Category: Uncategorized

Recycling Event

Save your hard-to-recycle items! New Seasons Market, Ridwell, James Recycling, and Recycling Advocates are sponsoring a one-day recycling event where you can bring items you can’t normally put in the good ol’ recycling bin at home.

Where:
Revolution Hall parking lot SE Portland
When:
Saturday, September 11th, 10am – 12:30pm

Sunnyside Piazza Update

We are introducing a new member to the Sunnyside Piazza Committee, Will Grimm, who is going to help us with the restoration project. Will successfully completed a mural design and painting project at the intersection of Lincoln St. and 30th Ave. and we plan to use the same collaborative design strategy for the intersection on Yamhill St. and 34th Ave. He has helped Sunnyside launch a design board for our community to submit ideas for the next Piazza mural. You can follow along and share your creative input at https://tinyurl.com/xpfjcfb6. We’ll be tracking design submissions through the month of July and early August and selecting the top 5 designs for an in-person vote at SE Uplift on August 31st at 6:30PM. We will be sure to include the original sunflower artwork as one of the top 5 designs. Submission guidelines are posted on the design board, and we encourage the community to participate and take action in helping us restore the 20 year old landmark. The painting of the mural will take place in late September; we’ll share more details in the September newsletter, on the Sunnyside website and Facebook Page.

You can contribute towards the restoration of this beloved landmark by donating to the campaign’s GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/sunnyside-piazza or via the SNA website homepage. We’re trying to raise $1,500 to cover our expenses. Follow the Sunnyside Piazza Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sunnysidepiazza) for up-to-date details and ways to get involved.

Adopt One Block Update

[See a more recent version of this map at https://sunnysideportland.org/adoptoneblock/]

As of June 28th, 80% of the blocks in Sunnyside have been adopted through Adopt One Block. We have 128 blocks adopted and only 32 blocks still seeking adoption. This is close to three times as many blocks adopted than when we started our neighborhood outreach in early April. We had 43 adopted blocks then. The areas marked in grey on the map have been adopted; areas in black still need adoption.

More information about Adopt One Block (including an updated map as well as information about how to adopt a block) is available at sunnysideportland.org under the Volunteer menu.

If you have adopted a block, please let our Cleanup Coordinator know so we can improve collaboration and coordination among block ambassadors as well as offer local support. So far, block ambassadors covering 40 blocks have made themselves known. Those blocks are identified with a thin white line on the map. Your contact information will not be shared publicly, but knowing about you will allow our Cleanup Coordinator to privately connect adopters of neighboring blocks if they both choose.

To make yourself known to the SNA as a block ambassador, or if you ever need help with disposing of excess trash, dealing with larger items that have been dumped, needles or biohazard cleanup, please contact Vincent Dawans, SNA Cleanup Coordinator at [email protected].

SNA Community Care (SNACC) Committee Update

SNACC’s May meeting was well attended with approximately 15 guests ready to hear from, and talk with, Pat Schweibert of Beacon PDX and County Commissioner Sharon Meieran. Pat Schweibert talked about her multi-decade work serving houseless residents, the work of Beacon PDX in Sunnyside and surrounding areas, and the exciting possibility of engaging with a new community to provide a tiny home village and day center.

Commissioner Meieran presented her vision for a “harm reduction” approach that would create a coordinated network of outdoor shelter sites to provide safety, community, and basic hygiene services to people currently experiencing unsheltered houselessness. She emphasized the urgency of the problem; houselessness is a real and growing crisis for people living on the streets and for housed neighbors in all of the city’s neighborhoods. We were all very excited to hear from her because her vision really captures these missing “medium-term” solutions that all of us have been both advocating for and wanting (and ready) to get involved in.

Unfortunately, the county budget is going to be voted on June 3rd and her approach is not included in the current draft budget. Watch your news sources to see whether she is able to gain the votes needed. 

Please note that the SNACC Committee is on hiatus for the duration of the summer.  Visit the website for ongoing volunteer opportunities or reach out to [email protected] with questions or concerns.  See you in the Fall!