Author: Chris Waldmann

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].

News from the President

Hi neighbors and happy summer! I hope you all are getting out and enjoying all that Sunnyside, Portland, and Oregon have to offer during this most wonderful season. The SNA is on a summer recess for general meetings but the newly elected board is getting to know each other; we are organizing ourselves and looking at topics that are important to inform you all about and take action where we can. The Land Use and Transportation Committee is busy working on issues surrounding vacancies and redevelopments in the southeastern section of Sunnyside. Sunnyside Community Care Committee (SNACC) continues to do outreach and aid to our less fortunate Sunnysiders.

While the board works out agendas for upcoming meetings – the next general meeting is on Thursday, September 14th – we want to hear from you! 

  • What should we be addressing? 
  • What do you want to hear about? 
  • What projects do you have brewing where the SNA can help out?

    Please reach out to [email protected] with your ideas, concerns and questions!

We’ll see you soon!

News From The President

Greeting Sunnyside! Another year has passed and that means we had an election at the SNA. We had an excellent turnout at our May meeting for the elections and elected three new and one returning board member for two-year terms. Congratulations to our current VP Hannah Wallace and our new board members  Daniel Mandel, Kendra Hansen, and Mike Thelin. Welcome to the board! We are excited to have your energy and ideas in service to the community. If you see them in the neighborhood, please share your ideas for the association with Daniel, Kendra, and Mike and thank them for stepping up to the challenge.

One of the things we did at the May meeting was to review some of the actions the SNA has taken this year–our ongoing projects and the discussions we highlighted for our community. These included:

• Holding an informative debate about the charter amendment that Portland passed last year;

• Learning about the environmental and health effects of gas-powered leaf
blowers and yard tools, and their alternatives;

• Relaunching our Land Use & Transportation committee with a new
charter that puts the needs of renters, who make up most Sunnyside residents, in the foreground;

• Bringing services to our neighbors living on the streets with the continued efforts of the Sunnyside Shower Project and the SNACC committee;

• Saving the cute painted planting barrels that were part of the Sunnyside Piazza, but were deemed a nuisance by PBOT, and moving them to the Sunnyside Environment School where children can use them for gardening projects.

• Bringing this newsletter every month to the entire neighborhood to help keep you informed.

The new board will be seated at our June board meeting which will mostly focus on organizing ourselves for the coming year. If you’d like to bring anything to our attention for action, please don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected]. Please, also let us know if you have a community event you’d like to highlight on either our calendar or Facebook page.

Stay cool out there Sunnyside!