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Neighborhood Block Party
The St. Luke Memorial C.O.G.I.C. will
be holding the 2nd annual Neighbor­
hood Block Party at 2700N.E. Sumner
Ave. on Sept. l,fro m 12 p .m .-5 p.m.
There will be free bbq, music, games
and lots of outdoor fun. For more
information, call Min. Gary Thomas at
503-284-0710.
Homeschooling
vs. Public Education
Radical W omen hosts a discussion
on whether homeschooling is a vi­
able answer to the problems of inad­
equately funded public schools and
the subsequent compromised qual­
ity of education. The free meeting will
be on Wednesday, Sept. 12,7 p.m. at
the Bread and Roses Center, 819 N.
Killingsworth. Buffet will be served
with a donation. Call 503-240-4462.
Leach Botanical
Garden Plant Sale
Prepare now for a lovely garden next
spring. O ur N orthw est fall rains
present optimum conditions for the
planting of perennial specimens that
produce blooms in early spring and
the seasons beyond. The Leach G ar­
den Plant Sale will be on Saturday,
Sept. 22, from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. at Floyd
Light Middle School, 10800S.E. Wash­
ington.
Airport Max Tour
Travel to the Portland Airport on the
newly opened $125 million, 5.5 mile
MAX light rail line. Stop along the
way, learning more about the Parkrose
neighborhood’s Fishbird pedestrian
bridge and seeing the future site of
Stanley Park, Portland’snew estpark
blocks. Lunch included at the Port­
land International Food Court. Call
503-823-5132.
Piedmont Place Blends with Neighborhood
Block of new apartments, townhomes and stores pass committee review
B y L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bserver
They can’t choose who their new neigh­
bors will be, but Piedmont residents are
helping decide wha, their houses will look
like.
A committee o f neighborhood leaders
and nearby residents has reviewed plans
for Piedmont Place, a mixed-use develop­
ment on the block bounded by N.E. M ar­
tin Luther King Jr., Portland Boulevard,
Garfield and Highland.
A joint project by the Portland Devel­
opment Commission and developers Scott
Espedal and Richard Probasco, it will
contain retail shops and 60 units o f hous­
ing. The arrangement allows the block to
be built by “a single developer,” PD C’s
Alex Dorsey told 30 people who attended
a meeting on the plans
As proposed by Paul Jeffries o f SERA
Architects, based on previous discus­
sions with neighbors, there will be 10
rowhouses o f about 1,400 square feet
each facing Garfield.
An existing mid-block, north-south al­
ley will be expanded into a street from
which residents will access garages in the
rear - and ten 900 square foot “loft" units
above the garages.
Along M LK there will be two struc­
tures separated by a roadway entrance.
Each building will have ground floor retail
below three stories o f apartments, each
about 900 square feet, with a total o f 20
units per building. There will be under­
ground parking accessed by a car eleva­
tor from the new street to the west. The
An artist's rendering shows Piedmont Place, a proposed development o f mostly housing with some retail on the block
bounded by N.E. Martin Luther King Jr., Portland Boulevard, Garfield and Highland.
top stories will be recessed back to make
them less visible from the street, and there
will be rooftop gardens. The siding will
alternate between brick and concrete.
Neighborhood leader Betsy Radigan
said, “The biggest challenge was the row
houses. They not only had to fit in with
the existing houses across the street, but
with our historic conservation district,
with the highest quality houses anywhere
in Portland. I think they have enough
architectural detail to fit in.”
The row house designs got generally
high marks from those present. J im Carleton
said, “I worked inNorthwest Portland and
saw row houses go up there. They were
atrocious, disgusting. These are 1,000
percent better.”
He noted that they had front porches
and variation between units, and were
Airport Max Tests for Sept. 10 Opening
An Airport Max light
rail train pulls up
alongside the Portland
International Airport
station. The so-called
“Red Line" debuts
Sept. 10. Right now,
commuters can use
the Airport Max trains
from downtown to
the Gateway Transit
Center.
Creating a Great
Waterfront Park
Twenty-five years after its creation,
Portland’s front porch - W aterfront
Park is undergoing a thorough re­
view, giving Portland citizens an op­
portunity to step back and take a
careful look at one o f our city’s most
cherished civic treasures. The public
conversation will be on Wednesday,
Sept. 12, at McCall's Waterfront Café,
from 6-8 p.m.
only 30 feet high. David Greene admired
historic details, such as porch columns
that were more than rectangular posts.
“Theymakeall the difference in the world,”
he said.
Another resident said, “They don’t
look like row houses. There isn’t a big,
flat, ugly facade.”
continued
on page B4
Lloyd
Center
Sued Over
Teen’s
Arrest
The New
Leadership Challenge
Are you able to adapt to the concerns
and opportunities of an ever-chang­
ing economic climate? On Nov. 7,
you’ll learn how to face new chal­
lenges at the sixth annual W orldwide
Lessons in Leadership Series. The
event will be held at the Holiday Inn
Portland Airport, 8439 N.E. Columbia
B lvd.,from 7:45a.m . -2 :3 0 p .m .T o
register, call 1 -800-689-9771 or go
o n lin e
to
www.lessonsinleadership.com.
Noon Time Bicycle Rides
The Multnomah Bar Association will
be having noon time bicycle rides -
short rides over hills. The meeting
point will be at the S.W. com er of
PioneerCourthouse Square (Yamhill
& Broadway) between Noon and 12:10
p.m., Mondays and Thursdays. Call
Ray Thomas at 503-228-5222.
Fathers, Mothers and
Daughters Support Group
Be one of the many 4"’ - 12'h grade
basketball playing young ladies to
have your own support group. The
Father, Mother and Daughters Sup­
port Group. Inc. is starting on Satur­
day, Sept. 15 at Portland Community
College. Terrell Hall, Rm. 112, from 11
a.m .to 1 p.m.; Contact Beryl McNair
at 503-283-7905.
Lead in Schools’ Drinking Water
As part o f its ongoing program to
investigate all its buildings for environ­
mental concerns, Portland Public Schools
began testing drinking water for lead and
copper last month.
The district announced that results
from 40 buildings have been received,
and 35 o f the 40 buildings have at least
one drinking fountain that tests over the
Environmental Protection A gency’s rec­
ommended action level for lead
The recommended action level for lead
is 15parts per billion. 0 u to f6 0 0 samples
taken in the Portland district, three were
above 100 ppb, with the highest being 162
ppb.
Copper was detected in a handful o f
samples, but lead is the more serious
issue.
“Right now we feel it is prudent to turn
off all drinking water faucets in all schools,
whether they have been tested yet or
not,” said Portland Public Schools In­
terim Superintendent Jim Scherzinger.
“Five-gallon water dispensers will be
supplied to all schools as an added mea­
sure o f safety and to give us time to make
Of all the schools
tested, Madison
High School had
one o f the worst
problems with
lead in its
drinking water.
needed repairs.”
W ater dispensers will stay in a school
until retesting on all drinking water fau­
cets shows they are below the EPA action
level.
Scherzinger said the initial tests were
taken according to an EPA protocol that
looks at “worst case" conditions. The
tests were taken on water that had sat in
faucets and pipes for 8 - 18 hours, allow­
ing time for lead and copper to leach into
water.
“This is not the w ater people usually
drink,” Scherzinger noted.
Since 1988, the district has had proce­
dures where custodians flush pipes each
morning to reduce lead and iron.
"N ow we are m aking perm anent
changes so we aren’t relying solely on
flushing," he said.
continued
on page B4
1
The family o f a Portland teenager
filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Lloyd
Center, charging the shopping mall
with personal injury, assault and emo­
tional distress.
Levell Peters, 14, claimed that he
was unnecessarily roughed up by a
mall security guard last March for
wearing a trendy handkerchief called
“do rags" on his head.
After being asked to take the head
gear off because o f the m all's dress
code policy, Peters refused by arguing
with the guard. Then the situation es­
calated into a scuffle and the boy got
arrested.
Ina written security report, the guard
explained that he was acting in defense
to save his life.
Describing the confrontation, Pe­
ters recalled being grabbed by the neck,
pinned down by a knee to his spinal
cord and thrown to the ground, then
handcuffed.
A Lloyd center spokesperson said
that the mall does have a code o f con­
duct, but not a dress code.
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