Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

There may be more ‘free walls’ in future

Posted on by Posted in Arts & Culture, Concordia News

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

Street and graffiti artists are currently welcome to express themselves any time on two free walls in Portland. This one is in Concordia. Photo by Lloyd Kimeldorf.

Free wall. Legal wall. Rotating wall. You name it, but there are only two in Portland, and one is in an alley intersecting with the south side of Alberta Street between 27th and 28th avenues.

The Portland Street Art Alliance (PSAA) and a group of Portland State University students are collaborating to convince the city to allow more. They’d like your opinion in an online survey posted in April at PDXStreetArt.org/articles-all.

A proposal to the city this summer will seek permission for building owners to allow street and graffiti artists to express themselves any time on walls that are painted over completely on a regular basis. The wall off Alberta Street is covered once a year.

The PSAA website reported the objective is “for the collective empowerment of Portland’s street artist community to achieve city-wide district revitalization goals and use art as a means to include the voices and perspectives of historically marginalized communities.

“The proposal will combine research, original data collection and analysis to present policy alternatives allowing Portland to better leverage its thriving street arts culture and solidify the city’s identity as a haven for creatives.”

The effort includes analysis of similar policies throughout the Northwest and around the world. Plans call for submitting the proposal to the city this summer.

Nancy Varekamp is semiretired from her career in journalism, p u bli c r e l a t i on s and – her favorite work engagement – writing and editing targeted newsletters.

Concordia Spring Clean Up – Saturday, June 1

Posted on by Posted in CNA, Events, Volunteer Opportunities

We are in great need of volunteers for the cleanup on June 1 to help unload vehicles, direct traffic, and work the electronics, block styrofoam, and #6 plastic recycling stations. We have two shifts to choose from: 7:45 – 10:15 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Please contact Katie Ugolini at 503-449-9690 or Ktugolini@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering for this event.

 

 

SPRING EGG HUNT

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Events, Volunteer Opportunities

Saturday, April 20 Fernhill Park(Playground along NE 37th Avenue)

RAIN OR SHINE!

The hunt begins at 10 am SHARP.
Don’t be late – it ends in a flash!

Volunteer opportunities
Friday, April 19 – Egg stuffing party, American Legion Post, 2104 N.E. Alberta St., 5-8 p.m.
Saturday, April 20 – Hiding eggs Fernhill Park, 8-10 a.m.

Refreshments provided by Mark Charlesworth Real Estate Team

Post egg hunt activities
Petting bunnies, thanks to Mark Charlesworth Real Estate Team
Face painting & children’s games, thanks to Sojourn Neighborhood Church

Sponsored by Concordia Neighborhood Association & American Legion Post 134

Details? Contact Social Committee chair Sonia Fornoni at SoniaGF419@gmail.com

Why are the lots on my block extra long?

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, History

By Doug Decker | Historian

The question: We live on 35th and Ainsworth in a home built in 1941 and – like the rest of our neighbors between 33rd and 37th circling the blocks of Ainsworth and Simpson – we all have lots 50 by 230 feet. Why do you suppose the lots on this block were platted so long?
– Rose and John Yandell

The historian reports: The long, narrow configuration of this block stems from decisions made more than 100 years ago by John D. Kennedy. He once owned much of the property between Killingsworth and Ainsworth streets, and 33rd and 42nd avenues, and Kennedy School was named for him.

The Irishman immigrated to Oregon in 1866, found his way to Baker City and worked in and then owned a dry goods store.

After coming to Portland about 1881, Kennedy bought this property, originally part of the 1855 Isaac Rennison Donation Land Claim. It was outside the city limits and far from any developments.

Kennedy was ahead of his time in the market. Northeast Portland’s ripeness for real estate didn’t take place until the years after the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, when it seemed anyone who could was buying property or building houses.

But Kennedy had platted these lands as the Kennedy Addition back in 1890, a grid of 15 square blocks with more than 200 lots. Two years later, he platted Kennedy’s Second Addition, adjacent to the east, with room for another 120 homes.

Several other nearby plats were filed about that time, but they were also just lines on paper. There was no market yet for residential development. So, in 1906, city council approved his petition to “vacate” five of the blocks in his addition. That officially eliminated platted streets, even if they didn’t yet exist – like all of the north-south streets in the block between Ainsworth and Simpson, from 33rd east to 37th.

Kennedy’s stated rationale was to sell the larger chunk of land as acreage for farm fields.

As urbanization spread in the years that followed, neighborhoods were built to the north, south and west, but the 12-acre parcel – with no north-south through streets – stayed as one big block in farm use.

Kennedy died in December 1936. In 1938 the property was controlled by Ward D. Cook, a Portland insurance and real estate agent, who designated 80 lots on the long block ready for construction.

After World War II the market truly picked up. Most of the houses were built and sold between 1940 and 1950.

So there you have it. In the original Kennedy’s Addition plat, that one long block was going to be five blocks. But then Kennedy did away with the blocks to better sell the property, which he never did.

The market came and went and came back again. Then another speculator saw opportunity and turned the island of farm into the more than 50 lots there today, most of them a very long and narrow quarter-acre each. Read more and check out maps and historic aerial photos on this topic at AlamedaHistory.org.

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.

Mark your calendar for Vanport Mosaic Festival

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Events

The 2019 Vanport Mosaic Festival returns for its fourth event May 21-June 2, organized by community-driven nonprofit Vanport Mosaic.

“Through exhibits, documentary screenings, tours, performances and dialogues, we will celebrate the lessons of resilience and resistance as defined and told by historically oppressed communities,” reported the festival’s Facebook page.

The multi-disciplinary festival has received the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award, the Spirit of Portland Award and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council’s Achievement Award. Returning sponsors and funding sources are Oregon Historical Society, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, Multnomah County Drainage District, Port of Portland, Regional Arts & Culture Council and Multnomah County Cultural Coalition.

The festival is seeking more sponsors, funders and volunteers. For details, contact Info@VanportMosaic.org or visit Facebook.com/events/318232912147588.

Photo courtesy of Vanport Mosaic Festival, Oregon Historical Society digital file no. ba018658

$5 million grant goes to CU business school

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

Concorida University Portland, Oregon logo
Concordia University (CU) in February received the largest financial contribution in its 114-year history.

The $5 million grant from the Robert D. and Marcia H. Randall Charitable Trust will establish the Robert D. Randall Endowed Chair for Business and Technology.

According to university officials, that chair will expand the CU School of Management’s focus on an innovative business education and technology program.

“This gift will be transformative in advancing Concordia’s commitment to developing ethical and impactful leaders,” said Michelle M. Cowing, Ph.D., school of management dean.

“Concordia Portland will continue its long history of innovative partnerships to solve difficult societal and business challenges throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

The focus for the business & technology program is driven by the unique makeup of the regional economy, she added. It’s one fueled by homegrown businesses as well as global enterprises.

A new clinical model and technology curriculum will be co-designed with regional business leaders working in small and large businesses alike, startups and the growing tech sector.

According to the dean, engaging students in a variety of clinical experiences and a strong technology emphasis will prepare future leaders who are able to help businesses respond to ever-increasing economic and technological change.

The $5 million grant kicks off a university campaign to raise an additional $1.25 million. That’s also for the university’s business program, which is now named the Randall Fellows Clinical Program for Business & Technology.

Local students illustrate book

Posted on by Posted in CNA, Schools

By Karen Lotts | CNA Media Team

Vernon Elementary School fourth graders collaborated with Ethiopian literacy advocates to produce a book. It’s available now on Amazon.com but, more to the point, it’s being distributed to children in Ethiopia. Art reprinted with permission from Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund.

A group of Vernon Elementary School students are officially published illustrators thanks to a collaboration between their fourth grade classes and authors/Ethiopian literacy advocates Jane and Caroline Kurtz.

The students’ drawings appear in the children’s book “Home,” written by the Portland-based Kurtz sisters. It tells a story of immigration framed in a tale about white storks that migrate annually from Europe to Ethiopia.

The text is written in both English and Amharic, one of the three main languages spoken in Ethiopia.

According to the sisters, who grew up in Ethiopia, children’s literature is just taking root in that country. There are still limited options for beginner books that both appeal to children and are written in Ethiopian languages.

To help meet this need, Jane co-founded the nonprofit Ethiopia Reads 20 years ago and in 2016 began writing stories for Ethiopian children learning to read. Jane and Caroline now volunteer as creative directors for Ready Set Go Books, a project of the Seattle-based nonprofit Open Hearts Big Dreams.

They have collaborated previously with community volunteer illustrators through churches or community college art programs. The project with Vernon came to life last spring when teacher Marie McMahon asked the sisters if they’d be interested in her students contributing to their next book.

“When my students heard that they could be a part of making a difference in other children’s lives by increasing access to literacy, they were immediately on board,” Marie said.

During a presentation at Vernon, Jane and Caroline spoke to the students about growing up and going to school in Ethiopia and the importance of these books to the young readers there.

Art reprinted with permission from Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund.

In the pursuit of authenticity, the students then researched Ethiopian landscapes and white storks before meeting with volunteer illustrator Jordy Farrell, from Ready Set Go Books, who offered illustration tips.

Using additional background art from a previous collaboration with students in Beaverton and combining it with the illustrations from Vernon students, a colorful book was ready to be published online and printed in Ethiopia.

The Vernon community has reacted warmly to the philanthropic project, and gathered recently at Cafe Eleven for the debut of the book and copies signed by the student illustrators.

“As a published author, I face incredible odds…a hard craft journey…and the payoff is in seeing readers connect with my books,” Jane said. “I think something similar happened with these students.”

The books are available through Amazon.com. Involvement opportunities can be found via EthiopiaReads.org and OpenHeartsBigDreams.org.

Karen Lotts is a local freelance writer who helps local small businesses and nonprofits connect with their audiences through copywriting. She can be reached at KarenLotts.com.

Bikeways diversion plan awaits city action

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

By Garlynn Woodsong | Chair, CNA LUTC

A few years ago, the city of Portland solicited feedback from the Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) about the 20s Bikeway project.

One of our responses was to request diverters at major streets in our neighborhood – such as Prescott and Killingsworth – to prevent cut-through car traffic from turning onto the narrow one-lane streets on which the 20s Bikeway is routed. That practice can stress out potential bicyclists on the route who may be interested in bicycling more, but are concerned for their safety.

But we were told the city would only install diverters on streets with higher than a certain amount of automobile traffic.

They then informed us they had changed their policies, and now they only installed diverters on streets with sufficiently high traffic volumes. They measured the traffic volumes in Concordia, and the single-lane streets of the 20s Bikeway project didn’t have enough cars to meet their new standard (for two-lane streets), so therefore they didn’t feel diverters were necessary.

I’ve told this story to folks around the city. In doing so, I’ve found a coalition of folks who also want to see physical diversions installed to protect our investment in the bicycle greenway system and keep it safe for bicyclists of all ages and abilities.

Together we developed a communitybased policy proposal called “Diversion on Bikeways as Urban Form.” The basic concept is that the urban form of bicycle greenways should include diverters to ensure that they are local-access-only for motor vehicles, while allowing bicycles to continue as through traffic.

The idea is the same as the existing urban form standard for sidewalks that includes wheelchair ramps where sidewalks meet street intersections, and for driveways that includes ramps and aprons where driveways meet streets.

This policy proposal is endorsed by CNA, the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, SE Uplift and BikeLoudPDX.

Those groups presented this policy proposal to Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) staff in December. We were told PBOT will take no further action until it fills its new greenways coordinator position.

Once this policy is adopted officially, it includes a strategy to deploy temporary installations initially to test each diverter location. It advises using kiosks to allow neighbors to provide feedback to PBOT, so temporary installations can be moved or adjusted, retested and perhaps moved and tested again, before being made permanent.

This sort of iterative public feedback loop is proposed as a more effective version of public engagement.

Traditionally, public engagement involves discussions in meeting rooms far from actual installation sites. Feedback thus received comes from people who haven’t yet interacted with the physical diversions in question as a part of their daily travels.

We look forward to working with the city to test this new policy to help encourage more bicycling in Portland – in a way that is respectful of and responsive to the concerns of neighbors and roadway users.

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.

Check out seismic contractors and DIY info

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

Claire Alexander (front) practices shutting off a natural gas meter while Ann Hall looks on. The January Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Expo offered hands-on learning along with opportunities to inspect emergency supplies, chat with experts and hear from a panel about seismic retrofits.

“When you have something that’s unregulated and there’s tons of fear, there are all sorts of placebos,” said Tim Cook, NW Seismic structural consultant.

He told participants at the recent, local Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Expo to be careful about making – or hiring – residential seismic retrofits. F

ollowing the event, Tim explained there’s no code for installing anchors to hold an existing home to its foundation during an earthquake. New home construction codes offer some reference for builders. And forensic engineering studies of homes damaged by earthquakes offer evidence-based criteria for optimum retrofit methods.

“It’s not rocket science, of course, but there are a lot of nuances,” he reported. Tim has been involved in the retrofit industry for six years, now working for a company that traces its roots to the Spring Break Quake in the 1990s.

“There’s no education required to do seismic reinforcement. We see a lot of engineering that people are paying for that isn’t going to work,” he said.

A survey in the San Francisco Bay area – ground zero in terms of industry knowledge – found 80 percent of the residential retrofits inspected probably won’t be effective.

“In this way, this is really embarrassing to the industry,” Tim noted.

Websites can provide both good and bad information. Tim pointed to the site maintained by the city of Salem Building & Safety Division. It recommends hardware designed to resist uplift forces generated by wind, rather than the lateral forces generated by earthquakes.

“If city inspectors don’t understand this, why would contractors go out of their way to learn the basics?” Tim asked.

He has these suggestions for DIYers and/or those who plan to hire contractors:

  • Research contractors’ websites for information on their experience, methods and recommendations. Take note if they provide simple statements about earthquakes and nothing about how all the components fit together.
  • Research Tim’s company website at NWSeismic.com to learn the basics about retrofitting.
  • Attend a free workshop. Multnomah County Library invited NW Seismic to present them. The workshops are geared to homeowners – some of whom are DIYers and some who just want to be informed consumers. For details, visit MultCoLib.org/events/seismicretrofitting.

“Just keep digging deep and asking questions until you’re comfortable to make decisions,” Tim advised. “Above all, remember this business is fussy enough,” he added. “We recommend contractors do only seismic. If they do insulation, they shouldn’t do seismic. It’s not a recipe for success.”

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