INSIDE:
SERVING
Burlingame • Capitol Hill
• Garden Home
• Glen Cullen • Hillsdale
• Multnomah Village
• Raleigh Hills • South Portland
• Vermont Hills
• West Portland
Garden Home
celebrates 100th
birthday with a party
on September 24
Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper
Volume No. 19, Issue No. 11
www.swportlandpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Complimentary
– Page 7
September 2011
Congressman Blumenauer talks with
business owners in Multnomah Village
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Last month the earl surveyed his
new domain, and the townsfolk and
shopkeepers who inhabited it, and they
told him they were tired of waiting
for sidewalk construction to start, and
utility-related construction to stop.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer has repre-
sented the Third Congressional District
for ten years, but with re-districting the
boundaries have suddenly changed.
The district still includes most of Port-
land’s near-in east side, but no longer
takes in the Northwest District and
Pearl.
Instead, Blumenauer now represents
Downtown and much of southwest, ex-
cluding Portland Community College’s
Sylvania campus but including South
Portland, Hillsdale and Multnomah
Village.
Thus, last month, the congressman
spent part of an afternoon visiting at
various shops, and in a round-table
discussion with community leaders at
O’Connor’s Restaurant, to see what was
on people’s minds. A consistent theme
was the sewer and water main-related
construction that has disrupted South-
west Multnomah Boulevard since 2010,
and the effect it has had on traffic.
One of those visited was Dan Hough-
ten, who has owned Southwest Bicycle
LLC, at 3635 SW Multnomah Blvd., for
three years. The business has existed
since 1979, operating out of “six or
seven locations” in the Village before
settling at the former gas station.
Houghten said that 70 percent of
the store’s business is bike repair and
added, “We have the business to our-
selves within a five mile radius. We
were doing great until they started tear-
ing up the road. We’re still in the black
compared to some others.”
“We’re rooting for you,” Blumenauer,
an avid bicyclist and runner, told
Houghten.
Michelle Cassinelli said that busi-
ness at her Village Beads shop “has
increased every year – except this
year,” and she attributed the change to
the construction. Worse, she said, will
be the Interstate 5 access ramp closure
this month and October, during “the
Moses Ross (left) and Don Baack (right) give Congressman Earl Blumeanauer
a tour of Multnomah Village. (Post photo by Lee Perlman)
heaviest sales time of the year. They
tell us it will be done by November 18;
they don’t understand that half our
customers will have done their holiday
shopping by then.”
Meanwhile there are the pedestrian-
related projects that have not been
funded, starting with the Garden Home
section of the Capitol Highway Plan of
1996. This called for improvements to
the street along the .09 mile connection
of West Portland with Multnomah Vil-
NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
OHSU nursing students aid
National Night Out
Two southwest senior housing resi-
dences held National Night Out celebra-
tions, and a class of Oregon Health and
Science University nursing students
showed up to assist and share informa-
tion.
Students from Launa Rae Mathews’
class assisted at August 2 celebrations
at Ruth Haefner Plaza in the Bridlemile
neighborhood, and at the Watershed
building in Hillsdale.
They brought with them exhibits on
medication management emergency pre-
paredness for seniors, their class project,
to share with those who showed up.
Multnomah I-5 access closes
September 6
(Left to right) Monica Ontiveros, Konnie Ibert and Kirstie Allery were among
the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Nursing students who assisted
in National Night Out activities at two senior housing complexes. (Post photo
by Lee Perlman)
Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Starting September 6, as part of the
Burlingame Sewer Trunkline Replace-
ment Project, the Multnomah on and
off-ramps to Interstate 5 will be closed
for 45 days, Bureau of Environmental
Services spokesperson Stephen Sykes
told The Post.
The City had stipulated that the work
had to be completed by November 18,
to allow access to Multnomah Village
shops during the holiday season. The
early start to the work may allow it to
be completed several weeks ahead of
this schedule.
Meanwhile, Sykes said, BES and its
contractors will be working on utility
relocation between Southwest Barbur
Boulevard and 31 st Avenue, and the in-
stallation of a temporary bypass sewer
lage, and particularly called for safe and
comfortable pedestrian access.
As Jill Crecraft of Sip D’Vine told
Blumenauer, “This was the pinnacle of
what plans should be, and it was put
on a shelf. We pay, and we pay, and
we pay, and yet we do not receive.” She
spoke of watching “women with baby
strollers walking on that goat path.”
Longtime Multnomah activist Randy
Bonella agreed that Capitol Highway
(Continued on Page 7)
line on the south side of Multnomah
between 22 nd and 31 st avenues, into early
September.
Some of this work may restrict traf-
fic to one lane, and require the use of
flaggers, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. In
the spring a replacement pipe will be
installed on the north side, and once
again traffic may be restricted to one
lane between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Elsewhere, the newly installed Fanno
pressure sewer line has sprung a leak,
necessitating the closure of the Fanno
Creek Trail at Southwest 82 nd Avenue.
After considerable investigation, re-
pairs were completed in late August.
Neighborhood coalition accepting
grant applications
Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. is
now accepting applications for the lat-
est round of Neighborhood Grants. The
deadline for submission is October 31.
Money for the program comes from
the City General Fund through the Of-
fice of Neighborhood Involvement. It
is distributed in grants by SWNI and
the city’s six other neighborhood coali-
tions to community organizations for
projects that “increase organizational
capacity,” “encourage involvement by
under-represented communities,” and
“encourage partnerships.
This year SWNI has been allocated
$22,000. Most grants will be for $200 to
$2,000. For more information contact
SWNI at 503-823-4592.
City considers new uses for
Riverview Cemetery land
acquisition
The Portland Bureau of Parks and
Recreation and Commissioner Nick
Fish’s office are considering the use of
(Continued on Page 3)