(The fp rtlm ih © tw m r r ______________________ JAN 13’ 19^ .
Hage AS
neighborhood
news & Events
—
Portland State
University
A 134,000-square-foot Urban Cen­
ter will connect Portland State Univer­
sity with downtown Portland. A vari­
ety o f retail businesses also will be
located in the Center, utilizing ap­
proximately 26,000 square feet o f
the first floor. The University Plaza will
be a public square adjacent to the
Urban Center. It will be an ideal transit
hub - especially important because
PSU is the single largest central city Trt-
Met destination - and will include
plans for a light rail station extension.
Business Of The Year
Eugene and Marleen Gott have
proven that a small McDonald's Res­
taurant (on Barbur Boulevard) can be
a community asset, not ju st a place to
eat They are highly customer ori­
ented, greeting customers by name,
providing newspapers and other
amenities, hiring a Hispanic greeter to
assist with the neighborhood's sig
nificant Hispanic community. The
Gotts are strong supporters o f the
neighborhood and business asso­
ciations and don't wait to be asked
for assistance with donations, sup­
plies or participation. Their message
to middle and high schools students
is that employees with good grades
get bonuses, while youth who make
bad choices and drop out o f school,
don't get hired.
Wa/nuf Park is a community
of retail establishments that
offer first rate service and
Afro-centric items. The retail
complex along with the other
nearby stores make up the
most ethnic diverse
business district in the state
of Oregon. The facilities of
Walnut Park opened in
October, 1995. Each year,
the proprietors stage an
anniversary involving artists,
entertainers and children’s
events in late May or early
June. Walnut Park is a
complement to the King
neighborhood - a model of
good support by the private/
public sector as well as the
community.
City Hopes MLK Work Will
Bring New Development
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Model Volunteer
As a teenager, Tonya Dickens found
herself involved in gang-related activ­
ity and disruptive in school. When she
realized she would not graduate with
her class, she did an abrupt turn­
around, buckled down to work, taking
night classes, and became more se­
lective about her associates. How she
is a courageous and feisty advocate
for at-risk youth, working with some of
Oregon's most hardcore gangsters and
prison inmates. She volunteers her
time with the Youth Gangs Outreach
Program and spends many a week­
end night cruising the neighborhood
to keep an eye on her clients and other
youngsters. She attends the Mayor's
regular anti-gang meetings.
Two Plum Garden is the King Neighborhood s only ‘pocket park as tnere are no
green spaces within the area. It was designed and developed two years ago under
the direction o f concerned neighbors. The mini-park was once a vacant lot nestled
between homes and now serves as a play space and outdoor events site. Pocket
Parks are a recent innovation by the Portland Parks and Recreation Department to
make neighborhoods less o f an urban jungle.
Irvington
The Irvington neighborhood is com­
pleting its 25-year dream o f creating
a playground, park and community
gathering place for their area that had
no other greenspace or noncommer­
cial community center. Volunteers,
including design professionals have
created a master plan to upgrade the
school playfield into a modem, ac­
cessible and safe park serving the
needs o f both the school and the
inner-northeast community. The first
phase o f this project, which the friends
o f the park have already begun, will
cost $220,000. Much o f the money
will come from the sale o f engraved
bricks, similar to the bricks in Pioneer
Courthouse Square downtown, for
$50 apiece.
This apartment building is owned and developed by Jane Olberding o f the Neil
Kelley Designers family. Her project is a mixed-use commercial/residential
complex with 3 8 units. All the people that live there are from the King
neighborhood. It is a middle-income housing unit where a one-bedroom apartment
costs $380 per month. Renting at this location is a great opportunity for people
who can't find housing because o f gentrification.
SL Johns
The Open Meadow Learning Cen­
ter in the SL Johns neighborhood
was named the Alternative Educa­
tion Program o f the Year by the Or­
egon Assoc. For Alternatives In Edu­
cation. Carole Smith, the executive
director of Open Meadow Learning
Center has dedicated 17 years to
helping youth reach inside them­
selves to find the motivation to con­
tinue their education, achieve their
goals and graduate. Under Carole’s
leadership, she emphasizes personal
responsibility, academics, commu­
nity, and respect for diversity.
erty at N ortheast Beach Street, and
B y L ee P erlman
the form er W im er’s Furniture build­
n its second phase, the Martin
ing.
Luther King Boulevard Redesign
PDC will resell the land to a local
Project represents two gambles,
business.
Which one? “If we were doing
one on the redesign and one on its loca­
this
in
River
Place, the criteria would be,
tion.
‘How
much
could we get for this?” '
The project last year reconfigured the
PDC’s
Michael
McElwee says. “Here
street between Northeast Fremont and
money’s
part
o
f
it,
but it’s way down the
Shaver streets. The eight-foot center me­
list.”
More
important
are whether the
dian, and its six mature oak trees, was
business will provide needed goods and
removed and replaced by a four-toot
services to the neighborhood, create lo­
median with 27 smaller trees; the tour
cal jobs, and “contribute to the vitality of
travel lanes were reduced from a 12 foot
the street,” he says.
width to 10; seven-foot wide parking
PDC also offers its storefront pro­
lanes (eight feet is standard) were added
gram,
which provides assistance for
in some places. According to project
sprucing
up the street face o f businesses,
coordinator Andre Baugh, the Portland
and
“pre-development”
assistance for
Office o f Transportation will soon in­
down
payments,
soil
analysis
and other
stall new signage and street trees.
costs
associated
with
completing
real
A citizen committee proposed the
estate
transactions;
it
was
utilized
in
cre­
reconfiguration in 1996 as a way to pro­
ating the adidas Harry Jackson Plaza and
vide all the elements they considered
Knott Street Town Homes.
necessary for new development on the
Is there real hope for Fremont-Shaver?
boulevard; traffic capacity, on-street
“There are opportunities there, and I
parking, and a refuge for pedestrians try­
wouldn’t have said that even a year ago,”
ing to cross. City and state traffic engi­
McElwee says. “McCoy Village and Jane
neers had reservations about whether the
Olberding’s project have changed the
skinny traffic and parking lanes would
character o f the area. The street im­
work, but' agreed to try it.
provements can only help. Still, he says,
There was considerable debate as to
more new businesses are needed to cre­
where to put the second phase. (The first
ate a “critical mass” to lure customers.
phase was installed between Thompson
Similarly, Bill Leigh of the North-
and Brazee streets.) There was general
Northeast Business Association is cau­
consensus that the Fremont-Shaver area
tiously optimistic. “This area seems to
had the greatest need assistance, but
be struggling - in a positive way,” he
some questioned whether it was in a
says. “There are people trying to make
position to take advantage of a public
businesses
go. It wouldn’t take but one
investment. Much o f the six-block stretch
or
two
new
businesses to change the
is vacant. It has not seen a major new
climate
on
the
street.” He too likes the
retail development such as the Smart
new
improvements,
saying, “On-street
Building (home to Doris Cafe, Albina
parking
is
something
we’ve
needed for a
Coffee House and Vessels) to the south,
long
time.”
or Walnut Park or the Farmer’s Insur­
He is less happy about the residential
ance complex to the north. Likewise
zoning.
“W e’re getting closer to a solu­
new housing projects, such as Albina
tio n to the funding o f m ix ed-use
Comer, the Knott Street Town Homes,
projects, but we’re not there yet,” he
M cCoy V illage and the soon-to-be
says. “Everyone’s pushing low-income
Alberta Simmons building, have skirted
housing on MLK, and that’s not what s
this area.
needed.”
However, there have also been some
Stephen Foust of the King Neighbor­
positive developments. Jerry and Leah
hood
Association likes some o f the new
Van Horton have refurnished the 3939
improvements,
but wants more low green­
building and made it home to their own
ery,
and
more
o
f a barrier between side­
Custom Marble business and the Hom
walks
and
cars.
“Unless
people feel com­
o f Africa restaurant. Other new arrivals
fortable
walking
there,
it isn’t going to
are the Irvington Convenant Church,
work,” he says.
M iracles alcohol-free club and the
Leah Van Horton and Ensenada’s
Ensenada Mexican restaurant. They will
Carlos
Medrano say it is too early to
soon be joined by a Coast to Coast hard­
say if the improvements will help. Van
ware store.
Horton says the new parking is not
Three other properties are owned
well-placed to benefit existing busi­
or controlled by the Portland D evel­
nesses.
o p m en t C o m m issio n : th e fo rm er
“The stTeet is cleaner,” Medrano says.
King Food M arket at N ortheast F re­
“Things
are picking up.”
m ont Street, the W illie Banks prop­
Adidas is one o f King neighborhood's most recent arrival. The retail facility is
6 ,000 square feet with an outdoor plaza commemorating Lieutenant Harry Jackson
who served the Portland Public police bureau for over ten years. He was known for
his enthusiasm and tireless efforts to reduce crime throughout Northeast Portland.
A North Precinct police captain estimated that prostitution in the area was reduced
by 8 0 percent since Jackson began walking the beat in the neighborhood in 1987.
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