INSIDE:
SERVING
Burlingame • Capitol Hill
• Garden Home • Glen
Cullen • Hillsdale
• South Portland
• Multnomah Village
• Raleigh Hills • Vermont
Hills • West Portland
Volume No. 16, Issue No. 8
Should there be a
permanent fence
around the Wilson
softball field?
--Page 6
Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper
www.multnomahpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Complimentary
June 2008
New serpentine skatepark under
construction at Gabriel Park
By Polina Olsen
The Southwest Portland Post
It always amazes John Hartung. “If
I tell people in, say, Austria I’m from
Portland, they say – ‘that’s so cool.’”
The owner of Rebel Skates, a local
manufacturer of skateboards, Har-
tung says people come from around
the world to skateboard in Oregon.
“Even tiny towns have wonderful
skateparks. It’s not only the number
but the quality.”
Soon Gabriel Park will be among
the best as Airspeed Skateparks works
overtime to finish their snake run de-
sign by July. “It’s a serpentine canal
type thing with all sorts of features
sprinkled amongst it,” said co-owner
Geth Noble about the 10,000 square-
foot space. In business since 2000,
he and partner Stephanie Mohler
have built skateparks from Ireland
to Argentina as well as several on
the Oregon Coast where they live.
“We worked as employees or sub-
contractors for other companies, and
we decided we had to do it ourselves.”
“It has lots of hips -- features you can
blast airs over,” Noble said about the
Gabriel Park project. “You go airborne
on a skateboard,” explained Mohler,
“like Superwoman.” And according to
Mohler the sport attracts all ages.
“People between two-years-old and
80 enjoy skateboarding. You get grand-
parents with their grandchildren, fathers
and mothers with their children or teen-
agers on their own. Young kids from the
neighborhood can walk here after school.
What’s great about skateboarding is it
gets kids out of the house and away from
the television.”
Mohler expects between 30 and 100
skateboarders each day from Portland
and beyond. “People come from all
over the world to ride,” she said, noting
skateparks they’ve built on the Oregon
coast draw riders from Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa . “Think of
it as like national parks. Skateparks are
one-of-a-kind with obstacles and features
that aren’t found anywhere else in the
world.”
Portland Parks and Recreation chose
Gabriel Park for Portland’s next skate-
park during a site-selection process.
Good public transportation and prox-
imity to the Southwest Community
Center were key. “The environmental
mission statement basically mirrored
what we had on our website since 2000,”
said Mohler. “It was very attractive to
Stephanie Mohler, Geth Noble, Melissa Ballantyne, and Gavin Temple working at the
Gabriel Skatepark site. (Post photo by Polina Olsen)
us.” Airspeed Skateparks has built a
bioswell [retention pond] to manage
storm water and noise buffers to protect
neighbors. They are careful to separate
and recycle construction garbage.
According to advocates, skateboard-
ing is wildly popular. “If you go by
places that have a skatepark, tennis
court and baseball diamond – the skate-
park is the one being used,” said John
Hartung of Rebel Skates. He said the
history of skateboarding in Portland
goes back to the 1990 unauthorized
project underneath the Burnside Bridge
on the east side of the Willamette River.
“The bureaucracy was so fouled up the
kids finally went and started digging
themselves.”
Hartung recalled the Ross Island
Sand and Gravel Company dropping
off concrete seconds and the volunteer
crew mixing cement. By 1992, the city
threw in the towel and officially ap-
proved the project.
“I started at Burnside Skateboard
(Continued on Page 4)
Food Front Cooperative will open second organic grocery store in Hillsdale
By Polina Olsen
The Southwest Portland Post
The bumper stickers they gave away
said “Keep Portland Local.” The
crowd lined up to join. More than
70 supporters came to the Hillsdale
Shopping Center for the May 12 an-
nouncement of the Southwest’s new
cooperative grocery. Food Front,
located in Northwest Portland since
1987, will open a second store in late
summer 2008. The organic and natural
foods market will occupy space once
used by Nature’s Northwest and Wild
Oats.
“We’ve received so much support,”
said Food Front general manager Holly
Jarvis when the applause died down.
She noted a grocery is essential to any
neighborhood. “We will not, cannot sell
out to another corporation,” she said,
referring to the 2007 takeover of the Wild
Oats chain by Whole Foods Markets
who quickly closed the Hillsdale store.
“A coop is literally owned by the people
who shop in the store, by the community
that it serves. We won’t be taken over by
a national chain.”
“Customers should expect more local
items: produce, meat, and condiments
like barbecue sauce and jam,” said
Food Front community outreach and
marketing director Tom Mattox. “It
will look like a regular grocery but be
organized as a coop. We’re responsive
to what people in the neighborhood
want.” Mattox encourages people to
send email and let them know what
they’d like (see for more information).
He emphasized, “Everyone can shop
here – not just coop members.”
According to the Merriam–Web-
ster dictionary, a cooperative is “an
enterprise or organization owned by and
operated for the benefit of those using its
services.” At Food Front, people become
member-owners by buying one $150
share ($5 per month for 30 months).
Members can run for the board, vote in
board elections, and receive dividends
on profits based on what they spend at
the store. Additional benefits include
coupon books and discounts.
“I’m a local food guy and I want a
place that really supports local,” said
Greg Higgins, who owns Higgins
restaurant in downtown Portland.
A Hillsdale resident, he belonged to
Food Front while living in Northwest
Portland. “I always liked their support
of local farmers.”
Mike Roach, Hillsdale business and
professional association president and
co-owner of Paloma Clothing, agreed.
“In a small shopping center, the grocery
store is usually the anchor,” he said. “It
guarantees a certain number of visitors
each week. It was a bitter experience
seeing your grocery bought out by
Whole Foods and then closed within
days. We are so excited about having
one of the best coops in Portland. We
don’t have just a replacement – we have
a major improvement.”
After the announcements and toasts
of sparkling apple juice, 28 people
lined up to fill out the short applica-
tion form and join. Lynn Rossing, of
Hillsdale, was among those waiting. “I
believe in shopping locally, and we’re
diet-conscious -- gluten-free,” she said.
“We want to cook all our own food and
know what’s in it.”
Among those celebrating were three
generations of the family who has
owned the shopping center property
for 100 years. Gustav Ferdinand War-
(Continued on Page 4)
Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2.
The Southwest Portland Post
7825 SW 36th Ave Suite #203
Portland, OR 97219
Eamon Molloy, Hillsdale Farmers’ Market manager, fills out an application to join the
Food Front Cooperative Grocery. Mike Roach, president of the Hillsdale Business and
Professional Association is behind the table. (Post photo by Polina Olsen)