Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

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CNA Voices – Love, activism & city code

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Suk Rhee | Portland Office of Community & Civic Life Director

Love and activism are frequent topics in these pages, whether quoting Muhammad Ali (August) or demonstrated through master recycling (June). The Office of Community & Civic Life, and Portlanders, proudly share this heritage.

We love working together, and in many different ways. This is seen in Civic Life’s programs, from neighborhood associations, to the city/county youth commission, to the Cannabis Policy Oversight Team. We love learning from change with an open heart, open mind and willing hands to better serve multiple generations.

We also love our city and recognize it is growing and shifting. Civic Life has been directed by the city auditor and council to change the part of city code that is our bureau’s job description. This means updating our current code to engage our city’s dynamic future.

To inform this change, we engaged with a diverse cross section of Portlanders –including those served and not served by Civic Life – about their values and how civic engagement can help us achieve greater things. This is important because government’s responsibility is to reflect all its members.

This year-long process included online surveys, community forums in five languages, working with high school journalism programs, meeting with groups familiar and new, a gathering to bring these groups together and more.

We heard things in common. Portlanders demand more equitable outcomes as we grow from a city of 653,000 to 880,000 by 2035. This means tackling big issues so that working families, communities of color and rent-burdened tenants can keep calling Portland home.

Portlanders want government to recognize their realities and ways of organizing. Some work the late shift, are caregivers, want to participate digitally, combine social and volunteer activities or organize through important cultural traditions.

We also heard differences. Notably, communities’ relationship with government is starkly unequal. The accountability – and the moral and legal obligation – to address this rests with government, not with those in whom government has invested, or not.

After a year of listening to Portlanders, the proposed code language builds on our current network by increasing opportunities for community building and engagement. It commits to delivering more racially and socially inclusive outcomes. It keeps current privileges in place for neighborhood associations, district coalitions and business districts until better systems are adopted. And, names government as accountable for serving all its members, with love for our differences and respect for our shared heritage of activism.

Learn more about the code change here.

Editor’s note: Suk Rhee is the guest speaker at the Nov. 6 Concordia Neighborhood Association annual membership meeting. It’s at 7 p.m. in McMenamins Kennedy School Community Room.

They named it Irvington for marketability

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, History

By Doug Decker | Historian

The Oregonian 1907 advertisement implies a connection between Irvington Park and “Irvington Proper,” but also points out that prices in Irvington Park are way less expensive

The Concordia neighborhood is a quilt of underlying subdivisions, also known as plats filed by developers more than 100 years ago when they first laid out – and then carved out – streets and lots from the fields and forests that occupied these gentle slopes above the Columbia River.

My June column mentioned Foxchase, one of those plats. But there are many more, each one with its own history: Kennedy’s Addition, Ina Park, Lester Park, Town of Creighton, Heidelberg, Sunderland Acres, Concordia Green and the largest of all, Irvington Park.

Interesting, isn’t it, that the makers of our neighborhood wanted to name it after another neighborhood that already exists? That’s marketing for you.

The Irvington Park plat occupies the area from 25th to 33rd avenues, between Rosa Parks Way and Killingsworth Street, an area of about 175 acres. That’s big by northeast Portland plat standards.

When the Irvington Park plat was filed back in November 1890, the Irvington neighborhood we know today south of Fremont Street was already a going concern with wide streets, big houses and wealthy business people moving in and building up the area. Today we would say property values there were definitely skyrocketing.

The initial developer of Irvington Park here in Concordia in 1890, Edward Quackenbush, liked the vibe of the original Irvington – which he was not party to, by the way – and wanted to cash in on the coattails of its identity, something that other east Portland developers tried to do as well.

Check out the adjacent advertisement from The Oregonian July 10, 1907, that implies a connection with “Irvington Proper,” but also points out that prices in Irvington Park are way less expensive.

Other eastside developers did the same thing, which was annoying for the Irvington real estate people. But it worked.

With the help of the Alberta Streetcar, homeowners flocked to Irvington Park and the commercial district around Alberta Street boomed. A community club was organized, a club house and dancing venue was built near 30th Avenue and Ainsworth Street.

And something else happened: community spirit. Here’s a paragraph from The Oregonian July 25, 1915:

“There never was a finer feeling in a community than now exists in Irvington Park – and their community club has done it and its work will go on benefitting one and all and bringing them closer and closer together.”

Ask the Historian is a CNews standing feature that encourages readers to ask questions about the history of the neighborhood and its buildings. Is there something you’ve wondered about? Drop a line to CNewsEditor@ ConcordiaPDX.org and ask Doug Decker to do some digging.

Doug Decker initiated his blog AlamedaHistory.org in 2007 to collect and share knowledge about the life of old houses, buildings and neighborhoods in northeast Portland. His basic notion is that insight to the past adds new meaning to the present.

Local artist fuses glass into jewelry, more

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

(Left to right) David Hathaway and Teri Knesal are Susan Hathaway’s marketing team and support system for Concordia Glass. She’s been making jewelry and other items from her Concordia home for decades. Photo by Nancy Varekamp

Twelve bars of soap turned Susan Hathaway into an artist at age 6, although now her medium is glass

“My grandparents worked with their hands,” she recalled. “They influenced me to want to work with mine.”

Her grandmother had planned to put the bars of soap to traditional use. However, when the grandmother returned home one day, Susan and the grandfather had put a carving knife to use. The result? Twelve animals.

In high school, her medium became paper and ink. Calligraphy launched Susan’s early career in an Old Town shop, where she penned wedding and shower invitations, framed pieces, and more.

A young man on a bicycle delivered sandwiches to the shop one day and now he – David – and Susan have been married 45 years.

When Susan was 26, she found her permanent artistic calling during a stained glass class, a gift from her mother. Cutting and applying lead and solder to colored glass wasn’t sufficient.

“From then on it was all about fusing glass,” Susan said. With the gift of a kiln from her uncle, she became a self-taught glass maker.

During the 10 years she managed a daycare center in the Concordia home the Hathaways bought in 1978, glassmaking time was limited. When Susan was able to hire part-time help – fellow Vernon School parent Teri Knesal – she was afforded time to work with glass.

“Teri and David became my marketers,” she explained. And they continue to help out at street fairs and craft shows in northeast and southeast Portland, and previously for 20 years at Saturday Market.

You can also look for Concordia Glass earrings, necklaces, hair clips, garden stakes, angel ornaments and five-character nativity sets on sale nearby at:

  • Sharon’s Hair and Nails, 4216 N.E. Mason St.
  • Hollywood Senior Center‘s Golden Treasures shop
  • McMenamins Edgefield’s Gorge Glashaus

Although Susan stopped selling to Made in Oregon after a few years and left Saturday Market two years ago, she can still be found at local craft fairs with David and Teri.

“I’m her chauffeur and sometimes her ‘show-er,’” David rhymed. He retired three years ago years ago from Cloudburst Recycling.

Selling wholesale to stores helps pay the bills, but the shows offer them contact with the customers, Susan pointed out.

“It’s nice just to have people appreciate what you’re doing, and I enjoy talking to the other vendors.”

David agreed and added, “The entry fees you pay to be in many of them – like the Hollywood Senior Center and All Saints School – go to a good cause.”

Editor’s note: Find Susan – and most likely David and Teri – Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Hollywood Senior Center Holiday Bazaar from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1820 N.E, 40th Ave. In addition to shopping at the Concordia Glass table, you’ll find other local crafters with their wares, plus soup and pie for lunch. 

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

Surely we can make our streets far safer

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Land Use & Transportation

By Garlynn Woodsong | CNA Board Member, SW1 CNA LUTC Chair

There are several ways to make streets safer. One is lowering speed limits, like Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) did recently on several Concordia roadways.

Killingsworth Street is one that Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) has asked PBOT to reduce the speed limit. After all, Oregon Department of Transportation speed zone standards state business districts should be posted at 20 mph.

However, PBOT refuses to lower the speed from 30 to 20 for the sections of the street at 30th and 15th avenues – clearly micro-business districts – with constant pedestrian traffic crossing the street, as well as significant cross traffic and turning movements that include TriMet buses.

In response to CNA’s request, PBOT engineering associate Mike Corrie replied, “After reviewing available data, we have determined the current speed zones on Killingsworth to be appropriate given the layout, and similar to other comparable-sized roads in the area. Therefore, no changes were recommended.”

This response is hard to reconcile with PBOT’s focus on Vision Zero, and the “20 is Plenty” campaign that apparently does not apply to our section of Killingsworth.

It’s possible, with the high volume of traffic on Killingsworth, lowering the posted speed limit alone might be sufficient to slow down traffic. This should certainly be the first step tried.

While lowering speed limits is something that CNA will continue to advocate in locations where it makes sense, such as the micro-business district of Killingsworth, we also are interested in solutions to lower speed by calming traffic with physical methods.

One is Ainsworth Street. Recent data shows, for two days in February, counts were measured on 4,330 trips average per day eastbound, and 4,154 westbound. The posted speed on this roadway is now 20 mph, having been lowered from 30 within the past couple of years.

During the survey, 91.8% of drivers were observed traveling above the posted speed limit eastbound, and 94% westbound. Of those, 13.8% of eastbound traffic was traveling at least 10 mph above the posted speed limit, as was 21.1% of westbound traffic.

Multiple times a day in each direction, some drivers were measured traveling at speeds above 45 mph. This on a street with elderly citizens in mobility devices and people pushing strollers.

So 20 mph signs didn’t help. A traffic-calming solution could include traffic-circle-type installations at intersections that would require traffic to slow down to navigate each circle. That would eliminate the ability to drive fast in a straight line down the long stretches between the very few stop signs at 33rd and 15th avenues and MLK Jr. Boulevard.

On Alberta Street, the situation is a bit different, although we don’t have traffic count data yet to quantify this precisely. The speed limit was lowered to 20 mph but anecdotal evidence suggests that at times when traffic is light – such as during morning rush hour – some drivers choose to use Alberta as their own personal freeway on-ramp, despite the presence of children walking to school.

A physical safety solution on Alberta could include raised crosswalks, such as those found on 42nd Avenue between Fremont and Knott streets.

Only through a combination of speed limit reductions and physical changes to the built environment can we achieve our desired outcomes: a safe neighborhood and city where nobody is seriously injured or killed in traffic accidents.

Garlynn Woodsong lives on 29th Avenue, serves on the CNA board and is an avid bicyclist. He also is a dad who is passionate about the city his son will inherit. He is the planning + development partner with Cascadia Partners LLC, a local urban planning firm. Contact him at LandUse@ConcordiaPDX.org.

There’s no slowing this tortoise

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Tamara Anne Fowler | CNA Media Team

BUMP leads the frequent walks through his neighborhood, with Rita and Ross Davis following behind. They tow a wagon that – with the tortoise at 60 pounds – is getting difficult for even Ross to lift him into. So far, BUMP has resisted using the ramp built into his customized wagon. Photo by Nancy Varekamp

When Rita and Ross Davis first met Bump, Bump was sick, blowing bubbles out of his nose and lying all by himself in a cold and wet backyard. He was an African spurred tortoise in need of rescue.

Bump only weighed 3.5 pounds and was still a baby.

Rita had to spoon feed Bump medicine mixed with small tortoise food (small kibbles) for two weeks.

That was nine years ago and he has been healthy ever since, weighing in now at 60 pounds.

Bump lives in the Davis house and has his own bedroom, although he loves to sleep under Ross’ lazy boy chair and next to Rita’s night stand.

Because Bump does not drink water, once a week he is treated to a spa day and is soaked in the bath tub. This helps him absorb water. He will splash water onto his back by flipping his front legs toward his back.

Bump’s favorite foods are lettuce, green beans, raspberries, apples and watermelon, as well as his tortoise kibble.

Rita started walking him when he was very young. Then, if he ever got out of the backyard, the neighbors would know where he belonged.

Their walks take about two hours, but Bump can often walk about a mile in that time if it is warm enough.

On walks they have to watch their time because, after two hours, Bump will get as stubborn as a toddler. They will try to go one way – toward home – but he wants to go the other way. The Davises always have a wagon – custom built by Ross and adorned with Bump’s name – with them. If Bump gets tired or stubborn, he can take a Tortoise Time Out in the wagon and they head home.

Bump loves the attention he gets from everyone. Although he will not stop and pose for pictures, he is really good when people want to touch him.

Dogs seem to like him as well, although they are not certain what he is. The dogs and kids will circle around him, but he keeps moving. One dog even brought him a stick to play with, but Bump just kept moving.

A few years ago, the Naked Bike Ride started at Fernhill Park and Bump was in attendance.

When the parade started to move out of the park, Bump was determined to go with the bicyclists. He made it as far as he corner of 42nd & Killingsworth and just crashed.

He crawled to a bush and passed out. Luckily, the Davises had the wagon.

Editor’s note: Tamara has more to share about Bump than space allows. For the rest of the story, visit ConcordiaPDX.org/2019-Bump.

Tamara Anne Fowler is Edit Kitten, a writer with 20-plus years of experience offering a softer, gentler approach to editing and coaching. Her personal editors — Armani, Max Factor and Spicey’D — are also her cats. Visit her at EditKitten.com or contact her at Tamara@EditKitten.com

Bring the plan home to your own block

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Amy Gard | Team Leader Concordia/Vernon/Woodlawn NET

The Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) program, like other community emergency response team (CERT) programs around the country, was created from the observation – when major disaster strikes and people need help – they are most likely to receive that help, not from trained first responders, but from their neighbors.

Time and again, everyday people jump into action when facing the aftermath of destruction and come to the rescue of others who are injured or trapped.

It was these observations that started the idea behind the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s CERT program – to provide training and structure to civilian community members before disaster strikes Then recovery can be accelerated and volunteers can help others more safely and effectively.

Not everyone can set aside time to take the 30-hour NET training. So our volunteers try to magnify their impact by sharing their knowledge and training with the larger community in a variety of ways.

One way is by helping individual neighborhood blocks prepare together.

If you have a group of at least 10 households on your block whose residents can commit to attending, we can provide presentations to your group on the what, why and how of preparedness.

Typically, we help you host an event at a home on your street or at a public venue. We provide an abridged version of Mercy Corps’ Cascadia earthquake discussion, which highlights the science behind the risks we face here in the Pacific Northwest and the likely ramifications of a major regional disaster.

Once we cover the what and the why, we can help your group prepare individually and as a block to build the resiliency of your street. It’s like a private training for you and all your most likely rescuers!

Contact us at ConcordiaNETs@gmail.com if you have a group that would like to take advantage of this free service.

Amy Gard i s a mother, retired teacher/administrator,  former Concordia business owner, saxophone player and active volunteer for the NET and Oregon Food Bank.

They save history from the wrecking balls

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Dan Werle | CNA Media Team

Brian (left) and Mike McMenamin grew up in neighboring Alameda with a respect for history. That’s what led to restoring buildings like Kennedy School and filling them with vintage decor like this Dutch puppet theater. Photo by Dan Werle

Mike and Brian McMenamin grew up in neighboring Alameda, attended The Madeleine School in Irvington and Jesuit High School in Beaverton before graduating from Oregon State University with degrees in political science.

Since then, they have helped establish or re-invigorate more than 55 pubs, restaurants, hotels and concert venues throughout Oregon and Washington – including the iconic Kennedy School in Concordia.

During their Alameda days, their mom, Pat, stayed home taking care of them and sisters Maureen and Nancy. Their dad, Robert, was an attorney, and he wrote a column for The Oregonian. As kids, their parents and grandparents exposed them to a variety of music, art and history.

Mike, the elder of the two, won a football scholarship but, in his second year, left the football program and began working at Togo’s sandwich shop. There he enjoyed the work better than football.

In 1974, Mike purchased Produce Row Café on southeast Oak Street and their dad purchased the building. Brian later worked at Produce Row before 1978 when they sold it to the employees. In 1983, The Barley Mill on Southeast Hawthorne Street opened its doors and became the brothers’ first joint venture.

Since then, the business has expanded to include such popular venues as the Crystal Ballroom downtown, Edgefield in Troutdale and, of course, Kennedy School.

Students had begun attending classes there in a one-room building in 1913. Two years later the full school opened and, in 1975, the building was shuttered due to decreasing student enrollment and a crumbling infrastructure.

Thanks to former students, local community members and the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland), the building was spared the wrecking ball.

In 1980 Portland Public Schools abandoned the building, and it remained vacant until 1995 when Mike and Brian proposed renovation. The original bell of the school principal rang Oct. 22, 1997, at 7 a.m. to mark McMenamins Kennedy School’s first day “in session.”

Four of the brothers’ children are involved in McMenamins Inc., and Mike’s 12-year-old granddaughter is already providing advice for potential future pursuits.

Brian admits he and Mike began buying and restoring old taverns because, “They were cheap to start out with.” Both confess a penchant for older, high-quality structures, and they enjoy sharing information with the communities in which their businesses operate.

“We like to leave the property in better shape than we found it,” Mike explained.

Brian agreed, “We like to try to do the right thing and hopefully become a positive force in the community.”

Dan Werle lives in Concordia with his wife, Anna, and their dogs.

Ask the historian – University shares name, history, future locally

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, History

Provided by Concordia University

The high school that became Concordia University moved to this campus in 104 years ago, and it has grown immensely since this mid1940s photo. Founded originally as a high school, the site now boasts a diverse student body with undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs on campus and online. Photo courtesy of Concordia University

Responding to a need for teachers and ministers in the Pacific Northwest, Concordia University-Portland (CU) was founded in 1905 as a high school. It opened with $800 and 16 students in the basement of Trinity Lutheran Congregation.

By 1907 the Northwest District of the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod purchased land and constructed a school building at the current site, 2811 N.E. Holman St.

Under the direction of its first president, F.W.J. Sylwester, the school overcame obstacles to survival. At the time, unpaved roads proved a challenge and the Great Depression significantly reduced student enrollment and employee compensation.

In 1946 the second president, Thomas Coates, added critical faculty members, began a building campaign and, in the 1950s, instituted two years of junior college. The name became Concordia College.

In 1954 it opened its doors to women to prepare teachers for parochial schools and partnered with Emanuel Hospital to prepare nurses. In 1958 president E.P. Weber spun off the high school program as Concordia High School under the direction of Art Wahlers, Ph.D., who also helped found the Concordia Neighborhood Association.

In 1977 CU became a four-year college. The president oversaw residence hall construction to support more students, including international students. The high school moved off campus.

When Charles “Chuck” Schlimpert, Ph.D., was named the fourth president in 1983, Concordia College was firmly rooted in what had become known as the Concordia neighborhood.

He served as president for 35 years during unprecedented growth for CU. Four colleges were distinguished, and the university grew from 800 students to more than 6,000 nationwide.

In 1995, the Concordia University System was formed and linked 10 Concordias across the U.S. At the same time, CU reaffirmed and updated its mission and vision to prepare leaders for the transformation of society.

In 2010 Washington Monthly ranked CU No. 1 nationally for student participation in community service among U.S. universities with masters programs.

In collaboration with neighbors, the city, and the broader community, campus expansion continued.

In 2009, CU opened the George R. White Library and Learning Center, which serves the Concordia neighborhood as a local community library, hosts arts and culture events, and includes the Jody Thurston Northwest Center for Children’s Literature.

In 2011 the Hilken Community Stadium opened. It’s an athletic complex on northeast Dekum Street, also dedicated 50 percent to community groups.

In 2017, Faubion School + CU, a 3 to PhD community, opened with collaborators including Portland Public Schools, Kaiser Permanente, Trillium Family Services and basics market.

CU continues as a nonprofit, private Lutheran university preparing leaders for the transformation of society, serving the community, and providing a diverse student body with undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs on campus and online.

Learn more at CU-Portland.edu.

PBOT tackles traffic death risks

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Land Use & Transportation

By Garlynn Woodsong | CNA Board Member, SW1 CNA LUTC Chair

“On Tuesday, June 25, just before 6 p.m., police officers responded to a rollover crash near northeast Lombard Street and northeast 42nd Avenue,” reported the Willamette Week last June. “The unidentified driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The death is the 28th traffic-related fatality so far this year.”

“Smith was driving a blue 2000 Ford Crown Victoria eastbound on northeast Lombard Street, just west of 42nd Avenue, when it appears he struck the rear tire and wheel of a bicyclist, the affidavit said,” reported The Oregonian in December 2015. “Smith said he had veered to the right to avoid another vehicle that had swerved toward him, the affidavit said.”

“A busy road in northeast Portland has reopened now after a man was hit and killed by a taxi cab this morning,” KXL Radio reported in April. “Police got the call just before 1 a.m. to the intersection of northeast 64th and Columbia Boulevard, saying a pedestrian was hit. Crews tried to save him, but he died at the scene. Police say the victim was a delivery driver, who just pulled his truck out into the road, hopped out to close a gate and was hit by the taxi cab.”

Between 2008 and 2017, there were 23 fatalities and 85 severe injuries on Columbia Boulevard and Lombard Street between I-5 and I-205.

We’re tired of hearing of deaths on North Portland Highway / Lombard Street, and on Columbia Boulevard.

People are dying needlessly on Lombard, both on bicycles and within automobiles, because the Oregon Department of Transportation does not maintain the bicycle facilities there to any acceptable standard of safety. And both high-speed streets have local street and driveway intersections that offer many opportunities for car-on-car crashes as well.

The Concordia Neighborhood Association has been concerned with the Columbia / Lombard Corridor for many years now. We are unable to safely walk from our neighborhood to the Columbia River, even though we can see it from some of our houses, and its distance would certainly be within a pleasant walking distance of our neighborhood – if only safe facilities existing to connect us with it.

Emissions – not only from the roadway facilities themselves, but also from the industrial land uses nearby – drift into our neighborhood and foul our air when the wind blows from a generally northerly direction, as well as when it doesn’t blow much at all.

It is in this context that the Portland Bureau of Transportation has kicked off the Columbia / Lombard Mobility Corridor planning process, which focuses on the corridor between I-5 to I-205, with a buffer area to include parallel routes.

The process is expected to last through next July, resulting in a plan to guide a strategy for making implementation investments.

Stay tuned to this page in CNews. Better yet, attend the LUTC meetings the third Wednesday each month at 7 p.m. in the McMenamins Kennedy School Community room.

Garlynn Woodsong lives on 29th Avenue, serves on the CNA board and is an avid bicyclist. He also is a dad who is passionate about the city his son will inherit. He is the planning + development partner with Cascadia Partners LLC, a local urban planning firm. Contact him at LandUse@ConcordiaPDX.org.