The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Eliot Parking Task Force are hosting an open house to collect feedback and input on a proposed parking permit program for the Eliot neighborhood. PBOT kicked off the project last summer and has been working with the Eliot Parking Task Force to look at parking issues in the neighborhood. Together, we have co-created a proposed parking permit program that would make it easier for residents to find parking when there are large events nearby. We want to hear from you! Stop by our in-person open house at the Matt Dishman Community Center (77 Knott St, Portland, OR 97223) in Classroom A on May 16, from 5-7 p.m. to learn more about the proposed parking permit program and give feedback. Learn more on the in-person open house webpage.
Can’t make it to the in-person open house? A virtual open house and online survey will be available on the project webpage from May 12-29. PBOT and the task force will use feedback collected at both open houses to finalize the details of the permit program.
Have a child and need to sign them up for school? Portland Public Schools has several events scheduled to see the schools in person. Most of the Eliot Neighborhood is in the Boise-Eliot/Humboldt (BEH) School area. More information on enrolling at BEH can be found here: https://www.pps.net/domain/6389
I am in year 4 of 10 with my eldest two daughters there and I could not recommend it more highly. The teachers and administration are top notch. Principal Kaveh’s goal is to have 3 classes per grade, which would require 65 kids per grade for grades 4-5 and slightly lower numbers for the lower grades. The way to achieving this is asking more neighbors to at least consider this great school and so I am asking you to take a look. Ask to take a tour or visit on one of the scheduled connect to kindergarten dates. Filling out the paperwork on the earlier side would be a great help to retain our existing teachers amid proposed cuts by the district.
There is an event this coming Thursday where you can tour the school and get a sense of what it is like this coming Thursday 3/15 at 5:30pm. You can also get a sense of the weekly highlights from the Principal’s Message page here: https://www.pps.net/boiseeliot
Principal Kaveh is happy to answer any questions can be reached at kpaksere@pps.net
The next issue of the Eliot News is going to press soon, but we are short on content for this issue. Please reach out to news@eliotneighborhood.org with any articles, pictures or advertising you would like to make it into the next issue. We publish this newsletter quarterly, so feel free to submit articles or other content on a rolling basis.
<Content from No More Freeways> This fall, No More Freeways sent ODOT a letter asking if ODOT planned to host an in-person public hearing for the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion. Now that we’ve learned ODOT has refused, No More Freeways and our partners instead decided to host our own. NMF will be partnering with local advocacy groups including the Eliot Neighborhood Association and Sunrise Movement PDX to host the “People’s Public Hearing on the Proposed Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion” at Harriet Tubman Middle School on the evening of Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023. This event will include invited testimony from advocates concerned about the impact this proposed expansion will have on air quality, street safety, traffic congestion and carbon emissions in the Albina neighborhood, followed by open testimony from the public. Elected officials representing local, regional, and state governments have been invited to attend and listen to community concerns about this freeway widening proposal. This event will be videotaped(and technology willing, live-streamed, on this page below) and tape of the People’s Public Hearing will be submitted to ODOT as part of the public comment for the Supplemental EA. No More Freeways has issued our statement about ODOT’s November 2022 EA on our Lids Not Lanes page. This venue is transit accessible, ADA accessible, and we will be requiring (and providing) masks for all attendees. PEOPLE’S PUBLIC HEARING PROGRAMMING STARTS AT 6PM JANUARY 3RD, 2023 HARRIET TUBMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL 2231 N FLINT AVENUE; PORTLAND OR 97227 TRANSIT ACCESSIBLE AVAILABLE VIA 4, 17, 24, 44 BUS LINES, EASTSIDE PORTLAND STREETCAR. BIKE PARKING AVAILABLE ON CAMPUS. ON-STREET CAR PARKING. Want to help? We need a handful of volunteers for this People’s Public Hearing event to be a success. Email us! Can’t make the event? We’ll miss you, but you can still submit written public comment! Every bit of submitted testimony counts. Check out our Action Alert for more information and a link where you can tell ODOT that you want to see restorative justice for Albina along with a full Environmental Impact Statement. Comments are due to ODOT by January 4th. Support us! This event ain’t cheap – if you appreciate what our all-volunteer, grassroots organization has done to demand the truth from ODOT, we’d appreciate your support. Whether you’ve got $1500, $150, $50 or $15, we’ll take whatever you are able to give, and we’ll mail you a hand written thank you card with some of our trademark NMF swag. Thanks for your support!
We are having a meeting at Cascadia Garlington Center (Masks required, Enter from the parking lot side off of Morris street near MLK, Jr Blvd) and online. We ask that everyone make their best effort to attend in person. We will again be using WebEx this time but this is likely the last ‘hybrid’ meeting.
On NE MLK at Sacramento, there is a program that you might have never heard of in the Eliot Neighborhood. The Volunteers of America Men’s Residential Program (MRC) is housed there. This program was set up over 20 years ago when voters in Multnomah County voted to fund residential treatment programs for both Men and Women. The Men’s center was an old 50-room hotel that was converted to this use and the director Greg Stone has been running the center this entire time. They have a roughly 70% success rate at discharging clients and have only 1-2 police calls every 5 years (less than once per year).
The main prison system has a 50% reoffending rate, while treatment programs like the MRC have a much higher success rate. As a result, it has the support of DA Mike Schmidt and the Honorable Eric Bloch, a Multnomah County Judge. Judge Bloch and DA Schmidt are working on a relatively new program called STEP which currently exists but does not currently have a residential program. Currently, they have a 0% reoffending rate although as more time passes, all programs have an increasing reoffending rate. This program works by diverting people who would go to prison directly into the residential program. These men are monitored – many had ankle bracelets when I visited the facility with some other neighbors. If someone decides to leave the program, their parole officers are notified and they do not simply disappear into the community.
The Eliot Neighborhood Association has a Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) with the MRC that stipulates that there is a citizen screening committee that is responsible for reviewing (before intake to the program) prospective clients with charges/history of violence to strangers and non-predatory sex offenders. This agreement has been in place since 1999 and we have not had a history of problems with the MRC. I have been on this committee for the past 10 years. The Eliot NA Board has the ability to change the makeup of this committee, and we recently added my co-Chair, Jimmy Wilson to the screening committee.
Judge Bloch and DA Schmidt have requested that we allow clients to come from this STEP program that are not meeting the current criteria for the program. Specifically, the current rules require clients to have served a year of time before they are admitted to the MRC, but the STEP program is designed to divert people from spending time in prison but instead they would go directly to the MRC if they meet strict screening criteria. The ENA Board will be voting to amend our GNA to allow these clients on a 90-day trial basis at the Monday November 21st meeting.
More information can be found in the many documents of this google drive folder. Please reach out to (chair@eliotneighbrohood.org) or the board (board@eliotneighborhood.org) with any questions or attend the board meeting this coming Monday.
Meeting ID: 851 6187 9346 Passcode: 794932 One tap mobile +13462487799,,85161879346#,,,,794932# US (Houston) +16694449171,,85161879346#,,,,794932# US
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Eliot Neighborhood 