PORTLAND POLICE BUREAU NEWS RELEASE
Portland Police Investigate Shooting

Posted: June 11, 2010 07:37 PM

Last night at approximately 1:00 a.m., Portland Police Officers responded to a vehicle accident in the area of the 8900 Block of E. Burnside Street. When they arrived, they found three people in a vehicle that had hit a pole and eventually crashed into a yard of a residence in the area. The driver, a 32-year-old male, had life threatening injuries and was transported to OHSU Hospital and died several hours later. One of the passengers was also transported to the hospital and is recovering from non-life threatening injuries.

At this time, investigators believe that the driver was shot just prior to the accident but are awaiting autopsy results. Homicide Detectives have been assigned to this case and an autopsy is scheduled to be performed later today. No arrests have been made in this incident and this is an ongoing investigation. The Gang Enforcement Team was also called to the scene to investigate any possible gang activity that might be tied to this case.

The identity of the victim will be released after family notification has been made.

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.

Let's hope this won't turn out to be "the nightmare scenario"...
FROM THE OREGONIAN

By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian
May 14, 2010, 6:59PM
Portland police officers gather at the scene of Wednesday night's shooting in the Lloyd District. A police officer was wounded and the young man who shot him was killed.

Friends of Keaton Dupree Otis expressed shock and dismay on Friday that the quiet, mild-mannered man they remembered was the same 25-year-old who was killed in a shootout with Portland police.

"He was a wonderful man," said Chalise Lewis, 24, a childhood friend. "He's not the type of person to have guns or harm anybody."

Two members of the Hotspot Enforcement Action Team, which focuses on preventing gang violence, tried to pull Otis over near Northeast Grand Avenue and Holladay Street for traffic infractions. Instead of stopping, Otis kept driving, police say. They trailed him, with their siren and lights on while blasting the air horn, in a pursuit that ended at Northeast Sixth Avenue near Halsey Street.

READ THE ARTICLE

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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.

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.
 

A Ride with Rex: Leg 7 - Series Finale from Rex for Metro President on Vimeo.

Here's a video blog by Metro Presidential candidate Rex Burkholder.  Burkholder has represented N/NE on the Metropolitan Regional Government since 2000. He's a big bike advocate and a technocrat (which always scores big points with the Sentinel) who has worked quietly behind the scenes to help fund projects in our coverage area, from bike lanes to the Linnton Community Center.  Now he's got his site set for the top position at this, the wonkiest governmental body in Portland (which is perhaps the most wonky government loving town in the country). This video is the 'season finale' of a 7 bike ride through North/Northeast.  It's sort of a fun new media take on the old whistle stop campaign trails of old.  

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.

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.

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.

The Trail Blazers still hold the operating agreement to run Memorial Coliseum.  But as City Council prepares for a hearing on the Coliseum renovation project Wednesday afternoon, one rival in the race says there are other hurdles to clear before a development deal is struck:

Matt Miller, principal architect of the Veterans Memorial Arts and Athletic Center concept (pictured above), says there are other fish to fry -- namely, the city’s commitment to ownership of the 50-year-old landmark, and the  condition of the building itself.

The Council will open the Pandora’s Box of Coliseum issues on Wednesday, when a Stakeholder Advisory Committee studying Coliseum proposals makes its recommendations.  The Committee, appointed by Portland Mayor Sam Adams, plans to issue formal Requests For Proposals to three potential developers – Miller’s group, the Trail Blazers, and a group headed by Portlander Doug Obletz.

Bank robbers, car jackings, manhunts at the SLOUGH. The dog survived! Man, if only the Sentinel had a helicopter. Ok, so this video is not the most exciting clip. But be on the look out for a bank robber, possibly in hip-waders in the neighborhood. PS- who drives around in a Jaguar in St Johns?

Using old timetables provided by TriMet, we calculated her trip in early September 2009, when TriMet service levels were at their peak. Then we ran the same trip one year later, using TriMet's projected service levels for September 2010, after two seemingly small cuts to each route. 

In 2009, her trip took 36 minutes, only a bit slower than driving and parking. This fall, it'll take a full hour. 

Here's what her trip looked like in 2009: 

TriMet is preparing bus service cuts this September that will affect North/Northeast Portland residents, and some of the poorest residents citywide. 

According to TriMet's latest proposal, the transit agency will reduce service this September on the 4, 6, 8, 9, 16, 17, 24, 44, 73, 75 and 85 bus lines -- every line serving North and inner Northeast except the No. 72 Killingsworth/82nd. (The 35 Macadam/Greeley is due for a cut in June.) 

The changes will vary from two to 10-minute cuts during the day to six-minute cuts on weekends. Arrival intervals for the No. 24 Fremont bus will increase the most dramatically, by 10 minutes or more. 

Portland's other quadrants will be equally affected. 

It'll be the third service cut in a year for the local transit agency, which is funded mostly by payroll taxes. Only 20 percent of its operating budget comes from fares. 

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

The below press release is from former Sentinel Assistant Editor James Yeary.  Yeary was producer of the Sentinel's Arts and Culture Podcast Junior Varsity Yard Sale.  He's always been good for an interesting and sometime edgy art affair. It should be worth checking out.

Performance Works NorthWest presents...

Alembic #9:
Organizam: A Mutant Cabaret of Non Acts

April 2-3, 2010
8:00 pm

Performance Works NorthWest
4625 NE 67th Ave
www.performanceworksnw.org

Tickets: $10 - $15 sliding scale
Reserve at 503-777-1907 or boxofficetickets.com

A weekend of humor-based, conceptual, nondramatic events informed by experimental traditions such as Dada, Situationism, and Fluxus. Two nights blending words, laughs, music, dancing, props, concepts, video, (non-) acting, games, sounds, implosions, with live humans.

(Caution! Both evenings are officially withdrawn by the Ministry in Defense of the Demagnetic Counter-board.)

John Berendzen
Tony Christy
James Yeary, Justin Smith, & Jeff Diteman
Maryrose Larkin, Eric Matchett, & Jake Anderson
Anna Daedalus & Leo Daedalus
John Berendzen, kollodi nishimoto norton, & Alex P. Reagan
David Abel
J.A. Lee
Crag Hill
Linda Austin

Curated by Marko Whens
ALEMBIC is an ongoing series of performative events at Performance Works North West curated by guest artists from the worlds of dance, theater, visual and media arts. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition/Oregon Cultural Trust.

From email

Urban Renewal Open House- Discussion on impacts to North Portland
Historic Kenton Firehouse
Tuesday, March 30, 6-8:00 pm
Join your friends and neighbors Tuesday, March 30, from 6:00--8:00 pm for an
informative open house  to learn more about the changes being considered for
the boundaries of our Urban Renewal Area and the current  suggestions for
redevelopment of the Rose Quarter area.  Portland Development Commission
staff will be on hand to clarify the issues and answer your questions.  The
City will be making decisions in the next few months that will directly
impact the future of North Portland.  Make sure your voice is heard!

 

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.