Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

Category Archives: Concordia News

Cully Camina invites you to ‘walk, go, trot, wend your way’

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Events

The Cully Association of Neighbors and Oregon Walks are partnering Sept. 18 for the first of a new series of free, pedestrian-focused open streets events. The 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cully Camina will encourage participants to explore the Cully neighborhood on foot and use the streets for play in Oregon Walks’ new Oregon Walkways program.

What’s a camina? Loosely translated, it’s the Spanish word to walk, go, trot, home in on and/or wend one’s way.

Inspired by the success of the city of Portland’s Sunday Parkways, this event will close off portions of Killingsworth Street and Alberta Court to cars and open them to people. The route will highlight the newly minted Living Cully Plaza and the forthcoming 42nd Avenue Plaza, with activities along Cully Blvd, Alberta Street and Alberta Court, especially in and around Khunamokwst Park. Booths for food and art vendors as well as local nonprofits will be located near both plaza areas.

Volunteers, vendors and participants are all invited. Volunteers are needed on the planning and outreach teams, and to direct traffic.

Potential vendors may email Inna Levin.

Sponsors already include: Metro, the city of Portland, Our 42nd Avenue, Living Cully, Verde, Hacienda CDC, Andando en Bicicleta en Cully and City Repair and individuals who live and work in the neighborhood.

Oregon Walks is a pedestrian advocacy organization that works to ensure walking and the conditions for walking are safe, convenient and attractive for everyone. Learn more about Cully Camina.

Newspaper and the entire community keep improving; let’s keep up all our efforts

Posted on by Posted in CNA, Concordia News

Welcome back neighbor! Glad to see you are checking in.

As you read through this month’s issue, you’ll quickly find that Concordia News reporters have been busy collecting the stories and information you really care about…or have they? Ultimately, this community newspaper belongs to you, and the best way to be sure that it’s meeting your needs is to let us know what captures your interest and serves you best. Please visit concordiapdx.org/survey to take our reader survey.

But timely news and good reporting are just half of the story. As a free publication, CNews relies on its wonderful advertisers to keep us afloat. These are the folks who want to get their products and services noticed by people like you and they trust CNews to get the word out.

Our community is not just those of us who live in Concordia, but includes all of the business people who have made significant investments and, more often than not, bet their entire savings on enterprises that serve you, many within walking distance. When we patronize those businesses, we’re letting them know that their CNews advertising dollars are well spent. In turn, their support keeps the news and information flowing to you. Let those businesses know that you saw them here. Empowering this community starts with cooperation, but real money keeps the wheels going ’round.

And around we go indeed! Are we moving in the right direction? Is Concordia the model community of your dreams? I think we’re well on our way. I feel at ease and inspired when I look around and see a diversity of people, and when I hear my native Spanish being spoken…or Japanese or German or Farsi. I’m sure I’ve missed a few. Speak up!

If you were fortunate to attend any of our free summer concerts at Fernhill Park, you may have thought you were inside one of those old Coca Cola commercials with people from all over the globe singing, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony).” It felt like a real step toward a model community we can all be proud of.

What do you think we need to be the place you would call perfect? Commissioner Amada Fritz is coming to our general meeting Nov. 1. So think about what you would like her and other commissioners to know about where we want to be in 2030. For those of you with young children, this is an opportunity to secure a better world for them and beyond.

Thanks again and Semper Fi.
Isaac

Stop! Look! Listen!You could save a life

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Family

By Karen Wells

It’s back to school time. You can feel the excitement, the anticipation in the air. The shopping trips to get the new school clothes, gear and electronics – the stuff that makes it all possible.

If you do the traditional, round robin of shopping malls and outlets, you drive there and back, right? If you’re lucky, the ideal parking space awaits, right?

Remember to Stop! Look! Listen! Check for your children or other kids around your car before you park, after parking and before pulling out.

Kids are short. Parents are distracted. Kids are excited and curious. Parents are in a hurry. Cars have blind spots. Kids are oblivious to cars, both parked and moving. Parking lots and driveways are dangerous places, ripe for tragedy.

Stop! Look! Listen! Check where children might be before getting into your car. It takes seconds and could save a life.

According to KidsandCars.org, about 114 children younger than age five were killed in 2015 from backovers – cars that backed over unseen children – and frontovers – cars that moved slowly forward over unseen children.

Don’t leave a child younger than five unattended in a car, even for a minute. Heatstroke or another medical emergency can occur in moments. If the outside temperature is 70 and the windows are closed, it’s 125 inside that car.

We’re good parents. Let’s do our best to keep our children safe. Stop! Look! Listen!

karen-wells-100x100Karen is a master trainer in early childhood education at Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education. She provides health and safety training to parents and childcare staff via Child Care Resource and Referral of Multnomah County. Reach her at 5CornersFamily@gmail.com and 619.244.7892.

Black lives matter to shop, shoppers

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Ryan O’Connor

The owners of a Concordia neighborhood flower shop on Alberta Street know black lives matter. An artistic, handmade sign on the front door of their shop says so.

Beneath the words, “black lives matter,” Elie Wiesel is quoted. “Whenever & wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

When news broke of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two black men killed by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively, shop owners Mary Anne Huseby, Pat Hutchins and Lily Hutchins said they were devastated.

They believe they have the privilege of not worrying about how their white skin might affect their interactions with police and others in authority. They agreed they could not remain silent.

Lily proposed making the black lives matter sign, and Pat suggested adding the Holocaust survivor’s quote. Lily said she worried briefly the sign might cut down on walk-in traffic.

“But we all feel really empowered by stating our beliefs so clearly on the front door,” she explained. Overall, reactions from neighbors and customers have been positive.

Customers and passers-by have taken notice. John Middleton, a Concordia resident and longtime customer who is black explained, “The sign shows that ignoring and keeping a silent voice through all oppression is not OK.”

John started doing business with Flowers in Flight for the quality of the artistry. He believes some people have negative reactions to the sign, and that Flowers in Flight’s decision to retain the sign despite possible negative reactions means to him the owners care about people of color.

Mary Anne and Pat are sisters who have lived in northeast Portland for about 30 years, and started their business in 1984. Lily is Pat’s daughter, who joined them at work in 2012.

They have a racially diverse family, so they are aware of the issues facing people of color in Portland. Concordia’s history of diversity and the challenges presented by gentrification propelled them to post their sign.

Although the women did not post the sign to increase business, John reported he takes note of any store that posts one.

“I try to find a reason to go into to that business,” he said. “It has a huge influence on where I go, and it makes me feel better about the people who go to that business.”

1-Ryan-OConnorRyan O’Connor moved to Portland for college in 1997, and he and his family moved to the Concordia neighborhood a year ago. Most weekends, you can find them playing in Fernhill Park or walking to one of Concordia’s many excellent coffee shops or restaurants.

Keep kids supported this summer

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Family

By Jennifer Allison

Summer has come into full swing with longer days and later nights, and all the extra sunshine has everyone busy with activity. In the natural world, nature is teeming with life, plants are at their peak growth for the year, and animals are busy foraging and feeding their young.

We are all part of this cycle of life, and we can easily get swept into the energy that is available to us at this time. Our children are feeling it, too! They are out of their school rhythms, and there is a freedom that comes with that. In my household, it can be frazzling to have later nights and days full of activities.

How about you? Are you also feeling the fullness of summer in your home? When our kids are whirling with the day’s activities, it is nice to help bring some calm and groundedness back into their beings. That helps restore rest, and it supports the growth they are also experiencing during the summer.

As a follow up to last month’s column, here are some additional ways to support your kids now that summer is here, and the energy is running high.

  • Keep a consistent bedtime: What does this mean exactly? Well, if you are taking advantage of the later daylight, then you have probably moved bedtime back a bit. That is just fine, so keep it the same for your children. They still need eight to 10 hours minimum of rest per night, depending on their age, and more if they are younger. No child can do well with fewer than eight hours of sleep. Their bodies are still developing, and they need our help to get the rest they need.
  • Use natural remedies: In our house, we love to take Epsom salt baths and use essential oils on our bodies. Warm salt baths help to ground and support their bodies physically and emotionally. Essential oils, like lavender and chamomile, offer gentle therapeutic benefits. Also dilute the oils with carrier oil like almond or coconut oil, or another one you like. Start with just a small amount — one drop — to make sure your child doesn’t have a reaction.
  • Take an evening walk: Nature is healing. Children will do much better in the evening spending time outdoors on a walk, at a park or just in your backyard – as opposed to watching television or doing screen time before bed. Media can be a challenge for many children, winding them up and creating mental hyperactivity. It’s a good idea to bring some mindfulness about when you are allowing their interaction with media.

May these suggestions serve as tools to benefit your family on these long summer days, and to help keep healthy rhythms in your home!

Jennifer Allison is an early childhood educator at Gnome’s Home. Visit gnomeshome.org for information on classes for children and adults.

Pop-up café teaches zero waste

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Family, Local Businesses

It’s a pop-up café, it’s in Concordia, and it’s got kid-friendly activities scheduled throughout the month.

Comunid Cafe at Leaven is open every Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Leaven Community/Salt and Light Lutheran Church on the corner of 20th Avenue and Killingsworth Street. Tea, coffee and pastries are available – all at suggested donation prices – and free wi-fi is available.

Kid-friendly activities planned for August include:

  • Aug. 4: iced and blended coffee and story time
  • Aug. 11: Italian sodas and bubble wands
  • Aug. 18: smoothies and balloon improv art

Run entirely by volunteers, the café is a partnership between Trash for Peace, the Leaven Community, Home Forward, Create Plenty and community members. Its slogan is, “Where zero waste, meets community, meets coffee.”

Along with community classes, the café is intended to educate youth and communities on reducing, reusing and rethinking waste, while additionally providing valuable nutrition education, vocation and businesses skills.

Learn more about about Comunid Café and other Trash for Peace programs. For additional information or to volunteer, email here.

Life changes as you age, but purpose shouldn’t

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Health and Wellness

By Keren Brown Wilson

Many are talking about the makeover of various Portland neighborhoods, including the Concordia community and surrounding areas. I leave that discussion for others. I want to talk about changes that occur when we age, and about how we react.

As someone who has worked with and on behalf of older adults for the past 40 years, I have observed many changes in myself, my family and my friends. Many of these occurred slowly. Some are relatively minor, such as changes in hair color and body shape, or decreases in hearing and eyesight. Others are more significant, like limitations in mobility and chronic conditions such as diabetes and blood pressure. And we note our forgetfulness with a certain anxiety in case it is a sign of dementia.

Then there are the social, psychological and economic changes. Our networks change as we lose friends, stop working, or limit our external activities for various reasons. We might experience the loss of a spouse or siblings. Children grow up and create their own lives. If school, raising a family and work occupied a large part of our lives, then who are we when that is in our past? Often our mentality shifts to conserving our personal and financial resources. Sometimes the response to these changes is to hunker down, avoid others and look inward.

Clearly maintaining good health, having opportunities to interact with others and being economically secure make it easier to age successfully. But there’s one strategy that does not require good health, a large social circle or money. It’s having purpose.

Purpose can take many forms, such as volunteering for an organization, taking care of grandchildren, caring for a pet, learning a new skill or becoming more knowledgeable about one’s religion. The question to ask oneself regularly is, “What gives my life purpose?” If the answer is “nothing,”then it is time to give some thought to what could bring purpose into your life.

We plan around our purpose, organize our lives around it and use it as a method to remain engaged in ways important to us physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally.

If you feel you have no purpose – and don’t know what it is – ask yourself this one important question, “What would motivate me to act?”

Keren Brown Wilson, Ph.D., is president of the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation. Based in Clackamas, the nonprofit helps elders live full lives with dignity. Its strategies focus on bridging the gap for elders, families, and communities throughout the United States and around the globe. Contact her at 503.408-4088 or kwilson@jfrfoundation.org, or visit the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation website.

Board bullet points: news from your neighborhood association board

Posted on by Posted in CNA, Concordia News

Highlights from the July 12 CNA Board include:

  • The board designated Donn Dennis as the neighborhood association’s representative to the Northeast Coalition of Neighbors.
  • The board is still looking for a new board member who is interested in serving as treasurer. Please contact Robert for more information.
  • The Media Team introduced the people contracted to publish CNews, and the board discussed and approved their contracts (managing editor, editor and graphic designer). The search for an advertising salesperson is still active.
  • The board discussed planning for the autumn annual meeting in November, which will feature city commissioner Amanda Fritz. Look for a survey coming soon to solicit feedback in preparation for this meeting with the commissioner. Board elections will be also be held at that meeting.
  • Information about upcoming social events was shared. Concerts in the Park at Fernhill were continuing every Friday night in July, plus a parade and concert is scheduled on National Night Out, Tuesday, Aug. 2.
  • The Land Use and Transportation Committee gave a quick update on efforts to engage the developer of the Big House project at the corner of 30th Avenue and Killingsworth Street.
  • The next board meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy School in the Community Room. There is no board meeting in August. Meetings are open to all.

Land Use, Transportation & Livability Update

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

By Ben Earle, Secretary, CNA LUTC

Things continue buzzing along for your LUTC, so without further ado, here’s the current scoop on what’s cooking!

Neighborhood Sustainability
In addition to Concordia’s participation in the Portland Alleys Allies Project over the past year, one of the benefits from sharing a part-time Portland State University “sustainability intern” with the Boise Neighborhood Association (BNA) has been development of a Neighborhood Sustainability Policy. The policy goal is to provide neighborhoods with guidelines for “…building more equitable, green, and just neighborhoods today and for the years to come.” The LUTC is reviewing the BNA’s version, and we expect to have a draft ready by early fall for community review and hopefully eventual CNA adoption.

Bighouse Development
Good news! Right before press time, mayor Charlie Hales agreed to join commissioner Dan Saltzman in sending a letter to developer Brian Spencer in support of the LUTC’s recommendations to address the design deficiencies of the four-story “mixed use” apartment building soon to go up at the corner of 30th Avenue and Killingsworth. The particular emphasis is on ensuring the ground floor is fully optimized for retail use as the current commercial storefront (CS) zoning guidelines clearly intend.

With this important, and most appreciated, support from the city, the LUTC is in the process of re-establishing contact with the developer, which will hopefully result in the desired changes. Toward this end, we are reaching out to key influential people and institutions in the community for their support as well, including:

  • Commissioners Nick Fish, Amanda Fritz and Steve Novick
  • Concordia University President Charles Schlimpert
  • New Seasons Markets
  • Oregon state senator-elect Lew Frederick
  • Tom Kelly, CEO, Neil Kelly and Portland Development Commission chair

We also encourage interested neighbors to contact these people. To see contact info for these people and progress updates, visit CNA website’s “Bighouse” section.

Residential Infill Project
See CNA chair Garlynn Woodsong’s latest report about both the city’s and the RIP Stakeholder Advisory Committee’s residential zoning code update proposals to improve the scale of houses, narrow lot development, and alternative housing options. For more info, and to submit your comments – which are due by Aug. 15 – visit the infill project website, email Julia Gisler or call Jill at 503-823-7624.

Transportation
At the Aug. 17 LUTC meeting, we hope to meet with an Oregon Department of Transportation representative about how best to ensure safe passage for all bicyclists and pedestrians using Northeast Portland Boulevard / US 30. This comes in the wake of the tragic death of a bicyclist at the 42nd Avenue overpass.

A promising new proposed Greenway Diversion Policy was presented to the LUTC in July. It would establish citywide greenways crossing arterial streets, would standardize greenway design and create transparency. It was brought to us by longtime bicycle advocate Terry Dublinski-Milton, who is also North Tabor Neighborhood Association LUTC chair and a member of the SE Uplift Board. The Portland Bureau of Transportation has expressed interest in the proposal’s “diversion by default” concept of “diversion at every main corridor would be [the] norm, thus becoming a part of the urban form not much different than a crosswalk or traffic signal” and Terry is asking the city’s neighborhood associations and coalitions for review and feedback. Read a full explanation and see his information here.

Concordia residents are always welcome at CNA LUTC meetings, 7 p.m. every third Wednesday in the Community Room at McMenamins Kennedy School. For more info see the LUTC section of the CNA website, send us your questions, and email the LUTC to join the notification list.

What to do when your groove is stuck in a rut

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Health and Wellness

By Kim Magraw

Although the human brain may soon be outsmarted by the computer, at present the brain is the most sophisticated and intricate machine we know of in the universe.

One of its most marvelous functions is automation. Once we’ve learned something handy – like turning our head, walking, juggling, typing, talking, driving or playing an instrument – our brain can put these activities on autopilot so we can focus our attention on some other activity.

But what happens when one of these programmed activities is unhelpful in a situation? For example, we move to a place where cars are driven on the other side of the road? Or we’re accustomed to speaking English and we move to a country where the language and sentence structure is completely different? Or we got a lot of attention from our parents by whining when we were young, but somehow all that whining doesn’t serve us at a later age?

When these preprogrammed habits are serving us, we are in a groove. When they don’t, we might think we’re stuck in a rut – a behavior that is really difficult to unlearn.

A trick is to have some tools to get us out of a rut. It turns out that a great first step is awareness. We quickly become aware when we’re driving on the wrong side of the road because that’s obvious. But a whiny attitude may be less easy to identify in ourselves.

After awareness, we can set the stage to bust out of a rut by putting some parameters in place:

  • Urgency: “I’d better get in the other lane or I’ll hit this oncoming car.”
  • Fascination: “This person seems so interesting, but she doesn’t speak a word ofEnglish.”
  • Focus: “I’m going to find a quiet space for two hours to practice my mandolin.”

Yes, automation is an amazing adaptation. Better yet, and more uniquely human, is plasticity –the ability to change and adapt, no matter how deep and rutted our groove may be.

Kim Magraw, a licensed massage therapist, may be reached via the ConcordiaMassagePros.com directory.