Category: Sustainability

Blair Garden Opening Day: March 26, By Tim Brooks

Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 26, Opening Day for the new Blair Community Garden!

Portland Community Gardens and SNA have hosted four garden work parties since October and we are just about ready to open the gates at the Blair Community Garden. By mid-March, we will build the remaining accessible raised beds, improve the path system and the shed, and then be ready to open.

The SNA would like to thank all the volunteers that joined us for the work parties. We would like to extend a special thank you to Holly Wilkalis from Hands On Portland and Lamar Hurd from the All in One Basketball Academy who helped coordinate the volunteer youth groups. SNA also wants to thank our partner in this effort, Portland Community Gardens, and their key staff Dan Franek, John Iott, and Leslie Pohl-Kosbau.

Come join us for a tour of the garden on March 26. The garden entrance is located on the west side of SE 33rd Avenue, half block south of Stark Street. For more on the garden’s rebirth, visit http://sunnysideportland.com/. For more information on the opening day event, check the SNA website and listserve, or call the SNA Hotline at 503 295-1699.

SNA requests input from all Sunnyside School Park users and neighbors on operational and design changes that were instituted at the park last spring by Portland Public Schools and Portland Parks and Recreation. These changes included:

* granting exclusive use of the park by the school from 9am to 3pm on school days.

* demarcating the northeast corner of the park with a row of boulders as being for public use at all hours. (A new play structure for pre-school children was planned in this location but has not been implemented to date.)

Please provide any comments related to the operational and design changes, your perspective on whether these changes are positive or not, and if not, how they might be improved to better serve your needs as a park user or neighbor. Please describe the nature and frequency or your use of the park, school or surrounding neighborhood, and if and how it has changed since the new rules were instituted.

Please post your comments to this site, or email [email protected] or call the SNA Hotline at 503 295-1655.

NE/SE Bikeway Project Open House- January 26
Come learn about the NE/SE 50s Bikeway Project at an open house event on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, at the Lady of Sorrows, 5329 SE Woodstock Blvd in Southeast Portland, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

The NE/SE 50s Bikeway is a proposed 4.5 mile north-south bike route from NE Thompson Street and 57th Avenue south to SE Woodstock Boulevard and 52nd Avenue.  The open house is an opportunity for residents to learn about the project and provide ideas and comments to staff and the Citizens Advisory Committee. A final design is expected to be complete by early spring 2011.  Construction on the project is slated to start in early 2012.

For more information or to be added to the email notification list, contact:

Rich Newlands at 503-823-7780 [email protected]

Sarah Figliozzi at 503-823-0805  [email protected]

www.portlandonline.com/transportation/50sbikeway.