Author: Chris Waldmann

News from the President

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!

September 14, 2023 SNA General & Board Meeting

The SNA’s September General and Board Meeting will be held Thursday, September 14, 2023, at 7:00pm.

Meeting is open to the public. 

Meeting Agenda. Times are approximate. Agenda items are subject to change.

This meeting will be held in person at SE Uplift (3534 SE Main St, Portland, OR 97214) and virtually at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85776168096?pwd=dTU3V0wycWZxTmhSVGNjNjJxdjNldz09

 

Upcoming Meeting – Cesar Chavez and Rob Nosse

In the aftermath of Jeanie Diaz’s tragic death on Cesar Chavez, across from the library, a member of the board of the Mount Tabor NA drafted a letter to PBOT demanding action to extend a soon to be installed Rose Lane from it’s planned terminus at Cesar Chavez and Stark through Sunnyside all the way to Division or Powell. Rose Lanes are those red-painted lanes that permit only busses, bikes and cars that are turning right to use them. The new Rose Lane on Cesar Chavez is planned to run from I-84 down to Stark. The MTNA board member reached out to the SNA and Richmond NA boards seeking support so that we could all sign on and present a united front to the city planners. The SNA board, in August, voted to sign on to this letter, believing that the extension of the already planned Rose Lane further south could help calm speeding traffic, provide a much needed buffer for pedestrians and ultimately save lives for minimal cost. Unfortunately, the RNA board decided against supporting this measure, instead wanting to do further engagement with the community and explore any potential unintended consequences of the lanes. Without the support of all 3 of the neighborhoods, the MTNA board decided to withdraw the letter, allowing us the option to continue to send it to PBOT from Sunnyside alone. In light of this, the SNA board wants to hear from all of you. What do you think is appropriate action to take on Cesar Chavez to protect pedestrians, bikers, transit users and car travellers? As part of our September meeting, we will be having an open discussion, so bring your ideas. What improvements do you want to see? What are your ideas on the best ways to advocate for these changes?

In addition to this discussion, we will have a special guest, State Representative Rob Nosse, who will provide updates on public safety and other issues that the legislature tackled this past session.

We look forward to seeing you on September 14th at 7 pm at SE Uplift and online.

News from the President

Hi neighbors! I hope that you are enjoying your Oregon summer—getting out into nature, scarfing down local produce, and enjoying all the festivals and events that Portland has to offer in the sunny season. Our neighborhood main street festivals are coming up, with the Hawthorne Street Fair (hawthorneblvd.com) on Sunday, August 27th and Belmont Street Fair (belmontdistrict.org/belmont-street-fair) on Sunday, September 9th.

The SNA board has been taking time this summer to get ourselves organized. We lost a ton of experience and history this year with three people deciding to leave us: longtime board member (and former president) Matt Lembo, treasurer Vincent Dawans and at-large member Emily McCadden. Thanks to all three for their service to the community! Luckily, several new folks have gotten involved. I’d like to welcome all the new board members and officers: Kendra Hansen (treasurer), Eric Miller (secretary), Andru Morgan, and Mike Thelin. I’m excited to have everyone on board! Please, if you see these folks around Sunnyside stop to say hi, thank them for their involvement, and let them know about issues you’d like the SNA to tackle.

One issue that I hope we can continue to advocate around is pedestrian safety and traffic calming. As many of you know, on July 15th a woman was tragically killed on Cesar Chavez Blvd. near the library. An allegedly drunken driver lost control and flipped their car, striking the woman who was simply waiting for a bus. We all know that the Sunnyside-stretch of Cesar Chavez has some of the narrowest, least protected sidewalks and that drivers frequently drive recklessly through this area. As of this writing, we don’t have many details about this particular crash, but we do know that the road design encourages high-speed driving and that there is very little buffer between the sidewalk and the travel lanes. As with anything around transportation, change will take time and money, but if we start now, maybe we can get a better, safer street.

As always, if you have issues that the SNA can take on, or projects that we can help you with, please reach out. You can contact us at [email protected] or you can reach me directly at [email protected].