The big picture of what a new North/Northeast urban renewal area will look like will be revealed tonight at Billy Webb's Elk Lodge. Whether or not the Rose Quarter will be a part of that picture won't come into view until this summer.

Tonight, the Portland Development Commission hopes to start wrapping up its plans to consolidate the neighborhood's two urban renewal districts. But an earlier request from the mayor to plug the Rose Quarter into the new SUPER renewal district is being taken off the table.

This will decouple both large scale renewal projects in the pipe for the area: the URA merger, and the redevelopment of Memorial Coliseum and Blazer's Live District.

The announcement will be made at this evening's meeting of the PDC's North/Northeast Economic Study Area.

Email chatter today is showing a number of reports of a suspected scam artist working N. Killingsworth. This has yet to be substantiated by enough reports, but Mark Wells, North Portland's Crime Prevention Specialist, has contacted a number of local businesses in order to warn them.  The MO of the con man (male 20-30 years old), is to hit restaurants by demanding a refund on food orders.  The suspect will insist that their food order was wrong, or that he did not receive the food he ordered. Wells advised business owners- "Please call the police if he attempts to scam your business and alert all of your staff.  He may be part of a ring, so be very mindful of suspicious return or refund requests" 

If you have information or questions regarding these events email  Mark.Wells@portlandoregon.gov

Plans to start construction on mixed income housing at the former site of the Grant Warehouse are moving forward. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) held an open house on March 15 to  solicit feedback from community members on plans to construct 30 housing units on the east side of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. between Northeast Ivy and Northeast Cook Streets.

Eighteen of the housing units will be permanently affordable at 80 percent of 
median family income or less, and 12 units will be sold at market rate. In addition, there will be 10 live/work units with frontage on MLK. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in July 2010.

It will be a subject of conversation as well as today's city council meeting. Email from Gary Marschke

Help Strategize Urban Renewal Recommendations to the People in Power

• Voice your concerns
• Hear draft community recommendations
• Strategize action steps
• Speak directly to Mayor Adams

  Thursday, March 11th, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
  Billy Webb Elks Lodge
  6 North Tillamook St.
  Snacks and Drinks will be provided
  20 Community Savings Cards as door prizes!

  For more information, please see attached flyer, visit www.necoalition.org or contact Shoshana Cohen at 503-823-4575 ext. 5 orforums@necoalition.org

  
  

 

We love it when we can present positive updates to past coverage. Case in point: the Emerson Street Garden proposal, which we reported on last April and which is coming ever closer to fruition. The site at Northeast 8th and Emerson streets has been sitting vacant for decades, its soil contaminated by lead and other toxins. But as Sentinel reporter Cassandra Koslen discovered nearly a year ago, Groundwork Portland and the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT) are working with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on a unique experiment to determine if the lead can be removed or more thinly distributed with plants. The desired result is soil safe enough to support a community garden.

We just saw an announcement today (via King Neighborhood Association) from Groundwork Portland inviting citizens to a meeting next week to "help come up with a community outreach and engagement strategy for Emerson Street Garden." Looks like the soil-saving idea is alive and well. We'll check back in with Groundwork Portland and bring you updates as they arise. Date and time: March 16 from 4-6 p.m. at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, 4815 NE 7th Ave.

Exciting event tomorrow in Piedmont! From the Piedmont Neighborhood Association website:

Piedmont Neighborhood Association invites you to come meet your neighbors on March 11th at 7 P.M. at Rosemont Court, 597 N Dekum St. This is a new meeting place for Piedmont Neighbors. Come see this beautifully restored building. The front doors are located at the corner of Dekum and Kerby.

Piedmont Neighborhood will be having a “SHOW AND TELL” Event at this gathering. You will have a chance to talk to your neighbors and see all the good work Piedmont Neighborhood does for our community.

Last month, Sentinel reporter William Crawford covered a N/NE Urban Renewal Area Town Hall hosted by the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods. This Thursday, March 11 is your last opportunity to take part in a community education/Q&A session about proposed changes to Urban Renewal Area boundaries and investment. Here's all the info you need, courtesy of NECN:

The final Urban Renewal Community Forum for the Interstate Corridor Urban
Renewal Area is next Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 6:30 - 8:30pm at the Billy
Webb Elks Lodge, 6 North Tillamook St.
This is the final meeting in a series which has focused on educating and
engaging community members about upcoming Urban Renewal Area investment
changes and decisions that will change the built environment of inner
North/Northeast Portland.
Notes from the first three meetings are available at the NECN site:
http://portland.necoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&i...

If you are a resident, business owner, or other type of stakeholder in this
area your presence is sincerely requested and we ask that you also take a
moment to give us your valuable opinion in this survey:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/PXD6V35

Where is the Grant Warehouse you ask? Nowhere. The building formerly known as the Grant Warehouse was demolished over 5 years ago, but once sat on NE MLK just south of NE Freemont. The site is now tentatively slated for development as mixed income housing (see below). The warehouse went through a number of uses in it's day. Before it was condemed it was said to have housed a illegal gold extraction operation. The EPA and City spent considerable time and money cleaning up the site.  But the property has sat vacant and un-redeveloped for years.

Good news this morning from Craig Fondren of the venerable Sabin Community Development Corporation: he and other CDC staffers will be opening a second Digital Learning Lab at the Gladys McCoy Village Apartments at 4430 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. The grand opening celebration of the 18-station, open-to-the-public computer lab and community classroom takes place at the McCoy Apartments next Thursday, Feb. 25 from 5-7 p.m.

We covered the launch of Sabin CDC's first Digital Learning Lab at Reflections Coffeehouse back in December '08. At the time, Fondren said of the lab, "“It’s more than teaching a person how to use the computer, it’s teaching them how to have a career in the digital movement.” Free classes are offered, ranging from the basics - "Step 1: push the Power/On button" - to more involved subjects such as web design and audio streaming.

Here's more from Fondren and Sabin CDC from the official press release:

Just saw this in the Oregonian (source for our slide show photo): The Piedmont post office on Northeast Killingsworth Street will be renamed for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a ceremony this Wednesday. The article details the years-long lobbying by local letter carriers that led to tomorrow's name change in honor of the legendary Civil Rights leader. While Portland has seen its fair share of renaming in recent years, those efforts were fueled by controversy. This renaming, in contrast, appears to have been embraced by all.

 Northeast Portland nonprofit The Pangaea Project, a leadership development and international service-learning program for local low-income youth, is throwing a party to celebrate 2009's achievements and start 2010 with a bang. (See our story about Pangaea's unique partnership with Alberta Street businesses.) 

From press release:

The Pangaea Project rings in 2010 with all-are-welcome party at Zaytoon Bar

The Pangaea Project, a leadership development and international service-learning program for Portland at-risk youth, is starting 2010 in style with an all-are-welcome party at Zaytoon Bar on January 21 from 5-7:30 p.m.

The evening’s festivities will include free samples of Middle Eastern fusion cuisine, Latin music, door prizes, and an opportunity to win a free roundtrip plane ticket.

The Pangaea Project has much to celebrate this year. Another group of high school students, all of whom come from low-income families, graduated last November from Pangaea’s unique program, which took them into the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest and the rice paddies of Thailand to engage in service learning projects and learn about grassroots social change.