Commentary:
Resolve!
As you will see in the article to the right, I've invited several community leaders to share their 2008 resolutions for Hillsdale. Of course making resolutions is easy; fulfilling them is something else.
So here are three organizations that I believe have demonstrated extraordinary resolve in Hillsdale.
SW Trails
These hearty souls are literally trailblazers.
Under the leadership of the indefatigable Don Baack, SW Trails has created a 40-plus-mile network of pedestrian routes throughout SW Portland. The group has built more than 20 projects, including key connections to and through parks, school grounds, and previously unused rights of way.
SW Trails' distinctive directional signs and its colorful, professionally-designed maps have directed us to places many of us never knew existed.
A 2007 SW Trails project is typical of its "just do it" attitude. The 92-foot-long Raz Baack Crossing at Stephens Creek, completed last summer, is a key link in the trails network. SW Trails devoted 325 volunteer hours to making the crossing's innovative, simple design become a reality. The cost was under $10,000, compared with a 2000 City department of transportation cost estimate of $900,000 for a more elaborate structure.
Community Partners for Affordable Housing
This non-profit agency and its contracted architect, Hillsdale neighbor William Wilson and his firm, have created 51 apartment homes for seniors. Most of the units are available for federal rent-subsidies for the poor.
When the new $11.65 million Watershed building holds its grand opening on January 9 (see story in this issue), the celebration will mark the end of a six-year testing of resolve: negotiating the purchase, getting environmental permits, piecing together elaborate funding and adjusting to financial constraints posed by roaring inflation in the construction industry.
The site, which was state transportation surplus property, posed hugechallenges with limited access and parking, space constraints and soilcontamination.
Add to those challenges, a self-imposed one: building a green building with LEED certification.
Through all of this, CPAH has forged a close partnership with the Hillsdale community, convening informational meetings and showing up to countless others. The bond between the organization takes many forms, but three stand out:
· When several of us worried that the building would be named "Bertha Court" by default and without regard for the many other "Bertha" namesakes in the community, CPAH invited us to help name the building. When we noted the new building would span two watersheds, architect Wilson dubbed it "The Watershed."
· The prominent vertical sign on the building had room for nine letters. The nine letters could have been W A T E R S H E D, but instead Executive Director Sheila Fink and her colleagues offered the nine letters H I L L S D A L E.
· To link the building to the commercial Hillsdale Town Center, condominium commercial space was included. That created another challenge: selling it. It remains on the market today.
The Rieke School community
The crisis of threatened school closure in 2006 was turned into opportunity by the Rieke parent community when it banded together to save their school. They resolved to keep the school open not just for their own children but for future generations of Hillsdale-area youngsters, and for the civic and commercial health of the entire community.
When bean-counters at the Portland Public School District threatened to close the blue-ribbon school, parents and leaders of several organizations pushed back - hard. Activists mustered statistics and arguments (some hinted at legal consequences for the district) that forced the school officials to back off and strike a deal. In exchange for the district's keeping the school open, the community would have to "grow" its enrollment.
Dozens of parents rose to challenge by conducting door-to-door market research, planning a multi-pronged campaign and then launching it. This fall, enrollment at Rieke was up markedly, and the Rieke "restoration" and resolve are being studied as a model for other beleaguered Portland schools.
Rick Seifert
Editor
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Links to Alliance Members
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Leaders share
2008 resolutions
At this time of resolutions for ourselves, I've invited several neighborhood leaders to offer their resolutions for the Hillsdale community. Editor
Linda Doyle
Wilson Area Arts Council, Wilson High School Spotlight e-newsletter
As the new year begins, I am reminded that the machine we call our community needs us to get involved and stay involved - no activity is too small. Many exciting and rewarding opportunities await each and every one of us. Our young people need us, our elders need us, our community needs us. I have met the most wonderful people this past year with my involvement in my community. I look forward to meeting so many more....
Michael Reunert
Rieke Elementary School PTA president
Work to expand and strengthen the ties between our neighborhood schools and
the Hillsdale community
Runner-up:
Donate time and money to Neighborhood House to help less fortunate
individuals and families in SW Portland
Wes Risher
Past president of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association
I resolve in 2008 to continue the leadership effort I initiated in 2006 to install a sidewalk that is consistent with the "look and feel" of the existing sidewalks along SW Chestnut Street. I resolve that the sidewalk improvement will be attractive, accessible and obstruction-free, contingent upon the "good will" of PGE and a continued partnership with the City of Portland.
Ruth Adkins
Hillsdale parent and Portland School Board member.
Resolve to work for more sidewalks and crosswalks so our kids can walk safely to school.
Don Baack
President of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association
May we have a completed detail design and bidding specifications for the solar panel covers and bathrooms/storage facility for the Hillsdale Plaza and an agreement with the Portland School District on the shared use of space for the amphitheater and other plaza amenities.
Runner-up:
May we have right-of-way and detailed plans for the the Red Electric Trail connection from Capitol Highway and Nebraska to Bertha westbound using the SW 21st Street right-of-way and the right-of-way that remains to be purchased.
Sue Brent
Principal of Wilson High School
My New Years Resolution is to walk more in the neighborhood (even when it's not sunny!)
Ted Coonfield
Past chair of the Hillsdale Farmers Market, Neighborhood House board member (and past board chair)
To have a town center that is empowered with money to do the things we want to do. I don't care where it comes from - city, county or Metro. We need money. We need to invest in these Town Centers.
Runner-up: To get a good grocery in Hillsdale
Josh Kadish
Chair of the Board of the Hillsdale Farmers' Market
My resolution for Hillsdale dwellers is to volunteer for a Hillsdale community group. Come to think of it, the Hillsdale Farmers' Market is a great place to start! You will get to know local farmers, meet great neighbors, attend fun parties, eat wonderful food, and help run an institution that is at the core of our community. Sign up online (www.hillsdalefarmersmarket.com) or at any market. See you there!
Mike Roach
Co-owner of Paloma Clothing and president of the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association
To have the old Wild Oats store transformed into the most community-oriented store we can possibly have in Hillsdale. Very likely through Food Front. And to set new standards for the effective use of parking
Runner-up: To get the "Light Up Hillsdale" sign lit through generous community contributions.
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Cart retriever honored
Cart Czar Panitch
welcomes new law
 At its Dec. 4 meeting, the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, unanimously declared Arnold "Arnie" Panitch "Hillsdale Shopping Cart Retrieval Czar."
Panitch estimates that he has returned hundreds of abandoned carts to the Burlingame Fred Meyer store on Barbur Boulevard.
On some days he has returned as many as nine carts.
At the meeting, Burlingame Fred Meyer Store manager Craig Chizum gave Panitch a gift card, a Fred Meyer Volunteer cap, and a volunteer T-shirt.
A law passed in the last legislative session, should lightened Panitch's retrieval load.
Oregon Revised Statute 164.015 makes it unlawful to remove a shopping cart from store property. Stores must retrieve their carts within 72 hrs. of being notified of abandoned carts. Failure to do so results in a $50 fines for each cart not picked up.
Portland area stores have hired a Cart Retrieval Service to pick up the carts.
Call 1-888-55C-ARTS to have abandoned carts picked up.
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Briefly
Watershed Grand Opening
set for Wed. Jan. 9
The Watershed Senior Housing project will hold its grand opening on Wednesday, January 9, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The building takes its name from its siting, which straddles the divide between the watersheds of Stephens and Fanno Creeks.
The $11.65 million building has 51 units with 40 units available to those with incomes at or below 30 percent of median (currently $15,270 per year.)
The project also includes a 2,000-square-foot community center.
The building's developers, Community Partners for Affordable Housing, is trying to raise money so that it can buy one of two ground-floor commercial condominium spaces in the building. The other space is still available for purchase.
The Watershed, designed by William Wilson Architects, has several green-building features including a high-efficiency central hot water boiler, durable building envelope materials, high energy conserving windows, and an innovative heat-recovering ventilation system.
Storm water will be detained and pre-treated naturally onsite to help maintain water quality in the Fanno and Stephens creek watersheds.
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Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
editor@hillsdalenews.org
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