Your Weekly Email, early!
1) OKNA Meeting This Week (7/17)
2) Overlook Needs a Tree Planting Coordinator
3) Shabbat at the Park/Overlook Park (7/20)
4) Apartment Building on Overloo
k Park
5) Do you live close to the N Killingsworth MAX station?
6) Sewer Repair And You.. Continued!
7) Coal Train Proposal: Local Resolution, Demonstration (8/18)
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1) OKNA Meeting This Week (7/17)
Join us for another action-packed OKNA meeting this Tuesday, July 17 from 7:00 pm – 9:00pm at the Kaiser Town Hall building, 3704 N Interstate Ave @ Overlook Blvd.
On the agenda this month, PBOT/Portland Bureau of Transportation will update us on the “Going to the River” project, a bike boulevard that runs along N Skidmore and will heavily impact the intersection of N Interstate @ Skidmore. Bring your transportation questions, including comments about the intersection of N Skidmore and N Concord.
We’ll also hear from the Friends of Overlook Bluffs, a neighbor group seeking to preserve the bluff open space on N Overlook Terrace. If you are interested in saving this land from development, this is the time to connect!
After an impromptu presentation last month, neighbors requested, and will get, more information from Power Past Coal, an “an ever-growing alliance of health, environmental, clean-energy, faith and community groups working to stop coal export off the West Coast.”
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2) Overlook Needs a Tree Planting Coordinator
We are still hoping to find someone to take on the role of Neighborhood Tree Planting Coordinator for next year’s Overlook tree planting event with Friends of Trees. It’s a really rewarding experience, and I’d love to keep doing it, but I am a renter moving out of the neighborhood, so its just not possible.
The Tree Planting Coordinator reaches out to neighborhood residents to make sure they know about the great deals offered by Friends of Trees. The coordinator also helps some people order their trees, and organizes the one annual planting day event. http://www.friendsoftrees.org/volunteering#NCs
Friends of Trees really sets the coordinator up for success. You will probably have to turn away offers of assistance from them on a regular basis, because they are so generous with their assistance. It doesn’t matter if you have never planted a tree before. This is about enabling other people to get things done, and with not too much effort you can enable hundreds of people to act together for major improvements to the neighborhood.
It is actually important for our neighborhood to have a tree planting coordinator, Without one, Overlook residents will still be able to plant trees with Friends of Trees, but there will be less trees planted. Overlook residents will still be able to attend a community tree planting event somewhere in the surrounding neighborhoods, (maybe Arbor Lodge or Boise?) but we won’t have our own special event like we have had for the past 15 years, so there will be less opportunity for community building, less learning about trees, and less neighbors getting out of the house and improving the community. This would be ok, but not ideal.
So give me (Garrett) a call if you think you might want to try it out this year (503 422 5070). I’ll give you more details and put you in touch with Friends of Trees and you can decide later if you want to do it. Or just call Whitney at Friends of Trees to talk with them about it (503-595-0213). Thanks for your interest!
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3) Shabbat at the Park/Overlook Park (7/20)
Congregation Shir Tikvah will be holding Shabbat at the Park on Friday evening, July 20. We had such a great success last year, we decided to do it again!
People will bring their own picnic dinner, and evening services will be said. Our purpose is to provide outreach to unaffiliated eastside Jews, and let them know of congregations on our side of the river, along with other resources they might not be aware of.
More details? Contact Amelia Schroth, shirtikvahoffice@shir-tikvah.net or 503.473.8227
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4) Apartment Building on Overlook Park
At the last OKNA meeting, neighbors learned that a 5-story, 65-unit apartment building is slated to fill the two lots at 3707 & 3711 N Overlook Blvd. There is no on-site parking planned for this building and adjacent neighbors are concerned. Park lovers are worried about what it means for the delicate balance there. If you are interested in attending a meeting in the next couple of week to learn more about this project and what concerned neighbors can do, please email OKNA at info@OverlookNeighborhood.org
Please also read the following document: Upcoming Apartment Projects with No On-Site Parking Frequently Asked Questions: June 2012
http://tinyurl.com/c6hz7x2
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5) Do you live close to the N Killingsworth MAX station?
Look for a post card this week in the mail from Metro Auditor Suzanne Flynn. She is conducting a survey about the MAX.
If you live within the area bounded by N Ainsworth St, N Michigan Ave, N Alberta St, and N Denver Ave, you can complete the survey at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/yellow_line .
Make sure your voice is heard!
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6) Sewer Repair And You.. Continued!
The Overlook Sewer Repair Project is bringing 12,000 feet of new sewer pipes to replace Overlook’s circa 1900s lines. The contractor wants to make noise for longer than normally allowed; if you live in an affected area you’ll be getting a flyer in the mail shortly telling you all about it. That’s your cue to speak up if you want to.
During the project, if you have concerns about maintaining driveway access, business operations, medical deliveries, etc. during construction, please contact Marie Wright. If you would like to receive email updates about the progress of the construction, please send an email to marie.wright@portlandoregon.gov and enter “Overlook Sewer Project” in the subject line.
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7) Coal Train Proposal: Local Resolution, Demonstration (8/18)
The North Portland Neighborhood Chairs Network holds a monthly meeting of North Portland neighborhood leaders. They passed the following resolution at their July 2, 2012 meeting:
Whereas the proposed coal trains and barges will likely travel through our North Portland neighborhoods and the safety has not been proven, we request that a comprehensive Health Impact Assessment (to include cumulative effects), a programmatic Environmental impact Statement and a Transportation Impact Analysis be called for and examined before any coal export facility, infrastructure or related transport is approved by any Oregon state regional or federal agency.
Please pay attention to this important and complex issue as information becomes available. OKNA will feature a presentation on this topic at the July 17 General Membership Meeting; please join us!
If you already feel strongly about this topic, the following demonstration may be of interest to you.
NO COAL DMONSTRATION at the St. Johns RR CUT (N. Lombard between Ida & Gilbert) Saturday, August 18th Noon-3p.m. To volunteer to plan or help at the event contact: bonnie@goodgrowthnw.org 503-285-3131 Stop the Coal trains from coming through North Portland. The Mayor has sent a letter, and their will likely be a Resolution of opposition before Council in September says Amanda Fritz. The Resolution will be similar to the one recently passed in Hood River. The timing in September is to get maximum public attention to the issue rather than doing it over the summer when folks may be out of town says Fritz. Anti-Coal advocates are encouraged to attend the Council’s Legislative Agenda setting meetings, August 6th and September 27 in Room C of the Portland Building, to make sure this issue gets on the city’s state and federal lobbying priority lists.