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
This event is brought to you by: J.W. Matt Hennessee Social Justice Center Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Saturday Samaritans and Professional Business Development Group, in partnership with Outreach Oregon and Cascadia.
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!
Join iUrban Teen’s 13th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast featuring Grammy Award Winning a cappella group Take 6
In the midst of dangerous and divisive times, with our voting rights under attack, iUrban Teen invites students, staff and our dedicated community to gather together, to remember and “Believe” in the core values of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Believe in integrity first, believe in service before self, believe in excellence in all we do and believe in a commitment to equality and social justice.
We believe in the tremendous power of Dr. Kings’ legacy and the righteous power of community to change injustice in our society.
“I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life’s blueprint. Number one…should be a deep belief in your own dignity. Your worth and your own somebodiness… Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.“
Before and after images – dense single family homes; now parking lots and long ramp
Proposing removal of three quarters of ramp, essentially everything northeast of Mississippi Ave.
Question of ambulance access – new proposal would make for more direct access to ED for ambulances coming off the Fremont Bridge.
8 acres would be reclaimed
Surrounded by City maintenance and shop yards
6 acres on one side; 9 on other
Land valuation – high based on comparable land—$1 billion in land value and significant tax revenue
Keeping traffic down in adjacent neighborhoods is important
Pedestrian, bike and Tri-Met corridors could be constructed and cut off significant amounts of time and distance
Benefits:
ODOT: Less maintenance burden, opportunity to remedy bad design, positive public relations
City: Profit from land sale, tax revenue
Community: Compensation to displaced families, fill gap in urban fabric, rebuilt Tubman Middle School site
Legacy: Improved ED access
Next steps: City, community and state will all need to work together
Grant(s)
Stakeholder committee
Divide land, sell at auction
Q&A:
Carbon offset. Portland Clean Energy Fund.
New PPS school at Red Cross site?
Present to PPS
Reconnecting Communities grants for exactly these types of projects – part of federal infrastructure bill recently passed
Interest in keeping some public land for public use, for example a public pool or something similar to ease pressure on already existing public amenities in neighborhood
Include County leaders
Call to action – need to connect with organizations, etc. More voices. Time to move past planning stages
Permits
Streimer rezoning
IG to EX. Layman’s terms: More industrial to slightly less industrial and flexible.
We will send letter that is supporting; mention that movement to EX across neighborhood is favored by ENA LUTC
Mike to write
Albina Library
Letter re support; push for activation on street front and less surface parking. Wonder Ballroom parking after hours, or other public parking use after hours
Jason to write
Vancouver & Russell apartment building
Unflattering design, no street front activation
Rezone push, generally supportive
Potential of LUTC signing on to higher height in exchange for better use of street front
Mike will write letter
Eliot Parking Committee
Allan is on committee
Freeway Lawsuit
Utilizing our network to fundraise
Updating ENA Design Guidelines
Current version does not address commercial or multi-family
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.
Join iUrban Teen’s 13th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast featuring Grammy Award Winning Group Take 6
In the midst of dangerous and divisive times, with our voting rights under attack, iUrban Teen invites students, staff and our dedicated community to gather together, to remember and “Believe” in the core values of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Believe in integrity first, believe in service before self, believe in excellence in all we do and believe in a commitment to equality and social justice.
We believe in the tremendous power of Dr. Kings’ legacy and the righteous power of community to change injustice in our society.
“I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life’s blueprint. Number one…should be a deep belief in your own dignity. Your worth and your own somebodiness… Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.“
A fourth job and resource fair sponsored by the Eliot Neighborhood Association, Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, Cascadia Health, and the Office of Community and Civic life will be held in Dawson Park on Tuesday, November 1 from 11am to 1pm.
Attendees will be able to meet employers and apply for jobs. Additionally, there will be a food giveaway and free vaccines available.
Volunteers are also welcomed for trash pick-up, setup, tear-down, and facilitation.
During the week of Oct. 24-29, you might see people walking around the Eliot neighborhood with clipboards writing down vehicle information. A parking consultant firm has been retained by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to conduct an on-street parking utilization study of the Eliot neighborhood. These personnel have authorization to collect vehicle information for the purposes of the data collection on behalf of the bureau. They will be collecting license plate numbers in order to get an accurate understanding of the turnover in the area. The license plate information will not be stored and no personal identification information will be collected. All vehicle information will be aggregated so no individual vehicle information will be available to the bureau or to the public. The surveyors will be out from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Questions? Contact PBOT Project Manager Kathryn Doherty-Chapman at 503-823-4761.
The plan is to do a study and have a discussion. PBOT doesn’t know when, what, where or how much yet. When PBOT does have a proposal, it will share widely and have an open house/survey.
Meter discussion. Permit parking. Can stay beyond limit if you have a permit.
Wednesday night meetings on zoom going forwards. Regular meeting schedule.
Presentation on proposed apt. building on NE Graham – Danielle Isenhart, Travis Sowerby, & Mark Lisac
29 units
Bike parking, no car parking
Three stories
Open questions
Q: Discussion of process – confusing that sign out front says nothing has been submitted to city; unclear where we are in terms of land use application
A: Not yet submitted for land use review
Q: Same address as existing building?
A: Will be partitioned
Q: Easement line for parking lot?
A: Will remain
Q: Difficult to understand where enterance and pedestrian ways are
A: Showing floorplan – screenshare
Q: Looks hard to get bikes inside – three doors to get to final rack location.
A: Yes, but not against code. Best we can do.
Q: Cost & time?
A: No cost projection yet; 12+ months
Q: Concern about too many units in the neighborhood; street parking being taken up; taking down beautiful trees
A: No response
Q: Who is the developer?
A: A family with an LLC but the architects are not willing to disclose their names. Lake Oswego P.O. Box.
Q: Low income options?
At least two under city rules
Q: Handicap accessible?
8 type B units on ground floor and 1 type A unit on ground floor
Q: Is there market demand for this?
A: Yes
Demolition permit at 202 NE Graham
Looks like they are trying to demolish a garage and build an ADU on top
Garage has already been demolished
AirBNB contacts – City passes out a phone number to neighbors.
7th & Tillamook Intersection
City is not doing anything in response to the neighborhood sentiment
Generic response letter to specific ENA LUTC letters
Should another letter be sent?
A neighbor who is an attorney has filed a lawsuit.
Leveraging Congressman Blumenauer?
Discussion about equity and inclusion in the development process in the neighborhood.
Eliot Neighborhood 