Hi neighbors and welcome to the spooky season! Time for pumpkin spice, kids dressed as superheroes & zombies, and the looming dread of the coming rains.
September was a busy month for the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association. We had a great time at the Belmont Street Fair seeing old friends and welcoming new ones to the neighborhood. A big shout out to everyone who volunteered to set up and staff the Sunnyside table!
September also saw the first SNA General Meeting of the season. We welcomed State Rep. Rob Nosse who spoke about transportation safety and funding, improving the operation and administration of the organizations tasked with providing detox and rehabilitation services under Measure 110, as well as other public safety & livability issues. Thank you Rep. Nosse for taking the time to join us.
We also discussed traffic safety and what SNA’s advocacy should be with PBOT. The conversation focused on César Chavez Blvd. People came with some great ideas including:
● Adding bus/bike-only lanes;
● Improving the timing of the lights at Belmont and Taylor;
● Painting crosswalks to better highlight them for drivers;
● Removing potentially unnecessary bus stops between Belmont and Hawthorne. [There are currently four on each side on this stretch.];
● Working with organizations like MADD and/or our local business associations to create banners to hang across César Chavez to disrupt the visual field and reduce speeds; and
● Widening the sidewalks by engaging with property owners whose retaining walls encroach on the public right-of-way.
Please keep your ideas coming! It was noted that, currently, PBOT’s resources are stretched extremely thin, and there are, possibly, equity issues in spending a lot of money to improve César Chavez through Sunnyside when so many neighborhoods in Portland lack basic infrastructure like sidewalks and marked crosswalks. In the meantime, members of the SNA Land Use & Transportation Committee are reaching out to PBOT leadership to ensure they have our community’s input as they move forward with near and long term upgrades to our roads.
During the Board Meeting we agreed that we need to update the SNA’s branding. We are looking for help designing a new logo and creating signage for events such as street fairs and movie nights. If you are interested in helping, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Finally, SE Uplift has opened up its grant applications for the year. They have two opportunities – Community Small Grants and IDEA Communication Grants. The Community Small Grants program awards up to $5,000 for projects that increase the number and diversity of people engaged in the broader community; that strengthen the community’s capacity to build leadership, identity, skills, and relationships; and that increase the ability for the community to impact public decisions and community life. The IDEA Communications Grants program awards up to $1,000 for eligible communications-related projects that focus on increasing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) within the SE Uplift area. Applications are due October 31st. For more details visit www.seuplift.org/grants.
The SNA will not have a General Meeting in October; our next General Meeting is on November 9th. We hope to have a representative from one of our local police precincts to discuss public safety. We are also reaching out to Multnomah County to learn more about the upcoming renovation to the Belmont Library branch. In the meantime, be careful out there and watch out for little goblins and ghouls on the streets!