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
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