OKNA Overlook Neighborhood Email 10-17-14

1) OKNA meeting – Learn about this year’s ballot measures (Oct. 21)
2) Overlook Village Business Association Halloween Crawl (Oct. 31)
3) Portland Parks & Recreation Takes Over Management of Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center
4) Bike lane improvements sought on Interstate Avenue
5) Crosswalk enforcement action (Oct. 22)

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1) OKNA meeting – Learn about this year’s ballot measures (Oct. 21)

Join your neighbors for the monthly Overlook Neighborhood Association meeting.

At this month’s meeting, election experts will answer questions about this year’s crop of ballot measures. Driver’s cards for undocumented immigrants, a top-two primary election sytem, legalized recreational marijuana, and more. Be an informed voter.

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7-9 p.m.
Kaiser Town Hall Building
3704 N Interstate Ave.

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2) Overlook Village Business Association Halloween Crawl (Oct. 31)

Enjoy some Halloween trick-or-treating with children from 5-7 p.m. and with the over 21 crowd from 7-9 p.m. Pick up a passport at a participating business and visit each location for candy or specials to get your passport stamped. Once your passport is full, turn it in to any participating location for a chance to win a gift certificate from an Overlook Village Business Association business. Come enjoy some safe trick-or-treating fun in Overlook and support your local small businesses in the process! Hosted by the Overlook Village Business Association.

Halloween Crawl
Friday, Oct. 31, 5-7 p.m. (kids) and 7-9 p.m. (21+)
N Killingsworth Street & N Greeley Avenue

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3) Portland Parks & Recreation Takes Over Management of Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center

For the past four years, Portland Parks & Recreation and Ethos, Inc., a non-profit music-focused arts organization, have partnered with other local multi-cultural arts organizations to operate the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (IFCC), located at 5340 N Interstate Avenue. Effective Dec. 31, Ethos will return general management responsibilities of the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center to the City of Portland. Per Ethos’ mission, Ethos’ board and staff have agreed to redirect resources to low-income kids living in underserved communities in Oregon. Portland Parks & Recreation will assume management responsibilities at IFCC moving forward.

The Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center is a former firehouse that has been renovated into an arts facility consisting of a dance studio, art galleries, and a theatre, all of which are ADA accessible. Since 1982, the IFCC facility has provided a venue for multicultural arts programming in Portland. Over the years, IFCC has served as an art and cultural center, a theatre, an event space, a summer camp location, a community center, an after-school program facility, a gallery space, a dance studio, a venue for performing artists, and an educational facility for the arts.

Find out more about the Interstate Cultural Center and these changes.

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4) Bike lane improvements sought on Interstate Avenue

larrabeeThe share of people who bike from North Portland is lower than many other places in Portland because one of the most direct routes to Southeast Portland and parts of downtown is Interstate Avenue which has a ‘pinch point’ between Tillamook and the Broadway Bridge.

Blake Goud and Ted Buehler sent a letter to Commissioner Novick, Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat and Mayor Charlie Hales asking for simple changes to improve safety and for further study into longer-term solutions for this key connection for people who live in North Portland. OKNA has endorsed this request!

To see the changes proposed, please visit their website or email Blake at blake.goud@gmail.com. The best way to help is to request specific changes from the letter by calling 503-823-SAFE or emailing safe@portlandoregon.gov.

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5) Crosswalk enforcement action (Oct. 22)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation and Portland Police Bureau advise the traveling public that a crosswalk enforcement action is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 22, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. to raise awareness of pedestrian safety and Oregon traffic laws.

Each crosswalk enforcement action involves a designated pedestrian crossing at a marked or unmarked crosswalk while police monitor how people who are driving, bicycling and walking adhere to traffic safety laws.

Drivers who fail to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk and pedestrians who fail to follow Oregon traffic laws may be issued a warning or citation.

Crosswalk enforcement action
Wednesday, Oct. 22, 7:30-9 a.m.
N Lombard Street at N Leavitt Avenue