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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2012)
SERVING INSIDE: Burlingame • Capitol Hill • Garden Home • Glen Cullen • Hillsdale • Multnomah Village • Raleigh Hills • South Portland • Vermont Hills • West Portland Fulton Park Community Center may be spared from proposed budget cuts – Page 3 Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper Volume No. 20, Issue No. 5 www.swportlandpost.com Portland, Oregon Complimentary March 2012 Greenway Plan for South Waterfront ruffles feathers By Lee Perlman The Southwest Portland Post For two hours last month the Port- land Design Commission took public testimony on the Bureau of Parks’ pro- posed $9.5 million Greenway Master Plan for the South Waterfront. The vast majority of those who spoke said they loved the plan except for one detail – the relocation of an osprey nest. The Greenway Plan, nine years in for- mation, calls for a stretch of Willamette River waterfront 1.2 miles long and 100 feet wide to be made over for human recreation and natural habitat. The greenway will have separated bike and pedestrian trails and both grass and “hardscape” facilities for people, as well as extensive tree plant- ing and other improvements to create habitat for birds and fish. In the case of habitat for fish, Portland Parks and Recreation planner Allison Rouse said the bank of the former in- dustrial area would be altered to create a gradual slope more typical of the area before human activity. Instead of a fly in the ointment, there was a flying object: an osprey that, for several years, has made a nest in the construction zone area, and consistently returns to it after migrating to Central America in the winter. Park Bureau staff has proposed mov- ing the nest to a “dolphin” (upright piling) down river. It should serve, they said, because it is within sight of the old nest. Local residents felt differently. Mirabella resident Paul Johnson said, “We should honor the osprey’s choice of nesting site.” Its annual migration is “a miracle of nature,” he said, and “the osprey has been very clear about where it wants to nest.” Another resident, Charlotte Beeman, gave a brief history of the nest. It has come to the same area for five con- secutive years, she said. At one point it chose to nest on a Zidell Company barge; for three days Zidell workers threw the nest away, and each time the bird rebuilt it. Finally, in 2009, Zidell built a special pole, 40 feet tall and weighing eight tons, that the osprey accepted as a site. In 2010 a Canada goose beat the osprey to the nest, setting off an avian fight that the osprey won. In 2011, with the help of the South Waterfront Dog Club, the pole was dis- Osprey family enjoys mealtime in their nest on the west bank of the Willamette River at South Waterfront. (Photo courtesy of Paul Johnson) mantled and moved; the osprey moved with it, undeterred by construction activity going on around it. Ralph Larson, declaring that he was “acting as the voice of the osprey,” said that the Dog Club was willing to move the pole to the property of a willing landowner out of the construction zone. “It’s ironic that the Park Bureau wants to spend $6.75 million on wildlife resto- ration, and is beginning by displacing a migratory bird,” he said. Commission member David Wark (Continued on Page 7) Neighborhood House seeks food for the hungry NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS By Lee Perlman The Southwest Portland Post Angela Coefield, Dante Dainton-Piacente, Vivian Allard-McNeely, Fletcher Calcagno, and Max Calcagno get ready for SW HOPE at St. Barnabas Church’s “Souper Bowl Sunday” event on February 5. (Photo courtesy of Mari Yerger, Neighborhood House) Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2. The Southwest Portland Post 4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509 Portland, OR 97206 Neighborhood House’s “South- west Hope – Feed the Hungry” cam- paign for 2012 is under way and runs through April 1. During this time there will be do- nation barrels to receive non-perish- able food throughout Hillsdale and Multnomah, including such locations as the Multnomah Arts Center, Garden Home Recreation Center, Mittleman Jewish Community Center, and Food Front grocery store in Hillsdale. All non-perishable items are use- ful, but peanut butter, tuna fish and cooking oil are especially welcome, N Neighborhood House executive direc- tor Rick Nitti told The Post. Contribu- tions will be distributed to needy fami- lies through Neighborhood House’s Emergency Food Box. The program started six years ago, in cooperation with area churches, as a “faith” response to “growing food insecurity in the area,” Nitti told the Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. board in February. “Southwest is a fairly affluent area, but there are large pockets of poverty,” Nitti said. For instance, 53 percent of students at Markham School qualify for free or reduced lunch, and so do one in five students in the Wilson High School cluster of schools. Patti Campbell of St. Andrews Pres- byterian Church, one of the partners in the drive, said part of the purpose is to make people more aware of the problem. Some area restaurants are holding benefits and donating part of a day’s proceeds to the drive. Individuals can also contribute cash donations directly to Neighborhood House. Proceeds will be used to purchase food from the Oregon Food Bank at the rate of $1 for five pounds of food. Neighborhood House headquarters is located at 7780 SW Capitol Hwy. The charity can be reached at (503) 246-1663. Terwilliger Parkway’s 100 th anniversary planning includes gateway markers The 100 th anniversary of Terwilliger Parkway is coming up in July, and there are at least two ventures in the works to mark the occasion. Last month the Portland Bureau of Parks presented the Portland Design Commission its prototype for gateway markers for the parkway. The bureau hopes to have two gate- ways, one at each end, but for budget- ary reasons is beginning with one at the north end. The location will be op- posite upper Duniway Park, designer Kurt Lango told the Commission. An alternative location opposite Southwest Sheridan Street was deemed (Continued on Page 7)