Chris Waldmann, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

News from the President

Hi neighbors! It’s that time of year where many of you have sent your kids back to school for another year of learning, enrichment and not bugging you during the day. Maybe some have sent their last child to college and are feeling a little of the ennui of a new empty nester.

We here at the SNA are having a bit of that feeling ourselves! In August, we said goodbye to one of our flagship projects, the Sunnyside Shower Project (SSP) as they moved to become an independent nonprofit. Founded in 2021 by our vice president Hannah Wallace, the SSP has served our most in-need neighbors for the last 5+ years with hygiene services, clothing, supplies, and community. It started off small with just a few volunteers offering approximately 12 showers per week during two days at the former Sunnyside Methodist Church. We didn’t really know what we were doing back then, but with perseverance, support from like-minded groups, and a ton of heart we got off the ground in helping the community. Over the years, we’ve grown—offering an annual winter gear drive, coffee and snacks, laundry cards from Belmont Eco Laundry, and even free acupuncture.

At the end of 2024, the growth of the SSP really began to ramp up with the hire of Lindsay Cogan Sant as shower project’s first director. Under their compassionate and strong leadership, the SSP has more than doubled the number of guests and offers new amenities like free phone services provided by Futel and a “whimsy committee” dedicated to bringing moments of unexpected joy to a marginalized community. Lindsay has also done an incredible job with fundraising.

The SSP is an amazing example of the good that can be done when we talk to our neighbors, find out what they need, and have a willingness to meet them where they are. I’m so proud to have been an SSP volunteer since the beginning and I am especially proud to be part of an NA that seeks to look out for everyone in the neighborhood. The good news is that the SSP will not be going far! Lindsay is an SNA Board member and the leader of our Community Cares group. They are so full of ideas and enthusiasm to help people that I know we will have new projects, on our own and with the SSP, soon.

September is also the real kickoff for Portland’s election season. This year we will be voting on all three of our city council seats and one citizen initiative. SE Uplift (3534 SE Main St.) will be hosting a candidate mixer on September 26th from 1–4 p.m. You can find details at seuplift.org/event/district-3-candidate-mixer-2026. Rather than focus on the wide-ranging group of candidates for council, at our September meeting the SNA will focus on the initiative, “Community Budgeting for All.” If passed, this would require 2% of the city’s annual budget, approximately $17 million, be set aside for citizen-proposed projects. Projects would be vetted by a group within city government and then finalists would be voted on by all of us in a TBD process. Versions of this “participatory budgeting” are in use in cities across the country. Come out to our September 9th meeting to learn about how this proposal would work in Portland. What are the benefits? What are the costs? Get your questions answered!

That’s it for now. We’ll see you at the next meeting, at the Belmont Street Fair, and maybe browsing for new-to-you treasures at the Sunnyside Yard Sale!

August 12th Board Meeting – Belmont Library Preview!

Join us this Wednesday, August 12th for our next board meeting. Usually, our board meetings are just about managing the business of the SNA as an organization, but we have a special treat this month! Representative of the Multnomah County Library system will be joining us for a special sneak peek of all that ht enew library will offer the community, days before the grand opening this weekend!

Photo of the new entrance to the Belmont Library — Photo courtesy of Bob Kerns Photography

One other note: In the August issue of the Sunnyside News, we announced that we would also be discussing a proposed new apartment building at 4511 SE Hawthorne. The developer has tabled these plans for now, so we are cancelling this discussion until more news arises.

The meeting, which will be held in the upstairs conference room at Southeast Uplift (3534 SE Main St.) and online at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85776168096?pwd=dTU3V0wycWZxTmhSVGNjNjJxdjNldz09, will start at 7 p.m. and go until approximately 8:30 p.m.

The full agenda is available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o7k99jkHOksU5_ikAakrHw-rfSD4hAlKKEn39mIejKU/view

News from the President

Hi Sunnyside! Since it’s finally July, I’m really putting the emphasis on “Sunny”! It’s a great season to fill a basket full of food and drinks, grab a blanket and pack up the kids for events across Portland. That’s right, it’s time for our third annual summer events guide! As always, this is just a taste of all the free events going on around town and definitely puts the focus on events in Sunnyside and our surrounding neighborhoods. Visit portland.gov/parks/arts-culture/summer-free-all/cultural-events for a wider list of events in our city parks.

The Sounds of Summer

• Bring your dancing shoes (or just dance barefoot!) for Melao de Cuba at Mt.Tabor’s Caldera Amphitheater on July 9th at 6:30 p.m.

• The Rose Park Amphitheater will be the site for the Washington Park Summer Music Festival on August 8th and 9th at 6 p.m. This year celebrates the history and future of Black music in Portland with the Time Sound Big
Band and original soul music from Ural Thomas and the Pain.

• With the kids out of school, parents may be feeling a bit of summer stress! Can I interest you in a glass of wine? Bring your kids to Firefly Wine Room (4538 SE Hawthorne) for Family Music Night with Mr. Ben on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Mondays all summer long.

Sunset Cinema

• The Buckman Community Association will have a viewing of Men in Black on August 1st at 7:30 p.m at Colonel Summers Park. After last year’s showing of Galaxy Quest, Buckman keeps killing it with the funny sci-fi!

• Nothing says cool like Jamaican bobsledders at the Winter Olympics!
The SNA, in partnership with the Richmond and the Hosford-Abernathy
NAs, will host Cool Runnings on August 22nd at 7:30 p.m. in Sewallcrest Park.

A Night at the Theater (in the park)

• Set in the shadow of Shakespeare’s 12th Night, A Simple Truth by Ken
Yoshikawa is an epic five-act verse tragicomedy. It tells a story of
sovereignty, grief, and ecological preservation. Presented by Oregon
Adventure Theater at TaborSpace on July 10th and 11th at 6:30 p.m.

• Longtime readers know that I am a sucker for the Original Shakespeare
Company’s hilarious takes on the Bard. This year’s slate at Laurelhurst includes something for everyone with Henry IV – Part I on July 10th, King Lear on July 11th and a double-header of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
Twelfth Night on July 25th. The full summer schedule is at opsfest.org.

Dancing (and eating and playing) in the Street

• Sunnyside’s street murals will be highlighted during a Pedalpalooza ride
on Saturday, July 18th. The ride starts at the Heart of Hawthorne
Plaza (at 37th Ave.) at 10 a.m. and proceeds on a 3.8 mile route
that will highlight the salmon murals on Salmon St. and the Sunnyside Piazza. More info at shift2bikes.org/calendar.

• How about a little educational fun? Explore Northwest Geology on a walk
through Mt. Tabor on July 26th at 2 p.m. Meet at the Visitor’s Center.

• Street fair season returns on August 23rd for the Hawthorne Street Fair and the summer wraps up with the Belmont Street Fair on September 19th. The SNA will be at both, so stop by and say hello!

That’s the summer fun list for 2026 but fear not, the SNA is not taking the summer off! We are working on multiple issues that affect the neighborhood, including dangerous traffic on our corridors, proposed developments on the empty lot at 4511 SE Hawthorne, and engaging with neighbors and other stakeholders around the long-vacant Laurelhurst Village property on Stark at 30th. More news on all of these fronts to come, but for now get outside and enjoy all that our city has to show off in the summer!

News from the President

Welcome to summer, Sunnyside! Long days and hopefully cool nights; it’s the best! I can’t wait for all the summer activities that Portland has to offer. Check this space next month for our annual guide to warm weather events in and around the neighborhood.

Now onto the news…

In May, the SNA held its Annual Meeting. It was a great time to reflect on the past year, look towards the next and elect Board members to serve for the next two years. You can view the presentation slides at tinyurl.com/dzm2twn8 but I’d like to highlight a couple of accomplishments from 2025/2026. First, after a few years of fading paint, over 80 volunteers, led by Board member Tim Quayle, came out to freshen up the Sunnyside Piazza. We’ll be out next year to do it again! In November, we had a meeting highlighting the need for a new Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) in Sunnyside and a community member responded! Shout out to newly-elected Board member Ophelia Schechter for stepping up and getting trained to be our newest leader of the Sunnyside NET! It makes me feel like the SNA can make a difference through not only our actions and projects, but by highlighting public needs.

Thank you to all who came out to run for the SNA Board. We had seven neighbors running for five Board seats! Congratulations to Ophelia, Tim, Dresden De Vera, and Lindsay Cogan Sant for stepping up to help your local civic association. I also got re-elected and look forward to continuing to work with this Board to bring you the local information you need and projects to improve the community and help Sunnyside succeed.

In other news, there’s a new crosswalk in the neighborhood! Thanks to neighbor advocacy, additional safety protection is now in place for those crossing Stark near 44th. This is not the end of the story. There’s still so much work to do to improve safety on this arterial road, including increased speed enforcement and improving pedestrian light timing along the entire stretch of Stark through the Sunnyside neighborhood. Additionally, the speed limit on Belmont has been reduced to 20 mph. Please be mindful of the new, lower speed limit in this area. Together, we can protect all of our roads’ users and make Vision Zero a reality.

That’s it for now. Our next General meeting isn’t until September, but the Board will be meeting in June and August to organize ourselves for the new term and continue working for you.