By Susan Beal
The Richmond Neighborhood Association held its monthly meeting on October 9 from 7-9 pm at Waverly Heights Church, SE 33rd and Woodward Street. Meetings are normally held in the church basement with an entry door on the east side. Additional info can be found at richmondpdx.org.
RNA board member Rob Mumford reported that the new edition of the Richmond Neighborhood News will be delivered throughout the neighborhood by volunteers as of mid-October.
Brenda Martin of Tri-Met gave an update on the new Division Rapid Transit service for the 4 line, the first in Portland. Longer articulated buses will hold 60% more passengers, with multiple doors, and save time by easier entry/exit. Stops have been selected after resident and business input and community meetings will be held in early November in inner SE, outer SE, and Gresham.
Sara Wright of BPS presented on the Neighborhood Contact Project – improving how residents and others are informed about projects such as demolitions and fossil fuel terminals. She described the initial concept and process from draft to legislative planning project. There will be a meeting with SE Uplift on Nov. 7, and the draft will be available in November/December.
After several recent worrying events on sidewalks, streets, and in parks, residents have concerns about public safety both in our neighborhood and throughout Portland. Neighbor Cynthia Eckersley announced that she is organizing a Southeast-only community meeting with Portland Police Bureau on November 16 from 6:30-8:30, held in the dining room at Taborspace: This will be a meeting to discuss the issues of crime and safety as they affect the citizens of Southeast Portland. Neighborhood associations, SE Uplift, and ONI have been asked to attend. Please come ready to listen and participate in conversation about what concerns you have and to share what ideas you have to resolve the issues with the resources available to us.
Richmond Neighborhood Association voted to convene a future session to address concerns on this topic more fully, and also to reach out to PPB asking them for enhanced patrol and to enforce the camping ordinance at Sewallcrest Park.
Richmond Ready announced that new online community emergency preparedness content will be ready in January, as well as hosting public quarterly forums. The first topic of the meetings will be water storage.
Land Use and Transportation: RNA approved a letter discouraging the city from allowing large self-storage facilities on transit hubs and corridors in the Richmond neighborhood.
The Graffiti Task Force continues its monthly meetings on the 4th Tuesday of each month from 7-8:30 pm at the D Street Village. Volunteers interested in helping keep our neighborhood clean can contact Adam Meltzer at richmondgrtf@gmail.com.‎
The next RNA meeting will be Monday, November 13, 7-9 pm at the Waverly Heights Church.
