Could attempts to scale back the Columbia River Crossing and Hayden Island's Safeway end up creating a new local or arterial bridge -– one connecting the island directly with North Portland's Expo Center and Kenton neighborhood? Since the Sentinel first reported the proposed 22 lanes of freeway spaghetti [pictured below] that the CRC would build on Hayden Island, a storm of controversy has arisen over the proposal.  [The Sentinel's consistent editorial position on the CRC has been to build a bridge of grander design and more modest scale.]

A CRC meeting on Monday night, two proposals surfaced that would greatly reduce the number of traffic lanes crossing the island. At least one proposed redesign would move a massive tangle of freeway interchanges off the island and create a local traffic bridge for Hayden Island. The local bridge would create a street grid for the largely suburban pod-style street system west of I-5 and allow Islanders and North Portlanders to get in and out of the community without having getting on the freeway.

Jantzen Beach Supercenter more or less hates the idea. So does Diversified Marine, a sizeable tug-and-barge service company that says a new bridge might wipe out precious deepwater harbor along Marine Drive.

On the table Monday: two new concepts to shrink the great gray wall of highway on- and off-lanes that would slice through the island and likely wipe out Safeway. (See pages 6-8 for maps of this PDF of the various plans, or here for the biggest plan, known as the "locally preferred alternative.")

North Portland’s most unique and eclectic summer event has to be No.Fest InterArts. This June 25 the free experimental art and music festival will fill the streets, stores, allies and sidewalks of downtown St. Johns for a two-day carnival of homegrown avant-garde acts. . Now in its third year, organizers have expanded the range of performances and added a second day in order to include 51 acts in 29 hours: 36 musical, 5 visual, 4 youth, 3 movement, and 3 spoken performances. 

The festival organizers, Sean Ongley, Jeffrey Helwig and Chad Ferguson, began with a simple idea: hold a free daylong music event in St. Johns. With only months to organize, the event grew to include 25 performances on four stages. The trio knew they had stumbled on something great and founded InterArts, a not-for-profit corporation, to represent the No.Fest project for the coming years. Three years later the event had almost doubled in size, attracting major sponsors such as KBOO community radio.

The program for No.Fest 2010 starts off with an art walk on the last Friday of the month. At about 6 p.m. businesses throughout downtown St. Johns will function as makeshift galleries for viewing public art. Local merchants exhibiting art include The Parlour, Lady Bug Café, James John Café, Town Square, Proper Eats, Legong Gelato, and Salty Teacup.

“None of these are traditional galleries,” said Ongley who is pleased to have the galleries hosted by the local business community. Ongley stresses that one of the ideas behind NoFest is the breakdown traditional boundaries between high art and the average person. “It is another example of our desire to blend the arts with daily life.”

Well it's summer for sure. This weekend is jammed with events as locals cram a year's worth of outdoor partying into 2.5 months of dry weather. 

The most compelling event this saturday is a fundraiser for 9-year-old Stella Cakebread Monteverde. Stella has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. (I know, it's awful and shocking how many children are getting cancer these days.)  Stella, whose mother owns a shop on North Mississippi Ave., has seen an outpouring of support from the local community and the music and entertainment scene as well.  The event, held this Saturday at @Large Studios, will feature a star-studded day of local professional entertainers (check out the links below) who are sure to brighten your (and Stella's) day even if we get partially cloudy skies.

FROM EMAIL
Please join the friends and family of Stella Cakebread Monteverde, 9-year-old daughter of local business owner Dayna Cakebread and Fernando Monteverde, for a day of family fun and entertainment, and an evening of local music and dance troupes. Held at @Large Studios, 807 NE Couch Street, the daytime event will run from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. and will feature music by Kode Bluuz, arts and crafts tables, interactive theatre with Katie O’Grady, Double Dutch with the Jumping Jackie O’s, a raffle with great prizes, and more! The evening, adults-only event will feature musical performances by Lindsey Stormo, Stephanie Schneiderman, Oracle, Stolen Sweets, and Dr. Theopolis, plus local dance acts, a silent auction, and wine, beer and cocktails. Tickets will be available at the door, or in advance through www.brownpapertickets.org.

Kenton's First Annual Street Fair is coming this Saturday, May 22nd all day to N. Denver Ave.

Come and celebrate the newly completed Kenton Library, the almost completed streetscape and the nearly, almost completely sober denizens of N. Denver Ave. Visit the many new businesses and the new and old residents that are making Kenton the best kept secret in Portland.

"I love Kenton," says Paul Bunyan, the historic plaster statue that stands watch over the Dancing Bare strip club most weeknights from the corner of N. Denver and N. Interstate. "But then, I'm cemented to the sidewalk, so, you know, I pretty much make the best of it."

Paul Bunyan, Portland's largest action figure, is a toy like icon for what has become the kid friendly capital of North Portland. Anchored around the new Kenton Library and Poises' kid friendly coffee shop, throngs of new families and sticky fingered kids are flocking to this neighborhood, once known, only for meat packing and Sam Adams...uh...that's an unfortunate juxstoposition...

So it was only a matter of time before Kenton got its own street fair full of frolicking family fun...HUrrRAYYYYY!!!!!

The location at the corner of Lombard and N Richmond has been having trouble holding a tenant these last few years, sitting vacant since Blue Moon Coffee moved out last fall. Recently, St. Johns residents saw a new business take root. On April 30, the doors opened to Sultan Hookah Lounge and Smoke Shop, with a grand opening celebration that took place on May 8.

“About 300 people came through the night,” says co-owner Mike Makoul. “We had DJ music...the neighborhood has been very supportive.”

Makoul opened the Hookah Lounge with business partner Asem Samman because of the anti-smoking legislation that went into effect last year. Makoul has owned the Sultan Cafe on NW 18th for the past six years. In addition to being a restaurant, the cafe offered patrons hookah smoking. As of 2009, that was no longer permitted in establishments primarily serving food. Wanting to continue the Middle Eastern tradition of his youth, Makoul sought to find a new establishment to be built around hookahs.

“The law says that 75% of our business has to be tobacco related...we're trying to stay close to 90%.” Makoul explains that the smoking law permits businesses to be smoking lounges so long as that is their primary function. The Sultan Lounge does offer snacks and beverages, but these refreshments are ancillary to their main business of selling tobacco products and offering a lounge for hookah smoking.

Previous | Image 1 of 4 | Next

burnsidemlk_constructioncrop.jpg

Three generations later, the streetcar tracks have returned to Northeast Portland. With them they've brought a wave of great-looking new development at MLK, Burnside and Couch --

if you haven't checked the place out in a while, blink a few times and you might recognize the busy corner. The Sentinel popped down to get some shots as track construction rolls north. The cars are expected to start rolling in April 2012.

After a visit to the Kenton library, Joey Louis and Rachel Toback gather their things above a ditch filled with sodden dirt and grass. Up the street, at the corner of N Willis St. and N Denver Ave., a similar pit brims with a stagnant pool of rainwater. Toback and Louis — who recently moved to Kenton — notice the water every time it rains.

“At first it looked a little unfinished to me,” Toback says. “Now that I see that these plants are coming up it makes more sense. I like the idea.”

The vegetation Toback likes are rushes and sedges recently planted in a series of bioswales as part of Denver Ave.'s new streetscape. Bioswales are specially designed ditches that help divert runoff from surface streets and storm drains. Their soil slowly collects water and filters out contaminants that might otherwise be washed off impermeable asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks into drains and waterways. The plants help absorb the water, and the extra time during which the bioswales store the water allows debris within it to break down.

This Saturday the St Johns Bizarre will kick off for its fourth year. The all day celebration of what makes Portland Strange and St Johns Bizarre happens in downtown St Johns with a beer garden, vendor's market and musical acts occurring before and after the annual St Johns Parade.  This year's event promises to raise the bar on 'bizarreness,' hope to see you there. 

Saws screech and jackhammers pound over the sounds of traffic on NE Broadway as workers cut and bash through concrete alongside near-motionless lanes of cars.

This work is the latest phase of the 3.3 mile extension of the Portland Streetcar—a project officials say is on schedule and budget for a 2012 completion.

Street construction always causes a temporary traffic headache. In this case, Portland’s ambitions to increase street car capacity intersects with the existing inconvenience known as the “Broadway- Wiedler Box." The Box is a daily traffic snarl created by the confluence of the Rose Quarter, Llyod Center and I-5 on and off ramps.

“It's not going to get any better,” says a cab driver idling along NE Wielder. Once the construction is complete, the cabbie sees a streetcar as just another snarl to add to congestion. “Streetcars go slower than the MAX.”

The frenzied construction and heavy traffic of recent weeks make clear the city is moving ahead quickly with its major project east of the Willamette. With tracks already in the ground in sections along Grand and MLK, construction teams are now cutting cement and laying more track along NE Broadway toward the bridge.
 

Since the Sentinel reported in October of last year, Hayden Island residents have been battling with CRC stakeholders over the massive project that could bring up to 21 lanes of concrete to the island and sink its major east/west roads up to a dozen feet underground.  Residents have fought to keep the island's livability on the radar as the CRC plans continue to waffle. 

Today, HiNoon activist and political candidate Ed Garren reports that the Oregon Department of Transportation has delayed adoption of a planned freeway interchanges until August. See below:

FROM EMAIL FROM ED GARREN

Thanks to the combined efforts of a lot of dedicated people, the Oregon Department of Transportation has decided to delay the adoption of a design for the Hayden Island I-5 interchange (for the new Columbia River Crossings Project) until August. This will give us more time to work on solutions for the interchange that will better serve the stakeholders on Hayden Island.

As the first person who started out three + years ago, challenging the CRC to recognize the special needs of Hayden Island, and as a Co-Chair of the Hayden Island Plan, I am very proud of the residents of our island who have come together to assure that our livability issues are not ignored.

2ND FRIDAYS ON FREMONT PROMISES FUN IN BEAUMONT VILLAGE

Local vendors show off their wares and attractions at 2nd Fridays on Fremont, a new monthly celebration in the Beaumont Business District. Festivities kick off at Northeast Fremont Street between 40th and 52nd Avenues from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, May 14. Visitors will enjoy shopping with special extended hours, food and drink specials, live music, local artists and additional vendors. 2nd Fridays on Fremont celebrations will continue from May until September, with a Holiday Season scheduled for November and December. As warmer weather nears, additional farmers' market booths are expected to join in.

Have you heard a coyote’s call in your neighborhood? [today's O article]

Folks in St Johns say they have.

Lecture on Urban ‘cay-yotes’ coming next Tuesday, April 27th

Where’s the Roadrunner when you need him?
Many of know about or have seen “urban” coyotes in or around Portland International Airport. At about 6am, I once saw one scampering through the high grass in the vacant lots off Airport Way. The little fellar pictured here, hoped on the Airport MAX back in 2009. It was almost like he did it in obedience to the song Light-Rail Coyote by Portland’s own Sleater-Kinney, released the year before. (see video below).?“They’ve been seen on occasion along Baltimore Woods and heard! There is also coyote scat in Pier Park on the trail on the east side of the Park all the time. Apparently they come over from Chimney Park to hunt at night,” wrote Barbara Quin, of the Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association in an email today. “One of our FOBW members saw one trotting down Decatur in daylight and the neighbors at the deadend of Edison have lots of stories.”

Three years after Northeast Portland residents teamed up for an Earth-Day litter bust on Martin Luther King Boulevard, it seems like something's going right.

Simply put: there's way, way less trash on the streets lately.

"We've gone from 300 volunteers four years ago to 85 this year because we don't have enough work to engage them all," said Gary Marschke of the North Northeast Business Associaton. "That's a great situation to be in."

Now's your chance to toss out that old sofa and TV that have been sitting around in your back yard mother-in-law unit for the last two years. Hey..maybe you can toss that old mother-in-law too...

As Earth Day approaches, just about every neighborhood in the city will be holding big dumpster drives. 

Specifications on what can be dumped, where to dump it, and what if any fees apply vary:  

Event: Earth Day Overlook neighborhood clean-up

Communities have a week left to weigh in on plans for “EcoDistricts” throughout Portland, and Northeast Portland's Lloyd District could become the first of five test neighborhoods for the project.

The EcoDistricts Initiative was developed by the Portland Sustainability Institute in partnership with the City of Portland. The PSI is a non-profit think tank that was created by Portland Mayor Sam Adams to help establish Portland as a center for ecologically focused practices, industries and commercial design

The EcoDistrict project aims to corral disparate stakeholders in specific neighborhoods and combine efforts to decrease negative environmental impacts from redevelopment. Goals such as energy savings, water conservation, mobility and access would be integrated into plans developed within specific neighborhoods.