The Multnomah Villager

For those of you not on Brian’s email list, here’s a link to a PDF version of the document that was generated in the design meeting that took place March 3rd.

Download or view the PDF here

I have my own opinions of the usefulness of these types of recommendations - but the first step is getting them down on paper (or into bits, as it were). We’ll see if this goes anywhere from here. The MNA is pursuing getting a representative on the PDC’s recommendation panel, which will likely be a struggle, but it’s exponentially easier than trying to influence the BRAC, which for a small neighborhood association, is a pipe dream.

Here’s the doc - discuss in comments, if you like. Thanks Brian for making this available electronically!

Woof! What a marathon meeting last night. Certainly not the most exciting gathering in the world, but there was lots of information shared. Here’s some facts in bullet-list form for those of you who didn’t join us:

• Commissioner Adams, who as they say in Hollywood  “would turn up at the opening of an envelope”, actually couldn’t make it to the groundbreaking of the new Multnomah Village Park on Monday, but the event was very well attended and I suppose now the park is official! There’s a work party on Saturday the 21st, which I have posted about previously.
• Tamara at Fusion Cut & Color asked me what was going to become of the parking area under the viaduct, which is currently used by business owners and visitors to the Village. I spoke to Randy Bonella about this, and he tells me that the parking situation is likely to improve, with the potential addition of up to 9 spaces and improvement of the state of the existing area. With parking such a hot-button issue around the Village, I’m almost hesitant to post this, so let’s wait and see if these improvements come to pass - but there will be no negative impact on parking, it seems.
• Turns out that Lincoln High School is using one of the baseball diamonds at Gabriel Park as their official field, since they don’t have room for a baseball field downtown (you know, what with PGE Park taking up all the space). They have asked to install a scoreboard. An old-style one with the hand-switched numbers. Non-lighted. After much snickering about how quickly this will end up painted Wilson green under cover of some dark night, the MNA gave its conditional approval to this plan. The scoreboard would be towards the back of the field, between the “main” Lincoln diamond and the Rocky Benevento field.
• I have to give credit to Kay Durtschi. That woman knows her way around transportation regulations and statutes and grants and all the stuff I’m glad SOMEONE knows, ’cause I sure am not sitting through any of those meetings.
• There’s a few key fundraising events upcoming for Maplewood School which will get a separate post tonight or tomorrow.
• Results from the design meeting re: the Jerome Sears property were discussed, presentations were made by Offier Lai of the PPB and Robert Liberty of Metro and more.

Just wanted to get something posted in a timely fashion about the MNA meeting. I often start out to post about them and then lost the momentum until it’s too far after the fact.

Tuesday night at 7PM, that’s April 10th. In the back corner of the Multnomah Center. There are signs, if you haven’t been before. And don’t worry, Brian doesn’t ALWAYS make you introduce yourself and make a short statement….

Yeah, OK, I’d be updating more often if I wasn’t so crazy busy at the day job - you know the drill….

There’s a few things I ought to put out there…

1. Multnomah Neighborhood Association meeting next Tuesday night at 7PM at the Multnomah Art Center. There will be special guests. Metro Councillor Robert Liberty, and Multnomah Distrit Police Officer Z Lai.
2. Journeys continues to live up to my expectations. I’m pretty much a fixture on Monday nights at this point ’round about 9PM.
3. First Friday is tomorrow (today?), and if the weather stays like it is right now, it’s going to be a mob scene around here.
4. Apparently we have a new flower shop in the Village. Kelly Reed sens the following note regarding her new shop located in with M Antiques. “I am a new small business opening up here in the Village. It is called “Kelly’s Flowers” and resides within M Antiques. I am waiting for a sunny day to do a Grand Opening but I do have flowers and just set up a nice bouquet for Annie Blooms for a special request”. Good luck Kelly. It’s been awhile since we had a good flower shop. Am I remembering correctly that there was one in the Crooked Red House?
5. Switch Shoes will be celebrating the beginning of their second year in the Village on Thursday April 12th from 6-10PM. DJ, refreshments and sale prices that last through the weekend.
6. To my amusment there are three consecutive entries in the “Police Blotter” section of this month’s Connection that end with some variation of the phrase, “Officers were unable to locate the dog.”
7. Next Saturday, April 14th, Maplewood Elementary is holding a native plant sale at the school from 10-2. Proceeds help to fund the future new playground.

So, don’t forget the Design Workshop this Saturday the 10th (tomorrow) from 9Am to noon in the Multnomah Center Gymnasium (the auditorium is booked). According to Brian Russell almost ALL of the proposal applicants have confirmed their attendance, even PDOT’s maintenance department. For those of you just joining us, this discussion is to share visions and concerns and (one assumes) develop an advisory document which will be furnished to firms and organizations submitting proposals to redevelop the Jerome F Sears site on Multnomah Blvd, which has been declared surplus by the Federal Government. More info about this is below.

Multnomah Village Post article about the meeting is here, although you will learn more about the real Jerome F. Sears than the process of re-purposing the armory, which is not a bad thing.

My earlier post (complete with cynical comments about the term “charrette”) is here.

And another of my earlier posts with the backstory behind the whole “surplus” thing is here.

In other news, the Neighborhood Association Meeting next Tuesday night will be a short one and it’s starting early (at 6:30), followed by the sure-to-be-adventurous” Multnomah Sewer Repair Open House at 7:00. I’ll be skipping THAT meeting, sorry.

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)

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

7PM on the 13th - at the Multnomah Art Center. Mark your calendars and come out. Attending a neighborhood association meeting is something you should probably do once in your life, if not more often. Yes, it can be crashingly boring discussions of traffic patterns, etc, but you’ll get to meet some neighbors and learn a little about what’s going on beahind the scenes.

For those of you that are either in the cult of Sam Adams or feel the need to vent about the tram, or are (rightly) interested in neighborhood-specific issues such as sidewalks, paved streets, traffic control etc., come on down to the Multnomah Art Center at 7PM on the 22nd (that’s a Monday) and have your say. Well maybe just have a listen. Here’s the full blurb from SWNI’s website…

Monday, January 22, 7 - 9 pm Multnomah Center, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy Please join Commissioner Sam Adams, Sue Keil, Director of Portland Department of Transportation (PDOT), Dean Marriott, Director of Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) and staff from the Regional Arts Council (RAC) for a town hall discussion on the bureaus’ 2007-2008 budgets. Sam is interested in your ideas in developing his bureaus’ budgets, consequently he is holding a town hall located in each of the seven neighborhood coalition districts. The town hall will include neighborhood specific improvements and projects. Commissioner Adams will highlight how projects are selected and the criteria used to prioritize expenditures. The commissioner and directors welcome your ideas on how to spend our City’s dollars.
Both BES and PDOT involve Budget Advisory Committees (BAC) in the development of the bureau budgets. The BACs scrutinize the budgets through a process, started in November 2006, ensuring the city provides services the people of Portland require. Commissioner Adams and Directors Keil and Marriott, will present a comprehensive view of the City of Portland budget, as well as an opportunity to learn local perspectives on needed improvements. RAC will highlight their successes and share their plans for the future.

I do approve of the support Sam shows the Village. Here’s a link to his blog at commissionersam dot com.