Category: Neighborhood Newsletter

Emergency Preparedness and the SNA Board Meeting

How can Sunnysiders be prepared, not scared?

Each neighborhood in Portland has their unique challenges with regards to preparing for an emergency. This depends on the geography, the business communities and the willingness of neighbors to know each other and support each other BEFORE, DURING and AFTER an event.

How do you know where to begin?

A comprehensive resource guide is available on the Sunnyside Prepared!
website: https://sunnysideportland.org/committees/emergency-preparedness/

Take a peek at the Sunnyside Neighborhood Map – an excellent overview of Sunnyside. Print a copy and walk around the neighborhood. Become familiar with the map legend. Though there might be new construction since this map was made, it will help you see how Neighborhood Emergency Team members size up the hazards, etc. in Sunnyside. All of the other resources on this page are updated and user friendly.

Want a bigger overview?

Go to the FEMA (Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency) website: https://www.fema.gov/ and click on the top toolbar item “Prepare for Disasters.”

Not a computer person?

Now that the Belmont library has reopened, librarians can easily point you to books and other resources that can help, or you can print out pages from the Sunnyside Prepared! or FEMA websites. These resources will help you get prepared, not scared.

Shower Project Reaches 60+ People

Awesome shower volunteer Marisa Espinoza, who works at the Northwest Pilot Project, crunched the numbers for us. Since January, when we launched the shower program at the Groves, we have served 63 houseless individuals. Some shower weekly, some come less often, but all of them thank us repeatedly for offering them this opportunity to get and stay clean. I often get texts like this from our houseless neighbors: “Thank you a ton for everything, Hannah. It really means a lot what you do.” 

Thanks to the Groves for continuing to allow us to use their facilities for this program. I’m also so grateful to all 23 of our amazing volunteers—most from Sunnyside but some come from nearby neighborhoods to help out. We could still use two additional volunteers for an every-other-week shift this fall. If you’re interested, please reach out to me at [email protected]. Shower days are in the afternoons on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Sunnyside Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Committee

The DEIA Committee circled back to ways we could get involved with the Sunnyside community and our role in participating in the upcoming Belmont Street Fair. The committee is working to make local resources more available to the public. We’re looking into how we can make sure apartment buildings get access to the monthly Sunnyside newsletter to stay informed and get involved in neighborhood initiatives. We reached out to the Kids Center March for Black Lives Matter organizers to see how we can support their efforts and collaborate together. We’re also working to establish an outreach program to reach out to BIPOC businesses within Sunnyside to see how we can provide support, if wanted. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 7th at 6:30 p.m. Virtual meeting details will be posted on the SNA website on September 2nd. The DEIA Committee meets every 1st Tuesday of the month. We look forward to new attendees and welcome ideas on ways to grow this committee.

Civic Engagement

Hot, hot, hot!

It has been a long, hot and unusual summer. Scientists have been telling us for decades that severe weather caused by climate change was coming, but it is still a shock to experience this heat. It has made me sad to see the burnt foliage on trees and plants, especially the ferns that didn’t evolve to survive multiple days of triple digit weather. It was also disturbing to learn that 60 people died in Portland during the June heatwave. Our city and state need to be better prepared for these weather events. But we also need federal policy, otherwise our individual actions are like bailing water from a bathtub with the faucet running.

While I try to lower my personal carbon footprint, I also work to get carbon pricing passed at the national level because we can’t get to net zero emissions by 2050 without it. We have a unique opportunity to get carbon pricing passed through the upcoming budget reconciliation. If you are concerned about climate change, I urge you to contact your U.S. Representative to ask them to include carbon pricing, cclusa.org/house. Last month Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers inspired over 20,0000 people to contact their senators. We’d like to hit the same numbers for contacting U.S. Representatives. If you are inspired to do more, join Citizens Climate Lobby at https://citizensclimatelobby.org/join-citizens-climate-lobby/ and help me in advocating a price on carbon. I hope to see you at our next CCL meeting on Saturday, September 11th.

SNA August Notes and September Plans

Summer Recess, Hybrid Meetings in Fall, and Community Engagement

The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association took the month of August off to enjoy the last bit of summer and take some time to welcome the new board members. We plan to keep the meetings virtual for the time being due to the increases in Covid cases. We will start holding the monthly neighborhood association meetings in a new format. From 7 – 8 p.m. we will hold the board meeting where we will review committee initiatives and make any board-related decisions. From 8 – 9 p.m. we will hold the general meeting where we’ll have guest speakers and invite open conversations. Both sessions are open to the public and we encourage folks to attend, stay informed, and get involved. We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming September meeting on Thursday the 9th. Meeting details and the agenda will be posted on the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) on Monday the 6th.