Author: Jan S. Molinaro

Co-Chair, Sunnyside Prepared!

Preparing for “The Big One”

Through my eprep lens, I know about many of the people in my neighborhood and where they are on the preparedness continuum—and some of them are quite impressive. Here, I profile Bill and Amy in

the hopes that their dogged planning can help inspire you to prepare your family for an earthquake or other emergency. 

Bill and Amy are a married couple with a dog. They moved here about 15 years ago from Colorado—a wildfire-prone area. They experienced a few close calls, but never had to evacuate. Having a “go bag” was just a part of life.

Nonetheless, moving to Portland presented a few new challenges, including needing to prepare for an earthquake. Additional eprep included enough water and food for humans and pets for two weeks and the mundane: pee/poo buckets and first aid supplies. Also, Bill is an amateur radio operator, and recertifies each year as a Wilderness First Aid responder, and, coincidentally, is an active Sunnyside Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) member.

That’s a great neighbor to have! 

Their preparations also include the expectation that they may have to live without power/heat/electricity, perhaps outside, for at least two or three weeks. That might mean sheltering in place, depending upon the condition of their home after an earthquake.

It took them about six months to get prepared for “The Big One.” Then, they reached out to like-minded neighbors to assess their interest in getting prepared together, with the hope of helping one another. For them, community is important and a plan was developed and implemented for four households with diverse emergency prep needs. Pre-pandemic, this group of four neighbors met quarterly. They hope to meet up again soon. 

Bill and Amy acknowledge that eprep plans evolve as they age and adjustments have to be made. Simple, but not easy.

If you have done significant emergency preparedness and want to share what you’ve done for a future issue of the newsletter, contact Jan at [email protected].

Sunnyside Neighborhood: Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Mike Schwartz and Casey Jones of Black Rose Coffee

If you’ve ever taken a midmorning stroll down SE 34th Avenue south of Stark Street, you might have noticed a distinctive aroma permeating the air—something between popcorn, malt, and not-quite-burnt toast. It’s the smell of roasting coffee rising over the fence line of a homegrown Sunnyside small business. Mike Schwartz is an award-winning coffee roaster who roasts small batches of coffee for neighbors far and wide. He is proud to specialize in decaf and half-caff blends; he will walk roasted beans to your door (delivery is free) the same day it is roasted. His wife, Casey, handles marketing and design for Black Rose Coffee, and runs her own business advising students on college and graduate school decision-making. 

How long have you lived in Sunnyside? 

We bought our house on 34th in December 2011 and it immediately felt like home. When we moved to Portland, it was basically love at first sight. We both grew up in places [Southern California and New Jersey] that never felt like home.

Continue reading our Q&A with Mike Schwartz and Casey Jones of Black Rose Coffee

News from the President

Happy New Year Sunnyside! 

The big news out of the SNA this month is the success of our annual clothing and gear drive to help our houseless neighbors in this cold and wet season. The event was held indoors this year on December 10th at SE Uplift (SEUL). Thank you to SEUL for providing a warm and inviting space for everyone, a big change from the wet, cold outdoors of past years! Also thank you to New Seasons, Grand Central Bakery and Fried Egg I’m in Love for your generous donations of food for our guests and volunteers. Thanks, too, to Crossroads Trading, Mix Tape, the Mountain Shop, and Next Adventure—all of which donated boxes of warm clothes or gift certificates. The biggest thanks of all goes out to our volunteers for taking the time during this busy holiday season to connect with neighbors living outside. Kudos to the SNACC team for putting together such a wonderful event!

The SNA board met on December 8th for our monthly board meeting. Emily stepped up to take over as the presiding officer for the next few months. She will be coordinating agendas and running our meetings through February. This new arrangement allows board members to share some of the responsibilities and decision-making power of the president, gain valuable experience and distribute some of the administrative burden. We talked about filling vacant, and soon-to-be vacant, positions on the board and committees as well as ways that the SNA can work to improve our diversity and equity lens in the work we do for the neighborhood. More on those topics to come!

Our next general meeting will be on January 12th. We will be talking about a proposed expansion to the greenways system in Sunnyside and a potential endorsement of Quiet Clean PDX’s quest to limit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers (see The Scourge of Gas-powered Leaf Blowers).

The SNA Needs You!

The SNA is searching for neighbors to volunteer for a number of openings on our board and committees. Volunteering with the SNA is a great way to bring about positive change in our neighborhood and city, gain new skills, and meet new friends! We are looking for volunteers for the following positions:

Treasurer

The Treasurer is the board officer responsible for managing the finances of the SNA. They create and certify required financial reports and give updates to the board on the financial health of the organization. They are also a board member, with all of the duties and responsibilities that entails. They may be assisted by a bookkeeper (or perform that role themself), who would be responsible for the day-to-day accounting duties like balancing the accounts, producing financial reports, preparing payments and processing donation receipts. Our current Treasurer, Vincent, will be leaving us after his term expires. The position will be up for election by the membership during our annual elections this spring.

At-Large Board Members (x2)

Board members help the SNA set a direction for the association. They participate and vote in board meetings, may be assigned to chair committees and may represent the interests of the SNA in front of the city and regional governments. 

Land-Use & Transportation Committee Chair

The chair of the Land-Use & Transportation Committee (LUTC) is responsible for representing the SNA’s interests regarding development and transportation in the neighborhood. They may coordinate with developers regarding planned buildings, testify to the city about zoning issues and variances, or work with PBOT to make our neighborhood easier to navigate on foot, bike, bus or car. The LUTC chair will give occasional reports to the board, but they do not need to be a board member or officer.

If you (or someone you know) live or work in Sunnyside and are interested in any of these positions, please reach out to [email protected] to learn more.

Correction

In a historical piece about the Sunnyside neighborhood that we published in our November issue, we referred to Dr. Perry Prettyman as “one of the first settlers” to the neighborhood. By telling the history of this area only from the perspective of white Europeans we erase the rich cultural history of Indigenous Peoples of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Native American tribes who made their homes here. We apologize for the error and are taking action to implement an equity lens in our editorial process so that future publications will be more accurate and inclusive.