Juan Pablo Garnham, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Lindsay Cogan-Sant, new Project Director of the Sunnyside Shower Project

Three years ago, Lindsay Cogan-Sant arrived in Portland from Chicago and a year later they moved to Sunnyside. “It quickly became my favorite neighborhood that I’ve lived in,” they said. “It’s such a tight-knit community. There’s a lot of care for everybody and I think that is a unique thing.”

Cogan-Sant was already experiencing this tight-knit community as a neighbor with their partner and three cats, working at the Belmont Inn. But in January, they added another dimension to this experience: they became the first paid project director of the Sunnyside Shower Project, thanks to a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation.

Before taking on this responsibility, Cogan-Sant worked and volunteered in several areas related to social causes, including eight years in sexual assault domestic violence advocacy, as an abortion rights activist, and more recently managing a program for unhoused survivors of sexual and domestic violence with the YWCA.

How has this first month on the job been for you?

Lindsay: It’s been a really incredible experience so far. January was kind of a wild month…but I thrive in chaos. I’m really looking forward to all the amazing things that I think that we can do.

Could you explain more about what January has been like?

Lindsay: Winter is especially tough for our unsheltered neighbors. And with everything happening in the world, there’s a heightened sense of uncertainty and anxiety—especially around the availability of critical services that many rely on. On top of that, our washing machine broke and we spent two weeks battling a broken water heater—frustrating at any time, but especially in the dead of winter. We’ve had a nonstop stream of challenges to keep things running smoothly. The need for sleeping bags, tents, and warm clothing (especially coats and jackets) has been constant, as more folks struggle to stay warm and safe in these bitter cold temperatures. But this is such a resilient and resourceful group, and despite the setbacks, we kept pushing forward, finding solutions and making things work however we could.

You have mentioned that you love the sense of community in the neighborhood. Where do you see that in your daily life?

Lindsay: The Sunnyside Shower Project is definitely a big part of that. I think about everybody who volunteers and lives in the neighborhood. I’ve also had so many of my neighbors make a conscious effort to shake my hand and introduce themselves. There’s a lot of community events and things that I’ve seen happen at a lot of local businesses—there’s such great rapport between them. Everybody looks out for our neighbors. And there’s lots of very cute dogs that I’ve gotten to meet, which has been kind of my favorite part.

Beyond volunteering at the Shower Project, I’m curious if you have recommendations of how we can be more welcoming – not just to our unhoused neighbors but to anyone who is experiencing a difficult moment.

Lindsay: There’s a couple of things, I think. When we have bad days, [many of us] can process that in private; if we’re feeling really emotional, we can go home and cry in the privacy of our own homes. When you are unsheltered and living outside you don’t have that privacy. Your bad days are on display for everyone. So, it’s really important that if you see somebody who’s having a bad day, to treat them with compassion. Also, it’s important to remember that they are not just our neighbors, they’re our most vulnerable neighbors. Everybody deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Make a conscious effort to introduce yourself, like you would to any neighbor. Ask, “Do you need anything? Do you need some water? Do you need some warm food?” Basically, just treat people with compassion.

What are your priorities with this new responsibility with the Shower Project?

Lindsay: My priorities right now are getting folks connected with all the things that they need (like extra warm jackets) and refining certain procedures– getting things consistently on paper.

Long-term, I think this is one of the most incredible projects I’ve seen, and I would really love to see it grow – maybe someday introduce case management services or have more showers. I really just want to be able to provide a space for our neighbors to feel safe, warm and comfortable, get their basic needs met, and take a shower.

With your presence, and having someone professionally working with the project, it seems that this initiative is taking a step forward. Is that something you are looking for?

Lindsay: I really love the way that the project is currently. It is very community-centered – more mutual aid based than it is focused on being a standard nonprofit. I would really love to find a way to grow while keeping that community-centered, mutual aid mindset. I think that’s one of the things that makes this so special and so important. I really want to keep that focus as much as possible, but I do want to take this to the next level.

I imagine that one way neighbors can always help is by volunteering. But in what other ways could they contribute to the Shower Project?

Lindsay: Yeah, come volunteer! But also just stop by and say hi. I try to be here for most of the shifts. Come and get to know your neighbors, both housed and unhoused. If you have extra blankets or sleeping bags feel free to swing by and drop them off. Did you make some extra snacks that you want to share? Feel free to swing by! Just come and get to know your neighbors. That’s the best way to build community. I really think that we’re building such an incredible community. I’d love to get to know everyone in the neighborhood and I’d love for there to be more community engagement.

If you want to make a tax-deductible donation to the Sunnyside Shower Project, go to this link: https://tinyurl.com/3njsup3u, then select “SNACC” from the pull-down menu. You can make a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer!

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors!

Thank you to everyone who supported our students during Read-A-Thon. It was so much fun seeing everyone compete over reading minutes, enjoy local author talks, decorate their lockers to look like their favorite books, and dress up as their favorite book character. Also, thank you for your donations to the soccer goal fund. With your help the Soccer Coalition was able to meet its fundraising goal! Keep your eyes on the SES field—soon to be featuring two new soccer goals!

Join us for our Home-Grown Musical, Teleported!

Teleported, a musical written by our own Mo Phillips with the help of our students, will be performed on Friday, March 14 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, March 15th at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The students had a lot of fun putting this show together and it should be highly enjoyable to watch.

The year is 1984. Some teenage friends in NYC are having a slumber party when three of them get sucked into the T.V.! As their friend (and her dog) tries to free them, the teens get tossed from T.V. show to T.V. show, meeting all kinds of crazy characters. Will they get back to reality? Join us to find out. To buy tickets, go to our Facebook page (SES PTSA) or our Instagram profile (@ses_ptsa) and click on the link in any of our Teleported posts. Come support our young thespians!

Donations Needed for SES’s Annual Gala

Each spring, the PTSA hosts a gala at which we auction off a wide variety of exciting items and experiences. This is a very fun event attended by a wide variety of SES families and supporters. Right now, we are collecting prizes for the auction. If you have something you would be willing to donate, we would love to hear from you. Auction prizes can be anything – a night out at a local restaurant, a private weekend at your vacation property, tickets to a local show, beautiful handcrafted jewelry, pottery, or other household items. This can be a great way to promote your business and to support a local school. If you are interested in donating an auction prize, please contact [email protected].

Beads Needed for SES’s Upcoming Earth Day Celebration

SES, Making Earth Cool, and Extinction Rebellion are joining together to host an Earth Day celebration on SES’s campus on Saturday, April 26th. SES is collecting beads for a bracelet-making table in honor of Bob Sallinger, an important activist and community member who recently passed away. If you have beads you would be willing to donate, please contact [email protected].

We are planning a “Succession of the Species” parade, where participants can dress as plants or animals, as well as marching bands, face painting, giant puppets, and more! More details will be in the April newsletter.

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

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors!

Thank you to everyone who came to our Riparian Festival last month. We hope you enjoyed visiting our school and seeing what our students have been working on so far this year.

Read-A-Thon Is Back!

One of SES’s most beloved fundraisers begins on February 19th and runs until March 6th. During Read-A-Thon we encourage students to read as much as possible by having them track their reading and compete to see which individual, class, and grade can read (and fundraise) the most. Reading independently, being read to, or listening to an audiobook all count. Students may read whatever suits their fancy—books, comics, magazines, news articles, instructional manuals. Similar to a run-a-thon, students collect pledges for the time they spend reading, as well as flat donations. Prizes are awarded to the individuals, classes, and grades that read the most, as well as to those that raise the largest amount of money.

The competition gets fierce inside the school, where each class has a huge jar to which teachers add dyed beans corresponding to the number of minutes each student in their class read the previous day. This helps students see their progress, as well as motivates them to read more to compete with other classes. Students enjoy Dress As Your Favorite Book Character Day, and decorate their lockers to look like the spines of their favorite books.

Perhaps the best part of Read-A-Thon is the author visits. During these two weeks, a diverse group of local authors and illustrators come to SES to speak about their books, authorship, and share their own personal stories. All grade levels get to attend at least one of these assemblies, and all SES families and community members have the opportunity to purchase signed copies of the works of these local artists. This year, our list of authors who have kindly agreed to present include Mike Lawrence, Lilah Sturges, Cathy Camper, Waka T Brown, Aron Nels Steinke, and Whitney Gardner. Please consider supporting local authors, illustrators, and SES by buying signed copies of our speakers’ books from this website: sesptsa.square.site/shop/read-a-thon/6. If you do not currently have a student at SES please add “community member” in the order notes and we will contact you with pickup options when the books arrive. These are really special books and also make great gifts!

Additionally, if you know an SES student and would like to support them during Read-A-Thon, please reach out to them and make a donation. They will be very excited to receive it. If you would like to donate and do not know a SES student, you can use the QR code or website above and click on “Read-a-thon Pledge.”

Help Our Neighborhood Get a Soccer Field

A coalition of SES parents and neighborhood community members (“Soccer Coalition”) are working together to raise money to get a soccer field placed on the SES grounds. As mentioned in my first column, the school grounds become a public park open to the community after 3:15 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends and during the summer. While this park is lovely, it has a large amount of grassy space that kids struggle to play soccer on because there aren’t any goals. The Soccer Coalition is trying to change that.

The Soccer Coalition has secured a contract from Portland Public Schools for two soccer goals. They are now raising funds to cover the cost of the goals and for ongoing maintenance, such as periodically replacing nets. These goals will be on the grounds both during school and outside of school hours, and everyone in the community will be welcome to play soccer here when school is not in session.

The Soccer Coalition is trying to raise $6,000 by this coming spring. Please help bring access to pick-up soccer to the whole neighborhood by donating here: www.gofundme.com/f/help-bring-soccer-to-sunnyside-this-spring.

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

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Spencer Bone and Reed Lamb of Trails End Bar

Spencer Bone (right), lives in the Woodstock neighborhood, and is co-founder of Bottle Rocket, a burger-focused food cart at Cartopia on Hawthorne. Reed Lamb (left), lives in the Parkrose neighborhood and is the founder of The Standard, a dive bar in the Kerns neighborhood. The two joined together to start Trails End Bar, on the eastern edge of Sunnyside.

Although Trails End is themed after the Oregon Trail, the menu doesn’t necessarily reflect that. What inspired the menu?

Spencer: Every food I make is pulled from the past. I grew up in California’s Salinas Valley. That’s major farmland and there are lots of immigrant farmworkers. I lived in a town where half of them were Mexican; one of the plates on the menu was linguica sausage. The linguica on our menu is like the one from California that I remember eating as a kid.

You were running a food cart before this that also served alcohol, so why open this place?

Spencer: With a brick and mortar restaurant, it’s more like a community, a group with the same goal. Maybe I’m more like a cult leader here. Having a crew that feels like they’re involved and invested in the menu themselves breeds a want to make it good.

Reed has been a friend of mine for over a decade. We’re camping buddies with lots of similar ideas. He’d been looking for something for a long time, and then this spot opened up with a kitchen. It was turnkey, technically; there was a bar in here and tables. You could come in with product and start selling. We didn’t have to apply for a new permit. The layout of the bar is the same. All the sinks are in the same place.

How did he get you on board?

Spencer: Reed doesn’t know much about kitchens. So he just kind of said, “Hey, come down and look at this kitchen for me. Tell me what you think.” And then that’s when I was like, “We should do this together.” When I was driving home I thought of the name, Trails End.

Why do you think that name came to you?

Spencer: I’ve always liked western-theme bars. Like, when you drive out to the middle of nowhere and nothing’s changed in a bar in 40 years. It’s just always been the kind of places I like.

Reed, what’s your motive for owning another bar?

Reed: It’s nice to get to express yourself in something that resembles an artistic manner. I get precious little of it in my life. Even my wife is like, “You’re so much happier when you’re on a project.”

What kind of aura do you want this bar to have?

Spencer: A place that’s gonna be here forever, that was here forever. Almost like a Cheers vibe. You come after work, or you come after playing video games, whatever. As time goes on, we’d like to be able to go until 2:30 a.m. It’s the Trails End—it’s the end of the night, you come here.

Reed: I want it to seem a bit more grown up than the dive bars that I drink at normally, but not by a lot. I want it to still be fun. I want the bar to be smaller and more homey. A little bit more intimate, but still warm and familiar. It’s like a family bar that doesn’t allow kids. I want us to bring out the working people that are around here and still sling $2 Hamms and still have really good burger specials.

Where does this come from, the desire to cater to the service industry?

Spencer: That’s who we are!

Reed: I still work shifts at my bar [The Standard] when they pop up and I can’t get anyone else to work. You want to make a place that represents who you are.

Tell me about the aesthetic choices.

Spencer: As soon as I knew I was opening a bar, I reached out to one of my good friends, Matt Stinger. He’s a local artist, and I told him I wanted a mural of Oregon. I made a couple of funny requests. Like, we gotta have Bigfoot. And then there’s two lakes, or even three, called Lost Lake, and they’re all really hard to find. So he was like, “Where are they?” And I was like, “Just put them anywhere.”

Do you feel that a lot of the reason why this bar has come together the way it has, is because you developed a network of friends who were the perfect people to help you?

Spencer: Exactly. My friend Patrick—who is now in charge of the kitchen here— helped me open Bottle Rocket. He was one of my first employees there as well. So having him here is great, because he has great ideas. I would have just bought pickles. He’s like, “We can just make them. It’s cheaper, and it will taste better.”

I mean, you can go through life without friends, but it’s a lot easier to have them. You know that song, “Friends, you can depend onnnn.”

What do you have to say about Sunnyside as a neighborhood?

Spencer: There’s always been a working class vibe to most of southeast.

Reed: It seems like other places—like the Alberta neighborhood, nothing against them—kind of were an up and coming thing and a ton of out-of-towners moved in and made it cool. This neighborhood, though, it seems like Portlanders made it cool before the out-of-towners got here.

Earlier, you said that you believed that things were meant to be. How do you know when something’s meant to be?

Spencer: You have to take a leap, and then when you land on your feet, well, I guess that was meant to be. You’ll know, and you’ll definitely know if it’s not working.

Reed: I don’t know about “meant to be.” I do things logically some of the time, but a lot more often, I’m doing by feel. Something feels right and you just have that instinctual reaction. You’re like, “Yes, this is gonna work.” Other times, even if it seems like everything’s adding up, I’m like, “No, I’m pulling back from this.”

Is there anything I didn’t cover that you feel people should know?

Spencer: I just want to make sure that people know it came together through the work of everybody. It wasn’t just me and Reed. It was our friends and community. There’s no way it would have happened if it was just me and Reed by ourselves. We probably would just be drinking in a half torn out room. We would’ve been perfectly happy drinking in a half built bar by ourselves. At least it’s got whiskey in it.

Trails End Bar is located at 4601 SE Hawthorne Blvd, and open noon–midnight daily. For more info, check out their Instagram: @portlandtrailsend.