Author: Valerie Kahn

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors!

You are all cordially invited to SES’s Harvest Fair on Saturday, October 26th from 3-6 p.m. at SES’s campus (enter on the blacktop). Harvest Fair is SES’s annual celebration of autumn, harvest, and community—including you, our neighborhood community. Admission to the event is free, but you will need carnival tickets to purchase food, drink, or to participate in the many exciting activities. Carnival tickets may be purchased with cash, check, or card at the event.

Activities include (but are by no means limited to):

The Magical Cookie Palace: Greet  Mother or Father Autumn and browse an entire room of cookies, choosing one to devour.

The Hay Bales of Mystery: Children of all ages are invited to dig through hay bales to discover small toys hidden within. 

Teacher Plunge: Step up to the line, hit the target with a ball and a teacher gets dunked! Alumni, come dunk your favorite teacher!

Baked Goodies Boogie: Walk or dance along a path of numbered squares to music. Whoever is standing on the winning number when the music stops gets a cake or other confection of their choice!

We will also have face painting, a contest to guess the weight of locally-grown pumpkins, and a variety of carnival games hosted by our marvelous middle schoolers.

Our annual Community Meal, provided by a local restaurant, will be served in the cafeteria. Hot dogs, sausages, fresh pressed hot apple cider, and our famous granola, made by SES’s 5th graders, will also be available for sale. All food and drink must be purchased with carnival tickets.

We hope to see you there!

Can’t attend the Harvest Fair, but would still like to help us make it a success? We always need small toys for our Hay Bales of Mystery. If you have small, clean, unbroken toys around your house (something a child might bring home in a birthday gift bag), we would love to hide them in hay for kids to dig around for. Donations may be placed in the box labeled “SES Harvest Fair” on the top of the stairs at 2425 SE Taylor St. by October 22nd. If you enjoy baking, we would also welcome donations of home baked cookies or cakes for our Magical Cookie Palace and Baked Goodies Boogie. If you are interested in donating baked goods, please contact our PTSA at [email protected].

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!

Land Use and Transportation Committee Report

The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association Land Use and Transportation Committee (LUTC) meetings will be held on the fourth Thursday of the month at 8 p.m. at SE Uplift (3534 SE Main Street). We recently revised the committee’s charter which was approved by the SNA Board at its April meeting. We especially encourage Sunnyside renters to attend these meetings. The LUTC recognizes that most Sunnyside residents are renters and seeks to include their voices and needs in this committee. 

Historically, the Sunnyside LUTC has served as a point of contact between the neighborhood, city planning bureaus, and private developers looking to make changes or redevelop land in the neighborhood. This reformed committee will maintain this role, facilitate discussion between neighbors on issues relating to proposed and existing transportation, and aid in refining a vision for our neighborhood infrastructure in alignment with the interests of current and future Sunnyside residents.

News from the President

Happy Spring, neighbors! Flowers blooming, some sun high in the sky and longer days welcoming us all outside into the neighborhood. Count me as a YAY!

Our March meeting featured an interesting presentation from the Metro Climate Action Team about their efforts to turn Portlanders towards more sustainable methods of cooking our food, and heating our homes and water. We learned about the benefits of installing heat pumps and induction cooktops – such as greatly improved in-home air quality, the potential for reduced utility bills and knowing that we are doing our part to reach our community’s climate goals. The federal government, through the Inflation Reduction Act, is offering tax credits and rebates for the purchase of heat pumps, energy efficient windows and induction stoves. Efforts are also proceeding to ensure that all new construction doesn’t utilize gas hookups. There’s going to be a lot of new construction in and around Portland over the next decade, and I’m hoping that we can use this opportunity to improve the environment rather than locking in new neighbors to dirty, unhealthy energy. To learn more about the Metro Climate Action Team visit www.olcv.org/metro-climate-action-team. The IRS has an FAQ page up about the available credits and rebates at
www.irs.gov/pub/taxpros/fs-2022-40.pdf.

The April board meeting will be a busy one! We will be discussing the new committee charter that the Land Use and Transportation Committee has been working on as well as planning our May elections. With that in mind, I am taking this space to officially announce that our elections will be held at our May 11th meeting at 7 p.m. You will be able to participate in-person or on-line, but you must be at the meeting to vote! We have four board seats on the ballot this year and officers will be elected by the board over the summer. If you are interested in learning more about being a member of the SNA board or any of the officer positions, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Any of us would be happy to discuss the roles and our experiences working for the community.

If we don’t see you in April, then I look forward to seeing many of you in May and around the neighborhood in between! If you have anything that you would like the SNA to tackle, please reach out to us at any time.

News from the President

Hi Neighbors! I’m writing this in the aftermath of the big February snowstorm. Sunnyside looks beautiful with the sun shining off the fresh snow. Hopefully, when you read this, spring will be showing its green face again!

During the February board meeting we focused on land use — specifically revitalizing our Land Use and Transportation Committee. We had several folks join us who are interested in this important work and we voted to create a committee. We are moving forward with choosing a chair and establishing some priorities for Sunnyside. If you are interested in joining the committee, please contact us at [email protected].

We are still searching for new board members and officers for the SNA. Elections will be held in May. Please contact us at [email protected] if you’d like to learn more.

We look forward to seeing you in March at our next general meeting on March 9th at 7:00 p.m. Keep an eye on the website (sunnysideportland.org) for agenda details. As always, if you have something you’d like to discuss or learn more about, we’d love to hear from you!

What’s Your Preparedness Story?

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a Sunnyside Neighborhood Emergency Team (aka NET) member and I’m tasked with encouraging all Sunnysiders to be prepared, not scared.

I’m shifting the focus of my news articles for the rest of 2023 to hearing and sharing your efforts, successes, and even frustrations with preparedness within your own families and blocks. We learn best from stories, so think about sharing yours with me. The best way to reach me is via email at [email protected]. 

Once you’ve emailed me, I will reply with a series of questions assessing where you are in your efforts to be prepared. I would also be willing to meet in person or via Zoom to chat once you have answered my follow-up questions. Then I will write an article for the newsletter, which, depending on space limitations, would be published sometime in 2023.

Looking forward to hearing from you and sharing your stories. Happy 2023.