The Multnomah Villager

Mrs. V is out of town this weekend, which results in our coffee maker not working. I mean, I’ve walked into the kitchen like 12 times now and the thing refuses to be filled with hot coffee. I don’t undersdtand, since it always seems to work for her… I even tried pressing the on/off switch a couple of times, but it still just sits there, and doesn’t produce any new coffee. So clearly we had no choice but to walk up the hill. Since Jr. V was with me, we hit Starbucks (sorry Village Coffee, you know you’re my usual stop…) so Jr. V could get a hot chocolate with no whip and a shot of peppermint. Who knew that six-year-olds already had a Starbucks “order”? I grabbed a black house coffee and we hit the front porch for a bit. There was a cold wind blowing, but it’s shaping up to be another nice day! It was positively springlike yesterday. We walked down the main drag to Annie Bloom’s and poked around for a bit before heading back down the hill for home, fortified with our respective warm morning beverages.

Man, our crazy coffee machine… I bet the thing starts working again as soon as Mrs. V gets home!

Warning: This is liable to get a little “ranty”, so let me get the important information out of the way first. There will be a “charrette” on Saturday, March 10th from 9AM to 12 noon in the Gymnasium at the Multnomah Art Center for the purpose of developing non-binding site design and development recommendations to the prospective developers of the Jerome F Sears property. Several of the interested parties will be on hand to listen, but the bidders are not the ones participating in the “design workshop”. Anyone can participate who feels like they have something to say about how this site should be developed, and what the developers need to be aware of (from eco-concerns to colors to traffic patterns) when they being building out the site, sometime in 2011.

This is being done to make the nieghborhood’s recommendations and concerns known to prospective developers. There is no guarantee that the suggestions will be followed or even considered, but having them available as site plans are being proposed should take at least one step towards identifying and perhaps addressing major concerns from members of the community before development has started and it’s “too late” to change plans, as is often the case.

But what exactly IS a Charrette?

The simple definition: It’s a roundtable open discussion for the purpose of designing some thing or process. Originally specifcally referring to groups of design professionals or artists, now charrettes are usually planned to include the widest possible range of input. Charettes are generally used in lcoal government settings where wide public input is important. Charrette is a french word meaning chariot, or handcart. Hit the Wikipedia link below to read the story of how this term began to be used for a meeting…
Charrette is one of those new-agey everybody-is-included terms that’s being used willy-nilly these days by anyone putting a group together to discuss some some larger process - although it’s mostly used in development. Portland’s fascination with this term started about a year and half ago it seems, when all of a sudden everybody and their neighbor was planning or attending charrettes. Rose Festival, Hillsdale, Reike School…. When this charrette was announced at the MNA meeting, there were several questions about charrette means, which bring me to the crux of my little ranty point.

This term “charrette” is just another case of government doublespeak being used to emphasize inclusiveness and openness, at the expense of clarity. If you want people to come and participate in a discussion, make sure they understand exactly what it is you’re talking about., When you have to preface each newspaper article with a paragraph explaining what a charrette is, and why it’s called that, perhaps you should be calling your design meeting something a little more understandable.

But you can’t keep a local government type away from these sorts of terms, and charrette is doubly attractive since there’s a connection to New Orleans in it’s heritage and it’s European, and they’re so much more advanced than we are about these sorts of processes. What people don’t realize it that obtuse terminology like this is off-putting just as much as it’s engaging. I’m certainly behind the effort to fight the dumbing-down of language, but come on…
To Brian’s credit, it’s called a “design workshop” in the agenda.

Sorry about that - I’m WAY to cynical for this sort of thing. Not the meeting, just the terminology. Here’s some real information about Charrettes and how they’re being used in the urban planning process:

• Wikipedia’s definition of “Charrette”
• What is a Charrette? by the National Charette Institute
• A Neighborhood Charrette Handbook from the University of Louisville

So, if you have something to day about the Jerome F. Sears site, and you want to make sure that your particular concerns get acknowledged by the neighbors at the least, come on out on Saturday the 10th. It’s just a meeting. With whiteboards and stuff, and a moderator, and some interested potential developers sitting around the room taking notes.

So at the Multnomah Neighborhood Association meeting last week, Rod Wojtanik from Portland Parks and Rec gave us an update on the long-rumored Gabriel Park skatepark project. As is the case anytime that skateboarders are mentioned, there was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments about the fact that skateparks tend to attract the “wrong element” (read: teenagers) who are likely to spend their time smoking in the woods and making loud noises, as well as drawing immense amounts of car traffic to our tranquil park. Much of the presentation was spent addressing these concerns - which is not to say that the concerned parties left satisfied.

Questions were raised about how a project like this got approved, and where were the opportunities for community feedback. To that I say: This discussion has been going on for years and there have been numerous meetings and rather extensive press coverage of said meetings, and the results. Which is to say this: we’re getting a skatepark. It’s been a done deal for a while. Find excellent information, complete project history and community and general surveys related to the City’s overall skateparks project at the Skate Park section of Portland Online dot com. This has to do with the City’s skatepark projects in general though, and is not Gabriel Park specific. For that, read on….

First some background. The skatepark, as designed, is relatively small - just 8-10,000 square feet which is pretty much the size of a standard single tennis court. It will be concrete, and mostly sunk into the ground, which will significantly alleviate any potential noise. The Gabriel Park skatepark is being designed to serve both “street” and “tranny” style skaters, as well as BMX bikes and inline skaters. What?!? You don’t know what “tranny” skating is? It is not doing tricks while dressed in women’s clothes. There are two main “schools” of skateboarding: “Street”, which is the “outlaw” type of skating, where tricks and moves are performed using curbs, steps, stair-rails and other things you find out in the street, and “Tranny” or Transitional skating which is skating in specific man-made skate environments such as bowls, half-pipes and skateparks. Most of the complaints directed at, and damage done by skaters is related to “street” skaters.

The park is going into the former location of the fitness course, next to the sand volleyball courts at Gabriel. I have posted about this previously, here:
The Rocks Area: Where are the Bars?” and here: Gabriel Park Play Area Status. For those of you not familiar with the layout of the park, here’s a picture of the location we’re talking about.

There were a few concerns voiced at the meeting that definitely have some merit: There likely WILL be bike traffic to the skatepark, some of which may choose to cut across the park and not stay on the trail. If casual BMX riders decide to run down the hill to the skatepark bowl, that could have a very negative effect. Although most skateboarders are just regular kids, there definitely IS an element of the skate culture that also experiments with smoking, drinking, etc. so it IS possible that there could be a certain element sneaking off into the woods to have a smoke, and that truly would create a serious fire hazard. However - the main inpact that we’re liable to notice is additional parking. Yes, the City would create an additional 15 parking spaces by cutting parking spaces into the berm that you see in the left-hand side of the above photo. While this certainly isn’t the end of the world, and the park could use more parking - it’s another piece of green gone.

I have to say though, that I am continually amazed at how alarmed people get whenever skateboarders are mentioned. Have we really gotten that old so quickly? Skate park skateobarders are regular kids, with the same interests and propensity towards being or not being troublemakers as any other group of kids. Oh, we ant facilities for these kids, sure… They have to have SOMEWHERE to go…. The implied second part of that sentence.. “other than here” is never explicitly spoken. However, there’s a key difference between skaters and the typical “smoking area” crowd from my teen years, and that is… skateboarding is hard. That is to say, doing tricks on a board and skating in a park without hurting yourself takes a certain level of skill and dedication. I don’t skate, but I’m a rock climber, and I’ve heard many of the same speeches made about why climbers are shiftless and no good for the outdoors. I’ll tell you something though. You’ll find an amazing amount of dedication and sense of ownership of “their space” among these and any other “alternative sport” people. Kids who skate at a park take ownership over the spot in a way you wouldn’t think “the kids of today” would be capable of. They’re protective of their scene, and the maintenance and behavior control issues that go along with it. Skaters use the term “concrete consequences” - which means that any lack of preparation, control, maintenance or skill will land you on the concrete, and it will hurt.

When this park opens, especially if you’re opposed to the idea, you should head down there some sunny afternoon and check out the scene. I think you’ll be surprised at not only the variety of types of people found skating/blading/biking at a park, but also at the vibe. Yeah, kids will be wearing black. Yes, they’ll be listening to hardcore music you do NOT want to hear, and yes, they will have hair of all colors and probably some piercings, but it’s OK. We often decry the fact that younger people don’t seem to be getting involved in neighborhood or local issues. Building a skatepark is a good step towards getting them involved. The sense of ownership over that small space soon spreads to concern for the citywide system of skateparks, parks as a whole and more. We can’t expect kids to suddenly decide to get involved in transit planning and zoning reviews, but taking part in the “policing” and maintaining of a skatepark? Sure, that’s possible.

That’s a long enough post now - discuss amongst yourselves, or in the comments. The document that was handed out at the meeting addresses the specific points related to the Gabriel Park skate park. Thanks to Rod Wojtanik, you can download a PDF of the entire document Gabriel Park Skatepark FAQ (PDF, 112KB)

So, in case you’re wondering what has become of Beyond Borders - I have half of an answer for you. This was discussed in comments and in person, here’s the backstory. It’ started with Cate’s posting the following question in a previous comment:

Also it looks like Beyond Borders is mostly empty. Something new going in there?

My response…

Good question, I’ll ask around at the meeting next week. Yeah, I noticed that Beyond Borders had started to clear out after the holiday season. We remember that store in its previous incarnation as “Catfish Moon” up in Hillsdale.

Now, according to Brian, the space has been taken over by Neighborhood House for office space, since office space is at a serious premium in the Village, especially right next door to the space you’re currently in (in the case of Neighborhood House). They have already moved in, and are in there behind the shiny new vertical blinds that went up yesterday. Beyond Borders’ signage and paint job still remain for now, and I don’t know the story behind their apparent demise - but that’s what’s going on now.

7 PM at the Multnomah Art Center. See you there?

Accidentally deleted half my header file while making a minor update last night, which broke the site between 9PM or so and just now. Thanks Justin.

So we made a brief appearance at the Outdoor (indoor) Cinema’s showing of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” yesterday. Jr. V wasn’t in the mood to sit and watch a movie in the middle of the day, and he probably wasn’t the only one, since the turnout was pretty light. Well, light compared to the throngs that the movies were pulling in this summer. We ate our weight in popcorn and saw a lot of familiar faces, and ducked out quietly after Charlie found his golden ticket. OK by me, because I know I’ve seen the “factory” portion of this movie before, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the first part - at least I had no memory of the numerous jokes, etc during the search for the tickets sequence. One thing I noticed at the movie was how many people from our neighborhood (and others - Hi Lillie) I now know since I’ve started this ‘blog. That’s good, since it was one of my goals from the beginning to get to know some of the neighbors. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of getting home from work, walking inside and never even noticing what’s going on or who is living right beside you.

So we’re starting out the whole Pub Crawl thing by visiting the Lucky Labrador Public House which took over the old Masonic lodge on Capitol Highway just as you come into the Village, some years ago. This location of the Lucky Lab is more of a pizza place that serves beer than a bar, which is just fine, since the Village has several other bars and a good slice of pizza is hard to find. I met up with Brian Russell for a beer and a discussion of blogging and happenings around the Village.

The Lucky Lab is a beer drinkers bar, and a Portland beer drinker’s bar at that. This means a plethora of variety. If that intimidtes you, stick with the IPA, which seems to the “everybeer” these days - the one that everyone can agree on. The Lab serves their own beer, names and descriptions of which can be found at this link.

This forner New Jersey boy is happy with the quality of the pizza at the Lab, although I will leave the more esoteric varieties of pizza to the rest of you. Where I come from, there’s only three kinds of pizza: Cheese, Pepperoni, and slice of the day. The pizza is good and spicy, with excellent crust. Highly recommended from me at least. Here’s a link the the Multnomah location’s menu.

The inside of the Lab echoes and encourages it’s clientele. It’s open and airy, and made for being social. Long tables, high ceilings and bulletin boards festooned with all manner of dog pictures and beer coasters from around the area and the world. Brewpubs are not really “bars” and as such, there’s no dimly lit corners for igniting that new romance. However, the Lab is DEFINITELY the place to be in Multnomah if you’re looking for a place that is full of young outdoorsy “Must Love Dogs” types, and.. oh Hell, there’s no tactful way to put this - it’s usually full of good-looking women. And guys for that matter. Particularly at the outdoor tables when the weather is agreeable. The Lba is the place to be if you like to have a drink with a group of people, or hold court at a table as others come and go.

I should mention that it’s been awhile since I’ve been to the Lab, as a result of being pretty near blacklisted back when Jr. V and his friends were a few years younger, and two or three of our neighbors and we would meet at the Lab and sit upstairs, where the kids would run around like wild people while we attempted to suck down a slice and a beer. One the last of these occasions we were told off somehwat sternly by the staff, and had to beat a quick retreat. The upstairs was closed the other night, whether in anticipation of my return the scene of my crimes, or just because it was a light weekday night I’m not sure. I prefer the upstairs when going there with a group.

So that’s enough for now about the Lab. We’ll be back there again and there’s numerous reviews and writeups of visits to the place scattered about on the Internet so it’s not too hard to find info. All in all, an easy way to start off the Village Pub Crawl series, which will be continuing at irregular intervals until I’ve hit all the current watering holes. The next installment will be about a REAL bar, either the Ship, O’Connor’s or Renners, depending on how the mood hits me. Yes, the Village has a number of establishments in which to order a drink, which was pointed out at an MNA meeting a few months ago, but now that I’m writing these posts I’m intrigued at how different the character of each of the places are.

Today’s the day for the Multnomah Outdoor Cinema’s Indoor showing of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (the original) at 2PM in the auditorium of the Multnomah Art Center. Details are on The Multnomah Outdoor Cinema’s Website. It’s free - bring a couple of cans of food for Neighborhood House.
See you there?

Oregonian film critic, Village resident and friend of this ‘blog Shawn Levy addressed the City Club of Portland last night. The subject of his talk was “Portland as a Film City” and if you missed it on OPB Radio, you can grab an MP3 of the talk via the City Club’s website, or by downloading from this link Portland as a Film City, Shawn Levy (MP3, 15MB). Do my bandwidth a favor and right-click and save this file, instead of streaming it…

I get the impression that Shawn’s no too fond of the new Eddie Murphy movie?