Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2009)
SERVING Burlingame • Capitol Hill • Garden Home • Glen Cullen • Hillsdale • South Portland • Multnomah Village • Raleigh Hills • Vermont Hills • West Portland INSIDE: Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper Volume No. 17, Issue No. 5 www.multnomahpost.com Portland, Oregon You can help the SW Hope: Feed the Hungry campaign --Page 4 Complimentary March 2009 Southwest residents voice their opinions at community budget forum By Allison Rupp The Southwest Portland Post In the third of three citywide commu- nity budget forums, nearly 100 residents of Multnomah County, mostly from Southwest Portland, gathered at the Multnomah Center on Tuesday night to discuss the programs they felt should or should not be trimmed from the 2009-2010 city budget. “This is a very difficult budget for us,” Mayor Sam Adams told the crowd. “We need to cut five percent from the budget for next year…But we take your input very, very seriously.” Organizers instructed those who at- tended the forum, which was open to the public, to choose one area of interest from the city’s general purpose funds, such as Arts and Culture, Parks and Recreation, Housing, or Police. Each area of interest offered its own table where guests could discuss and rank the programs offered by that service. A “table leader” representing that service facilitated the discussions and answered questions. Some tables, like the Parks and Rec- reation or the Housing table, filled up quickly. Others, like the Public Utilities or the Fire and Rescue table, attracted only one or two supporters. At the Arts and Culture table, Jeff Haw- thorne, the deputy director of Portland’s Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) explained that the City of Portland pro- vides the vast majority of funds for the non-profit organization. In three to five years, Hawthorne and Mayor Adams, who supports RACC, are actually hoping to increase funding from four millions dollars to 20 million dollars. “We need more city funding than what comes to us through the general purpose funds,” Hawthorne said, which last year was 3.7 million dollars. Meanwhile, at the Housing table, Housing Program Manager Stephen Fulton from the Bureau of Housing was explaining the City’s ten-year plan to end homelessness, which began in 2005. When a guest at the table asked how it was going, Fulton tilted his hand to indicate so-so. “It doesn’t really have the funding to get there,” Fulton said. The general fund money given by the city comes as both ongoing funds and one-time use funds, he explained. Much Jeff Hawthorne (center with nametag), deputy director of Portland's Regional Arts & Culture Council, answers questions at the Arts and Culture table during the community budget forum, held Feb. 24 at the Multnomah Center. (Post photo by Allison Rupp) of the homeless initiatives are funded by the one-time use funds, which he hopes to convert into ongoing funds. At many of the tables conversations veered toward increasing funding for the programs discussed rather than cutting back. Many guests pointed to a handout outlining the current distribution of the budget and wondered why nearly 75 percent of general purpose dollars go to Fire and Police services. Out of a representative $1,000 shared among 13 services, fire services were shown to use $277 and police services $459. During the budget adjusting exer- cise, many people deducted funds from these services first. Organizers concluded the forum with an electronic vote that displayed results immediately on a screen. Out of 62 people who voted, a majority of 27 percent called housing their primary concern in their neighborhood, while a majority of 42 per- cent called economic development their primary concern for the city of Portland. Laurel Butman, the principle manage- ment analyst for the Office of Manage- (Continued on Page 5) Southwest activists call for reforming legal protection for trees By Lee Perlman The Southwest Portland Post Planners and community activists, in- cluding several southwesters, are calling for reform of the city’s laws on the plant- ing, cutting and maintenance of trees. The Citywide Tree Project is trying to increase the city’s total tree canopy, planner Ro- berta Jortner told the Portland Planning Commission last month. Currently tree canopies cover 26 percent of the city’s land area, which compared to other cities is “better than some, notably Seattle (18 percent), but not as good as others” such as Baltimore, which has 34 percent coverage, said Jortner. More specifically, they have specific targets such as public right of way, where the goal is to increase coverage from the current 17 percent to 35, and in industrial areas, going from seven percent to 15. To do this, the city needs to make its regula- tions “transparent, consistent, equitable and efficient,” she said. Currently, laws on this subject are di- vided among six city bureaus. Morgan Tracey, chair of a citizen stakeholders group that studied the issue, said that the “Multitude of laws make it difficult to see how they work together.” In fact, Tracey said, they are sometimes contradictory. They are also “inconsis- tently applied. One owner may be exempt from regulation while his next-door neighbor must undergo review to cut a single tree. The laws don’t distinguish between majestic and nuisance trees.” According to Tracey, when trees are cut for new development, “replacement requirements aren’t clear.” When laws are disobeyed or ignored enforcement is un- certain and inconsistent, in part because “inspectors are not trained arborists and may not recognize what is a big deal.” The project is proposing to “bring the codes and processes together to the extent possible,” and to codify them into a single tree manual, Tracey said. There should be a “single point of entry” for anyone seek- ing information about the city’s laws on trees, he said. Owners should be encouraged to prune and thin trees rather than removing them. Since “It is hard if not impossible to preserve a damaged tree, the emphasis should be on preventing damage in the first place,” Tracey said. During develop- ment review tree preservation planning should occur early in the process, “not what’s left over after everything else is planned for.” Jortner suggested that community groups be encouraged to create neigh- borhood tree plans to “brand” their communities. She commented, “People care about trees as a living amenity, and when they’re gone they’re gone, at least for awhile.” Among the other stakeholders who testified was Margot Barnett, who played a key role in the creation of Holly Farm Park. “I really enjoyed serving on the stakeholder working group,” she said. “We didn’t always see eye to eye, but we saw how each other stood on this,” Barnett continued. “Privately and pub- licly-owned trees are an important part of our green infrastructure, an important part of our livability. A single point of contact is important. Decisions should be made by people with knowledge of trees.” Regarding another recommendation – making design regulations and codes flexible enough to accommodate tree pres- ervation – Barnett was more ambivalent, saying, “I don’t want them so flexible that they hurt neighborhoods. City Forester David McAlister was criti- cal of the proposals. “Fix what’s broken, not what’s working,” he told the Com- mission, and leave laws regarding trees in parks and parking strips alone. “Emphasize education and incentives over regulation,” McAlister said. “If we (Continued on Page 7) Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2. The Southwest Portland Post 7825 SW 36th Ave Suite #203 Portland, OR 97219 Tree Canopy along 45th Avenue near Woods Park. (Post photo by Leslie Baird)