News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors! This is the first in a series of columns that will report on news and events from your friendly neighborhood school, Sunnyside Environmental.

Located on SE Salmon St. between SE 34th and 35th, SES is a K-8 “focus option” neighborhood school. We guarantee admission to all elementary and middle school-aged children within the school boundary, and also welcome many students from other neighborhoods who gain admission through the district lottery. As a “focus option” school we provide a plethora of place-based learning experiences both on and off the school grounds, in addition to traditional academics. This includes visits to parks, rivers, and forests throughout the metro area, as well as to places such as OMSI, SCRAP, the Bird Alliance of Oregon, and a variety of art museums.

On campus, students are able to learn in the garden, cook in the community kitchen, and have weekly art, physical education, and library classes. Our teachers use the Scottish Storyline method in their curriculum, which uses a child’s natural enthusiasm for imagination and story-making to teach anything from science to socio-emotional skills. For example, my elementary-aged children have learned about animal habitats by helping (imaginary) lost baby squirrels decide where to live, and learned about emotional regulation by creating superhero personas with strengths such as “grit” and “mindfulness” who combat villains such as “Glass Man” (who gets disproportionately upset) and “Rock Brain” (who doesn’t like to listen to other people’s ideas).  In other words, the Storyline method provides an opportunity for active learning. SES is a lovely learning community. 

We welcomed students back on August 27th and it’s exciting to have the hallways full again. We have (slightly) different hours this year; school still begins at 8:45 am, but K-5 releases at 3:15 p.m., while the middle school gets out at 3:30 p.m., so be prepared for a little bit of traffic in the vicinity of the school around those times. Our school is closed to the public during school hours, but after 3:30 p.m. the yard becomes a public park, so feel free to stop by, walk your dog, have your kids play on the playground, and enjoy the space after that time. 

If you see a group of school-aged kids with adults biking through the neighborhood in the direction of SES on a Wednesday morning, it’s probably Bike Bus! SES’s Bike Bus is led by SES parents, who organize groups of kids to ride bikes together to school on a weekly basis. This fosters a sense of camaraderie, helps reduce carbon emissions, and encourages kids to embrace cycling as a fun and social activity. SES’s Bike Bus meets at 8:20 a.m. on Wednesday mornings at four different intersections in the neighborhood, and then cycles to school. Each route is led by an experienced adult and SES students of all ages participate. Some SES students join on their own, while others bring one or more of their adults with them.

We will be having our first fundraising event of the year, Run Walk Move, at the SES campus on Friday, October 4th from 9 – 11:30 am. This is a super fun event that many students look forward to every year. Kids are grouped by age, then run, walk, or move in laps around the school yard. For those who would prefer to dance, we play energizing music while instructors lead dance routines on a separate part of the blacktop. Many teachers and family members stand on the side of the run/walk/move route cheering students on, waving streamers, and providing water and snacks, while others join in the running, walking, moving, and dancing. If you know a SES student and would like to sponsor their participation in this event, they would be very happy to receive your donation. Money raised through Run Walk Move is used to support our garden and field study programs.

As a public school, our unfortunate reality is that we are always fundraising. If you are interested in supporting your neighborhood’s place-based public K-8 learning community, we would be beyond grateful.

Donations to either the Run Walk Move event or the Back to School Ask fundraiser can be made at sesptsa.square.site.  Thank you for helping us educate local children and for being a larger part of our wonderful school community.

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!

SNA Board Meeting – Wednesday, August 14th @ 7:15 PM

The SNA board will be holding a short meeting to ratify decisions that were discussed during our recent board retreat. All SNA board meetings are open to the public to observe.

On the agenda:
1. Appointment of officers
2. Appointment of board liaisons
3. Creation of a new committee for fundraising and special events

This meeting will be online only.
Wednesday, August 14 · 7:15 – 8:15pm
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/coh-ybsx-hnm

News from the President

Hi everyone! Hope your summer is going great!

Just a few things as we prepare for the return of regular Sunnyside Neighborhood Association (SNA) meetings in September:

• The SNA, through its Land Use Committee, is working with a Sunnyside
architect and the owner of the empty lot at 4511 SE Hawthorne Blvd. to
activate the space until it is developed. This is an exciting opportunity to bring new life to the neighborhood on a blank canvas. The architect recently worked  with our neighbors to the north in Vancouver, WA to create the Heights Bike Garden, a space for kids and adults to learn how to bike safely in a fun and creative environment! The project at 4511 is still in its early, idea-forming stages. If you are interested in helpingout with this effort,  please contact the committee at [email protected].

• With the Belmont Library set to close this fall for a major upgrade, the library will no longer be able to display the quilt created by Sunnysiders in 1988. Do you have a space or an idea for a new home for the quilt? Please reach out to [email protected].

• The Belmont Street Fair (on Sunday, September 8th) needs our help and the SNA is stepping up! If you are interested in volunteering to help at the fair, please email us and we will put together a group. I volunteered last year and it was super fun assisting vendors and non-profits find their spots and get set up.

•  We will see you at a bunch of events in the coming weeks, including:

Hawthorne Street Fair, Sunday, August 25th
Sewallcrest Movie Night with A Million Miles Away, Friday, August 30th
Belmont Street Fair, Sunday, September 8th

There is a change coming to the SNA meeting schedule. To better accommodate some board members’ schedules we are moving from our usual 2nd Thursday of the month to the 2nd WEDNESDAY of the month. Meetings are in person at SE Uplift and online via Zoom. We will continue having General meetings every other month and monthly Board meetings. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 11th. We will learn about how Portland’s new election system will work and how to fill out a ballot. Hope to see a lot of you there!

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Ashley Doremire at Mix Tape

An Alaska native, Ashley Doremire moved to Sunnyside in 2012 to focus on her leatherwork business. A desire to expand her business and connect more deeply with the Sunnyside community led to her opening the consignment shop Mix Tape in 2018. (For those of you under 25, a “mix tape” was a compilation of favorite songs recorded on a cassette tape and usually given to a friend or lover.) Mix Tape has since grown to be a cornerstone of Sunnyside, offering art, vintage pieces, community resources and more.

How long have you run Mix Tape?

Six years.

Why did you choose Sunnyside for Mix Tape?

I always ended up in this area because it made me feel like it was a small town in a city. Even when you don’t know your neighbors, people still recognize you. If you don’t know their name, they still say hi. I just love this area and I always find myself coming back to it.

Could you tell me a little bit about Mix Tape and what you guys do?

We are a collective space; we have 168 vendors. Anything handmade, 70% goes back to the artist and the rest goes to keeping us up and running. For everything else, 60% goes back to the vendor unless I have to repair the item. I do leather work and repair; I fix leather jackets, zippers, purses, straps, etc., and it’s a great way to give back to the community. I started off being an artist in Portland and a lot of stores take half. I could never survive off that and I didn’t understand how other artists could either. You can’t invest in yourself when you’re struggling to pay your bills. So when I opened Mix Tape, I just really wanted to be able to give back as much as possible. We also host pop-ups, mostly on the weekends, and then the artist gets to keep their full profits for the day. We’re just really trying to change the way consignment is done in Portland.

What makes Mix Tape different from other stores or consignment shops in Portland?

We definitely try to be size-inclusive and help every person who comes in. We really pride ourselves on having something for everyone. From teenagers to older adults, we get a wide demographic, and I feel like it’s definitely a safe space. We also get a lot of people from the neighborhood who come to us when they are concerned with things in the neighborhood. Recently, a group of kids came in and they said this man was following them at the bus stop. They knew exactly where to go to feel safe; it made me really happy to be here for them. That being said, often times when houseless people need shoes or resources they’ll come to the store and they know that I’ll help them or point them in the right direction for, like, a cooling center or whatever their need may be.

So would you say that Mix Tape isn’t just a consignment shop but also a sort of community hub, or somewhere people in Sunnyside can go for resources or support?

Yes. All of our vendors come from the neighborhood except for two, and they’re both people who lived in the neighborhood and moved away.

Did you always have a dream of making a space like this?

It kind of came naturally. I was working at a restaurant and they were struggling to pay their employees. I was doing leather work at that point, just making stuff out of my house. Ihad a Craigslist ad, so people would come over (to buy leather), and my friend was just like,“This is nuts. You’re letting strangers in your house to do leatherwork? This is very dangerous. You’re a woman. You live alone.” We were walking down Belmont Street one day as we normally did and I passed this little store next to Belmont Books. (Belmont Books wasn’t even there yet – it was just a little empty space next to Hoda’s.) My friend called the number for me, and said, “You need to do this.” And it just kind of took off. I never envisioned Mix Tape to be what it is… I was thinking it would be more for leather at the time. I was like, ‘How cool would it be to have a little leather shop where it’s just, like, tons of different leather workers?’ and my friends were like, ‘Oh, kind of like a mix tape.’ and the name just stuck. But it’s really grown. When we first started, we had 12 vendors. Then we moved across the street and it allowed us to expand. Hopefully we just keep expanding and I can support more and more people.

What future plans do you have for Mix Tape?

I really want to grow into a bigger space where I can host classes and artists who want to teach classes. I’ve been doing leather work since 2010 and there’s so much that can be done with items that people think are ruined. I’m trying to help people figure out that kind of stuff, with sustainability and upcycling. A lot of times people bring stuff to donate to me and I’m able to fix it. We’re talking about something they’ve had in their closet that they thought was ruined. They’ll be like ‘Oh, this zipper’s just totaled,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Actually, it just needs a few teeth and a zipper pull.’ They thought they were going to have to replace the whole thing and it was going to be all of this money. I’m really wanting to teach classes where I can help people take care of the items they have for longevity, just to keep things well loved or recycled. I would also love to host other artists to do that. Our space now is great, and I love it, but we’ve definitely outgrown it. That’s exciting, but also a little scary because Sunnyside doesn’t have a lot of large spaces to rent. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can better serve the community where I’m at and with the vendors I have, because I love Sunnyside and I never want to leave.

What is your favorite part about Sunnyside?

I love that all of the local businesses are run by the people who own them. That’s very rare in Portland. Before I got my space a few years ago, I went over to Division and was looking at a space that was really lovely, and I just kept going to the block and hanging out and talking with different business owners, and I realized that no one there who owned their businesses worked in their stores. I think that’s something super special about Sunnyside. It’s definitely a neighborhood where people are looking out for each other, and checking in on each other. A couple weeks ago, I left town and went camping, and people thought I was sick or something. Everyone was like, “Where have you been? Are you okay?”  I love that everyone noticed I was missing for a week. It’s a block where everyone’s kind of in tune with each other, looking out for each other.

What do you think could use some improvement in Sunnyside?

I think sometimes people are a little scared when they see someone who doesn’t want help. Sometimes there are houseless people or people in general who don’t want help, and it’s hard to know what to do in those situations because they have autonomy and they’re saying, “No, I don’t want any resources from you,” but you can see that they need help. This has been a hard thing even for me to handle. I’ll want to give someone shoes, but they’ll say they don’t want them from me. Sometimes I’ll just leave them outside and then they’ll be gone and I just hope they ended up with them. Besides that, I definitely feel that there’s a lot of empty buildings in this neighborhood that could be filled, but that’s happening all over Portland, not just Sunnyside. I think Sunnyside has a really good thing going right now.

Visit Mix Tape seven days a week at 3300 SE Belmont St.

Farmhouse Carts Offer Diverse Culinary Options in a Neighborhood-Friendly Space

For Reed Dow, the Farmhouse Carts site is more than just another cart pod: It is a “complement to the neighborhood” and provides a welcoming space for the community to enjoy good food from around the world.

Dow is the property owner of the Farmhouse Carts located at SE 35th Pl. and SE Division St., and has a long history with the space. In the early 1960s, Dow worked at Dow Columbia, his father’s rug and furniture-cleaning business, located at 3525 SE Division St. It later expanded into house cleaning, environmental restoration and art and antique restoration.

The business was sold in 2007 and Dow remodeled the building in 2011, turning it into a retail space. He saw the parking lot, tucked behind the building on SE 35th Pl., as an underused space that could become a vibrant neighborhood hub for people walking and biking in the area.
Dow said he chose the food vendors based on tasting food at a variety of carts in the city. “The cart business is a close-knit group; when I found someone I liked, they recommended another cart. It was good to get referrals,” he said.

The food vendors come “from all over the world and they represent different cultures and have different ways of running a business. This has been a learning experience for me,” Dow added.

Visitors to the cart pod will notice the handmade wooden tables and wooden decorative carvings hanging at the site—all made by Dow. Making them was “a labor of love,” he said, adding that his favorite part of going to the pod is “interacting with the tenants” and the community aspect of meeting customers.

Three months ago, Cody Galloway came on board to help with marketing for Farmhouse Carts and to increase visibility of the pod. Calling it a “hidden gem for food adventurers,” Galloway said the carts provide “a unique opportunity for residents; it is kid-friendly and dog-friendly and is a place people can come and hang out,” he said.

The food carts have an “international flair,” Galloway said noting that, at present, the carts include Mama Chow’s (Chinese), Sunrise Co. (breakfast sandwiches, coffee), Shera Indian Food, Narmpouh Thai, Gyro World (Middle Eastern), Papa’s Frita (Nicaraguan), The Bulgarian Job, Smash and Grab (sandwiches, burgers) and Migration Brewing.

Sunrise Co. serves breakfast sandwiches and is the only cart that opens at 8 am; it is closed on Tuesdays. All the other carts open at various times and some are closed several days a week; diners should check the website for availability.

For Galloway, Farmhouse Carts is a symbol of “reactivating” Portland. “When you see pockets like this, with local people bringing Portland back with their positive efforts, people feel good,” he said.

With that in mind, the cart pod hosts craft-beer tasting with Migration Brewing 5-7 pm every Thursday; local musicians entertain diners once a month; and a mini-festival is planned for July 27.
“We will have face painting and balloon artistry, possibly a chalk artist, music and additional activities 5-7 pm,” Galloway noted. He added that a TV has recently been installed so that diners can watch sporting events and travel shows.

The space also hosts groups for parties and meet-ups, he said, adding that there is no charge for the space, but groups need to sign up on the online form on the website.

Why should people visit Farmhouse Carts? “For the excellent food with flavors you don’t get elsewhere, and the welcoming vibe,” Galloway said.

Farmhouse Carts, 2415 SE 35th Place.
www.farmhousecarts.com

This article was originally published in July issue of the The Southeast Examiner.