of her home on Sunset Boulevard, where she has lived for 63 years.
When Frances and her husband Richard bought the house in 1947, it was surrounded by orchards and dairyland. There was no phone service for several months. But a transformation had already begun that carved up the old homesteads and farms of Hillsdale to accommodate new suburban residents.
Frances's house (seen then and now in the photos) was built in 1922 as a vacation home for a family who lived in what was then far-away Irvington. But when Frances and Richard settled here, Hillsdale was becoming home to hundreds. Many took the privately-owned Raz bus to their jobs downtown. For many years Frances rode the bus, filled with her neighbors, to a job at US Bank.
City annexation came several years after the Cooks moved in, but it began with the 1949 vote to annex to Portland's water district. Streetlights and lower water bills were to follow. Yet Frances recalls that some residents were opposed to the replacement of the Raz buses with the city-operated Rose City Transit: "The Raz service had been so good and we knew all the drivers; they were a part of the community."
Hillsdale's continued growth called for more schools. When Robert Gray Elementary School opened in 1952, Frances' son, Donald, was among the first kindergarteners to attend the K-8 school. Donald, who died in 2003, graduated from Wilson, which opened in 1954.
Frances recalls that Wilson owes its existence to a chance encounter at a popular Sandy Boulevard drive-in. The School District's original plan had been to enlarge Lincoln High School to serve the entire West Side. As deliberations were going on, Portland PTA members and several school board members happened on each other at Yaw's restaurant on Sandy. Out of their table-talk, the idea of Wilson High School in Southwest Portland emerged.
Frances recalls that on Sundays, high school students would gather at Lynch's Market (early predecessor to today's Food Front) before hiking up to picnic at Council Crest, which is still a popular hang-out for youth.
Today's RE/Max Equity Group building sits on the site of a motel offering little cabins for motorists driving on Capitol Highway, a key section of the thorough-fare stretching from Seattle to California.
And on the corner of Sunset and Capitol Highway stood the Piggly Wiggly market, which Frances calls an early Enron because when Lynch's Market expanded in 1953 and Piggly Wiggly went under, many of its employees lost their pensions.
In the early days, Frances remembers, "If we needed to go anywhere we just walked in the streets. There wasn't that much traffic. But the traffic increased and in 1986 Frances became a victim of it when she was struck in the crosswalk in front of her house. The accident left her unable to walk. It hasn't slowed her down. She propels herself in an unmotorized wheelchair and cheerfully proclaims that it gives her plenty of exercise.
Frances spends much of her time in the sun room that was added to the house in 1990. She's assembling a book about C.S. Price, a well-know artist who was her uncle.
At age 95, Frances has mastered the Internet and keeps up an active internet correspondence often laced with detailed recollections from her decades in Hillsdale. |
City to ticketed Sunset Boulevard parkers:
Citations dismissed; all is forgiven
The City of Portland has decided it's OK to park on the east side of Sunset Boulevard near the Hillsdale Branch Library after all.
Several parkers were ticketed on May 28 after a pedestrian complained that parked cars there blocked walkers. Now they can expect to have those tickets dismissed.
Several of those ticketed were librarians who have parked on the shoulder of Sunset for years. Unlike the west side of Sunset, the east side has no indication of its being a no-parking zone.
The reason for the city's reversal is that, unbeknownst to the enforcement officer, parking has been permitted, even encouraged, on the east side, said Cheryl Kuck, a spokesperson for Portland's Bureau of
Transportation,
"That's where we want people to park," she emphasized.
Kuck said that after a careful review of the ticketing incident, it was decided to recommend to the court that the citations be dismissed. "We expect the court to respond positively to our request."
If the court does so, any fines paid will be refunded by the state, Kuck added. However, she cautioned that the process may take a while.
The reversal is good news to Virginia Tribe, the Hillsdale Library Branch manager, who received a ticket. She added that it was good news for her entire staff, which parks on the street to keep parking open to patrons who park under the Library and in front of it.
The decision, she said, "reaffirms our understanding of the law."
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Neighbors gear up for a "Night Out"
Gathering set for The Watershed
For all kinds of reasons (crime prevention, pet sitting, vacation mail collection, emergency planning), it's good to get to know your neighbors. If you already know them, it's good to know them better.
That's the premise behind "National Night Out," (NNO) a summer celebration through neighborhood gatherings that's now in its 27th year. The original impetus for the events was crime prevention, which remains a NNO theme.
This year's gathering nationwide is set for Tuesday, August 3, but many neighborhoods celebrate on the weekends, so July 30 to August 8 marks the NNO "season."
In Hillsdale, Community Partners for Affordable Housing and Food Front are hosting a NNO community get-together on Tuesday, August 3, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is at the Watershed building at Bertha Court and Capitol Highway.
All Hillsdale neighbors are welcome. The gathering will feature free refreshments and a wine tasting, live music, art and antiques displays and a brief crime prevention talk.
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Briefly
Meeting to consider new sidewalk sites
If you are interested in where newly generated state gas tax money should be spent to improve walkways in Hillsdale and Southwest Portland, attend the Monday, July 26, meeting of the transportation committee of Southwest Neighborhoods Inc. (SWNI)
Transportation officials will be present at the Multnomah Arts Center at 7 p.m. to hear neighbors' thoughts about criteria to be used in deciding where sidewalks should be built.
The transportation committee of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association has been studying sites in recent weeks to prepare for making a neighborhood recommendation for improvements here.
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The Date Book
NOTE: No Hillsdale Neighborhood Association meeting will be held in August.
Wednesday, July 14
Umptidoodle Man visits Hillsdale Library
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Courtney Campbell, the master storyteller/writer/ singer/song writer brings his talents to the library, 1525 SW Sunset Highway. Free tickets available at the reference desk. Families,
Preschool,
Grades K-5
Saturday, July 17
Wilson Alumni baseball games/social
11:00
a.m. The first game is for the even-numbered classes; the second game for odd-numbered classes. A three-inning game between the two alumni
groups will be held between games.
A post-game, no-host
social will be held at the Cider Mill for alumni, family and friends.
Sunday, July 18
Last chance book drop-off for used book sale
At the Hillsdale Farmers market, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Time to move those used books along to the rest of the community at the July 25th Hillsdale Used Book Sale. Proceeds benefit the Hillsdale Community/Main Street Foundation. Donations are tax-deductible. CDs, DVDs welcomed. Textbooks and dated books are not.
Sunday, July 25
HBPA Pancake Breakfast/HCF Book Sale
In the Key Bank/Casa Colima parking lot. Breakfast from 8:30 a.m. to Noon. Proceeds benefit the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association. Book Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with proceeds benefiting the Hillsdale Community/Main Street Foundation.
Saturday, July 31
Puppeteer performs "The Lucky Teakettle"
Puppeteer Brian Keith will present "The Lucky Teakettle" from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Hillsdale branch library, 1525 SW Sunset Boulevard. Free tickets available at reference desk 30 minutes prior to the program.
Friday, August 6
The Big Latch On
10:00 a.m. at Westside Academy of KungFu and CrossFit, 1509 SW Sunset Boulevard (Cheltenham entrance) in Hillsdale. Groups of nursing mothers coming together at registered venues around the city (and the world) will nurse their babes at a set time. Moms and babes will latch on for one minute at the set time in an effort to set the world record (and beat New Zealand, whose 2009 total was 1299) For more information, go to http://biglatchonpdx.weebly.com/index.html
Monday, August 9 to Friday, August 13
Summer Art Camp for Youngsters
For ages 7 to 11. 10 a.m. to Noon. Markham Elementary art teacher Erica Huber will teach topics that will result in five "masterpieces." $100.00. At 7426 SW 53rd , Portland, OR 97219 (Across the street from Maplewood Grade School in the West Hills Friends Community Building). To register, call Erica at (503) 680-8973 or e-mail artist.erica@gmail.com.
Saturday, August 21
Multnomah Days
"Portland's Village in the Heart of the City" celebrates with food, wine, displays and a parade. Events and times will be listed in the next issue.
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Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
editor@hillsdalenews.org
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