Last Month’s News. This Month’s Plans.

Holiday gathering, endorsements, and December’s SNA meeting guest

On November 11th, the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association welcomed some new faces to the general meeting and held an open forum to discuss a neighborhood holiday event. We decided to meet on Saturday December 18th at 6 p.m. to walk the Peacock Lane holiday lights event. Event details are in a separate article. 

Johanna Brenner from the Portland Metro’s Peoples’ Coalition spoke about the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP)’s recommendations to City Council and asked for the SNA’s endorsement, which we gavet. The November issue has an article by Johanna with details (https://sunnysideportland.org/tag/newsletter-nov-2021/). The Board discussed a response letter to support SE Uplift’s (SEUL) bylaws amendment. The letter has been sent to the SEUL Board and all SE Neighborhood Association Chairs for consideration. The vote for the SEUL bylaws amendment will be held on Monday, December 6th. Lastly, the SNACC Committee will be hosting a clothing drive on Saturday, December 4th. Event details on when, where, and what to donate are posted on both the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SunnysidePortland). 

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming December meeting on Thursday the 9th. The SNA will be hosting Oregon State Representative Mr. Nosse who will provide legislative updates and lead a Q&A. Meeting details and the agenda will be posted on the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) on Monday the 6th. The General meeting is from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. with the Board meeting to follow directly after from 8:00- 9:00 pm. We encourage you to participate in local civic duty and join us with making Sunnyside, Southeast, and Portland a thriving community.

Peacock Lane Holiday Lights Event

The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association (SNA) is co-sponsoring this year’s Peacock Lane holiday lights event that runs December 15th through January 1st 2022, from 6 p.m. – 11 p.m. Come join the SNA on Saturday, December 18th at 6 p.m. (where Peacock Lane and Belmont St. intersect) to walk the holiday light show. We’ll begin the tour at 6:10 p.m. We encourage you to dress in warm layers and wear a mask. Looking forward to gathering together.

Emergency Preparedness

Mise en place and e-prep

Almost all my conversations with friends here in PDX are centered on food and emergency preparedness. Having moved here from the Chicagoland area, the food here, all of it, tastes fresher and more vibrant. My weekly outing to the PSU farmers market reinforces the idea of eating, and shopping locally supporting farmers year-round and eating through the rainbow of foods sold there.

So, what do e-prep and mise en place have in common?

For me, it’s the mindset that the more prepared we are, the better our lives and those of our friends and family and neighbors. And, the meals we cook will taste better because we have prepped ahead of time so that we have all the ingredients we need measured and waiting BEFORE we actually cook or bake.

Emergency preparedness in this time of COVID may seem unimportant or unnecessary. I disagree. We have all learned to be more in the present moment. We check for our masks before we go out in public and probably check the hours and guidelines necessary to enter and shop at local stores, restaurants and food pods. It’s worth the bother, always. Hopefully, we all use what we have learned during these pandemic times to make ourselves more resilient in the future.

We are all more prepared for a disaster than we think. The skill sets and learnings we have acquired will serve us well in the future if we use them going forward. Find an e-prep buddy and help each other. Engage your kids in this work. 

Questions? Comments? Need support in getting prepared? I have the time and the resources to support you. Email me: [email protected]

Sunnyside Neighborhood Community Cares (SNACC) Committee Updates

The SNACC committee began its monthly meeting debriefing what we know following recent sweeps of houseless neighbors from Laurehurst and Sewallcrest parks. We will meet in two weeks to discuss ongoing conflict resolution and transformative justice strategies to strengthen relationships between housed and houseless folks in Sunnyside. In the long term, we hope that strengthening these existing relationships will help us advocate for greater City investment in providing services to houseless people, instead of sweeping camps. We will also be moving forward with a needs assessment survey of the Sunnyside shower program in early December. Finally, we will begin exploring fundraising and leveraging the giving season to solicit donations from the community to fund other projects, like paying houseless volunteers for the work they’re doing for the community.

We encourage anyone who is interested in these efforts to attend our next SNACC meeting on Thursday, Dec. 16th at 6:30 p.m. Meeting details will be posted on the SNA website the week of December 13th.

Give to the Shower Program

As the holidays near we’re approaching the one year anniversary of the Sunnyside Shower Program. This year we have sponsored several vaccine events, instituted a vaccine mandate, and conducted a de-escalation training for the volunteers. In the coming months we are conducting a needs assessment of our regular clients to see how we can improve the program in 2022. We gratefully accept donations to keep our volunteer-run project going. You can donate on our website  (https://sunnysideportland.org/donate) or via Zelle to [email protected]. Please specify the Sunnyside Shower Program. Thanks!