Diane Meisenhelter, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with our outstanding and outgoing SNA President Ash Hester

As 2020 in Portland began to take shape, with a pandemic just beginning and a city righteously upset with systemic racism, Ash Hester wanted to make a positive difference. But how? She decided to direct her energies about as local as you can get—into the Neighborhood Association.

“I attended a couple anti-racism marches, and while the impact was incredible, I wanted to serve in a role to create justice and equity through other avenues,” Ash told me on a chilly but sunny Sunday morning in early March over breakfast at Cricket Cafe (3159 SE Belmont St.).

Originally from Arizona, Ash moved to Portland in 2016. With a background in business development, operational processes, and strategy-building, she’s also worked in fashion and at creative agencies. When she moved to the Sunnyside neighborhood she became an avid reader of the neighborhood newsletter. Around the time of the anti-racism marches she read that elections were coming up. “So I reached out to the association and went on a walk with our previous Board President, Matt Lembo,” Ash says. Inspired by what he told her, she showed up the next day at the Sunnyside elections, gave a speech, and got voted in.

Two years later, Ash is not only President of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, she is a board member and Co-Chair for SE Uplift. To continue putting in effort when the going gets tough requires a deep level of commitment. In her words, “I’m working hard for equity and inclusion, for all within Portland, and applying my professional skill set to help restore broken systems and provide lasting solutions that benefit the community at large.”

Nate: This work—which really is politics on the most local level—is really hard. How do you keep the peace?

Ash: Everyone is entitled to their own personal experience. It’s about trying to find bipartisan neutrality and letting people know that we hear them, while also making it clear what the organization—what our neighborhood and neighbors—need. There will be contention about certain issues, but it is essential to create solutions that will help everyone out in the long run.

Nate: A lot of people who get involved for the same reasons you do give up when they experience just how challenging and toxic this work can be.

Ash: That’s true, it can be a rotating door. Progress can be stagnant, but really good work is happening and we don’t celebrate that, and the people doing the good work, nearly enough. We could be doing even more if we focus on solutions for our communities instead of infighting.

Nate: How have you kept at it while remaining so positive?

Ash: I grabbed a virtual coffee with our State Representative Rob Nosse in 2020 and he said, “Look, if you want to get involved you need to find your passion, because you’re going to get burnt out and you’ll need to keep going. You need to narrow in on your thing. You can’t be everything for everyone—all things to all causes.”

Nate: Do you rent or own?

Ash: I rent off 31st and Yahmill, but I’m looking to buy. Sadly, it won’t be in Sunnyside since the market is very high for a first-time homeowner.

Nate: What has brought you the most joy during your tenure on the SNA Board?

Ash: The opportunity to connect with people—to literally know my neighbors. I know that’s a mentality of the past, like the 50s, but we often live in such an isolated bubble. But now I know everyone on my block and that’s expanded across all of Sunnyside.

Nate: I love that.

Ash: Yeah, I think it’s important to know your community. I will always get involved in my Neighborhood Association so that I can meet my community. Of course there’s other rewarding things that have brought me joy: doing awesome things that are positively impacting lives is icing on the cake. Not only do I get to make new friends but I get to help improve people’s lives.

Nate: What do you love most about Sunnyside?

Ash: The people that care and show up and are selflessly doing the work. Just the dedication of folks like Hannah Wallace and all she does (including running the Sunnyside Shower Program), Vincent Dawans and his litter pick-up, coordinating with the Business Associations, and all the work he and others do to keep our neighborhood clean and safe. That’s what I love most about Sunnyside—people show up, caring, and doing the work.

Nate: Where’s your go-to restaurant?

Ash: I dig the Gold Dust Meridian (3267 SE Hawthorne Blvd). It’s got chill vibes. I’m also a fan of Ardor Natural Wines (4243 SE Belmont St #400). I’m a wine club member there. Their new wine bar, Nil, is a nice addition to the neighborhood.

Nate: As your time on the Board comes to an end, what do you hope continues in the organization and neighborhood that you’ve been such a big part of?

Ash: That the momentum of impactful work continues. I can totally see myself popping into a Thursday night meeting and being there to hang out and brainstorm ideas.

Nate: You are such a nerd.

Ash: I care about these people. While I might not be picking up trash around the neighborhood or volunteering for a shower shift, it’s still my community wherever I end up.

Nate: What’s one thing you’d like to see improved in the Sunnyside neighborhood?

Ash: I’m excited to see more people get involved in this organization. There’s a low barrier to getting involved and it provides such rich substance. We’re starting to see more people reaching out and popping into meetings just out of curiosity, and then they come to another meeting. Some of these people don’t even live in the neighborhood but they felt welcomed and say it’s a warm environment. Seeing stuff like that makes me excited that Sunnyside will continue to do capacity-building work, applying a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. I hope that the work we’re doing—advocating for those in need and public safety—grows to become the leadership example for other neighborhoods and the City. This stuff doesn’t just happen—we all have to put in effort and show up for each other.

Sunnyside Neighborhood Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Officer Matt Jacobsen

If you’ve called the Central Precinct anytime over the past few years, you may have spoken to Officer Matt Jacobsen. A familiar figure around Sunnyside, Jacobsen is on the Neighborhood Response Team (portlandoregon.gov/police/article/668128), a program that addresses more deeply rooted and complex problems related to crime, nuisance, and livability issues. As such, he’s forged relationships not only with houseless members of the community but also with nonprofits such as Beacon PDX (beaconvillagepdx.org) and the navigation team at Transition Projects (tprojects.org) who work directly with people living on the street. “I think that seeing everybody as human is really important,” Jacobsen says.

How long have you been working in Sunnyside?

I’ve been a police officer for nearly 13 years. I’ve been in Portland since 2015, and on the Neighborhood Response team since 2017.

How has Sunnyside changed in the time you’ve been working here?

One of the things I witnessed was a pretty significant mobilization of the community in Sunnyside—which is really impressive—whether it be the Neighborhood Association working closely with Beacon PDX, or the shower project. The community has rallied around some of the issues and has generally been very positive in dealing with them. But we’ve also seen an increase in livability issues. The camping concerns definitely remain.

Were there as many people camping here before the pandemic as there are now?

There’s been a pretty steady group of folks that have moved between Sunnyside, Laurelhurst Park and Sewallcrest Park for quite some time.

When you started in 2017, how many officers were on the Neighborhood Response Team?

We had seven officers and a Sergeant. Two of those were assigned full-time as a homeless outreach car. They did nothing but engage with our homeless community, identify our chronically homeless, and try to get those people into some sort of shelter or housing. Now, I have four full-time officers and a Sergeant. So we went from eight people to five.

Why did that happen?

We’ve had staffing difficulties. The homeless outreach car was cut for that reason in 2020. So it’s not as simple as “there was a budget cut.” We had to change how we did things, not just related to the civil unrest we’ve seen, but also related to the pandemic.

What has suffered now that you have fewer officers?

The amount of work didn’t change, but the depth at which we’re able to work has changed. We are still the investigative unit for the precinct. That outreach car was really instrumental in being out and having a lot of face time with our community. We’ve lost that, which is frustrating. We’ve done our best to try to make up for that, but it’s the old story of doing the same with less.

How do you build relationships with people who live here—both housed and unhoused, especially people who may not have had the best experiences with police in the past?

You nailed it on the head. Oftentimes the only contact that people have with the police is negative—somebody’s getting a ticket or getting arrested. So when we’re able to have those positive, or even

just neutral, conversations with people to show that every time the police are engaging with folks it’s not going to be bad, we’re able to build some trust. We can build rapport.

Will you share an anecdote that maybe demonstrates what’s possible when you have these kinds of relationships?

We had a subject at Laurelhurst Park that was resistant to going to housing or other services. But we know him really well. And so once when he was angry about something and said, “You’re going to have to arrest me,” we were able to work that and have a conversation and ultimately, get him into a shelter and get him a new bike.

I know that occasionally, when you’re interacting with someone, you have to call other outreach folks to help because you can sense that someone’s been traumatized by the police. How do you know when you’re not the right person, as a police officer, to help?

After doing this awhile it’s pretty clear when people get sketched out. But again, it’s those relationships with non-governmental organizations, having the ability to just make one phone call and get somebody to help you that allows us to approach the situation in the least traumatic, and the least enforcement-minded, way.

There is a lot of conversation in Portland around changing the way police officers are trained. What trainings have you been through that have been particularly helpful?

I’ve been lucky to go through our Enhanced Crisis Intervention training as well as ongoing training on our Crisis (Hostage) Negotiation Team. Most of the “training,” though, is dealing with folks on the street and learning best practices. I cannot stress enough how important being out in the field and building relationships is.

There are signs all over Sunnyside to abolish and/or defund the police. What’s your response to this? Do any officers on your team ever say, “Forget it! I don’t want to help these people—they don’t even think I should have a job”? Have you had to address morale at all?

I have, but I think the officers on my team are pretty motivated. You’re not on this team unless you’re looking to make a difference. I was born and raised in Portland. I chose to come back here to be a police officer and be part of the community. I’m invested in the success of the community. Often, the worst situations get publicized in the media and the good outcomes, or even the neutral outcomes, don’t get much publicity.

Some Sunnyside residents have shared that when they’ve reported crimes, they either don’t receive a response or that there’s nothing the police can do, which is disappointing. Why should people keep reporting crime? If there are enough reports made, will more officers, maybe, be assigned to this precinct?

Calls may be canceled or responses delayed if we are experiencing a high call volume or the incident doesn’t appear criminal. (Or it’s reported that the behavior has stopped.) Generally we’d expect that the original caller be contacted and notified, though there are times that may not happen. Regardless, the last thing I want to hear is that people don’t feel we’re here when needed. The reality is that with increased call volume and fewer officers, we aren’t as immediately responsive as we’ve been in the past. There is no question that “reporting fatigue” has set in throughout our community.

Reporting is hugely important for the reason you alluded to. It not only helps us frame a truer crime rate, which allows us to then better forecast how many officers are actually needed in Portland, but it also helps me (and our precinct) have a better idea of where to allocate the resources we do have.