Commentary:
For a small community, Hillsdale has a lot of organizations. Recently a neighbor complained that he couldn't keep them all straight.
Well, neighbor, I'm here to help.
A confession (and bias alert), I am, or have been, involved with most of the groups I'm about to mention. I even founded a couple. Such statements, I find, come with age.
Hillsdale Neighborhood Association.
The place we know as "Hillsdale" had neighborhood associations stemming from the Goldschmidt mayoralty in the early 1970s. But it was only after a community vote in April 1996 that two area neighborhood associations divided by Capitol Highway became one - Hillsdale. The HNA meets the first Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at St. Barnabas Church, 2201 SW Vermont. Membership is free. Just show up. Like all Portland neighborhood associations - there are nearly 100 - ours has virtually no power, except the power of political persuasion and making a ruckus through resolutions. Developers. activists and politicians like to say they have "the support of the neighborhood association." And they don't like to admit they don't.
Hillsdale Business and Professional Association.
This one goes back forty years or so. Witness the fact that the HBPA is holding its 33rd Annual "customer appreciation" blueberry pancake breakfast (on Sunday July 26). The association holds its general meetings on the third Wednesday of the month at the Three Square Grill at 8:30 a.m. More than 50 dues-paying business owners or representatives belong. The "hard core" group numbers 15 or so. The organization's current project, in addition to ordering fixings for the breakfast for 600, is marketing the Hillsdale Town Center and member businesses. The bottom line is - shop locally. While many HBPA members do a lot, many - too many - do nothing more than pay their modest, $40/year dues.
Hillsdale Farmers Market.
All of Hillsdale knows what the market is, but do you know that the eight-year-old institution has a self-perpetuating board of seven, a manager and an assistant manager plus a pool of 50 volunteers to call on to help some approximately 55 vendors? Farmers markets don't just sprout like blackberry bushes. They need nurturing. Ours operates on a budget of approximately $72,000. The board usually meets the second Monday of the month in the Sunset Office Building 5:30 p.m. in Rm. 2E. The meetings are open to the public.
Hillsdale Alliance.
I founded the Alliance back in January 2004 when I realized we had so many organizations that we needed one more - to keep track of the others. Of course creating yet another organization had the potential of making matters worse, so I set two rules. The first was that we meet quarterly (January, April, July and October) It's a civil interlude, long enough that I look forward to the meetings. The second was that we create no new tasks for anyone attending. Attenders are representatives of all the groups mentioned here including a few others like Neighborhood House, SWTrails, the neighborhood emergency team, the school communities, a few congregations and the library. The Alliance exists to exchange information and to network. And because rules are made to be broken, it put its members to work by founding the Hillsdale Book Sale, which has since been taken over by the . . .
Hillsdale Community Foundation.
Created last year, the foundation is Hillsdale's newest organization and was an outgrowth of the Hillsdale Alliance. The foundation has two purposes: to raise money and to put it to work to improve Hillsdale. A seven-member board oversees both functions. The Hillsdale Alliance recently transferred $16,000 in proceeds from five book sales to the Foundation. This month's book sale, on the same day as the pancake breakfast, should bring the total to nearly $20,000. The Foundation board is now sorting through ideas about how some of the money should be spent. Stay tuned. Because the foundation is a 501 (c) 3 organization, contributions to it, including books for the sale, are tax deductible. The board has been meeting on the last Monday of the month at 5 p.m. July's meeting on the 27th is at the Hillsdale Branch Library.
Hillsdale Working Group.
When the city's planning bureau assigned planner Brian Sheehan to help Hillsdale move its plans forward, Brian needed a liaison group to plug him into the community. The answer was a Hillsdale Working Group. For months it met regularly over scrambled eggs at the Golden Touch restaurant on Barbur. Out of those meetings grew the new "Hillsdale Town Center Phased Development Strategy" plan put together by SERA Architects. Now the HWG is meeting ad hoc to implement the "low-hanging" fruit in the plan. The most likely pickings could be a clock tower and plaza next to Casa Colima restaurant. The working group is amorphous, with members being whoever is interested at the moment. Right now, about six of us, plus Brian, are. If you are, give me a call (245-7821 or e-mail me.
A final note:
Because of space limitatiions and their narrower focus, I have left off this list several other groups that play vital roles in our community. They aid the schools, youth sports, social services, emergency planning, and the environment to name just a few. A tip of the hat to all of them.
Rick Seifert
Editor
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Click HERE for past newsletters
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Links to Alliance Members
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Patriotic tradition ruined for the holidays
Vandals rip off Town Center flags
 You know about the Grinch who stole Christmas. Now we have the vandals who stole the Fourth of July - or at least part of it in Hillsdale. Thieves took 12 of 16 American flags from the Hillsdale Shopping Center over the Fourth of July weekend.
The flags have become a holiday fixture. This year they were put up early in the morning of Thursday, July 2, and less than 24 hours later they were gone. During the night, a vandal, or vandals, went on a minor crime spree, including slicing the flags from their 10-foot poles, said Ardys Braidwood, who owns the center with two brothers.
She and her late husband, John, began the flag-flying tradition earlier in the decade after 9/11.
The vandals also sawed through the wooden bench in front of the Subway sandwich shop. Anyone sitting on the bench would have fallen through it, Braidwood said.
Anyone who witnessed the vandalism should report what they saw to Stefanie Adams, the city's crime prevention coordinator for SW Portland. Her number is (503) 823-3131 or e-mail her at stefanie.adams@ci.portland.or.us
Braidwood said that the incidents seem to be part of an outbreak of vandalism that began this spring with garbage from a shopping center dumpster being strewn around the property. Low branches on trees in the center have also been snapped off.
But Adams said that area crime statistics through May show reported vandalism had dropped from the previous year.
The Braidwoods plan to replace the flags but this time they will mount them high on the side of the shopping center building. The good news, Braidwood said, is that they will be more visible there.
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The renovated Fred Meyer store will expand
and rearrange
its offerings.
Books for beer
Changes at Burlingame Fred Meyer
will enlarge and shuffle floor plan
Patrons of the Burlingame Fred Meyer store will have some readjusting to do after renovations to the store are completed at the end of 2010.
Work on the store, which is still in the planning phase, should begin next spring, Fred Meyer representatives told the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association at its July meeting.
The construction and renovation will cost between $12 million and $15 million and will expand the current 76,000 square feet of space to 91,000.
The expansion will be created by building on outdoor space now used as the loading zone area at the rear of the building. The change will create substantially more grocery space.
For customers, one of the biggest changes will be the rearrangement of the store's departments.
Where patrons now find grass seed, they will find sliced ham. Where they find motor oil, they will find baguettes. Where they find beer, there will be books. (See the above diagram for details)
One advantage to moving the departments around is that a grocery section will remain open throughout the phased construction. While the current "home" section is closed for conversion to groceries, the present grocery section will remain open. When the current grocery section is converted to "home," the new grocery section will be open for business.
The pharmacy will also remain open throughout construction, said Bob Currey-Wilson of Fred Meyer,
When the work is completed, the layout of the store will be "more rational," he said.
Currey-Wilson, Fred Meyer group vice president for real estate and store development, fielded questions and recorded suggestions from HNA members.
The iconic Fred Meyer sign out front will remain, he reassured the group. Some "green" features will be incorporated such as sky lights, required on-site parking-lot run-off water treatment, and bike racks.
Fred Meyer is looking into making more extensive "green" improvements that could result in a LEED certification for being a "green" building. LEED stands for
"Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design." The recently completed renovation at the Fred Meyer Hawthorne store my earn a "silver" certification from LEED, Currey-Wilson said.
The Burger King outlet will be demolished, in part so that the confusing entry to the parking structure can be simplified, Currey-Wilson said. The demolition will also allow more parking to accommodate the increase in business. A glass elevator will connect the parking levels.
A new entry from the parking to the store will be located at the southwest corner of the store. (See diagram above)
HNA members suggested converting the Barbur parking space to green space, including a drinking fountain and a mini park, and clearing out shrubbery along Bertha Boulevard which attracts litter and homeless campers.
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Engaging the community
Neighborhood House's record year
For Neighborhood House, the last 12 months have been, in Charles Dickens' immortal words, "the best of times and the worst of times."
As Rick Nitti, executive director of the social service agency, closed out the books on the '08-'09 fiscal year, he proclaimed, "We just had our best year ever."
But then he quickly added that it came in the worst of times, certainly the grimmest of the ten years he has led the Multnomah Village-based agency.
As he often does, Nitti measures economic need in Southwest Portland by the numbers of emergency food boxes Neighborhood House distributes monthly. The number is running more than 400 now, and has been since late last year, he says.
General demand for emergency food has risen 40 percent in the past 18 months.
Most striking now is the overwhelming number of requests for energy and rental assistance. Because of a lack of resources, Neighborhood House can only answer one out of approximately 60 of those requests. His agency is not alone, Nitti says in exasperation. "There's no way any organizations in town can come close to meeting the demand."
But then there's the "best of times" part.
About 20 percent of the agency's nearly $6 million operating budget comes from private giving. That's $1.2 million, and in every category - corporate, organizational, foundation, fundraising and individual - giving over the fiscal year outpaced Neighborhood House's goals.
In the last six months, the agency received two bequests totaling $140,000. May's annual auction brought in $131,000.
The assistance means Neighborhood House is opening a second food distribution location, one specifically for seniors. It will be in the Multnomah Arts Center.
How does Nitti explain the generosity?
In times of economic turmoil, "organizations that have focused on basic needs have done well," he observes.
But Neighborhood House also has implemented a winning strategy of engaging with the surrounding community and partnering with its institutions.
Nitti himself sits on the Hillsdale Farmers Market Board and the SW Community Health Center board. He regularly attends Hillsdale Alliance meetings. Pam Fields, who just ended her term as chair of Neighborhood House's board, is a member of the Hillsdale Community Foundation board.
Neighborhood House has also tapped known local leaders to spearhead its board. Two past chairs of the Neighborhood House Board are Ted Coonfield and John Calhoun, both widely recognized for their leadership. Coonfield, as chair of the Farmers Market board, immediately instituted a market gleaning program for those in need. Calhoun connected the agency with his activist congregation at Hillsdale's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. St. Andrew's became a catalyst for other congregations to join in the annual Project Hope Food drive in Southwest.
The community engagement strategy clearly worked, Nitti says, and he is sharing it with other agencies. Neighborhood House is perceived as being an integral, essential part of community, he says. Its calls for help have been answered - beyond expectation.
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Last year's chalk art festival attracted talent to Hillsdale's sidewalks.
Wanted: a few good chalk artists
The Wilson Area Arts Council is looking for chalk artists to provide tips and to demonstrate their skills at the Sunday, Sept. 13, Wilson Cluster Chalk Art Festival.
The event, the first annual, will be held at Rieke Elementary School near the Hillsdale Farmers Market.
Organizer Linda Doyle says she hopes that at least a few of the volunteer artists will be skilled in 3D techniques. To volunteer e-mail Linda at lsdoyle@earthlink.net
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The Date Book
Sundays through July 19, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Used book collection
Dropoff used books (or CDs or DVDs) at the Hillsdale Farmers Market. The donated items will be sold at the July 26 Hillsdale Used Book Sale during theannual HBPA blueberry pancake breakfast. Proceeds will go to the Hillsdale CommunityFoundation.
Thursdays in July, 5:35 p.m. - "Thursdays Together" Dinners/activity
Every Thursday in July at Hillsdale Community Church United Church of Christ (6948 SW Capitol Hwy) neighbors are invited for dinner, activity stations around animal themes for families to enjoy together, and a short time of worship for all ages. Dinner 5:45 p.m. activity stations 6:30-7:00, closing worship 7:00-7:15
Sunday, July 12, 10:30 a.m. - Blessing of the Animals
Bring your (leashed or crated) family pet or a photo of a fur friend, to Hillsdale Community Church United Church of Christ, 6948 SW Capitol Hwy, on Sunday July 12 for a celebratory worship service at 10:30 am in the sanctuary and a service of blessing at 11:45 a.m..
Saturday, July 18, 10:30 a.m. - Podcast/Blog basics
Instructors from the Independent Publishing Resource Center will show teens and adults how to get started podcasting and blogging. The free, two-hour class is at the Hillsdale Branch Library. Registration required by calling (503) 988-5234 or (503) 988-5388
Saturday & Sunday, July 18 & 19 - Relay for Life
Help fund cancer research and motivate relay participants at the Wilson High stadium. For more information, write swrelayforlife@gmail.com
Sunday, July 19, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Shoreshim Picnic & Play
Neveh Shalom invites young Jewish families to picnic
in Gabriel Park. Thepicnic is a chance for young families to connect with theorganized Jewish community and meet other young Jewish families.
Bring a dairy/vegetarian picnic lunch. The congregation will provide the dessert and drinks. For more information, e-mail Sarah at sjbz_pdx@yahoo.com or Rachel at maxpines@yahoo.com. RSVP to rmoeri@nevehshalom.org.
Congregation Neveh Shalom is a Conservative Jewish Synagogue located in SW Portland.
Saturday, July 25, 8:30 a.m. - Poetry-Bridge Walk
Hillsdale resident Sharon Wood Wortman, author of "The Portland Bridge Book," will lead a mile-long, easy-paced walk on the Willamette waterfront with poet Matthew Dickman. The group will visit eight bridges. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the corner of NW Second and Everett (on the steps of the Northwest Natural Building). Cost is $16 for adults and $10 for children. Lunch in Chinatown at the end of the walk is not included. For more information call (503) 222-5535.
Sunday, July 26, 8:30 a.m. - Noon -
Blueberry Pancake Breakfast
The 33rd annual HBPA Customer-appreciation Blueberry Pancake Breakfast will be held in the parking lot between the Key Bank and Casa Colima restaurant. $5 adults, $4 children. All you can eat.
Wednesday, July 29, 3:30 p.m. - Steve's Creature Feature
Explore the amazing world of reptiles with Steve. The one-hour adventure is at the Hillsdale Branch Library. Free tickets will be available at 3 p.m.
Saturday, August 1, 2 p.m. - Introduction to Humanistic Judaism
All are invited to learn about a human-centered connection to Jewish culture, values and heritage. At the Hillsdale Branch Library. The free event is presented by the Kol Shalom Community for Humanistic Judaism.
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Wilson grad? Here's a site to check.
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Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
editor@hillsdalenews.org
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