Tag: Newsletter Jan. 2022

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

On December 9th, the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association welcomed Oregon State Representative Rob Nosse who shared legislative highlights and answered questions. Chris Waldmann, SNA Board member, shared an overview of the City’s Charter Review. Highlights from the Charter Review are in a separate article in the newsletter. SE Uplift is still accepting applicants to apply for their Small Grants and DEIA Capacity Building Grants. Learn more and apply by January 10th at https://www.seuplift.org/grants-application-2021-2022.  

The SNA was recently approached by Josh Roll, a member of PBOT’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee, seeking our support for the city to restart its Traffic Calming Program. Josh will be joining us at our January general meeting to discuss this program and other low-cost solutions for pedestrian safety on our neighborhood streets. 

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming January meeting on Thursday the 13th. Meeting details and the agenda will be posted on the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) on Tuesday the 11th. The General meeting is from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. with the Board meeting to follow directly after from 8:00- 9:00 p.m. Every resident living within the Sunnyside neighborhood is a part of the Neighborhood Association so we encourage you to join us in making Sunnyside a thriving community. We’d like to hear your feedback and ideas!

Requesting Support for the PBOT Traffic Calming Program

The issue of street safety comes up at the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association (MTNA) meetings on a regular basis but our group does not have many tools to offer neighbors in slowing vehicle traffic on their streets. Speed bumps are a proven traffic calming roadway treatment. On the streets in our neighborhood where speed bumps are present, traffic speeds are lower and conditions safer. In 2018, our neighbors successfully installed speed bumps on Thornburn Street and it has had a measurable impact on making the street safer.  

PBOT is considering reinstating the traffic calming program whereby residents can self-fund speed bumps in their neighborhoods. MTNA encourages the city to take the necessary steps to reinstate this valuable program. Our neighborhood association would appreciate knowing about other opportunities to support this and other programs that can help make our streets safer. We hope that SNA will join us in this effort. I will be making a presentation at the January 2022 meeting, so please attend if this issue is of interest or concern.

Emergency Preparedness

It’s Saturday, December 11, 2021 and the weather outside is rainy and windy with all sorts of alerts, watches and warnings beeping on my cell phone. And, an email request for possible standby deployment in case of power outages and downed power lines. And, a reminder for NETs (Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team members) to check on our street drains and bioswales to keep them free of debris. And that was just in the past 24 hours!

In addition, there are NET volunteers working on a daily basis year-round to connect with neighbors around emergency preparedness, volunteer at vaccination clinics and help out at shelters set-up during weather extremes — both hot and cold weather. 

In order to do our work safely we are trained and can opt to receive additional training (currently online) so that we are prepared for deployments. Since COVID began, more city and county agencies are asking for NET volunteers and hundreds of volunteers have put in thousands of hours.

You do not need to be trained to be of service to your neighbors in Sunnyside. What tools, skill sets, and training do you have to help others? Do you know who your neighbors are? Have you talked to them about preparedness?

What steps towards preparedness are you willing and able to take during the winter months?

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

Sunnyside Neighborhood Community Cares (SNACC) Committee Update

We had a productive meeting in-person for the first time since Covid! We went through a quick orientation to transformative justice processes and what they can look like. We then discussed outreach strategies to build stronger relationships with the houseless community living in Sunnyside. We plan to partner up and divide up the neighborhood to do this outreach, initially to spread the word about the shower program and eventually to assist in conflict mediation and transformative justice processes, if appropriate. We also discussed the response we received from the City of Portland’s Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program (HUCIRP) last month. We went through the letter point-by-point to note inaccuracies based on our various experiences. We discussed further action, like gathering testimonials from other folks or publishing an article.

We encourage anyone who is interested in these efforts to attend our next SNACC meeting on Thursday the 20th at 6:30 p.m. Meeting details will be posted on the SNA website the week of January 17th.

​​Portland Charter Review

The Portland Charter Review Commission (PCRC) is currently working on recommendations to update the governing document of the city, focusing on the overall form of government and how city elections are conducted. If their first set of proposals receive support from 15 out of 22 commissioners, they will appear on the November 2022 general election ballot.  

The PCRC committees have found early consensus on the following ideas:

  • Expanding the City Council
  • Removing council members from directly running city bureaus and agencies
  • Redefining the roles of the mayor and city council
  • Moving elections to a system whereby winners will be determined in a single election rather than a primary or general election

These are just frameworks and the details are under discussion. The PCRC will be hosting its next rounds of listening sessions in January. For more information please see https://www.portland.gov/omf/charter-review-commission.