HAND January 2020

By Jill Riebesehl

It should be an exciting year for our neighborhood with OMSI finalizing its development plans and the SE 13th Place/14th Ave. pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the tracks being readied for use, among other projects. We on the Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood Association board are looking forward to guiding, advising and helping with the changes we all see coming in this busy, growing city in as many ways as we can and with the help of all our friends and neighbors.

The HAND Board has been busy rewriting its by-laws and, more urgently, keeping an eye on the city’s efforts under the auspices of the Office of Community and Civic Life to rework its relationship with neighborhood associations. 

After receiving a November update by a TriMet representative on advancing Division Transit Project plans, we became seriously concerned about traffic rerouting in the lower Division/Clinton corridor. The HAND board agreed to share with TriMet a detailed explanation of the ways, from our residents’ points of view,  how the proposed street restrictions and rerouting changes will cause serious traffic disruptions.

We have long had a major role in looking after a small property owned by PBOT, called Avalon Park, off Division at SE 19th. For a few years campers have moved into a portion of the garden-like property. New Day School, bordering the park to the south, reports that unsightly and unsafe practices are again spilling over. We have learned there is interest by Portland Community Gardens to absorb the property, which is adjacent to Clinton Community Garden. It has been recommended that the HAND board reassess its role and responsibility for the area.

After a previous collaborative effort, some of our board members have again joined together, at the request of residents who live on Clay St., behind Hawthorne Safeway, to try to work out a solution, that  includes Portland police, to unacceptable and deteriorating conditions from campers using the street. 

Our board meets the third Tuesday of very month (except December and August) at 7 pm in Carvlin Hall on the St. Philip Neri Campus. All neighbors, business owners and friends are welcome.

HAND January 2020

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