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Burlingame • Capitol Hill
• Garden Home • Glen
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• South Portland
• Multnomah Village
• Raleigh Hills • Vermont
Hills • West Portland
Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper
Volume No. 19, Issue No. 3
www.multnomahpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Candlelight vigil
honors New Yorker
killed on
Barbur Boulevard
– Page 2
Complimentary
January 2011
Wilson Area Arts Council rings in the holiday season
By Polina Olsen
The Southwest Portland Post
The weather outside was frightful
but the crowd didn’t care as they
gathered around the carolers outside
Food Front Cooperative Grocery in
Hillsdale on December 5.
Accompanied by music teacher,
Jeanne Berg, Panache, Robert Gray
Middle School’s advanced choir,
entertained as spectators warmed up
with designer hot chili complements
of Food Front and their culinary-
gifted employees.
Meanwhile, others kept busy insur-
ing events like this keep on keeping-
on. Today kicked-off the Wilson Area
Arts Council Instrument Drive.
The program will make participa-
tion in school music programs easy
for kids whose families might not
otherwise afford them. Do you have
an orchestra or band instrument gath-
ering dust in your closet? It could be
time to find it the perfect new home.
The WAAC provides grants to
Southwest Portland public schools,
explained Lisa Broten who set up a
fundraising booth at the nearby Hill-
sdale Farmer’s Market.
“We help the schools with exposure
to the arts by being available and do-
nating funds. We give grants as they
are needed. So, a teacher can write in
and say, ‘I need help with our sixth
grade class art project.’ The drama
club at Gray asked for a grant to help
fund the play Dracula.”
Like so many non-profits, the
WAAC relies on donations and clever
fundraising events. “We collected
600 purses over two months for a
fundraiser at O’Conners” Broten said
remembering the successful In the
Bag: Benefit for the Arts that ran in
mid-November.
Even celebrities like Storm Large,
Joan Rivers, and Jean Auel donated
purses. The WAAC distributed the
$4500 they raised to the Wilson High
School choir, orchestra, band and
musical theater.
Broten emphasized local business
support. “Multnomah vendors pro-
vided gift certificates for In-the-Bag,”
she said. “Paloma Clothing always
donates money.” Food Front and the
Hillsdale Farmer’s Market are helping
the instrument drive by providing
(Continued on Page 3)
Lisa Broten (tuba), Raichle Dunkeid and Nicola Bachman collect donations for
school band instruments. (Post photo by Polina Olsen)
Capitol Highway project planning complete, except for funding
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
The Capitol Highway improvement
project is essentially complete.
In December a Citizen Advisory
Committee unanimously approved a
program of improvements designed
to provide better and safer car, bike
and pedestrian movement along
Southwest Capitol Highway between
Capitol Highway street plan illustration - Capitol Highway and Lobelia facing
North. (Courtesy Portland Bureau of Transportation)
Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Multnomah Boulevard and Taylors
Ferry Road.
Now all that is needed is the money
to make it all real.
The most recent design calls for one
11-foot and one 12-foot travel lane for
cars, a six-foot bike lane on each side,
two six-foot pedestrian paths, and
two 4.5-foot “stormwater furnishing
zones” with trees and other vegetation.
On most of the roadway the pedes-
trian paths will be inside the furnish-
ing zone, the bike paths outside of it.
On significant upgrades – mostly on
the southbound side of the road – the
bikes will be inside the furnishing zone
separated from the pedestrian paths by
a three-inch curb.
In some places this scheme will be
modified to deal with local conditions.
A late addition to the plan is to provide
more open asphalt at all intersections
to provide more visibility.
Committee members had expressed
concern about auto, bike and pedestri-
an conflicts due to this issue. An earlier
proposal to have bikes share the right
of way with either cars or pedestrians
at certain points was dropped.
CAC members endorsed the plan,
but agreed with Southwest Neighbor-
hoods, Inc. Transportation Committee
chair Marianne Fitzgerald: “It’s abso-
lutely critical that this be funded and
built, not just sit on a shelf. This is our
highest priority.”
CAC member Jim McLaughlin
agreed, and complained about the
amount of money needed to build the
furnishing zones. The projected cost of
the project is $19.1 million, up from an
earlier $12 million.
Part of the cost increase is based on
the need for sewer improvements ($3
million) and “off-site enhancements”
to handle the added stormwater runoff
($2 million).
City experts found that local soils
have an unusually poor capacity to
absorb water, necessitating other ways
to deal with runoff.
City officials had previously ear-
marked $2 million from local construc-
tion System Development Charges for
the project, and were seeking 10 mil-
lion in federal transit funds. There is
no strategy yet for raising the remain-
ing $7.1 million.
However, Project Manager Ross
Swanson of the Portland Bureau of
Transportation told the Post that,
contrary to rumor, a Local Improve-
ment District assessment of adjacent
property owners was “not on the table
at this time.”
Another CAC member, Roger Aver-
beck, said he looked forward to a
related project: the redesign of the I-
5-Capitol Highway-Barbur Boulevard
interchange on the south end of the
Capitol Highway project.
Swanson said it is possible to do this,
but warned that it would cost millions
of dollars. A new multi-phase traffic
signal, a key element of such a venture,
alone would cost $500,000, he said.
About 90 people attended a final
open house on the project last month.
Aside from local concerns, most
echoed the need to implement the
project, and do it soon.
Swanson said that although a City
Council review of the project is not
specifically required by regulations,
“It’s inconceivable that this won’t go
to Council.” No date for such a hearing
had been set as The Post went to press,
but it will probably occur this spring.