4 • The Southwest Portland Post
Sears Armory
(Continued from page 3)
plans, 100+ mixed-income, mixed
tenure housing units would be made
available, with a percentage of the ten-
ants qualifying for support on the basis
of need. Similarly, both housing plans
would require public subsidy.
CPAH executive director Sheila
Greenlaw-Fink elaborated on how her
organization’s plan would ensure that
families and individuals of all income
levels can continue to live in the Vil-
lage, improve the prospects for local
schools to remain open and thriving,
and provide a vibrant and secure place
to call home for hundreds of residents.
“We should plan with our children’s
needs in mind,” said Greenlaw-Fink,
“and look creatively to the future while
honoring the past.”
Mike Andrews, HAP director of de-
velopment and community revitaliza-
tion offered the following comment on
behalf of the housing authority: “With
housing prices rising for both renters
and home buyers in Southwest Port-
land, we believe the Sears site provides
and excellent opportunity for lower
income families to have stable housing
that allows them to become a part of the
community.”
If the Emergency Response Center
gets the nod, everything from terrorist
attacks to treacherous ice storms would
be dealt with from a new combination
command and training center, shelter,
storage facility, and emergency vehicle
deployment hub. POEM director Car-
men Merlo: “The city’s proposal for the
reuse of the center offers a compelling
public safety justification.”
Merlo went on to explain that cur-
rently no emergency response equip-
ment is located on the west side. “In
the event of a catastrophic earthquake
or other disaster that would damage or
make impassable the bridges,” she said,
“Westside response would be severely
June 2008
NEwS
hindered, and the city might not be able
to restore critical services.”
Over the time allotted for the meet-
ing, many thoughtful and opposing
viewpoints about the Sears Armory’s
near-history were aired. Concerns
about everything from the need for low-
income, disadvantaged, and workforce
housing, to the fear of certain types of
individuals associated with such hous-
ing, came up.
There was clear frustration which
suggests that some feel that aspects of
the process have been less than trans-
parent. And there was a thought or
two which raised the possibility that
visions proposed for the various future
incarnations of this 3.7 acre site and
its complex of Cold War-era buildings
have not been as far-reaching as they
might have been.
Sheern took a barrage of questions,
attempting to negotiate the public
passions surrounding each proposal.
He also addressed the fears of some
citizens. “I understand that some of you
are worried about what might end up
in your backyards and neighborhood,”
he concluded.
Editor’s Note: Portland Community Col-
lege is the most recent applicant interested
in acquiring the Sears Armory site. At the
Multnomah Neighborhood Association
meeting on May 13, a representative from
PCC explained that the college was inter-
ested in establishing a community educa-
tion campus. With some modifications to the
existing buildings, PCC would also move
its human resources, financial services and
data center to the Sears site.
A straw poll by the neighborhood associa-
tion’s voting members of the five proposals
came out this way: PDOT Emergency
Response Center 26, Housing Authority
of Portland 15, Westside Christian High
School 12, Community Partners for Af-
fordable Housing 8, Portland Community
College 6.
Real Estate Guide
Skate Park
Food Front
(Continued from page 1)
(Continued from page 1)
Park because I was already a residential
and commercial cement finisher,” said
Gavin Temple, who currently works for
Airspeed Skateparks at Gabriel Park.
“We stole the land from the hobos,
prostitutes and drug addicts and just
pushed our own theme. Pretty soon all
the riffraff was gone, and all we had left
was a skateboard park.”
“Burnside is the most renowned
skateboard park in the world because
of its history,” said Tom Miller, founder
and chair of Skaters for Portland Skate-
parks (SPS) and chief-of-staff for City
Commissioner Sam Adams. “Imagine
a bunch of soccer players going out to
a public space and creating their own
field.”
“I’m a lifelong skateboarder,” Miller
said, adding, “There’s a tremendous
unmet need. We discovered that there
were tens-of-thousands of skateboard-
ers and no facilities. Kids were on pri-
vate property – and they needed their
own advocacy organization.”
In 2005, the city accepted the SPS plan
for 19 public skateparks; Gabriel Park
is among them. “I think it’s great,”
says Miller. “It will be a big asset for
the neighborhood and the Southwest.”
For more information on Portland
skateparks visit www.skateportland.
org. For a history of the Burnside Skate-
park project, watch the OPB video “Full
Tilt Boogie” at www.burnsideproject.
blogspot.com.
din came from Germany in 1908 and
started a dairy farm, his granddaughter
Ardys Braidwood said. “The dance
center at the top of the hill was a garage,
and all the milk trucks went in there at
night to be serviced.”
They had over 100 acres and up to 450
milking cows until the school district
wanted to build in the 1950s. “At that
time my grandpa had passed on and
my dad was running the dairy. So they
sold property to the school district and
developed the little shopping center.”
Hillsdale Farmers’ Market manager
Eamon Molloy was among the first to
join the shopping center’s new coop.
“I’m happy we have a locally owned
grocery moving into the neighbor-
hood,” he said, noting several farmers
already sell to Food Front. Molloy
noticed farmers’ market business
dropped when Wild Oats closed, and
said groceries and farmers’ markets
work together. “You need to buy farm
direct but you aren’t going to get every-
thing there. You can do it all in one trip
with a grocery store next to a farmers’
market.”
For more information on the Food
Front Cooperative Grocery, see www.
foodfront.coop, email info@foodfront.
coop, call 503.222.5658 ext. 133, or
visit the NW Portland store at 2375 NW
Thurman St.
Advertise in the
July edition of
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503-244-6933
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