Come out to the Multnomah Center tonight from 7:00 - 8:30PM to review and comment on the design for the upcoming skatepark at Gabriel Park. This is the second of two of these open houses. Not sure what room these are in, but there will surely be signage. Multnomah Art Center is at 7688 SW Capitol Highway. Call 503-823-6191 with questions.
There is a Southwest Charter School open house this Tuesday evening from 7:00-8:30PM at the Multnomah Center. NOTE that there is also a final design meeting for the new Gabriel Park skatepark on the same evening, although I don’t anticipate much audience crossover. The skatepark has the auditorium last time, but I anticipate that they may have to find a smaller space this time around, due to what I anticipate should be a good turnout for the Charter school.
SW Charter School has a website (on which they need to fix their extended ASCII characters, by the way), which is full of information except for one key point. The cost. They define their mission as follows:
Southwest Charter School is a small, public school community that emphasizes safety and caring; a place where neither race nor economic status will determine a child’s potential for success.
There’s been lots of talk about this school in the news over the past year or so. Especially surrounding their unsuccessful quest to rent the former Smith School building from PPS. I’m thinking of popping into this meeting just to find out where they’re going to be. Actually, I don’t really understand the concept of charter schools. I know they’re some sort of hybrid between public and private, but that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge on the subject. I should do some research, although it would take some kind of major sea-change in the quality of PPS before I would even consider moving Jr. V away from Maplewood, even if I could afford it.
NCES.gov tells us this about charter schools:
A public charter school is a publicly funded school that, in accordance with an enabling state statute, has been granted a charter exempting it from selected state or local rules and regulations. A charter school may be newly created, or it may previously have been a public or private school; it is typically governed by a group or organization (e.g., a group of educators, a corporation, or a university) under a contract or charter with the state. In return for funding and autonomy, the charter school must meet accountability standards. A school’s charter is reviewed (typically every 3 to 5 years) and can be revoked if guidelines on curriculum and management are not followed or the standards are not met.
Here is The list of Portland Charter Schools at the PPS Website.
Here’s an interesting site (GreatSchools.net), although it’s infested with pop-up ads, about public and private schools, including charter schools. It has reviews on it, etc. and this interesting article - Seven Things to Know About Charter Schools.
Again though, missing the eighth thing, which is the cost.
A useful guest post by Rose Florek on Amanda Fritz’ blog highlights the current status of the air conditioning at the Multnomah Center. It’s worth a read, so go over to Amanda’s and check it out, here: Seniors Need Air Conditioning
The Multnomah Center is a designated cooling center for seniors!!!
Awareness is the first step in fixing a problem. Unfortunately, money is usually the second.
Oh Man! I thought my 2 year anniversary was JULY 25th! Ha ha! I missed it!
OK…. Two years and one month ago today, on Saturday JUNE 25th, 2005 at around 10AM, I posted the first post to this blog.
It’s certainly been an interesting journey since then. Thanks for all the hits, comments, suggestions compliments and criticisms. This has been fun, and continues to be an exciting challenge. I might change things up over the next year. I’m probably going to redesign again, I’m thinking of adding additional writers (you out there, Cate?) and well, we’ll see what else comes down the road.
I resisted the temptation to add a PayPal “Buy me a coffee/beer” button on this post, as a blatant anniversary exploit, but since I can’t even remember when the darned anniversary is…… I’m like Fred Flintstone over here! To think I’ve been holding off on this post, to wait for the exact day!
I’m thinking of doing a Villager meetup at Journey’s later this summer or in September, I’ll hold off on my trolling for free beers until then.
So I was looking through my web statistics (you regular readers know how I am about that sort of thing….) and someone just came to this site via a search that led to this post: Shootin’ Hoops With JC. Which reminded me of how much Jr. V enjoyed that activity.
That activity, by the way, is Riversgate Church’s Multnomah Village Basketball Camp. A short visit to their site confirms that yes indeed, it’s happening again this summer. August 6-10 from 6-8PM. For Girls and boys ages 6-13. There was a HUGE turnout last year, and everyone got shirts, basketballs, and a great cookout on the last night. Visit the site at the link above to register.
Mrs. V and I enjoyed having our evenings “off” while Max was learning to play.
It’s that time again, Harry Potter fans. It’d be pretty much impossible NOT to know that the 7th and final book in the series is going to be released this week. Of course, Annie Bloom’s Books will be having an event leading up to sales of the book at 12:01 AM Saturday morning. The fun begins at 10PM, in the parking lot behind the bookstore (that’s the Multnomah Boulevard side…). Annie Bloom’s closes at the regular time, but the event begins at 10PM and then everyone will troop around to the store and get their copies of the book at midnight. I remember two years ago when this happened there was a stream of kids heading home just after midnight, where presumably they stayed awake reading… The last book was great, so hopefully this one will be as good. I’ve been reading this series as well, and am curious as to what wil become of the characters.
Here’s the blurb from Annie Bloom’s site…
Please join us in celebrating the release of the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Our party will begin at 10 PM on Friday, July 20th. The book will go on sale at 12:01 AM! First, we’ll have fun with a costume runway, fairground games like ring toss and horseshoes, a trivia contest, and an area for displaying your Harry Potter art - so pick up your pens, crayons, or paint brushes and start drawing!
Also, beginning at 7:00 PM on July 20, you can enter to win a trip for 4 to London in the “Independent Muggles for Harry Potter” sweepstakes.
You can pre-order Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows now. If you prepay, we’ll give you a coupon for $10 off your next purchase!
Our Harry Potter T-shirt raffle is over, but we’ve set aside a handful of child-sized shirts to give away as prizes at the Party.
Here’s the link to pre-order the book from Annie Bloom’s
Remember when this happened last time? I do, it was almost exactly two years ago: Here’s my post from back then..
Sweets Etc. is in on the fun as well, with costume contests and prizes. All starting at 10PM.
Jr. V and I stopped into Thinker Toys as part of our little research trip this evening, and although they are not having any late night events - they’ve got your Harry Potter merchandise needs covered. The stuff is right inside the door, to your right - so stock up on those last-minute costume needs ahead of time.
So, for the first time in a long time last week, I blew off the neighborhood association meeting. This is because I wanted to head up to Annie Bloom’s and hear Nanci Hamilton talk about her new book “Portland’s Multnomah Village” - the history of our neighborhood. I bought a copy of the bok, and Mrs. V and I have been having fun checking out the photos and facts that are inside.
Look familiar? This photo is from 1929, via the Multnomah Historical Association.
To quote the introduction:
This book gives readers a glimpse of what makes this place unique and special, qualities that the neighborhood retains despite change.
Despite their steadfast refusal to respond to either of my emails requesting to be added to their affiliate program, I am linking to Annie Bloom’s anyway, so you can buy this book from them here.
There was a bit of a geek summit a Journeys last night, when talk of wi-fi router configuration between Brian and myself attracted some other bar-goers, who turned out to be blog readers and recent commenters. Yes, it was K2 (of Zella.org) and Lame-o Bike Commuter (of Sustainthis. org). Turns out we work not far from each other. K2 whipped out her….. Linux phone from China, and there was much oohing and aahing, plus discussion of kids, the best routes over Terwilliger and how many years ago any of us were anything cloe to TJ’s age. Nice to meet you both, hopefully we’ll see each other again, and yes one of those times will be on a bike.
I hate to do this, Don, but I have to make this post…. We couldn’t help but notice, tucked down in the corner of one of the middle pages of this month’s Multnomah Village Post, the announcement (with explanation of the header redesign) that as of November, “our” paper will be called the Southwest Portland Post. We do not approve. Mrs. V, in particular, does not approve. This subject came up at Journeys Monday night (I didn’t bring it up) and TJ does not approve.
I understand the business reasons behind making such a change, and I know that your editorial mission pretty much has to stretch beyond the confines of the Village proper. But it feels like we’re losing “our” paper - one of the things that makes the Village unique and cool. I’m sure I’ll still grab a copy when heading to breakfast on the weekend, but it won’t feel the same.
Just had to say it.
The same one that several hundred of you have as well. Although I must say, at least getting on Sam’s email list gets you some communication - so many “email signups” are just black holes - ironic that it’s hard to get the messages you’re interested in, but when it comes to cheap “performance enhancing” drugs…..
Apparently “they” have tallied the results of the suveys that were handed out at the recent series of neighborhood lobbying town-hall meetings about transportation funding issues. I am trying unsucessfully to restrain my inherent cynicism when Sam announces that the “results are surprising” and then lists these selections from the feedback:
- Transportation is important. Transportation ranks second to schools as Portlanders highest priority.
- Intersections and school crossings need to be safer. Portlanders want safer crosswalks, especially around schools and at intersections.
- New funding sources, please. Portlanders dislike overreliance on the state gas tax and strongly encourage funding diversification.
- Promote conservation. New funding sources that encourage conservation are most favored; a local gas tax is strongest followed by a gas guzzler tax and a fee on parking spaces.
- Be clear and accountable. While Portlanders want a full-service package, they also want transparency and accountability. Portlanders support: an independent oversight committee, buy-in from neighborhoods and neighborhood business districts, capped administrative costs, a defined list of projects, and sunsetting taxes and fees after 10 years.
- Get it done. Town hall attendees support more expansive funding packages than the $23 million proposal Adams presented: eliminating the maintenance backlog in ten years at $45 million annually scored highest, followed by a more comprehensive package at $70 million per anum.
Gee - if THESE results are surprising, the only surprise is that it cost something like 40K to find out that transportation is important, and school crossings should be safe. It’s this sort of thing that makes me realize that I will NEVER have the patience to work in the public sector, where so much time and energy is spent pointing out what was obviosu to everyone going into the process. Hopefully, there are some pieces of real information in the full survey results, which are here.
However, the survey was mostly an exercise in ranking taxation balances and priorities, so don’t hold your breath thinking you’re clicking to some great epiphanies. An aside: some of you may have noticed that I was quoted in the Trib right after this meeting displaying even more of this boundless enthusiasm that’s welling up in me just now. Amanda Fritz has got a much more substantial discussion on these topics at her blog, www.amandafritz.com.
Sam’s email continues:
Next, we’re forming a 48-person steering committee representing a wide range of uses and interests to focus funding options and priorities. When completed, I will present the proposals to the public at another round of seven neighborhood coalition town halls from September 10 to September 23. The soonest I envision action on this topic would be January.
So I guess we’ll wait until Fall and see where this process is taking us. Save your pennies. Sorry this turned into a bit of a rant. It’s the heat.