Sunnyside Tails: Clementine

This month, we’d like to introduce everyone to one of our most iconic neighborhood cats, Clementine! This girl has been a showstopper on our walks.

Endowed with one of the more prominent “resting cat faces,” Clem spent years delighting passersby at the south corner of Yamhill and 34th Avenue. But Clementine’s backstory runs much deeper.

Her humans found her 11 years ago as a baby kitten on the edge of the White Salmon River with no mama or siblings in sight. Permascowl aside, Clem’s sweetness and affability have won over countless humans. Her family describes her as “a sun-spot-dwellin’, cheese-lovin’, wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly sweetheart,” and we agree!

Clem and her humans recently moved, but fortunately remain in the neighborhood. Now you can find her near 30th and Stark and follow her on Instagram at @clembersonly.

Interested in joining a future cat walk? Like to nominate your pet for a Sunnyside Tail feature? Follow us on Instagram (@cats_of_sunnyside).

C. and Jay lead the Cats of Sunnyside community cat walk, which has received millions of views on social media and was voted #2 Best Tour in Portland by Willamette Week readers.

If you’d like to nominate a neighborhood pet for a future Sunnyside Tail feature, email [email protected].

News From Sunnyside Environmental School

Harvest season at SES

October is a beautiful time at SES. The garden is transitioning from summer harvests to fall planting, students are getting outside for field studies and hands-on learning, and the school community is coming together for some of our favorite fall traditions. There are lots of ways for neighbors to get involved, whether you have a student at SES or simply want to connect with the school and support the programs that make our community special.

At SES, we believe that hands-on learning, music, and time in nature support student growth and well-being. Funds raised support garden-based education, music and field study programs. These are some of the experiences that make SES unique, giving students opportunities to learn by doing, exploring, and creating while building confidence and a deeper connection to nature.

Run Walk Move Fundraiser — October 7

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 7, from 9–11:30 a.m. for Run Walk Move, our first big peer-to-peer fundraiser of the school year. Students will celebrate healthy movement by running, walking, and dancing around the school while cheering each other on. Support an SES student or a neighborhood friend with a pledge. Fundraising from September 23 through October 16.

Dine Out for SES — October 20

Come for our pizza party at Pizzeria Otto (6708 NE Sandy Blvd) on October 20th. Pizzeria Otto is a neighborhood favorite devoted to Neapolitan-style pizza, made with thoughtfully sourced ingredients, including many from local providers.

Harvest Fair — October 24

Join us for our annual SES Harvest Fair on October 24, rain or shine!

The Harvest Fair is free and open to everyone. You can purchase carnival tickets and play fun, student-made carnival games, spend time with neighbors, watch a teacher or two “Beat the Bucket,” enjoy fresh-squeezed apple cider, and fill up on sugar in the Cookie Palace or do the Baked Goods Boogie. Fall at SES wouldn’t be complete without this celebration of the season and our community.

Harvest of the Month

Fall has arrived in the SES garden! We’ve started clearing out the sunflower forest, and the corn and pumpkins have been harvested. The sunflower seeds are drying, while cover crops—including fava beans!—and winter vegetables will soon be going in. It’s also been one of our best dahlia years yet, with the plants continuing to push out beautiful blooms. If you’re walking by the garden, please pick a dahlia! Picking the flowers encourages the plants to produce more blooms.

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected]

September 9th General Meeting – Debating the Community Budgeting For All Initiative

Join us this Wednesday, September 9th for our next general meeting. We will have representatives from both the primary driver of the initiative, My 2 Cents PDX, and the opposition group Protect Our City Services to discuss this initiative, which will require the city to award 2% of the city’s discretionary funds each year to projects proposed by and voted on by Portlanders.

The meeting, which will be held in the upstairs conference room at Southeast Uplift (3534 SE Main St.) and online at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85776168096?pwd=dTU3V0wycWZxTmhSVGNjNjJxdjNldz09, will start at 7 p.m. and go until approximately 8:30 p.m.

The full agenda is available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tuNUIdPvv4b1k_kvVonbhDKhRS5p3MewGvUR_bO27kE/view

News from the President

Hi neighbors! It’s that time of year where many of you have sent your kids back to school for another year of learning, enrichment and not bugging you during the day. Maybe some have sent their last child to college and are feeling a little of the ennui of a new empty nester.

We here at the SNA are having a bit of that feeling ourselves! In August, we said goodbye to one of our flagship projects, the Sunnyside Shower Project (SSP) as they moved to become an independent nonprofit. Founded in 2021 by our vice president Hannah Wallace, the SSP has served our most in-need neighbors for the last 5+ years with hygiene services, clothing, supplies, and community. It started off small with just a few volunteers offering approximately 12 showers per week during two days at the former Sunnyside Methodist Church. We didn’t really know what we were doing back then, but with perseverance, support from like-minded groups, and a ton of heart we got off the ground in helping the community. Over the years, we’ve grown—offering an annual winter gear drive, coffee and snacks, laundry cards from Belmont Eco Laundry, and even free acupuncture.

At the end of 2024, the growth of the SSP really began to ramp up with the hire of Lindsay Cogan Sant as shower project’s first director. Under their compassionate and strong leadership, the SSP has more than doubled the number of guests and offers new amenities like free phone services provided by Futel and a “whimsy committee” dedicated to bringing moments of unexpected joy to a marginalized community. Lindsay has also done an incredible job with fundraising.

The SSP is an amazing example of the good that can be done when we talk to our neighbors, find out what they need, and have a willingness to meet them where they are. I’m so proud to have been an SSP volunteer since the beginning and I am especially proud to be part of an NA that seeks to look out for everyone in the neighborhood. The good news is that the SSP will not be going far! Lindsay is an SNA Board member and the leader of our Community Cares group. They are so full of ideas and enthusiasm to help people that I know we will have new projects, on our own and with the SSP, soon.

September is also the real kickoff for Portland’s election season. This year we will be voting on all three of our city council seats and one citizen initiative. SE Uplift (3534 SE Main St.) will be hosting a candidate mixer on September 26th from 1–4 p.m. You can find details at seuplift.org/event/district-3-candidate-mixer-2026. Rather than focus on the wide-ranging group of candidates for council, at our September meeting the SNA will focus on the initiative, “Community Budgeting for All.” If passed, this would require 2% of the city’s annual budget, approximately $17 million, be set aside for citizen-proposed projects. Projects would be vetted by a group within city government and then finalists would be voted on by all of us in a TBD process. Versions of this “participatory budgeting” are in use in cities across the country. Come out to our September 9th meeting to learn about how this proposal would work in Portland. What are the benefits? What are the costs? Get your questions answered!

That’s it for now. We’ll see you at the next meeting, at the Belmont Street Fair, and maybe browsing for new-to-you treasures at the Sunnyside Yard Sale!

The Sunnyside Yard Sale!

A reminder that we’ll be doing our first neighborhood-wide yard sale later this month, on Saturday, September 26th from 9 a.m.–3 p.m. If you haven’t registered yet, visit sunnysideportland.org/yardsale and make a tax-deductible donation of $25. (This will cover inclusion on both the digital and printed maps.) There is no deadline for being part of the digital map, as that map will be continuously updated until the morning of the 26th. The deadline for the printed maps, which we’ll distribute at local businesses and handed out at participating houses in the neighborhood, is September 20th. We will also be advertising the event in Ever Out, the Southeast Examiner, and of course on our social media. We invite all Sunnyside residents to declutter your house, basement, and/or garage. Everything is fair game: books, clothes, old trampolines, bikes, toys, garden equipment, plant cuttings, and even furniture. Create an area in front of your driveway, front yard, or porch and go to town!  If you’re a renter try to team up with a neighbor who has a front yard or driveway you can share.