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About St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2016)
Email: reviewnewspaper@gmail.com * Mail: PO Box 83068, Port. OR 97283 * Web: www.stjohnsreview.com * Phone: 503-283-5086 * The ST. JOHNS REVIEW * #1-Jan. 15, 2016 * Page 5 Portland’s tree cover. * Mature Trees: It takes time to grow trees. The trees on Ivy Island are already mature. * Irreplaceability: If they raze Ivy Island and build an underground parking garage, any new trees planted there will not have the soil they need to grow taller than about six-feet. *Return of the Streetcar: One day we may wish to bring the Street- car back to St Johns. Wouldn’t the Lombard Slip Lane be the perfect place for this? One hundred years ago, the Slip Lane was the route for the Streetcar. *Greenspace: Ivy Island provides a welcome, greenspace break from the sea of asphalt and brick build- ings on N. Lombard. *History: Years ago, Ivy Island was covered in ivy and was an eyesore. Thanks to the effort of many volunteers over many years, Ivy Island is no longer covered in ivy, nor is it any longer an eyesore. Now that Ivy Island has finally “arrived,” why tear it down? We like rooting for the underdog here in St Johns! *Gateway: Ivy Island and the Lombard Slip are a true GATE- WAY into St Johns. If they go, we will have a WALL of brick instead of a gateway. Walls keep people out. Gateways welcome them in. *Iconic: When you drive through the Gateway at Ivy Island and the Lombard Slip Lane, you know you’ve arrived in St Johns’ Busi- ness District. This is unique to all of Portland. There’s a lot about the current easy, friendly, iconic, and lovely entrance to our business district that works. Let your voice be heard! Call the Mayor and the Portland City Council. Their phone numbers are on our website (listed below). Save Ivy Island, Gateway to St Johns! Shae Uisna ----------------------------------------- From a new resident Dear Editor, As a new resident to the beauti- ful city of Portland, and more spe- cifically, to the neighborhood of St. Johns, I would like to express my gratitude. I have lived in ru- ral Oregon for the entirety of my adult life, and moving to Portland has been a cultural and exciting change. This brings me to my first point. The character of Portland’s unique neighborhoods is what makes this city so special. It’s this culture that makes Portland “The Best European City in America.” This was summed up by Mayor Charlie Hales regarding non-auto transportation. This is interesting, because the Lombard slip, which is threatened by new urban de- velopment, is ideally set up for a street car, like the one that used to run in St. Johns. The Lombard slip hugs Ivy Island, which is the focal point of this letter, and also many other things. For instance, it was created as a barrier, to separate the congested truck traffic from the commercial district. It was also used to identify the neighborhood from the rest of north Portland; “Welcome to Historic St. Johns” the sign reads. Not only is Ivy Island the gateway to St. Johns, it is also a symbol of community accomplishment. The neighborhood got together to clean up the green space and create what is there today. It is a landmark. It is an important part of our neighbor- hood, and I am asking you, please, help us save Ivy Island. As a community member I am well aware of the need for urban expansion. This city is growing exponentially, and it only makes sense to adapt to those changes. That being said, we must compro- mise with the metro expansion, and preserve what makes this neighborhood unique and iconic. Choosing not to vacate Ivy Island is a perfect example of this. The condo goes up, but we keep our gateway. The issues revolving around ur- ban expansion are many, but this is just one. This is just one piece of the neighborhood, which de- fines the character and identity of our city. We cannot forget where we came from. We cannot let our culture become a ghost among red brick development. Thank you, Leaf Neilson ----------------------------------------- more, they built a bridge at the headwaters by Kelly Point so low that any navigation by a moderate size vessel is impossible. An ille- gal act in my mind. And those, shipyards, meat pack- ing plants, saw mills, I worked in most of them. Before I retired as a stationary engineer tending boil- ers at a plant across the river, my wife could hear me blow that noon whistle from her kitchen, also my kids at Holy Cross School could hear those whistles. All these work places no longer exist. Will they come back? Pos- sibly. With just 16 vessels (out of the 50,000 on the ocean) polluting more than all the cars on the plan- et, bringing us all that cheap stuff from Asia, it might be a life and death matter to bring these indus- tries back. Fred Ryan St. Johns, Oregon Fond Memories REVIEW History: Dear Editor, It was good to see Jim Speirs back with a timely article as well as a very fine letter from Ms. Sue Tennant. As a long time resident of St. Johns (on and off since 1948,) I’d like to send a bucket down into my well of years and pull up some thoughts on the changes being made. I believe it was some 10 years ago a lot of outside people were trying to push something called the “Lombard Plan” that was met with all around disapproval. It was pushed by folks who did not live here that promoted bike paths on Lombard. The bicycle people shot this one down saying, you need to be insane to ride a bike on Lombard, bike lanes or no. Also pushed was gentrification of Lombard in its entirety. There was a meeting on this plan at our community center and questions were asked of the presenters: “Who are you guys and where do you live” ? The question caused embarrassment, but no answers. And so, this plan failed, but now it is back in another format. Lom- bard is to be made one lane from Peninsular, each way, to St. Johns very soon and that spells Bike Paths. Does anyone remember how these developers killed a thriving Union Avenue with Islands up the middle? It killed off all the busi- ness and then started buying up the property. Now rumors of remov- ing these islands has surfaced. Meanwhile, it is not lost on us that St. Johns is located on a pen- insula with very limited access in and out. The traffic is now very bad and only getting worse as cheap apartments go up. Apart- ments sure to be drug headquarters inside 10 years. These apartments go up while some very historic houses, buildings, trees go down. I believe city engineers know of this but do not care, never have cared for St. Johns. I have fond memories of St. Johns as it used to be. Sure we guarded it against change as we knew it to be the Hub of the Uni- verse and a pretty damned good place with good schools and work. The work was here: the shipyards, meat packers, lumber mills and a lot of small businesses to boot. I remember tugs pulling small log rafts up the Columbia Slough to small lumber yards, boat build- ers also along this water way. No Continued from Page 1 had many owners, but the Irish family owned the paper the longest at 46 years; this author is its second longest publisher at 22 years. Each publisher has served an important role in keeping the Review pub- lished, but it was J. C. Crome that started it all. His insightful article in the Review’s first issue said, “There is no more correct index to the thought and progressive spirit which characterizes a city than the support given the local newspaper, except it be said the newspaper it- self. The publisher of The Review appreciates this fact, and it is his purpose and aim to make the paper worthy of the support of every res- ident of the Peninsula, and enable its patrons to refer to it with a feel- ing of pride and satisfaction. Your support is asked for as you may deem The Review worthy of it. The more liberal you render your patronage, the better paper you will have reason to expect.” Well said, Mr. Crome, well said. Those words, written 113 years ago, still hold true in 2016. St. Johns, Oregon had become a city in 1902. Seeing its success, Crome saw the importance and ne- cessity that the booming town have a publication. According to The Review’s first front page article Crome wrote about St. Johns be- coming a new city. He said, “The rapid growth of the place in all lines was so evident that the leg- islature of the State of Oregon, at its last session, granted to the town a charter, making it a municipality under which it might conduct its own government and levy its own taxes. Through this measure the town became exempt from paying the tax rate of the city of Portland and is permitted to keep its own taxes low and to appropriate such money as is raised by this means to the improvement of St. Johns itself. St. Johns was incorporated January 5th, 1902.” (They had a certain flair for wording back in those days.) The front-page article went on to speak about how the influence of transportation helped establish a new city. “Less than three years ago there was to be found in this place only a few scattering houses, and no manufacturing or business interests, no employment was to be had, and very few homes had been built in the ten years preced- ing.” “REVIEW History” Continued on Page 6 Color BUSINESS CARD ADS Pricing: 3 Months (6 times) $38 each ($228 total) 6 Months (12 times) $35 each ($420 total) 9 Months (19 times) $33 each ($627 total) 12 Months ( 26 times) $32 each ($832 total) Call 503-283-5086 for more information