The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency staff will present information and answer questions about air toxics monitoring at the Harriet Tubman Leadership Academy for Young Women. This monitoring is part of a national initiative to understand whether outdoor toxic air pollution from industry, motor vehicles and other sources poses health concerns to schoolchildren. EPA is monitoring for air toxics at 62 schools nationwide.
Blog
Alu Wine Bar Open Again
Have you noticed the silver or aluminum colored building on MLK near the corner of Graham? In the spring of 2008 it opened as Alu—named after the color of the building. About a year later Alu suddenly closed. For most of this past spring and summer Alu remained closed while it transferred owners and underwent a transformation of sorts.
Board Meeting Minutes 2009-09-14
Eliot Neighborhood Tree Planting
In partnership with Friends of Trees, Eliot Neighborhood is planning a tree planting project for Saturday February 13th! Join us to help plant trees and create a healthier community!
TriMet Service Changes Coming Soon
This past spring year TriMet held a series public hearings and open houses regarding proposals to cut certain Max and Bus lines. Public feedback, ridership data, nearby service, transit equity issues and school/job access helped shape the final service cut plan. For Eliot Neighborhood bus line 33-Fremont and the Max Yellow Line will see some changes.
Free Ice Cream at Belly
During the month of August Belly Restaurant has been hosting free ice cream socials on Saturdays from 2 – 4 pm. It’s hard to believe the month of August is half over, but there are still 2 more opportunities to get some ice cream!
Afrique Bistro Opens
A couple of years ago a small building stood on the corner of Rodney and Russell. Though technically a remodel, the building on the same corner now in no way looks like the old Dad’s Oil office. The top floor has a couple of rental apartments and the bottom floor is now Afrique Bistro.
Historic Elks Lodge Grateful for Volunteers
In Eliot there’s little left to see of the neighborhood’s complicated past. Once the vibrant, if sometimes dilapidated, center of Portland’s Black community, today almost all the landmarks are gone. The drugstore that anchored the busy intersection of Williams and Russell was beheaded and razed, its beautiful dome transplanted to Dawson Park. The Prince Hall Masonic lodge is now a tapas bar; the Cotton Club, flourishing in the sixties, sits abandoned behind a chain link fence; and the Black Panther medical clinic, which provided free health care to the community throughout the seventies, is long closed.
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Two Ladies Named Collins
Two white ladies, both remembered as “angels” in Portland’s Black community were, improbably, both named Collins—though unrelated.
An 1883 House on the Endangered List
The Eliot neighborhood may soon be losing a historic home at 216 NE Tillamook. A demolition permit was filed by the company who purchased it two years ago but the city required a 120-day demolition delay on the house due to the fact that it is inside a historic zone and the age of the house. The delay is designed to provide some opportunity for someone to move the house to another location and restore it. Fortunately for the house, the owning firm who planned a condominium development on the site had financial problems and the property entered foreclosure recently.
Speed me to my sprawling home in Washington
Speaking of poor design, how about that 12-lane bridge to nowhere; I mean Vancouver? The lone “neighborhood” voice in City Council was frozen out when she tried to raise environmental justice issues, since the congestion that will be “relieved” will be at the Columbia moving the current congestion further into inner N/NE including Eliot. This is an area that is already overloaded with toxic air emissions and poisoning adjacent schools and it will only get worse with the bridge.
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What makes a neighborhood?
What makes a neighborhood? This is a recurring theme in this column. Typically it is about “imports” of low-income and special needs populations from the parts of the city who refuse to accommodate them in their own neighborhoods. At times it is about new construction that ignores the historic character of Eliot simply to express an architect’s ego or a developer’s greed. Almost always, it is preaching to a powerless choir because the City refuses to take the complaints of inner-N/NE seriously.
Soccer it to me!
You may have glossed over the headlines about the City Council’s infatuation with new arenas for minor sports. The deal being crafted is for public financing and subsidy to convert the current baseball stadium (PGE Park) into a soccer venue and to construct a replacement stadium in either Lents, or at the Rose Quarter.
Board Meeting Minutes 2009-07-13
Spanish and Cultural Education Center Opens
Tierra Educational Center, a locally owned Spanish and Latin American Cultural Center, has opened in Eliot Neighborhood to help bridge the communication and cultural gap between the growing Hispanic population and the community at large. The center offers quality and affordable Spanish classes for all levels, as well as special courses in topics specific to Latin American Culture and History. Tierra also hosts a free Spanish Conversation Club every Friday from 6-8pm, with guided discussion, guest speakers, and film screenings pertaining to Latin American issues.
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Eliot Neighborhood 