Commentary
Gasp! Hillsdale inhabited by aliens!
Most of us came to Hillsdale from somewhere else. We are, in our own benign way, ALIENS!
I'm from the Midwest. Think fireflies, thunderstorms and humidity. I still have an accent, I'm told, and I suppose I carry traits from the flatlands. I'm no longer certain what my traits are but I'm told there's a certain what-you-see-is-what-you-get, down-to-earth quality about folks in the heartland. The words "integrity" and "idealistic" sometimes get used. So does "naive."
Because Hillsdale harbors so many of us "aliens," it is a dynamic place where our differing backgrounds collide and/or mesh. It's a dance, and, if you stand aside, it is fun to watch the action on the floor.
Imagine: I count among my Hillsdale friends a loose-limbed, lanky Oklahoman, a street-smart Jewish raconteur from Detroit, a Southern gentleman steeped in military discipline and grace, and a Berkeley-bred lawyer who publicly performs coffee-house ditties with irreverent gusto.
Such joy!
Then there are those rare birds who actually grew up here. They went to Robert Gray and Wilson ... and stayed.
No wonder. I would have too.
They seem to have special claim to the place though I have never had them pull rank on us newcomers. You could speculate it's because we outnumber them. But you'd be wrong.
No, I find that they have a certain calm that comes with growing up here. The place, with its imposing natural beauty teaches humility. If anyone or thing has special claim here, it isn't human beings; it's the place itself.
Perhaps because of their acceptance, I treat these "natives" with the respect that is their due.
Imagine growing up in Hillsdale. Imagine growing old with the children-now-adults you have known for decades. Whom you remember swinging on playground swings or sliding into second. Imagine seeing the changes - saplings now towering trees, businesses that have survived the tests of time, ghosts of adventures hiking hills, celebrating school championships, cavorting in the snowdrifts of much whiter winters.
So Hillsdale is a weird and wonderful menagerie of experience, whether we spent our formative years here or elsewhere.
We are blessed for finding each other, for our being here together.
Rick Seifert, Editor/Publisher
Letters:
More about Safeway
Editor:
A few historical tidbits about Safeway...(see story in #117)
Safeway was in two different locations in Multnomah (before it was a village). A Safeway store was built in the same area as the one that was just torn down. That Safeway store faced west and Melgard's motel was next door to the west.
The old Safeway and Melgard's Motel were torn down and the "new Safeway" was built in 1968. The Multnomah Historical Association took pictures of the latest Safeway previous to its being torn down. The Historical Association also has a full set of photos of the Fred Meyer Burlingame store inside and out before the latest remodel. We wanted to document all the Fred Meyer neon signs as well as the layout of that store.
Patti Waitman-Ingebretsen
Multnomah Historical Association
Light rail means
bus service cuts
Editor:
If light rail goes through on Barbur it will mean cuts in area bus service. One of the many ways Tri Met inflates ridership numbers is by closing down any potential competing bus lines. Wherever MAX goes public transit options decrease. People who were once able to catch a bus within a block or two of home are forced to travel much further to a MAX station or seek transportation alternatives.
Tim Lyman
Letters to the editor are always welcome. Write editor@hillsdalenews.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
Book publishing changes create opportunities for Hillsdale authors
Hillsdale is emerging as home to a vibrant book-publishing cottage industry.
Writers who would have been rejected by publishers just a decade ago, are finding exposure on the internet. Manuscripts that would never have found their way into print, are being assembled "on demand" by local printing machines that spit them out like, as one writer put it, "gumballs from a gumball machine."
 | | C.S. Price's work is featured on cover. |
Vague musings of "I should write a book" are being transformed into black on white, whether on paper or screen. There are even on-line programs to help you sort through the plot complexities of that mystery rattling around in your head.
And it's all happening right here in Hillsdale.
Consider the case of 98-year-old Frances Price Cook, a long-time Hillsdale resident who for years had wanted to write a book about her uncle, the renowned painter C.S. Price. Last year, after a host of rejections by art publishers, Cook, co-author Patrick Leach and a small team of helpers published "The Life and Art of C.S. Price" through Create/Space, a division of Amazon.
Indeed, Leach, who has several of his own art and poetry books published non-traditionally, says publishing companies as we've know them are disappearing. The ones remaining aren't interested in any book that won't be a best seller, he adds.
 | | Frances Price Cook |
But Cook and Leach, who lives in Multnomah Village, found immediate acceptance and support at the Amazon company. The books can be printed on demand, which avoids having to convert your garage into a book warehouse.
Not all was perfect, however. Amazon can't accept a horizontal layout, which is what Cook and Leach had intended in order accommodate reproductions of Price's rectangular paintings. As a result, the reader has to turn the vertical book 90 degrees to properly view full-page reproductions.
The other problem is promoting the book. It helps to have a web site, but promotion is a big job. "I much prefer writing books to marketing," says Leach.
Still, he says, "The gates are open to publishing." To learn more about the book go to its web site. Copies are available at the Portland Art Museum store. The Museum has a room devoted to Price's work. The book is also available through Amazon.
Other Hillsdale authors are part of the dynamic publishing scene.
Ted Coonfield reports brisk sales of thousands of copies of his memoir "The Varmits." Despite the success, Coonfield, who is working on a screenplay, would go about publishing differently. Rather than use a distant on-demand publisher and printer, he'd work through local ones like Powell's. Coonfield's book is at Annie Bloom's Books in Multnomah Village and also available in a Kindle edition.
A local publisher whom authors might contact is Forest Avenue Press right here in Hillsdale. Laura Stanfill, who operates Forest Avenue out of her home, is working on her own historical novel and has published a well-received book of essays by and interviews with Oregon Writers ("Brave on the Page") Stanfill, whose books are printed on demand at Powell's, says it is easy to publish a book today. "It's sort of what happened in the music industry...It's the Indie movement. There's a renaissance going on." And that renaissance is made possible by new technology.
"It's a great time to be an author," she says, but she says she's working through book stores, not on-line book sales. "A book store allows you to look at the book and have that tactile experience."
Another driver of the local literary scene seems unlikely: Hillsdale-based Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH) Each year the non-profit holds a fund-raising event called HomeWord Bound, featuring Oregon writers. Stanfill is one of the guest authors at this years Friday, April 5, gala. For tickets and more information visit the CPAH web site.
Several years ago, Hillsdale resident Robert Hamilton wrote a novel titled "Dr. Dark" and tried to get it published through an agent. The agent shopped it around and finally reported that New York publishers had turned "risk-averse" regarding new authors.
By 2012, times had changed and Kindle Books had arrived. "Dr. Dark," posted on Kindle last fall, sells for 99 cents. Now Hamilton plans to publish a selection of his short stories and poems under the title "Short and Shorter." Ultimately he wants to interest an Oregon publisher in a series of four books called "The Hillsdale Narratives." Each of the four features a fictional Hillsdale resident who travels abroad.
Two other Hillsdale community authors of note (and forgive me if I have overlooked others) are Julie Richardson and Judy Nedry.
Nedry has published a murder mystery, "An Unholy Alliance" and has a forthcoming sequel, "The Difficult Sister" nearing publication. To follow her writing, visit her blog where you can purchase her mysteries.
Richardson has two well-received cookbooks out: "Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Bucklers, Cobblers, Pandowdies and More." and the recently published "Vintage Cakes: Timeless Recipes for Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel (etc.)" The first book is co-authored with former Hillsdale resident and famed chef Cory Schreiber. 10-Speed Press in Berkeley approached Schreiber, who enlisted Richardson in the project. The second book is a solo effort by Richardson. While published under the 10-Speed imprimatur, the company is now owned by publishing giant Random House.
Richardson, who lives in Multnomah Village, is well known in Hillsdale for the subject she write about. She is the co-owner of Hillsdale's thriving Baker & Spice bakery. Both books are widely available. |
|
Earthquake preparedness starting at Hillsdale's grassroots
Analysis
By Rick Seifert
A growing anxiety is slowly motivating Hillsdale neighbors to prepare for a massive earthquake and other major disasters.
Government and internet technology can help, but first more of us need to recognize just how ill-prepared we are. Ultimately it's up to us, as individuals and neighbors, to organize, say the preparedness experts.
That's the take-away message from the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association's March 6 meeting. Among the attendees were some who have begun to act. And since then, I've heard of more.
I've also discovered some handy tools on-line and in print which I'll share with you in a minute.
But be forewarned, there seems to be no agreement on what a neighborhood is for purposes of organizing.
 | |
Photo by Peter DeCrescenzo
Wes Risher is using a preparedness brochure, with its window signs, to help organize his neighborhood.
|
At the HNA meeting, I explained how applying the word "neighborhood" to the 7400 folks who live in the "Hillsdale Neighborhood" stands in the way of organizing at the grassroots.
Meanwhile the Portland's Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) and Multnomah County Emergency Management get things right in an excellent little publication called "Map Your Neighborhood" (MYN).
The pamphlet refers to your neighborhood as having 20 or so residences. That fits my own conception of a neighborhood perfectly.
(Obtain copies of the brochure by phoning the PBEM at (503) 823-4375. I've received 20 copies for my neighbors. The publication gives us a lot to talk about in preparation for an earthquake - right down to identifying gas and water line shutoffs for each house.)
There's more useful information at a public-agency sponsored site called
"PREP" (for Planning for Resilience and Emergency Preparedness). It too talks in terms of neighborhoods having 20 households. John Morris, co-chair of Hillsdale's NET (for Hillsdale Neighborhood Emergency Team) referred me to another web site intended to help neighborhoods and neighbors help themselves by communicating through the site. It's called Nextdoor. Read about my experience with Nextdoor in the story following this.
Several folks at the neighborhood association meeting understood quite well the need to organize for the inevitable earthquake. An earthquake would make a heap of trouble here, as Morris and others have repeatedly warned.
Wes Risher, a long-time Hillsdale activist, has brought his immediate neighbors together and given them all the MYN booklet, with its handy post-earthquake window signs of "HELP" and "OK." He and his neighbors are well on the road to preparedness.
A contingent of three from Chestnut Drive showed up to mostly listen. They too vowed to organize their immediate neighbors.
Folks on Cheltenham Drive have begun organizing neighbors on their cul-de-sac. Lisa Maas, who grew up in Berkeley, remembers the temblors in the Bay Area. But after reading an Oregonian Article and visiting the Preporegon site, she knows Portland is likely to experience something bigger, and we are woefully unprepared. She believes that gaining knowledge
and organizing her neighbors will reduce anxiety. "It also brings our neighborhood together," she said.
So I came away from the neighborhood association meeting with a new understanding. Emergency preparedness here is going to come from the bottom up as anxiety and even fear spread. Governments and agencies such as the Red Cross have made tools and advice available, but the initiative must come from individuals willing to organize those around them - folks we call "neighbors."
|
NextDoor
Networking site muddles our map, but offers a tool for emergency preparedness
A Review
By Rick Seifert
With emergency preparedness on my mind, my exploratory visit to the Nextdoor web site seemed promising. Nextdoor, a San Francisco-based group, has a "manifesto" that states the organizers believe in "neighborhood barbecues" "multi-family garage sales," "slowing down for children at play" "sharing a 'common hedge' and an awesome babysitter" etc.
But here's the manifesto item that jumped out at me: "Emergency Response."
In San Francisco, I thought, that certainly includes earthquakes. These are my people!
But when I plugged my address into the program, I was told I was part of the "Westwood Neighborhood." I know the Westwood area. The City doesn't consider it a neighborhood. I have several friends who live in the area roughly defined by Westwood Drive, Westwood View, Westwood Court etc.. They dwell in the maze of streets behind and above the Hillsdale Branch library.
But as far as the City is concerned, they live in the "Hillsdale Neighborhood."
Still, even though I live a quarter of a mile away from "Westwood," I figured I'd get on Nextdoor's "Westwood Neighborhood" site.
Question: Why didn't Nextdoor just put me in Hillsdale, which is where the City has me? Nextdoor actually has a Hillsdale site, Https://hillsdalepdx.nextdoor.com, which is closed to you until your register, but it doesn't include all of Hillsdale. Specifically, it leaves out Westwood.
The most active, and accurate, nearby Nextdoor site seems to be Bridlemile's.
Once I got into the Nextdoor program, I found some good news. I could create a sub-section called a "group." And so I did. I plan to invite my immediate neighbors, no more than 20 people, to join the group. I've named our group "Tyrol and 19th," which is the intersection at the heart of our cluster of houses.
Nextdoor dictates that you can't be a "neighborhood" with fewer than 75 homes, but you are a candidate to be a "group."
So "Tyrol at 19th" it is. On-line at least we are now an emergency preparedness group or EPG, which is my acronym.
What's your EPG? Once you answer that question, start to knock on doors, get a Nextdoor "group" set up and called a meeting, you have taken important steps toward preparing you and your neighbors for disaster.
|
Neighborhood House programs
to be hit by government cuts
The sequestration of federal funds that went into effect on March 1 is expected to have a "marked impact" on Neighborhood House's assistance to those in need, according to Rick Nitti, executive director of the Multnomah Village-based non-profit.
The agency expects federally-funded Rental and Utility Assistance services will be reduced. Access to the USDA food commodities has already been significantly reduced and will be cut back further, said Nitti.
Cuts are also expected for Turning Point, the Neighborhood House HUD-funded transitional housing program in Hillsdale. The facility serves homeless families.
The agency-administered Head Start Program, which receives Oregon state rather than federal funding, is not at risk.
Anticipated reduction for Older American Act services will affect the Neighborhood House Senior Center to some extent, and possible city budget cuts could close the center altogether, warns Nitti.
"Deeply impacted" will be direct service to seniors, such as Meals on Wheels and homecare services for frail home-bound elderly.
The federal cuts come at a time when several potential local funding cuts could drastically impact Neighborhood House's services as well, Nitti said.
Proposed reductions to the Portland Parks Bureau budget could eliminate one or more of the three Neighborhood House SUN Schools at Robert Gray, Jackson and Markham schools.
The proposed Parks Bureau cuts to seniors are so severe that they could reduce the agency's ability to serve frail seniors with case management and home care services.
Finally, the agency is concerned that a proposed cut in the Multnomah County budget will eliminate Multnomah County's support of Turning Point, severely reducing resources for the sheltered families.
Sunset Sidewalk still on track
Proposed cuts to the City budget aren't affecting plans to build a sidewalk on Sunset Boulevard in the two blocks northwest of the Library.
Chris Armes, manager of the project at the Portland transportation bureau, said that bids will be opened for the project on April 2, with construction starting in late May or early June.
The work is to be completed by September.
The total budget for the sidewalk is $800,000, but the construction is estimated to cost $425,000.
Armes noted that neighbors, many of whom had initial objections to the sidewalk, have been accommodating as plans for construction have moved forward.
|
Date Book Thursday, March 28 through Saturday, March 30
Big Rummage Sale at Multnomah Center
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (2 p.m. on Saturday), Multnomah Center, 7655 SW Capitol Highway. Proceeds benefit the Senior Center. Donations of clean clothes, kitchen utensils, small working kitchen appliances and home decor items will be accepted through Friday, March 22.
To donate large items, such as furniture, call Donna Trilli at (503) 246-1663 x6106.
Wednesday, April 3
Schools bond and fluoridation
on HNA agenda
7 p.m., St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 2201 SW Vermont. Randy Miller, project manager at Portland Public Schools, talks about PPS capital bond improvement projects; Kristi Jo Lewis from Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland will be speaking in support of Measure 26-151: fluoridating water. Friday, April 5 
Celebration of writers benefits
Community Partners for Affordable Housing
6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tualatin Country Club. Hillsdale-based non-profit Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH) holds its 15th annual HomeWord Bound fundraiser. Tickets $75. Includes dinner, auction and "wine wall." For reservations go to www.cpahinc.org
Saturday, April 6
"Usual Suspects" clean up
9 a.m., meet at Food Front. The "suspects" meet the first Saturday of every month for a one-hour litter patrol of the town center. Good, cleaning fun. All are invited.
Saturday, April 13 Wilson Gala and Auction
to support school's programs
Thursday, April 25
Film presents alternative 9/11 explanation
6 p.m. Hillsdale Branch Library. "9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out" a 90-minute documentary from Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Free.
Saturday, May 4
Story-telling featured at Neighborhood House's annual fundraiser
Doors open at 5 p.m., Multnomah Athletic Club. An Evening of Local Stories includes dinner. The non-profit social service agency hopes to raise $135,000 to support its programs for low-income children, families and seniors. The storytelling-themed event will also feature music and dance. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased online at www.nhpdx.org, or by calling (503) 246-1663 x2118. Sunday, May 5
Hillsdale SUPER SUNDAY: Main Street Health Fair, Rieke Art Fair and Farmers Market spring opening
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (until 4 p.m. for Rieke Cinco de Mayo art fair) Health Fair between the Hillsdale Wellness Center and the Hillsdale Pharmacy. Sunday Farmer's Market in the Rieke parking lot. and the Rieke Elementary School Art Fair/Cinco de Mayo celebration at the school.
|
|
|
|
|
