Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

Monthly Archives: February 2017

PDX is part of Concordia soundscape

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

Living near airport has its pluses, but neighbors want to know — can you quiet it down a bit?

By Steve Dodge

Concordians’ opinions about being neighbors to an airport are mixed. But most agree their
neighbor generates noticeable noise

Planes, trains and automobiles. When you live in the city, it’s pretty much a given that you’re going to hear one or all of those, plus the kid with the oversize sub woofer in his car — sometimes in the middle of the night.

And, when you live near an international airport, most people figure a little noise goes along with the convenience of a short trip to catch a flight. But what happens when a little becomes a lot?

Many neighbors, judging from conversations in the neighborhood and a flood of responses to a question on Nextdoor.com, expressed concern about the noise generated from small Federal Express “cargo feeders” as the Port of Portland calls them, and the fighter jets operated by the Air National Guard.

Others wondered why the cargo planes flew so low. FedEx planes have been observed flying only slightly higher than utility poles, which Pacific Power representative estimates are 150 feet tall. In some cases the planes are so low, the plane’s belly rivets can be clearly seen.

To be fair, some residents said they actually like the National Guard jet noise, finding it comforting in these uneasy times. Others figure they moved in knowing full well they’d be near an airport.

When the planes or jets roar over, people may pause their conversations, try to comfort their kids and pets, and later straighten the pictures on the wall.

CNews sent questions to the city of Portland, FedEx, the Air National Guard and the port. Only the port responded.

Kama Simonds, aviation media relations manager, said cargo feeder approaches are designed by the Federal Aviation Administration for safety, and that a Concordia resident living a mile away should see aircraft “at or very near 300 feet.” She said pilot discretion or an order from air traffic control could explain some aircraft flying under 300 feet.

As for noise, she said, 24/7 monitoring at Concordia University for arriving small planes averages 73 decibels, which she compared to standing next to a vacuum cleaner or a truck passing outside.

Asked why propeller planes were allowed to rev their engines on the tarmac, sometimes in the wee hours of the night, she said, the small cargo planes are required to test engines at full throttle – but are not required to use sound insulating hangars. Steve is a veteran journalist, writer, editor and former Concordia Neighborhood Association board member. He has lived 17 years in the neighborhood. Contact him at CyStev33@yahoo.com.

Editor’s note: Visit ConcordiaPDX.org/port-q-a for the full list of questions asked and responses from the port, along with comments from neighbors published on Nextdoor.com.

Donna Maxey founds, leads RACE TALKS every month at McMenamins Kennedy School

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Events

By Nancy Varekamp, CNews Editor

Donna Maxey and Mrs. Johnnie Maxey
According to Donna Maxey (left), RACE TALKS draws people of diverse perspectives, races and ages, even her mother, Mrs. Johnnie Maxey

Let’s start at the beginning. “My parents were always involved in community service,” said Donna Maxey, RACE TALKS founder. “I was an activist in utero.” “My father belonged to the NAACP as a college student which was considered an underground activity at the time for which he could have been kicked out of school.

After migrating to Oregon from Texas, her parents became active in the Republican Party – the party of Oregonians Tom McCall, Mark Hatfield and Clay Myers – and her father became president of the Young Republicans. “There were always people coming and going from the house, and things going on,” Donna recalled.

“My first solo protest march without my parents was when George Wallace came to the Hilton Hotel in the early 1960’s “I’ve always been independent and pulled for the underdog, which is probably why I ended up being a teacher,” she said

In that role, and others, Donna has found herself blazing trails. “I’ve been the first and only Black person in too many situations, so much that I don’t have to be the first or only anything ever again.”

Growing up in Portland she was always around white people, but attending Pacific University was a culture shock for her. “I was surrounded by white people.” But that didn’t discourage her activism or her belief in building relationships – what she calls “the R word.”

The feeling of being surrounded intensified during her first teaching job in Oroville, California. “It was John Birch country and I was the first and only Black school teacher in the small, rural town.” Intensifying her dissimilarity to the rest of the community was her husband at the time–a white Jew who was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War era.

While teaching in Portland Public Schools, she was introduced to “Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools,” by Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Lenton.

“The activities helped us to look at social interactions from perspectives other than our own. When one particularly ‘difficult’ person ‘got’ it, I thought, ‘This is powerful.’

“The only problem was that it was associated with people’s paychecks. If you expect people to make change and it’s connected to their paychecks, it doesn’t necessarily change their minds. It needs to be separate from people’s paychecks.”

In 2010, Donna was one of the several speakers at a McMenamins History Pub program, “Urban Renewal, Urban Removal,” and was upfront about the racism that accompanied the physical and economic displacement her family experienced during the early 1960s.

She was perplexed at how to explain the magnitude of that loss. “How can I share this so people understand what kind of home and community I lived in and what it did to us?” So, instead, I described the fauna and flora in our yard. People were just struck by this. Hey! A boxwood shrubbery is a boxwood shrubbery, regardless of what color the people in the house are.”

The first speaker talked about the unfair laws passed allowing the city and the Portland Development Commission to summarily move the Black community “It was all very technical,” Donna noted. The next speaker was a pictorial historian with photos of the Albina community dating from the 1800s to the early 1960s when the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Lloyd Center were built. The third speaker was a Black real estate agent who discussed the home purchasing policies of the time.

Then it was Donna’s turn. “The Black community was decimated. My family lost our home, our neighborhood, our church, Daddy lost his barbershop.”

That led to the 2011 partnership between Donna, Uniting to Understand Racism and McMenamins to start RACE TALKS, which they bill as, “filling the spaces between race with compassion and education.”

For more information, visit the RACE TALKS website.

2016 was quite a year; let’s top that in 2017

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Daniel Greenstadt – Concordia Neighborhood Association Board Member

It seems that breaking with political and social norms has become an American trend lately, and your neighborhood association is keeping up with the times. So, beginning with this issue of Concordia News, we’re casting tradition aside and turning “Chair’s Corner” into “CNA Voices” where, instead of hearing only from the chair, we’ll offer the perspectives of Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) board and committee members.

CNA is led by many dedicated souls who show up to lead the board and to staff and support the various committees, where the real work gets done. Together with you – residents of Portland’s greatest neighborhood – we’re building a better community.

And just how much better? Well, the dawn of a new year calls for a quick review of 2016 accomplishments so we can be sure to outdo ourselves in 2017. Here are some of CNA’s community-building events:

  • Spring Egg Hunt – Combine 7,000 handstuffed eggs and more than 300 children, and you get 10 minutes of the best kind of pandemonium! CNA partnered with American Legion Post 134 for this smashing success.
  • Neighbor Cleanup – We netted $1,998 for CNA community programs.
  • Sunday Parkways – CNA volunteers distributed 720 energy bars and gallons of water to hungry and thirsty cyclists, walkers and skaters. • Concerts in the Park – Bankrolled local business and community sponsors — and staffed and supported by CNA volunteers — we gathered some giant crowds at Fernhill Park to hear some of the best entertainment Portland offers.
  • National Night Out – It featured a great children’s parade – complete with police escort – and the season’s final park concert.
  • December holiday party – The food was fantastic at the HUGE party, children’s choirs were heavenly, the band was loud and attendees paid with nothing but their presence and some much needed food donations to Concordia Backpack Lunch Program. Thanks again to Cerimon House for the amazing venue.
  • McMenamins Kennedy School Community Room – We earned a whopping $18,000 in rentals for CNA to reinvest in the community.
  • Concordia News – We’re covering more issues, staying on schedule, reaching more people and continuing to invest in building CNews into the best neighborhood paper in the city. Our web and Facebook page made great strides too.
  • Land Use & Transportation Committee – The group continues its amazing work on a wide range of topics deeply impacting life here.
  • Open letter – One of the last actions of the board in 2016 was the letter you’ll see on the facing page. We want Concordia residents to feel safe and welcome here, and that’s something that requires “a village” to make happen.

Can we top all that in 2017? Let’s!