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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2012)
SERVING INSIDE: Burlingame • Capitol Hill • Garden Home • Glen Cullen • Hillsdale • Multnomah Village • Raleigh Hills • South Portland • Vermont Hills • West Portland New sidewalks, trees and swales planned for Multnomah Village – Page 2 Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper Volume No. 20, Issue No. 8 www.swportlandpost.com Portland, Oregon Complimentary June 2012 Macadam Avenue neighbors at loggerheads over Sellwood Bridge alignment By Lee Perlman The Southwest Portland Post Last month some 60 residents along Southwest Miles Place south of Wil- lamette Park, and the Macadam Bay houseboat moorage north of the Sell- wood Bridge, offered testimony on how future access to Macadam Bay should be provided. Each of the two camps professed good will toward the other, and each championed a solution that the other found abhorrent. As part of the construction of a new Sellwood Bridge, Multnomah County and the Oregon Department of Trans- portation plan to move Highway 43 (Southwest Macadam Avenue) slightly to the east, making the old Macadam Bay driveway unusable. Project staff has developed a dozen alternative proposals for a new access. Some would have the driveway go through Freeman Motors and utilize its existing driveway. Others would create a new road through Southwest Miles Place or Miles Street, expanding and improving that road to handle increased traffic. The cost estimates ranged from $3 million to $6 million. Dennis Mitchell of ODOT said that his agency could not agree to install a new traffic signal anywhere on Macad- am because it did not meet professional standards, or “warrants,” to justify such an installation. The only existing signalized intersection on this part of Macadam is at Southwest Miles Street and Taylors Ferry Road. Miles Place residents spoke to its unique character. “I’ve never felt such a sense of community as on Miles Place,” Denis Schure said. “That alley is primar- ily a pedestrian and bike environment.” Using it for Macadam Bay traffic would mean a phenomenal increase in cars that would obliterate it,” Schure said. Douglas Barbour, who said he was “born and raised” on Miles Place, recalled ice being delivered by horse- drawn carriage on the street, and coal by truck. Denise Kronowski, whose father lives on Miles Place, said, “I’d hate to see it changed.” A new access road there would, among other things, necessitate the removal of Butterfly Park on the north end of Miles Place. “I think other options would serve Macadam Bay,” she said. Using Free- Denis Schure stands near his house on Southwest Miles Place. To preserve his narrow street, Schure is in favor of a U-turnaround at Taylors Ferry Road as well as a new driveway to access Macadam Bay houseboats next to Freeman Motors. (Post photo by Don Snedecor) man Motors would involve “overall the least risk, and remove the fewest trees.” Several business owners on Miles Street said that additional traffic there would interfere with access and force them to move, or at least downsize and lay off workers. Some Miles residents and businesses belittled the negative impact to Mac- adam Bay of a Freeman Motors access. Attorney Keith Benjamin, representing Autoworks Northwest, said the pro- posed access will leave Freeman Mo- (Continued on Page 6) School district educates Hillsdale neighbors on possible construction bond measure By Jillian Daley The Southwest Portland Post Since voters rejected a $548 million bond to upgrade Portland school buildings on May 17, 2011, school district officials have been reaching out to the community to find out why the bond failed and what the community wants. Nearly a year later, an educational Portland Public Schools' Erin Hoover-Barnett, HNA president Mikal Apenes, PPS board member Ruth Adkins and Wilson High School principal Sue Brent, discuss the next construction bond at the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association meeting, May 2. (Post photo by Jillian Daley) Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2. The Southwest Portland Post 4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509 Portland, OR 97206 presentation May 2 before the Hill- sdale Neighborhood Association seemed particularly timely. It was just shy of the one-year anniversary of the day voters said “no” to the bond by a margin of about 600 votes. Hillsdale neighbors listened to Portland Public Schools spokes- woman Erin Hoover-Barnett, who touched on not only the failed bond but also massive cuts the school district is proposing to close a $27.5 million budget shortfall next fiscal year. The school board is scheduled to adopt the 2012-13 school budget on June 25. Next fiscal year begins July 1. Hoover-Barnett pointed to sparks of hope for Portland schools: student performance at academic milestones such as seventh grade writing rose by at least five percentage points from 2009-10 to 2010-11. The perfor- mance gap between white students and students of color also narrowed, Barnett said. She added that the outreach effort has deepened the school district’s community connection. Another construction bond could be on the table, depending on whether the school board, after looking at com- munity input, decides in June to refer a bond to the ballot in November 2012 or May 2013. Voters did approve a local option levy that also was on the May 2011 ballot, which pays for teachers and operational support, but the con- struction bond’s failure halted the school district’s plans to renovate and rebuild schools. One Hillsdale neighbor asked whether students need buildings in a time when they can do much of their work online. Hoover-Barnett said many students may not have a place to study at home, and a teacher’s guidance helps. One man said he might have voted for the construction bond had he known schools were suffering so severely financially. Hoover-Barnett said the failure of the construction bond is not directly tied to the school district’s financial situation because such a bond could only have been used to build build- ings. An informational sheet she gave neighbors laid out the school dis- trict’s main financial problems: K-12 education’s share of Oregon’s state biennial budget decreased from 45 percent in 2003-05 to 39 percent in 2011-13. The recession, which lowered home values, decreased property tax collections, so the local option levy for staffing that passed last spring is bringing in less money than school officials had projected. Student en- rollment is growing. Cuts to balance the beleaguered budget could include 110 teaching positions (worth $10 million) and 34 central office positions. Neighborhood association presi- dent Mikal Apenes said at the May 2 meeting that his family stays in Port- land because of the quality schools. As budgets cut school programs and pare back staff, other states’ schools (Continued on Page 7)
