Pizza race is
over: Tastebud
opens first in
Multnomah
Village
– Page 4
It’s been
a season of
extremes
for Wilson
women’s soccer
coach Allison
King – Page 5
ONLINE EXTRA:
Read Erik Vidstrand’s
stories regarding
Multnomah
Demolitions and the
SW Corridor Plan on
Page 9
The Southwest Portland Post
Volume No. 24 Issue No. 1
www.swportlandpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Complimentary
November 2015
City Council hearing scheduled for Tryon-Stephens neighborhood plan
By Erik Vidstrand and Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
Over the past 18 months, Southwest
community members have been addressing
local infrastructure concerns which
included types of roads, pedestrian paths,
and stormwater development.
City planners have acknowledged that
Southwest Portland’s local street system
is affected by poor connectivity and lack
of safe facilities for active transportation
modes (walking, bicycling, and access to
transit).
Stormwater management in Southwest
Portland is affected by an incomplete
stormwater system and lack of treatment
for runoff.
The Tryon-Stephens Neighborhood Street
Plan aims to establish a more connected local
street and pathway network by integrating
improvements to transportation networks,
access to transit, and the stormwater system
within the study area.
According to Denver Igarta, city planner
from the Bureau of Transportation, city staff
will present a draft of the Tryon-Stephens
Headwaters Neighborhood Street Plan to
the Portland City Council on Nov. 4.
“We want to have the plan adopted by
resolution,” said Igarta. “This means that
the city council endorses the plan as a guide
for street network and stormwater system
completion in the plan area (Multnomah,
Hillsdale and Burlingame neighborhoods).”
Section 6 of the plan outlines a variety of
recommendations for next steps. It includes
ongoing collaboration between the bureaus
of transportation and environmental
services on completion of both the street
and stormwater systems.
This section outlines the tools developed
in the plan for both private development
and public improvements, as well as
opportunities for funding and coordination.
Other recommendations establish criteria
to allow non-motorized access only, close
urban trail system gaps, and develop
criteria for interim shoulder widening on
streets without curbs.
Several streets that carry moderate levels
of traffic in the area still lack sidewalks, such
as Capitol Hill Road, Hume Street west of
30th Avenue, and Taylors Ferry Road.
Improvements to Capitol Highway
are part of a Bureau
of Environmental
Services-led project
that is moving forward
independent of the
Tryon-Stephens Plan.
A local transportation
infrastructure charge
would allow developers
to pay a fee rather than
building required
frontage improvements.
Collected fees could be
set aside as leverage
funds for forming
a local improvement
district to improve an
entire block.
At the Oct.
13 Multnomah
Neighborhood
Association meeting, Naomi Tsurumi, BES staff, discusses the Tryon-Stephens Plan with
there was discussion community member Barbara O'Neil at a workshop earlier this year.
r e g a r d i n g k e y (Post photo by Erik Vidstrand)
Tryon-Stephens Plan
recommendations that the Ashcreek NA
but wants the language to be strengthened
passed the previous night.
for the city’s commitment to improve
Ashcreek supports the recommendations
(Continued on Page 6)
Nordia House in Garden Home celebrates Scandinavian heritage
Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
Immigrants from those countries settled
here because the landscape and climate
Roughly 10 percent of Oregon’s
felt familiar to them, and because farming,
population can claim some ancestral link to
fishing and cannery jobs gave them
opportunities to succeed.
But even if you have no family
heritage to Scandinavia, it’s well
worth a visit to Nordia House,
which opened this summer.
Built by the Scandinavian
Heritage Foundation (soon to be
renamed Nordic NW), the center
is located at 8800 SW Oleson
Road in Garden Home.
According to executive
director Greg Smith, Nordia
House is a dream many years in
the making.
“Twenty years ago the
Scandinavian Heritage
Foundation wanted to build a
cultural center, to celebrate all
things Nordic,” Smith explained.
The first challenge was
to find land. In 1994, Ross
Fogelquist donated an initial
Greg Smith, executive director of Nordia House, poses by the acre to the foundation from his
Setziol hand-carved doors. (Post photo by KC Cowan)
own property on Oleson Road.
By KC Cowan
The Southwest Portland Post
Don’t forget to order your gift subscription. Form on Page 7.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Fogelquist owns a log cabin home there,
which was built by Henry Steiner, the lead
carpenter during construction of Timberline
Lodge.
The Foundation board was then able to
buy some land from Fogelquist’s neighbor
for a total of two and a half acres for the
project. The serious fundraising for building
began.
“Our original design was for a 25,000
square foot building, with two stories, and
an archival basement,” said Smith. “Quite
an ambitious project with an ambitious
price tag on it.”
But when the recession hit, they scaled
back to a more modest design. They
committee fell in love with the sleek,
modern design by Brian Melton of Diloreto
Architects.
“With some last minute fundraising
push last year, we were able to kick off the
building process in August last year, and
they handed us the keys the end of April of
this year,” said Smith.
The center features stunning carved entry
doors of Alaskan yellow cedar by the late
Northwest artist, Leroy Setziol. He designed
them, but as his health failed, his daughter,
Monica, completed the carving. The doors
were put in storage until the center could
be built.
“I like to say we built a three and a half
million dollar building around his doors,”
Smith said, laughing.
The new design may be smaller, but it still
provides plenty of room for Nordia House’s
main mission: To celebrate, educate and
enhance knowledge of the Nordic culture
through arts, history, spoken word, and film.
The 10,000-square-foot building has a
gallery to host exhibits on Nordic culture
and history from around the world.
A large ballroom with wooden floors and
a wall of windows is perfect for concerts,
weekly Scandinavian dance classes, lectures,
and large dinners. A smaller conference room
is perfect for showing films and smaller
meetings.
Already within the first month of
operation, Nordia House has hosted folk
music concerts, a contemporary jazz band
from Iceland, as well as the Oregon Ballet
Theatre.
The Portland Chamber Orchestra held
its first concert this past October in its new
performance space at Nordia House.
The center is open to the public, and there’s
a full café, Broder Söder. It offers lunch
during the week and weekend brunches with
Scandinavian food, such as Danish pancakes,
Norwegian lefse, smoked trout hash, fritters
and strong coffee to wash it all down.
Nordia House has proven enormously
popular already, with membership in the
Scandinavian Heritage Foundation up 50
(Continued on Page 6)
Next door to Nordia House sits a log cabin
built by Henry Steiner, lead carpenter during
construction of Timberline Lodge.
(Post photo by KC Cowan)