Commentary:
Own the Store
If all goes well with Food Front Co-op's explorations about opening a new store in Hillsdale, a whole bunch of us could become grocery store owners.
That's a prospect we should look forward to.
No, it won't mean that you'll be doing time behind the cash register or that your fellow neighbor-owners will be restocking shelves. It does mean that you will have a say in what the store offers, how it deals with its customers and - the most important part (take note, Wild Oats) - whether the operation sells out over night to some remote corporate giant.
Whole Foods comes to mind.
You can "own" our store in a couple of ways. First, for $150, you can become a Food Front member/owner. You can also make a loan to Food Front to help pay its start-up costs. For details about membership, see the story to the right or go to the Food Front web page.
By the way, you don't have to be a member/owner to shop at Food Front, but there are benefits to membership - again, check the web page.
The Hillsdale co-op should be a mixing bowl of ideas and energy. Hillsdale abounds with both, and Food Front has a wide open, welcoming attitude about new ideas and new ways to build relations with the community.
One of the ideas already being batted around is a home delivery system to encourage more people to walk to the store. The store would display items but encourage you to order and pay for them at a computer terminal. In an hour or two, or whenever you choose, the bags (reusable, of course) would be at your door.
As the anchor store in the Hillsdale Shopping Center, Food Front could also provide links to surrounding businesses. In short, it could be a showcase for a "Shop Locally/Hillsdale Has It" movement. Other possibilities might include innovative ways to support our schools. As members, for instance, we could choose to donate "owner profits" to the schools or to the Hillsdale Community Foundation.
In the short run, Hillsdale owners might even be able to think of ways to help the new store get up and running faster than if it were left to traditional devices.
Like any prospective business owners, many of us can hardly wait to open our doors to - us and our neighbors.
Rick Seifert
Editor
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Links to Alliance Members
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Why are these people smiling?
Call them early-adopting 4-T-ers.
Fifty friends and fellow hikers struck out on a four-hour adventure using southwest Portland's 4-Ts: Trails, Trams, Trolleys and Trains. The date they chose, Saturday, Jan. 12, came with rain, sleet and the occasional snowflake, reports our correspondent, Arnie Panitch. The four-mile trail segment led from the Washington Park Zoo (reached by MAX from downtown) to Council Crest,
where this photo was taken,
to OHSU and the top of the tram. The tram took the group down to the trolley line, which led to a #56 bus, bound for Hillsdale and home. The whole 4T route is roughly 8.5 miles, each one a joy, according to Panitch.
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Possible opening by June
Food Front Co-op still on track to Hillsdale
Food Front Co-op managers are optimistic about the opening of a new store in Hillsdale.
"It's really a question of 'when,' not 'if,' as I see it," Lee Lancaster, Food Front's finance manager, told Hillsdale Business and Professional Association members at their Jan. 16 meeting.
Still, the new store, which would be at the site of the old Wild Oats store in the Hillsdale Shopping center, isn't a done deal.
Food Front's 3000 member/owners have been invited to comment on plans for a Hillsdale store at a membership meeting Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 7 p.m. The meeting location is Friendly House at NW 26th and NW Thurman. The session is open, and Hillsdale residents interested in the store are welcomed to attend, answer questions about the community and listen to the discussion, said Tom Mattox, Food Front Co-op's community outreach director.
Lancaster said he expects to have a proposal to put to the co-op's board as early as February. Assuming the board gives its approval, the work leading to opening the store could begin. But the task list is long so that the store is unlikely to open before June, Lancaster said.
Putting together funding and making physical improvements will take time as will stocking the store and training a new staff, he said.
Both the Food Front's management and the shopping center's owners, the Wardin family, say they have developed a good working relationship.
Lancaster said major improvements, such as a suggested reorienting of part of the store to the back and to a much-discussed civic plaza, would have to wait. "Mostly we want to get the store open," he said.
The Hillsdale retail space is slightly smaller than that at Food Front's only store, on NW Thurman. Managers plan to stock the Hillsdale store to suit its Hillsdale clientele's desires.
A guiding Food Front principle, Lancaster and Mattox told the business group, is to "reflect the neighborhood." And another, they said, is to be involved in the community.
About one-third of Food Front's customers are member/owners, who have paid $150 to buy in a refundable share. If the Hillsdale store goes forward, a membership drive will be launched here. Members can pay in $5 installments over 30 months.
Members will also be invited to extend loans to help with construction. Rates of return on the notes would beat money market rates for lenders, but be less than the co-op would have to pay a bank, Lancaster said.
In their presentation, Lancaster and Mattox gave Hillsdale high marks for its "community spirit," "shared values," and "overwhelming positive response" to the co-op. A market survey of the area was positive. The message, said Lancaster, was "Go for it!"
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Graffiti enforcer:
Art or not, it's still illegal
 The colorful murals on an abandoned road might be art, but they are illegal and encourage crime, says the official responsible for the City's fight against graffiti.
Marcia Dennis, Portland's graffiti abatement coordinator, takes exception to a Hillsdale News article (Nov. 23) referring to a remote, rarely seen retaining wall as "an art gallery of sorts."
The Nov. 23 issue quoted Don Baack, president of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, as saying he would like to see the spray-painted mural preserved on the wall along the old Slavin Road right of way.
But Dennis says an inspection of the wall also revealed several "tags" from gangs. One, known as "The Outlaws," has "done a tremendous amount of damage to public and private property," she says.
"It is difficult when neighbors say that they like a particular drawing and they want it left." Dennis says the problem is that the site becomes "a graffiti magnet," attracting taggers, who then spread out and deface the surrounding area.
Graffiti vandalism is defined as "markings applied without permission," she says. The definition doesn't apply to a style of art but rather its illegal status.
"Using the term 'graffiti artist' is like having someone run their fingernails across a black board to me," Dennis says. "Under the legal definition, whether graffiti is art or not is irrelevant."
Graffiti damage and removal costs in Portland have been put conservatively at $2 million a year, with the City alone sustaining $1.5 million in costs annually, she says.
Eventually the Slavin mural will be painted over by the State of Oregon Department of Transportation, which owns the property, she says, but adds, "It probably isn't high on their priority list."
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Briefly
Clinic denied funds to buy Watershed space
Southwest Community Health Center is still looking for a new home after it failed to get enough foundation funds to buy commercial space in the new Watershed senior housing project.
SWCHC Executive Director Samira Godil said the clinic needs up to 2000 square feet of space. The clinic's current space
in the Multnomah Arts Center
is a cramped 700 square feet and must be vacated by June 30.
The "safety net" medical clinic serves low-income, uninsured Southwest Portland residents.
Meanwhile the two Watershed "commercial condominiums" remain on the market. A 1,900 square-foot space is listed for $595,000 and a 1,200 square-foot space is on the market for $395,000.
Martin Soloway, deputy director of Community Partners for Affordable Housing, the Watershed's developer, said the spaces can be sold as one. The listed price is $975,000.
Community Partners for Affordable housing is itself interested in the smaller space and is seeking money to pay for it from three foundations. The agency will know if its applications are successful in mid-February, Soloway said.
He reported that potential buyers are showing interest in the commercial spaces now that the building is completed. "We have a real product to show now," he said.
He added that the spaces are particularly suited to "destination, by-appointment businesses" like medical, legal or accounting services.
The Watershed's grand opening was Jan. 9.
Sign-off delays retail shop construction
For two and a half years the old Estby gas station, slated for demolition, has been under review for environmental issues. It has cleared all the hurdles but one - the final state official's sign-off.
The architect's plans for a four-shop complex are ready to be translated into construction - and commerce.
The site's owners, the Wardin family, have been waiting months for the signature. They hope to build the project this year.
Construction is expected to happen this year.
The 6,500- to 7,000-square-foot building will front on the Capitol Highway sidewalk and having parking in the rear. Code requires 4.5 parking spaces per 1000 square feet of retail space.
Cars will enter using the drive of the Wardin-owned complex that includes long-time tenant Dava Beads, said John Braidwood, speaking for the family. Braidwood's wife, Ardys, is a Wardin and the two manage the Wardin properties for the Wardin family.
While the vacant gas station has awaited state-approval for demolition, it has been the site of three Hillsdale community book sales.
New salon opens in old insurance space
The name of Hillsdale's newest hair salon, "Cuts and Chemistry," may seem a bit off-putting until you realize that the kind of chemistry that owner Sue Bosch means has to do with customer relations.
Oh, tha-a-at "chemistry."
"The kind of chemistry we have in mind is between people, although we do have chemicals in here," she says. "We're friendly and family-oriented."
Sue ran a salon with the same name in Garden Home.
She opened the small, 800-square-foot Hillsdale salon at 6349 SW Capitol Highway on Jan. 2. The space was formerly occupied by State Farm broker Rick Hennessy, whose office is now next to the Key Bank.
Sue discovered the space on a visit to the Hillsdale Farmers Market. "The community here is fantastic," she said.
Working with Sue are Lindsay Tagmyer and Lyra Tulipat.
The salon's hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, or by appointment.
She added that she and her staff take walk-ins.
Rieke series explores literacy, motivation
Rieke kindergarten teacher Stephanie Haith will speak on the topic "What Literacy Looks Like in Kindergarten" at Rieke Elementary's January mid-day "Kindergarten Roundup" Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 12:30 p.m. at the school.The free presentation lasts an hour.
Haith has Masters of Art in Literacy Education from New York University.
On Wednesday, Feb. 27, the "Round-up" series presents psychologist Jay Johnson speaking about "Ways to Motivate Your Children." Johnson, a licensed psychologist, specializes in treating children, adolescents and families. His two teenage daughters formerly attended Rieke.
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Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
editor@hillsdalenews.org
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