Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

Author Archives: Leigh Shelton

UO officials invite input from neighbors

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News
University of Oregon Interim President Patrick Phillips addresses Concordia neighbors Oct. 12. Photo by Brittany van der Salm

With fall sun streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows, about 60 neighbors nibbled on duck-shaped sugar cookies, as they learned Oct. 12 about what’s next for the 19-acre campus at the north end of Concordia neighborhood.

In June, the University of Oregon acquired the former Concordia University campus, which had been shuttered since 2020. The recent public meeting took place in the library of the new UO campus. At the gathering, community members mingled with a dozen UO staff and listened to remarks from Interim President Patrick Phillips about the University’s intentions.

The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health is seeking to train more professionals in emotional wellness and will occupy the top floor of the library building, he said.

The institute will offer a new degree for undergraduates and aims to ready 200 graduates per year for jobs in schools and healthcare settings. Students participating in that program will occupy two of the campus’ residence halls starting in Fall 2023.

Some UO officials have already started moving into Concordia campus offices and Phillips said that they are keen to get the library building’s first-floor coffee shop up and running.

In order to create a “campus feel,” Phillips said UO has decided to move all of its Portland programs, currently housed in Old Town’s White Stag building, to the new campus. Those programs include graduate level offerings in business administration, architecture, historical preservation, journalism and law.

The “Innovation Space,” a research and maker lab used by several UO Portland graduate programs, is slated to take over what was Luther Hall, the large brick building and adjoining chapel on Holman Street and NE 28th Avenue.

UO Portland Provost Jane Gordon said the university wants to turn the former Concordia University chapel into a commons, an open space for exhibits and gatherings. The building will require significant renovations, and the university is in the process of selecting an architect to assist in the design phase, she said.

Gordon said she is most excited about the on-campus housing UO will now be able to offer UO Portland students, something it can’t in its Old Town site. She said UO intends to use 400 of the 500 current on-campus beds for students.

Gordon said neighbors will be welcome to use the campus in a variety of ways. “We want to be a community-centered campus,” Gordon said. “We will do events that people will be invited to, whether they’re a lecture, conference, music or things the community puts on. We’re open to various ideas.”

Ideas being considered include a weekly farmer’s market, concerts on the lawn and a food cart pod. Gordon says she wants to collaborate with Concordia residents on how to use the campus.

To share your ideas, contact UO by emailing pdxinfo@uoregon.edu.

For more information, visit pdx.uoregon.edu/northeast-pdx-campus

Readers Write! Tell us how you think the Concordia community should interact with, as well as utilize, the University of Oregon’s new campus. We’ll publish your thoughts in an upcoming issue. Email CNews Editor Rob Cullivan at CNewsEditor@ConcordiaPDX.org.

Concordia Conversations – Area gardener ‘paints with plants’

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Gardening
Garden designer Wesley Younie notes many clients are looking to replace their lawns with more interesting landscapes. Photo by Michael French

Wesley Younie is a painter and trendsetting garden designer leaving his mark all over Portland. Through his business, Wesley Younie Creative, his calendar is packed with eager clients seeking drought-tolerant and aesthetically pleasing flower-filled landscapes.

Past clients include Sequitur Wine in Newburg, Union Wine in Tualatin and dozens of private residences, including many here in Concordia.

Ready to take the plunge and pull out your lawn? Younie recommends starting with the parking strip. “You want it to be low maintenance,” he said. “Why not fill it with plants and shrubs that thrive in the Pacific Northwest?”

Visit WesleyYounie.com to see more of his work or get in touch.

The following interview took place in late summer, in Younie’s stunning home garden in Concordia.

Shelton: Looking at your paintings, I’m noticing an interest in nature. Also, a lot of small details. How does your painting interact with your garden design?

Wesley Younie is an accomplished painter,
whose art is inspired by his gardening. This
work is titled “Dark Garden.” Contributed
photo

Younie: “Well, it’s all the same elements. I say, ‘I’m painting with plants.’ Kind of cheesy to say, but true. It’s the same formula if you’re painting a landscape, except you’re doing it in 3D. And color is huge in my gardens. There are colors I don’t like using. There are colors that are favorites, and those that are really easy to blend together—purple, blue, pink, white, dark red. If I like a bright color, it’s usually orange.”

Your personal garden is packed full of plants. And when I walk down the long sidewalk in front of your house, nestled between the parking strip and the rock retaining wall that lines your lot, I instantly feel transported. Not sure I can pinpoint what that feeling is though. What is it about for you?

“To me, it’s the same thing as art. It’s all about creating a feeling. I once wrote in an artist statement, ‘I want my work to transport you to another world.’ It’s the same in gardens. I like different themes and playing with mixing themes. Parts of my garden are Japanese, parts are tropical and other parts are really arid, natural California desert–looking. It’s so important to have the big picture, then the details. I think that’s what a lot of homeowners can’t figure out. What’s the big picture of my garden or landscape?”

When you set out to design a garden for a client, what are your priorities?

“I really want the client to love the garden. And making sure they are set up for success. Like, don’t let them put a vegetable garden in the shade.”

What’s going on in our gardens in October? What should we be doing?

“Fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs because it’s starting to rain and you can have them watered for free. You can start planting fall edible plants too, as well as bulbs.”

Can we plant flowers for spring?

“Perennials, yes, because then they go dormant, then they come back and they look great. It’s a great time to add color to your garden.”

Where do you buy plants?

“My favorite nursery in town, Xera Plants at 1114 SE Clay St. I like to promote them because they’re local, they have good prices and all their plants do great in our climate.”

Wesley Younie works in his home garden. Photo by Michael French

Speaking of climate, how do we plant for a warming one?

“What I’ve been into, and I’m seeing with clients, is a huge push for pollinating flowers that help the ecosystem by attracting bees and other insects. I went to a big nursery conference, and they said pollinators are the number one thing people are asking for. That makes me happy that people are thinking about this.

“And with the fires and climate change— Oregon is getting hotter—there are so many plants that are going to look green, are drought tolerant and are going to look way better than a dead lawn. I love taking out a lawn. And a lot of the gardens in the neighborhood that I’ve done are that. How much better for the ecosystem is a pollinator garden that’s creating habitat than a dead lawn?”

Leigh Shelton is the new lead ad representative for CNews. She loves raising her three children in Concordia and doing yoga nidra. For advertisement inquiries, contact Leigh at CNewsBusiness@ ConcordiaPDX.org.

Back to School – Preschool, afterschool to open in Concordia

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Schools, Uncategorized
Delorie Finch, left, greets her preschool students each morning. Here she greets Londyn Brown, who high fives her father, Neal Brown. Photo by Leigh Shelton

For Delorie Finch, the dream of opening her own preschool began in 1998, while sitting in the balcony of the Maranatha Church in Northeast Portland.

“The pastor said, ‘God has blessed many of you with talents, and many of you are sitting on those talents,’” Finch said. “And I heard God say to me, ‘Delorie, you need to start the school. Start the school and the people will come.’”

Twenty-four years later, she started the school, and thanks to funding from Preschool for All, a 2020 Multnomah County voter-supported ballot initiative, the students have come.

In its first year of implementation, Preschool for All has enrolled 677 students across the county, 10 of whom will attend Finch Academy, located in Maranatha Church, 4222 NE 12th Ave.

“They’ve been wonderful,” Finch said, referring to the Preschool for All counselors who’ve helped her. “They’re doing everything they possibly can to make sure we’re successful.”

Preschool for All has provided Finch Academy grant money to help cover infrastructure expenses, training and mentorship. The academy has also received tuition aid to cover 10 threeand four-year-olds.

Funded by a tax on high-income earners that Multnomah County started collecting in January 2021, Preschool for All makes full-time preschool free for families in the county.

Finch long dreamt of opening her own school and spent 27 years running the preschool program at Matt Dishman Community Center in Northeast Portland’s Eliot neighborhood. She retired in September of 2021. “When I started [at Dishman], it was all Black children,” she said. “By the time I retired it was all white except for one. This is a result of gentrification.”

Finch said she loved her experience at Dishman. But she still felt a yearning to lead something of her own making and fulfill a deep need she saw for children to attend preschool.

“It’s not fair for children to be left out just because their parents can’t pay,” Finch said. “Parents shouldn’t choose between paying the bills and rent and preschool, yet they do. These kids are so smart. They are like a sponge. We need to fill their little minds with as many good things as we can.”

For Preschool for All, Finch Academy is considered a “Pilot Site.” That means it’s one of the first contracted preschools in the program and, akin to user testing, will influence the overall shape of the county’s preschool program as its details are worked out.

Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson was a key leader of the 2020 Preschool for All campaign conducted by a coalition of parents, teachers, unions, preschool providers and community groups. Pederson said she feels proud of reaching this milestone in the Preschool for All journey, and is still active on the team.

“Families are dropping off their little ones at preschool and are free from the significant financial burden of childcare,” Vega Pederson said, adding: “This program was recognized as a potential national model, and we’re going to make sure it’s a success.”

Applications are currently open for existing or would-be preschool providers interested in joining for the 2023–24 school year. Cash assistance and free training are available. For more information, visit Multco.us/preschool/ providers.

And although Finch Academy’s Preschool for All funded slots are filled for this school year, she still has room for more students, and Finch said she will not turn away families. For more information, call Finch at 971.544.7291.

“We Play” After School

Concordia neighborhood leader and former CNews Advertising Representative Gina Levine’s We Play Portland, an after school childcare program for Faubion School students ages five through 10, has found a new home in St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 6700 NE 29th Ave., starting this month.

Levine has long provided before- and after-school care for friends and neighbors out of her house. But this year she has taken her business to the next level, finding a convenient location in the church’s Fellowship Hall next door to Faubion.

“I’ve been somewhat unofficially watching other people’s kids since my nine-year-old was a newborn,” Levine said. “But it was never a business. It’s really exciting to be taking the next step. I can help more families, and I see it as a longer-term career.”

Levine said she named her care program “We Play” because that’s what she wants to give the kids, a chance for unstructured time to just play and be themselves. “I don’t think kids get to play enough during the school year,” she said. “To me, play is building relationships, building community and figuring out who you are when you’re a kid.”

And for Faubion families, it’s a vital service for those parents who are working and can’t pick up their kids at 3:15 p.m. when school dismisses students, she said. We Play Portland is offering care Monday to Thursday for two hours after school.

One such parent is Christine Sullivan, a single mom and full-time teacher in Portland Public Schools. When her daughter started in-person classes at Faubion last school year, she was stressed and scrambled to find before- and afterschool care.

“I think the [school] district needs to do a better job of offering more options,” Sullivan said. “I’m so thankful for Gina. She provides such an amazing service for the community by watching all these kiddos.”

Levine said a few spots remain open in this year’s program, so contact her at WePlayPortland@gmail.com to enroll. If all goes well at Faubion, she hopes to open a Vernon School location for the 2023–24 school year.

Faubion Welcomes Staff

Faubion School welcomes two new assistant principals this fall: Cynthia Kieffer and Celina Garrido.

Kieffer was a middle school teacher in Beaverton before entering administration in Portland Public Schools. She lives in the Sabin neighborhood and said she already feels connected to the community.

Kieffer, who is Latina and speaks fluent Spanish, comes to Faubion from James John Elementary, a K–5 school. She requested to be moved to a school that served older children.

“I found I was missing that middle school component,” Kieffer said. “Grades six through eight are a discovery period. Kids are forming their hopes and dreams. To watch that identity grow and blossom is just so invigorating.

Leigh Shelton is the new lead ad representative for CNews. She loves raising her three children in Concordia and doing yoga nidra. For advertisement inquiries, contact Leigh at CNewsBusiness@ConcordiaPDX.org.

Pipster Prep – Preschool to open in CU building

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Family
This former Concordia University administration building will house Pipster Prep’s newest location. Photo by Leigh Shelton.

A Portland preschool and childcare chain plans to open a location in a former administration building of Concordia University, on the corner of NE 30th Avenue and Ainsworth.

Pipster Prep owner Tessa Steinberg said the new school, at 5949 NE 30th Ave., is tentatively set to open in February.

Steinberg and her husband David Steinberg recently bought the singlestory 8,000-square-foot building and are planning a full renovation.

Steinberg said she’s most excited about bringing the outside in with skylights in the common areas and a roll-up door to connect indoor play with a new, large outdoor play space where a parking lot currently exists. “And a large bathroom with eight stalls will be SOOO nice,” she said

Steinberg said she is excited to see the architectural plans come to life. Most refurbished buildings limit design possibilities because of existing conditions that are hard to change. But the 1959 property is a “cement square” upon which she can make her design dreams come true. “This will definitely be our nicest location,” Steinberg said. “And the street is perfect. I love Ainsworth.”

Concordia will be Steinberg’s first location to provide care to children ages 1 and older. Her other four locations enroll children ranging in age from 2 or 3 to 5.

Tessa Steinberg

Steinberg, who until recently lived in Concordia, said she was inspired to expand her business into infant care after the birth of her son, as she struggled mightily to find care for him. “We are in dire need for more care in this area,” Steinberg said.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of centers and dispersal of the workforce, a 2020 Oregon State University report prepared for Oregon’s Department of Education Early Learning Division labeled all 36 Oregon counties to be “childcare deserts” for children ages 0 to 2. A desert is defined as an area with more than three children for every one licensed child care slot. For parents, the lack of supply translates to high prices, wait lists and lots of frustration.

Concordia resident Adrienne Newton’s son Mason attends Pipster Prep’s Northeast preschool on Killingsworth Street. It has a long wait list, and it was Newton’s third try at finding the right place for her oldest son.

“When Mason walked into the classroom, he fell in love,” she said. “He got his ‘joie de vivre’ back. They think they’re having all this fun, but really, they’re learning. He’s so happy.”

Newton said she’s thrilled about the new location that will be just a few blocks from her house and is planning to send her youngest son when it opens. “I can walk Lucas to Pipster and Mason to Faubion [School],” Newton said. “It just fulfills my dream of having this little community so close.”

To learn more about Pipster Prep, visit PipsterPrep.com.

Leigh Shelton is the new lead ad representative for CNews. She loves raising her three children in Concordia and doing yoga nidra. For advertisement inquiries, contact Leigh at CNewsBusiness@ConcordiaPDX.org.