Summer Events in Inner SE Portland

• Village Building Convergence, various, locations Jun 4-13
• Division / Clinton Street Fair and Parade, Sat. Jul. 25
• Movie: “Dirty Dancing” &  the River City Band, Col Summers Park, Sat., Jul, 25
• Movie, “Citizen Kane” & the music of Mitzi Zilka,  Mt. Tabor Park,  Mon. Aug, 3
• Neighborhood Night Out for Crime, various locations, Tue. Aug. 4
• Movie, “Casablanca” & the music of Mitzi Zilka, Mt. Tabor Park,  Mon. Aug, 10
• Concert:  “Portland Festival Symphony”, Laurelhurst Park, Sat. Aug. 15, 6 pm
• Hawthorne Street Fair, between 20th & 50th, Sun. Aug. 16
• SE Sunday Parkways , Col. Summers, Laurelhurst, etc., Sun. Aug. 16
• Concert: “Providence Stage Band”, Laurelhurst Park:, Sat. Aug. 22,  6 pm
• Movie: “Singin’ in the Rain” & the music of Mitzi Zilka, Mt. Tabor Park, Mon. Aug, 24
• Movie, “Indiana Jones & the Chrystal Skull” & the River City Band, Laurelhurst Park, Sat. Aug, 29
• Movie,  “An American in Paris”, the music of Mitzi Zilka, Mt. Tabor Park, Mon, Aug, 31
• Muddy Boots Festival, St. Philip Neri Church, Fri.-Sun. Sep. 11-13
• Belmont Street Fair, 20th to 45th, Sat. Sep. 12

Community Composting Site at 15th & Alder

The Buckman Sustainability Committee is installing the first of many community composting sites during the City Repair Village Building Convergence (VBC) June 4-14. We will be installing a compost tumbler in the planting strip at 1507 SE Alder Street plus two bins for holding browns and greens.

During the VBC we will construct and install bins, install a compost tumbler, construct a kiosk and paint the intersection with an organic vine design with soft beautiful colors. The vine will seem to grow from the composting area. When the site is completed, neighbors will bring fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps for composting. They will put the scraps into one bin and cover with the leaves provided. The compost Captain will load the tumbler and turn as necessary. When finished, the compost will be FREE to participants in the program.

This is a pilot for a composting network in the neighborhood. The Sustainability Committee is composed of local volunteers and students from Portland State University. Much of the building material is being donated; a small grant from Vision into Action is also supporting our first three composting sites.

• Location: 1507 SE Alder Street
• Contact: Nancy Oberschmidt nancyoberschmidt@earthlink.net 503-231-7322
• More information: Buckman Sustainability – Google Groups

Join us any day starting at 8:30 AM Weekends, 3:30 PM Monday through Friday. Music and Snacks provided!

• Thursday, June 4 – Scrub street
• Friday and Saturday June 5/6 Construct and install bins
• Sunday June 7 – Install compost tumbler
• Monday and Tuesday June 8/9 – Outline street graphic
• Wednesday, June 10 – Take a day off
• Thursday and Friday June 11/12 – Construct and install kiosk
• Saturday, June 13 – Paint street graphic

The Sustainability Team is looking for two more sites in Buckman. The sites should be readily available from the sidewalk and should have a dedicated person to monitor the composting.

Prevention is Key to Keeping your Valuables Safe

Okay, bad news first. Car prowls in the Buckman neighborhood are up significantly from last year already. But the good news is that car prowls are one of the easiest crimes to reduce with increased awareness and change in habits. Car prowls are most often a crime of opportunity, which is why prevention is such an important component.

The most important key to reducing car prowls is to keep your car “showroom clean”. You’ve probably heard people say that you should keep your car cleared of valuables. We actually suggest that you keep your car cleared of any belongings to decrease the interest of potential prowlers in the contents of your car. Thieves may not know that your cell phone is broken or that your gym bag only has dirty socks in it. In the meantime, you have the potential of paying an insurance deductible or more to replace the damage to your vehicle, in addition to the stress and aggravation.

We often hear people tell us that they left their valuables in their car because they were only running in to their home or business for a couple of minutes. Again, this is a crime of opportunity. You don’t need to leave a computer or a purse in your car for long, if the wrong person happens to see it on your front seat. It’s important that you take your belongings with you regardless of how long you plan to be gone.

Last, but certainly not least, always report suspicious activity to the non-emergency line at 503-823-3333 and crimes in progress to 911. If you are a victim of a car prowl, make sure to make a police report by calling the non-emergency number. This is how we know where and when to focus extra police attention and prevention resources.

It’s important that we all play a role in keeping our communities and business districts safe. Here is the link for the Portland Police Bureau’s Guide to Home and Vehicle Security http://www.portlandonline.com/police/index.cfm?c=29869&a=31554 for more additional tips or you can contact Havilah Ferschweiler at 503-823-0540 or hferschweiler@ci.portland.or.us.

Work on a Buckman Historic District to be Revived

Discussions are on-going regarding the creation of an historic district in residential Buckman.  The assistance of a PSU intern may be available along with a small grant to help with the work.

The area around Buckman school seems to have the highest probability of being selected due to the number of Victorian residences there and the significant landmarks.

Work on the historic district was discontinued a year ago due to the lack of resources and the likelihood that an historic district would not protect the entire neighborhood from future incompatible development.

We will need the help and involvement of the residents in the area selected.  You are encouraged to assist with the project and respond to inquires as they occur over the coming months.

Green Street Facilities On SE Ankeny

The City of Portland is committed to green development practices and sustainable stormwater management.  Green streets are an innovative, effective way to restore watershed health.  They protect water quality in rivers and streams, manage water from impervious surfaces, and can be more cost efficient than new sewer pipes.  Green streets offer many benefits that sewer pipes can’t.  Green streets:

Clean and cool air and water

• Refresh groundwater supplies
• Enhance neighborhood livability
• Calm traffic and enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety
• Increase community and property values
• Protect valuable surface and groundwater resources
• Add urban green space and wildlife habitat
• Help meet regulatory requirements for pollutant reduction and watershed resource management
• Reduce stormwater in the sewer system
• Save money on wastewater pumping and treatment costs

Green street facilities such as those to be installed in the Buckman neighborhood make a valuable contribution to these benefits.  Many hundreds of similar installations throughout the city are being included in future projects.

For the Ankeny corridor, there are 15 separate facilities, some are within the planter strip (between curb and sidewalk), some are vegetated curb extensions, and some are a combination of the two.   We worked with businesses, residents and property owners throughout the design process and responded as best we could to their concerns–making changes to placement and types of facilities where this was feasible while still achieving our requirement to reduce flows into the pipe system.

The facilities on or near Ankeny will have a slight impact on parking in the area.  There are approximately 155 parking spaces available between Ash and Burnside and between 16th and 20th. Of these, the green street facilities will displace approximately 16 spaces, or 10% of the total.  As you know, parking is a shared resource, and no adjacent property has exclusive claim to specific parking spaces.  While we understand the concerns expressed about parking in the neighborhood, we are confident that the green street facilities will be a benefit to the area.

City Expands Sunday Parkways to 3 Days of Smiles this Summer

The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation is planning to expand the highly successful Sunday Parksways in to three events this summer:

• North Portland Route – June 21st
• Northeast Route – July 19th
• Southeast Route – August 16th

The City piloted Sunday Parkways, a six-mile loop of traffic free streets in North Portland last year, opening the streets to non-motorized traffic and a whole slough of events and activites ranging from live music to yoga to hula hooping.  This year the City is proposing a southeast route that will come through the heart of the Buckman Neighborhood.  This is a great opportunity for Buckman residents to come together and meet their neightbors as well as promote the Buckman Neighborhood to the thousands of likely participants from other neighborhoods.

The City of Portland needs donations and volunteers to ensure the success of the the three Sunday Parkways events this summer. The Buckman Community Association Board voted in March to donate $100 from its coffers to help the cause.

For more information regarding Sunday Parkways go to the following link:
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=46103

To donate, volunteer, or register an event any of the Sunday Parkway events this summer see the following link:

http://www.orbike.com/servlet/com.gcm.servlet.event.EventView?commodityID=36148&command=createProcurement&supplierID=369

Main Street, Portland Coalition News

The Portland Main Street Coalition has been active this spring. Several weeks ago we co-sponsored a workshop about the future growth and densification of inner city residential neighborhoods in order to allow neighborhood representatives the opportunity to express their concerns to local officials about the potential degradation it too much unregulated growth occurs.

Related to this is Senate Bill 907 which is intended to expand design review along Portland’s main streets and in town centers.  Unfortunately this was not successful due to the powerful homebuilders lobby and a senate committee that did not have any Portland representatives.  We were very pleased with the support given by our Mayor, Sam Adams, and many other progressive organizations and individuals.  This discussion will continue until ways are found to insure quality development in Portland.

And finally we have been focused on the upcoming development of the Portland Plan that will direct the future growth of Portland for the next thirty years.  This plan has been delayed due to the city budget reduction and will be scaled back or possible even discontinued in favor of more specific shorter range action plan that will result in specific improvements in Portland.

St. Clair Apartments Restoration

Buckman’s St. Clair apartment building was built in 1900 and suffered an unfortunate ‘modernization’ many years ago that involved encasing the building in stucco. The original design and balcony structure have been restored along with the original siding and trim. This one hundred year old this building typifies a medium density project that enhances the surrounding Buckman neighborhood.

The building, at 13th and Taylor, was restored from plans by Communitecture, the Portland firm that specializes in sustainable, community-oriented design. The architect for the project is Buckman resident and leader, Christine Yun who has involved herself with the renovation of Washington High School Community Center, the restoration of Buckman Pool, the Buckman Historic District, and the Main Street Portland Coalition.

One finds in the Claire apartments, twenty apartments with studios, one, and two bedrooms. The kinds of materials in this building will never be found in a new building, such as the Ionic columns in the foyer made with old growth Douglas fir. Inside, the building’s historical accuracy has been thoughtfully maintained. We hope that more of the historic older buildings as well as the newer buildings of dubious quality are redone in a similar manner.