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)