By Dina Sage | Concordia News Managing Editor
The Concordia Neighborhood Association board is a group of 13 volunteers who all live in, work in or own property in Concordia. They are dedicated to helping the community and meet once a month to discuss neighborhood issues and plan events.
How did you come to get involved with the CNA board?
I met the Land Use and Transportation (LUTC) Committee chair, Rich Burton, at Extracto. I was chatting with someone I met who was from Texas (like me) and he introduced me to Rich. I knew the board existed but I thought they just did social events. I didn’t know there was also a Land Use Committee and I didn’t know they did advocacy for the neighborhood. Rich told me was resigning. A month later I went to a meeting and got nominated for the LUTC chair position.
What are you hoping to accomplish on the board?
I grew up in Houston and not having zoning there had a strong impact on what happened to a neighborhood, so I have a lot of interest in government structures. I would like to learn more about what the neighborhood wants and I want to be a voice for the community.
I’m hoping to reinvigorate the Land Use and Transportation committee. I changed the monthly meeting time from Wednesdays to the second Tuesday of the month, which is the Tuesday right before the board meeting. I would love to invite anyone from the neighborhood to join us.
Where do you live?
I live right on Killingsworth between NE 36th and 37th. My partner and I bought the house in April 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. We moved here from Dallas and nature is what brought us here. We wanted to live close to the gorge but within the city.
At that time, we didn’t know it would be a loud street. Our home is gated and my dogs have a great time meeting people on the street and at the bus stop, but it is hard to back out my car.
What is your favorite thing about Concordia?
I love the walkability; there’s so many coff ee shops. I’m kind of a nerd and we looked at statistics for the neighborhood- this one met all the criteria in terms of safety, diversity, and ratio of owners to renters. The safety stats are divided into violent and non-violent crimes.
We wanted to avoid living in an area with violent crimes and Concordia fi t the bill. We are a young couple and we are not planning to have kids so we wanted a place that was family-friendly but not family-focused.
What are your favorite hobbies / past times?
I enjoy hiking, I have a thing for waterfalls and I try to go to waterfalls weekly on Waterfall Wednesday. I like to garden. I started a giant vegetable garden and I’ve been fi guring out how to add aesthetically-pleasing native plants.
My partner is working on getting his Master’s in Stats and Data Science at PSU. I like spending time with my two border collies, a 9-year old male named Jura and a 1 ½ year old female named Talisker. They both have Scottish names.
How has the neighborhood changed since you moved here?
We were nervous about how the pandemic would impact small businesses and we were happy that the neighborhood didn’t change too much. The things we loved about Concordia then are still true now.