Author Archives: Web Manager

By Marsha Sandman | CNA Media Team

When Annette Pronk arrived in Portland from the upper Midwest in 1997, she spread her wings and planted her roots.

She was no stranger to the housing pressures many Portlanders experience. In fact, she moved between three Concordia properties – while she strived to find affordable housing – before she discovered housing stability in Cully.

With this burden lifted, Annette began to explore her new community.

She connected with her new neighbors, attended meetings in people’s homes and listened to stories of others facing housing insecurity as she once had.

“Sharing our stories and our lived experiences opens us up to take the next step, together,” Annette explained.

“I’m a big believer in creating space for community conversation, whether it be about racial justice, community resiliency, housing stability or root causes to houselessness.”

In an effort to pay it forward, she developed her skills as a community leader with the Cully Housing Action Team (CHAT). “This grassroots community-led group became a source of inspiration to me,” she said. “It lifts up the collective power to improve the common good through campaigns such as ‘Save the Oak Leaf.’” That mobile home park preservation effort prevented several families’ displacement at the hands of developers.

CHAT also campaigned to bring funding to the 141-unit Las Adelitas housing project underway at the former Sugar Shack property.

Resilient and resourceful, Annette also serves on the boards of the Cully Association of Neighbors and Verde. The latter is a Cully-based nonprofit that serves low-income communities of color by building environmental wealth and assets such as the Thomas Cully Park.

She is a lover of nature, holds a platinum level Backyard Habitat certification and is a Master Recycler.

As a solo parent and cancer survivor, Annette is quick to identify with the silver lining in any situation. That skill serves her well while she leans into building community resiliency against pending disasters. One effort is advocating for the Cully Neighborhood Emergency Team to broaden its capacity to work alongside the Latinx community.

“I see myself as a conduit of resources and information,” she noted. “How can I remove barriers to help folks feel prepared, feel connected?

“You do not have to sit on a panel or be an expert. All you have to do is be yourself. Try to offer a kind hello to someone,” Annette added.

“Be willing to listen with an open heart and mind. Be willing to share resources – one day at a time.”

After living east, south, north and west, Marsha Sandman is home at last. And she wants to hear your story. Contact her at MarshaJSandman@gmail.com.

By Peter Keller | CNA Chair

Hello neighbors. I’m writing this as we just slammed the door on 2020 — like a scary monster was chasing us! 2021 is off to a frightening start too, but I think we can see the light. There’s so much to say about 2020, but let’s move on to 2021 and focus on our corner of Portland, Concordia.

You might be asking why I volunteered to be the CNA board chair. Well, I’ve enjoyed reading the CNews since 1997 when I bought my first home in Concordia and I’ve always found it to be informative, interesting and a great way to feel connected to the neighborhood.

Over the years I’ve often considered getting involved but didn’t feel like I had the time. Like many of you, I found that I have some extra time… and I decided it’s time to get involved.

The CNA chair position could have gone to anyone in the neighborhood who met the qualifications.

If you’re interested in getting involved with the board, visit ConcordiaPDX.org/2020/11/chairscorner-dont-forget-to-also-vote-in-cna-election, where outgoing chair Astrid Furstner outlined the process and qualifications in her column.

We have filled all positions for 2021 as of our Jan. 7 board meeting and special election. I’d like to welcome Joseph Fraley to the East 2 position and Matt Boyd to the Southwest 2 position! I look forward to serving with the 2021 CNA board, and we look forward to serving you.

While I am charged with writing this column, it’s not about me. It’s about we, Concordians. My plan for this column is to cover topics that come before the CNA board and other neighborhood topics of interest. I also plan to have other board members pen this column periodically so you can hear some other perspectives.

I’d like to thank Astrid Furstner, our departing chair. She has made this transition seamless and has worked tirelessly as CNA chair for the past year in addition to her full-time job and full-time job as a mom. I’d also like to thank Ali Novak, Donn Dennis and Steve Elder for their service on the CNA board.

I’m excited to take on this challenge, and I look forward to serving the neighborhood and the opportunity to meet and interact with more of you, my neighbors.

“There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.”
– Leonard Cohen

Native Portlander Peter Keller has lived in Concordia since 1997. He runs a small marketing agency with partner Max, out of their home studio. He loves exploring outdoors with and without his dogs.

By Sharon Kelly | CNA Media Team

Near Fernhill Park, at the border of Cully and Concordia neighborhoods, Portland’s mutual aid movement blossoms.

A donated refrigerator, an old cabinet and an outlet in a lamp post have been transformed into an ultra-local, 24-hour, no-questions-asked, neighborhood food pantry for anybody in need of the ingredients for a meal.

“We were looking for ways to contribute in a time when there were a lot of different fronts that needed people to fight for climate justice, social justice, racial justice, and especially culminating with the impacts of the coronavirus,” said Ruth Rodgers.

The Cully resident and PDX Free Fridge host added, “We knew we weren’t people who had a lot of money to contribute or time to volunteer. So, when we saw on Instagram that PDX Free Fridge was looking for hosts and volunteers, we jumped on it.”

Ruth and her husband Sean were busy adapting their northeast Portland business, a small independent gym, to the ever-changing climate of COVID-19.

They were also supporting their two children with distance-learning at home, but their concern for their community was growing.

PDX Free Fridge organizers had seen free community fridges working in New York City and many other major cities since the pandemic hit. They thought it could work here too.

Their call for support was met with a resounding response from Portlanders like Ruth, and now a network of 15-plus mini-food pantries spread from Beaverton to Troutdale. Each is hosted and maintained by local volunteers.

Backyard chicken eggs, cheeses, milk, bags of freshly harvested basil, salad greens, frozen organic chicken, individually-packed prepared meals, canned goods, masks, hand-sanitizer and other essentials. Those are just some examples of what you might find in the Simpson Court free fridge on any given day.

Organizers network with local farmers, grocery workers and food bank groups for donations of healthy, fresh food items. Volunteers visit the fridges every day or two to clean, sanitize, restock and snap pictures to post on Instagram. Those are tagged @pdxfreefridge to let followers know what’s in each fridge that day.

For details about the Free Fridge program, visit Instagram.com/pdxfreefridge and Linktr.ee/pdxfreefridge.

“It creates a sense of solidarity every time somebody opens the fridge and it’s stocked,” Ruth said. “When someone comes to drop something off, they feel that they can be part of something that’s bigger than themselves.

“We get a front row seat to mutual aid and how beautiful it is.”

Sharon Kelly uses her outreach and coordination skills to support trees, farmers, small businesses, and engage people to create more healthy, equitable, sustainable communities. She’s best known locally as market manager for Cully and Woodlawn farmers markets and as web manager for Trees for Life Oregon. Contact her at NaturalFarmerPDX@gmail.com.

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

Last month CNews published a letter drafted by the Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) board for membership review, comment and action. It’s available at Concordiapdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/draft-letter.pdf.

Concordians responded with written comments via email and then verbal ones at the CNA general meeting. Opinions were mixed, and they were constructive.

Many liked the letter, some offered improvements and rewording. Some disagreed with the letter’s intent, others with some of its wording and others with the suggestions for how to make changes to the Portland Police Bureau.

“Blaming and divisive and likely to add to digging in of heels,” was one Concordian’s description of the draft letter.

“It takes courage to speak out. Thanks,” remarked one attendee at the Oct. 7 virtual meeting.

Another believed the letter’s call to end the use of tear gas didn’t go far enough, that the environmental aspects be raised. That would include information about the chemicals draining into the Willamette River.

“This stuff doesn’t disappear,” that participant explained. “These things have adverse, long-term impacts, and we’re going to live with them.”

Many weighed in on the word “defund.”

“Defund or dissolve allows too much interpretation,” noted one Concordian who suggested the term “demilitarize.” “That suits our interest more.”

One point of consensus was that many of the calls to which police respond –mental health and homelessness issues – could be better handled by non-police representatives.

One meeting participant explained that Portland should have a “public safety” organization rather than a “police department,” complete with non-lawenforcement officers – “someone they will call who really can help them instead of just make matters worse.”

Regardless of the final wording of any letter from Concordians to city leaders, one thing is clear, according to one attendee.

That Concordian called for a letter that doesn’t hamstring the city council with specifics. Instead, it should “Tell them what we want the outcome to be.”

Letter is online

Since the Oct. 7 general meeting, members of the Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) Board of Directors redrafted the letter to reflect the input received.

That final version of the letter was posted to Facebook.com/groups/ConcordiaPDX in midOctober. And Concordians were offered the opportunity to sign it by sending permission to use their names to the CNA chair.

The CNA board did not endorse the letter, since it does not represent the unanimous opinion of all who live and work in Concordia. Rather, the board served in the role of facilitator to help those Concordians who wanted to voice their opinions and suggestions in a unified manner.

View the final letter here.

Nancy Varekamp is semiretired from her career in journalism, public relations and – her favorite work engagement – writing and editing targeted newsletters.