2010 Hillsdale News FLAG
Issue #76
Posted Dec. 3, 2010
Founded 2007
Also in This Issue
* Store for those in need
* Rieke to wait for new building
* Ravaged street to open again
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Commentary

Where visions
and reality meet


Olympia Typewriter
When a hundred folks shared visions for our neighborhood and business district on Nov. 30, the experience was at once familiar and novel.

It was familiar because so many of us have done this before, and nearly all the ideas were the same. The one that was different called for embracing and celebrating our "Mid-Century" architecture, which is in vogue these days.

Notice that I said "these days." Two, three or 10 years from now, there will be a "new, new thing." Don't depend on "Mid-Century" architecture to make us a distinctive draw. The Main Street district, like its businesses, needs to constantly reinvent itself to keep up with the times and the trends

Now for the novel part. The Nov. 30 visioning took place in the context of Hillsdale's new Main Street program. Unlike past visioning exercises, this one was aimed at implementation and community involvement. These ideas are not going to go into some report to be stored in an archive. Nor will they be left to a handful of dedicated individuals to pursue alone.

As I write this, the ideas are being transformed into a statement that will guide work programs for five Main Street working committees. Each, in turn, will spawn action-oriented subcommittees.

That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that unless major property owners and many more business owners get involved in Main Street and its committees, the community will have little say about what happens here.

So far most property owners and many businesses have taken what could charitably be called a "wait-and-see" attitude.

We all should remember that when we have worked together, we have accomplished great things in Hillsdale.

It was property owners who followed through by paying for new sidewalks and street trees (alas several of them are dying).

It was with the cooperation of property owners that the Farmers Market got its start.

Together businesses and neighbors lobbied for the mid-block signalized pedestrian crossing. We installed "Hillsdale" sign caps and gateway signs. We even reconfigured the neighborhood boundaries to put the business district at the center of an officially recognized place called "HIllsdale."

The entire community needs to embrace Main Street as a catalyst and mechanism for change. It's time for everyone to get involved to share the visions and make them come true.

    Rick Seifert, Editor/Publisher

Letters to the editor are always welcome. Write [email protected]
Letters to the Editor

School bond has long-term benefits

Editor:

As a Hillsdale neighbor and a former Rieke parent, I understand the disappointment of some that Rieke and other schools aren't being fully rebuilt right now.  However, I am extremely excited about the capital bond proposal.  We have overcrowded, inadequate, patched together buildings across the entire school district. While we must continue to advocate for adequate and stable school funding, we cannot realistically expect a solution in Salem anytime soon.  But a local capital improvement bond is a way that we in Portland can provide for our children's urgent educational needs without depending upon the inadequate State budget. 

This capital bond proposal will provide improved spaces for teaching and learning in every single school throughout Portland.  It will create thousands of jobs and pump money into the local economy. At the same time, replacing worn-out furnaces and other systems will reduce PPS operating costs through greater energy efficiency and reduced maintenance time. The money we save on maintenance can then be invested directly into the classroom. 

Under the proposal, every school would receive much-needed improvements and eight schools would be fully rebuilt and modernized. Each high school not getting a full rebuild would receive $2 million, to be divided between classroom improvements and site improvements. How this money is spent would be determined through a community planning process in each school. (To put this $2 million per high school investment in perspective, the current maintenance budget for the entire school district is $3 million.) So for Hillsdale, these improvements at Wilson would benefit every student coming up through the neighborhood schools.

The long-term plan for the bond is to ask voters for renewal every six years, so that within 20 to 30 years every  building in the district will be rebuilt or modernized.  Seattle is having good success with this model. I know it's hard for individual school communities to wait their turn for a full rebuild - the need is great in every neighborhood. But I urge parents and neighbors to consider the long-term benefit for our community if we can take this first big step and get started on improving our schools, both for our kids today and for generations of children to come.

Ruth Adkins
Portland School Board member


Vermont at 30th is dangerous

Editor:

Now that Portland is focusing on pedestrian safety, I would like to point out a particularly dangerous place where pedestrians must walk in the
traffic lane on the only through street in the area.

On SW Vermont St, just west of 30th, after a signaled intersection, the sidewalk disappears.

Cars are parked on the north side filling all the space between the traffic lane and the curb, and trees, mailboxes and tall hedges block access on the sidewalk-less curb. The speed limit increases from 25 mph to 35 mph!

After a few yards, the curb disappears, and parked cars frequently take up all the space between the white fog line on the street and hedges, fences and steep embankments.

On the sidewalk-less south side, parking is prohibited by the presence of a bus stop, but the curb quickly goes away and the gravel shoulder provides only a narrow, muddy walking space when it isn't blocked by
overgrown blackberry vines. Trees that overhang this section dim the light day and night.

From here to SW 36th Ave there are only a few short patches of sidewalk.

Now, I know the city doesn't have much money to spend on sidewalks. And I know that plans are underway to make some sidewalk improvements
in Southwest Portland.  But why, in the name of all that's rational, does the speed limit *increase* at this spot where a safe walking area is non-existent?  

And why are there no "Warning! Pedestrians" signs?  And why are parked cars allowed to block the only remotely-safe walking area on the north side of the street?

Alan Locklear


Correction:

In the last issue, Glenn Bridger was incorrectly identified as a past president of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. He served as HNA vice-president and is a former president of Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.

Letters to the editor are always welcome. Write [email protected]
Links to Hillsdale organizations

Main Street's Lauren Adkins leads
                                                                                         Photos by Peter DeCrescenzo www.peterdv.com

Lauren Adkins of Main Street's national office calls for vision ideas at the Nov. 30 session.

What next for Hillsdale Main Street?
From Vision to Mission to rolled-up sleeves


After three hours of Main Street "visioning" about the future of Hillsdale, community participants were asked to "describe in one sentence what you would like your Main Street Commercial District to be known for in five years."

Those responding were part of a small gathering of 40 or so, but earlier in the evening, the session had attracted a crowd estimated at more than 100.

In five years, Holly Zimmerman said, "Hillsdale FINALLY has it!" a take-off on the district's "Hillsdale Has It" slogan.

Richard Garfinkle draws votes
Dr. Richard Garfinkle attracted votes as a community asset.
Michael Reunert, a Main Street/Hillsdale Community Foundation board member, said, "It will be a 20-minute business community where you want to spend hours." The "20 minute" reference echoed with the City of Portland's call for neighborhoods whose commercial cores can be reached in a 20-minute walk.

Dr. Richard Garfinkle, another board member, said he wants Hillsdale "to look as good as it feels."

Wes Risher, a past neighborhood assocation president and long-time neighborhood activist, wanted Hillsdale to be known for an as-yet-to-be "cheese festival," a nod to the area's dairy past.

Several wanted Hillsdale to be internationally recognized for its "mid-century" architecture.  Yet another wanted Hillsdale to be known as an underground stop on TriMet's new Beaverton MAX line. One TriMet plan calls for MAX to tunnel beneath Hillsdale.

The Nov. 30 Main Street visioning session in the Wilson High School cafeteria was conducted by Lauren Adkins of the Washington D.C. Main Street office. The exercise is part of a larger process that will help the local Main Street foundation board draft the Hillsdale program's mission and vision statements, said Suzan Poisner, Hillsdale Main Street executive director.

Those statements, in turn, will serve as guides as Main Street's five committees organize their work plans, Poisner said. The committees are economic revitalization, promotion, design, operations and sustainability.

The Nov. 30 session asked participants to list the commercial area's assets, liabilities, opportunities and challenges. They were also asked why the district is important to the community and what qualities it should have in the future.

The answers filled sheets of newsprint that were posted on the cafeteria's windows. Finally, everyone was given a sheet of green sticky dots to use to vote preferences from the various lists of answers.

The same exercise was held at Hillsdale's "sister" Main Street districts, NE Alberta and St. Johns. Workshop attendance in Hillsdale significantly surpassed that in the other districts, Main Street staff reported.

The results of Hillsdale's "dot voting" will be presented to the board as the basis for defining Main Street's Hillsdale mission and vision.

At the end of the evening, reaction was mixed. Some, like Dave Johnson, a co-owner of Baker & Spice and SweetWares and a Main Street board member, said the comments "re-enforced " the previously expressed needs for Hillsdale to be a "destination place" and to develop a night life. "We need to be known for something," he said.

At the same time, he said, Hillsdale "isn't destitute" but is a place that can be improved.

Mark Seder, who consults with Main Street programs, said that Hillsdale works for commercial property owners because so many commuters pass through the district on Capitol Highway. But he added, commuters weren't represented among the vision workshop participants.

Some suggested tearing down Hillsdale's mid-century buildings and starting from scratch with a new, a more accessible and unified layout. But long-time business owner Mike Roach of Paloma Clothing warned, "Every time you rip down a building, you jack up the rents." He added that higher rents drive out small, local, start-up businesses.

A theme throughout the evening was a fondness for Hillsdale's small, locally owned shops and services.

Risher, a 20-year veteran of Hillsdale's planning efforts, observed that in the '90s, similar meetings had drawn many more people. That planning resulted in rezoning for higher densities and mixed use, but, he said, commercial property owners hadn't taken advantage of those changes. "Elsewhere, commercial property owners would salivate over those opportunities."

Instead, Risher said, commercial property owners are "going down the path of least resistance. They are doing what they understand, which is commercial, not mixed use."

He saw the evening's comments as "validating our previous work." The new library, the saving of Rieke Elementary School from closing and the creation of the Farmers Market all received praise. "We need to move to the next level," he said.


Neighborhood House Store
Executive Director Rick Nitti and staff member Kelly Owen check on the free store's inventory.

Neighborhood House
     A store where price is no object


Imagine a local store that wants fewer customers.

Demand for its product is at an all-time high, and that worries the management and the staff.

The operation is in the black although it gives all its goods away.

Confused?

The store in question is the food store in the basement of Neighborhood House in Multnomah Village.

Each month volunteer workers give away more than 700 cardboard boxes of food to the needy.

In the past year, the count has risen from just over 400. In October the numbers topped 700, for a record. Three years ago, Neighborhood House was giving out between 300 and 400 boxes a month.

While economists and government bureaus track unemployment, foreclosures and budget deficits, Rick Nitti, Neighborhood House's executive director, and his staff count the steady rise in demand for food boxes, whose contents are valued at $35 to $40.

Call it "the food-box index."

There are also rent assistance and energy assistance indexes, but, Nitti says, those are hard to measure because the numbers of people who can be helped are limited by the amount of funds available.

The numbers on the homeless seeking housing locally is also hard to determine because available housing is virtually gone, he says.

Another problem is that phone calls for help to Neighborhood House have overwhelmed its outmoded phone answering system. The agency is about to get a modern system that lists a menu of needs. When the new system is up and running, counting calls for specific requests will be easy, he says.

In the meanwhile, Nitti knows the demand for food is still rising. Moreover, the demographic is spreading to people who haven't traditionally needed help. "Some of our past donors are now recipients," he says.

He notes that people in the hard-hit real estate industry and building trades are turning to Neighborhood House for help.

The nature of those who give is also changing. The average size of the individual gift is down, but the total number of givers is up. "Large donors have become more dependent on stocks dividends," he notes.

Cash register appeals at Food Front and New Seasons have attracted numerous small donations. Direct "Nourishing Neighbors" appeals at the Hillsdale Farmers Market and increased gifts from faith organizations also represent hundreds of small donations.

Nitti also expects Neighborhood House's listing in the Willamette Week Charitable Gift Guide will result in a sizable contribution. A year-end "Neighborhood House Partnership Campaign" is currently under way and has set a goal of raising $118,000 by year's end.

The agency has 96 employees, 600 volunteers and a budget of $5.6 million annually.

On-line giving, which allows a donor to support a particular Neighborhood House program, has attracted small donations. Most donors direct most of their dollars to food, a need most easy to identify with, he said. The web site is www.nhpdx.org/supportourwork/support.html

For all the help, there's  uncertainty about future donations and whether they will be outstripped by need. "The bottom line for donations was a gain through mid-year," Nitti says. "We don't know what it will be at the end of the year."
Rieke modulars
The proposed bond strategy would delay replacement of Rieke modulars for  years.

No local opposition mounted against lack of money for a new Rieke School in bond measure

Leaders of the movement that saved Rieke Elementary School four years ago have failed to attract local support to lobby for a new Rieke building to be included in a proposed school bond measure.

"There doesn't seem to be much momentum," said Cindy Duley, a past PTA president. Michael Reunert, another former PTA president, said the omission of Rieke in the bond measure proposal hadn''t "galvanized" the Rieke community the way the threat of closure did.

Dick Hausken, the current PTA president, said the organization hasn't taken a position on the proposed measure, which calls for eight schools in the 47,000-student district to be rebuilt. Two, Lincoln High School and Markham Elementary School, are the only ones slated for reconstruction on the west side.

Reunert worries that the concentration of rebuilding on the east side will lead to "passive aggressive" voter response on this side of the city.

Duley said she had hoped that the measure would go "deeper and wider" in scope. Now she is pushing for a "time line" and "horizon" commitment for Rieke rebuilding in future bond measures. Such a commitment would give Rieke a firm place in the "pay-as-you-go" plan presented by district officials.

Under the plan, the district would return to voters in six-year intervals to ask for what would be, in essence, a renewal of the expiring bond so that other schools could be built.

On Dec. 13, the school board will vote on whether to put the measure on the May 2011 ballot. The district estimates that the average homeowner would pay $25 a month if the measure is approved.

The $548 million district-wide proposal presented by school superintendent Carol Smith offers the reconstruction of Markham as the only major project in the Wilson High School cluster.

But all schools would receive some bond money. Wilson, like all the high schools, would receive $2 million for improvements, said Chris Dearth, a Wilson parent who will chair the the bond campaign if it is approved by the school board.

District descriptions say Hillsdale's three public schools, like all others in the district, would get improvements for ADA accessibility, security systems and classroom learning technology.

In addition Wilson money would "upgrade classrooms and grounds, replace portions of the roof, and address safety of stage area rigging and lights."

Robert Gray Middle School would get improvements to its science labs.

Rieke money would "convert its boiler to natural gas."

Rieke principal Andrea Porter says the school also needs additional bathrooms and kitchen facilities to keep up with its expanding enrollment, which she says is now 370, up more than 100 from four years ago when a recruitment drive began. She and PTA president Hausken said they hope they can influence how bond money is spent at the school.

Markham Elementary, the only Title I school on the west side, would be renovated "as a new educational facility." Title I schools receive federal financial assistance because they have high numbers or high percentages of poor children.

Because nearly 30 percent of Markham's 376 students are learning English as a second language and yet are required to take standardized assessment tests after only a year of ESL instruction, the school has performed poorly in assessments, said Sarah Lewis, Markham's principal.

Most of the school's minority students are from the nearby Somali community but many are also from recent Russian immigrant families. Latino, Afghani and Kurdish children also attend.

Lewis  recently took several community leaders on a tour of the sprawling 60-year-old school. Included in the group were Duley, Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz and Portland School Board Member Ruth Adkins.

(In the left-hand column, is a Letter to the Editor from Adkins in which she shares her views on the bond measure and its impact.)

Markham is a sprawling school connected by a maze of ramped hallways. The place has a "fun house" feel to first-time visitors, as long as they aren't trying to negotiate it in wheelchairs.

To serve the Somali community, Neighborhood House runs three programs at Markham: Headstart, a parenting program, and an after-school Sun School, which has an enrollment of 200 students.

The building suffers from numerous physical plant problems including deteriorating plumbing and various leaks, said Antonye Harris, PPS's field operations supervisor, who helped lead the tour.

Duley said that the need for a new Markham building was apparent, if only because of the daunting ramps. But then she added, "I see need in every school I go to."
Closing the loop

Slide-severed Burlingame Place soon
to be one again

Burlingame Place slide repair
Looking north at Burlingame Place repair site

If all goes according to plan, Burlingame Place, severed and closed for more than two years by a devastating landslide, should be open to traffic by the middle of December.

A section of the road was swept away early in the morning of October 8, 2008 when the home of Kathei and Dave Hendrickson slid down a slope and smashed into two other houses sited just above Terwilliger Parkway.

The cost of the street reconstruction will be "in excess of $125,000," said Sam Anderson, the Hendrickson's attorney. As part of a legal settlement, the Hendrickson's insurance company, Farmer's, will pay the road repair costs, he said.

Repairs have been underway for more than two months, said Doug Morgan, an engineer with the City's Department of Development Services. The work involves sinking vertical "soldier piles" (see photo to the left) and then running attached metal "tie backs" horizontally deep into to side of the hill. The piles serve as uprights for a wall that is back filled with gravel up to the grade of the street, Morgan explained.

Michelle Becker, who lives two houses south of the slide, said having the street, a quiet residential loop, open again will mean that garbage trucks won't have to back down a narrow, blocked road.

And while neighbors could walk around the eroded street, they have felt divided, Becker  said. "You don't realize until the street is gone how much you'd stop the car and roll down the window to talk."

.
Lance Johnson's plat map
The Johnson property with SW 18th Drive on the left. Sunset Boulevard is on the right but other parcels front on it. Note the ten new lots and a new proposed extension of SW Dewitt along the boundary of the trapezoidal Johnson parcel.
In the Sunset Triangle



Developer trying to sell parcel
that is approved for subdivision

More than four years ago, Hillsdale developer Lance Johnson began to do what no one else had done in the "Sunset Triangle" residential area just north of the Hillsdale's Capitol Highway commercial area.

He set about dividing his one-acre residential lot into 10 smaller ones. He even tore down his ranch-style house on the property at 5920 SW 18th Drive to make way for the subdivision.

After hearings and working out details about utilities and a new street with Johnson, City  officials approved the land division. The division was allowed under new, higher density residential zoning in the city-council approved in the 1997 Hillsdale Town Center Plan.

Then the recession hit and a once-hot real estate market froze. Getting loans for the street and utility construction, to say nothing of new housing, became virtually impossible, Johnson said. The infrastructure work would cost an estimated $250,000, he said.

So now Johnson has the property on the market for $1.15 million. He's hoping Hillsdale's Main Street initiative will stimulate interest in the land with its City-approved lots.

He's also open to partnering with a buyer to working on the development. "I need to find someone with the money to pay for the improvements," he said during a break at the recent Main Street visioning session at Wilson High School.

The Date Book
 

Until Monday, Dec. 20


Wilson HS Booster Club Christmas Tree Sale 


 

 Mon-Fri.  5 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m to 7 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., A-Boy parking lot, corner of Barbur and Terwilliger. Money raised goes to assist all Wilson activities, clubs and programs.



Friday, Dec. 3

Locally produced 'Play Again' plays again
 

7:30 p.m. at the Multnomah Arts Center. The award-winning documentary, "Play Again," will be preceded by live entertainmenet at 6:30 p.m. The film explores the changing balance between how children experience the virtual and the natural worlds.


 

Saturday, Dec. 4

'Usual Suspects' put in a scavaging Hillsdale hour
 

9 a.m. at Hillsdale Food Front "veranda." Join neighbors for an hour of litter patrolling in the Town Center. Bring gloves and garbage bags. At the end of the scavaging, some take up backgammon or other board games.



Sunday, Dec. 5


          Tree planting in Hillsdale's new bike plaza


9:30 a.m. in front of Baker & Spice. Help plant trees in Hillsdale's new bike plaza.



Sunday, Dec. 5


Hillsdale Has It and the Holiday Farmers Market


In the Hillsdale Town Center. The Market, which will also feature craft vendors, lasts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Chili feed on the Food Front "veranda." 



Sunday, Dec. 5


                 Alternative Gift Fair


11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hillsdale Community Church, UCC, 6948 SW Capitol Highway.



Saturday, Dec. 11

 
Community walk downtown

9 a.m. at the big oak next to the Hillsdale dance studio. Join the group walk downtown with leader Don Baack. It's all downhill as the group will ride the bus back to Hillsdale.



Saturday, Dec. 11


            Pretty little folded trinkets workshop
                 
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Capitol Hill Library, 10723 SW Capitol Highway.

Make your gifts with paper artist Colleen Cavin. Space is limited. Tickets for seating will be given out 30 minutes prior to the program.


Saturday, Dec. 12


            Christmas Dessert Concert
                 
6:30 p.m. HIllsdale Community Church, 6948 SW Capitol Highway. Holiday food and song featured. Tickets $6.00 for adults, $3.00 for children.

 


 
Thursday, Dec. 16


Wilson HS Winter Choir Concert and Art Exhibit


7 p.m. at Wilson High School.