Montavilla Neighborhood Association
By Louise Hoff
Montavilla Neighborhood Association Board successfully held a virtual general meeting this month and hopes to do the same on September 14, 6:30 pm. Rachel Phariss will be our featured speaker about bees and their importance in our gardens. METBA will be taking a monthly segment in the program since supporting our local businesses is so vital at this time.
Stores, coffee shops and restaurants are trying new and innovative longer-term solutions. We have an increase in sidewalk dining, take-out windows and deliveries. The Montavilla Farmer’s Market on Sunday has grown and the selection is simply awesome.
Portland Community College SE will have its fall lineup ready on July 29 so there is no excuse not to learn more about so many interesting subjects or take an online exercise class to stay as healthy as you can.
Our Montavilla Neighborhood Association will be on summer break until September. See you then and wear a mask!
Richmond Neighborhood Association
By Kamal Belkhayat
The RNA meets the second Monday of the month, 6:30–8:30 pm. Everyone is welcome. Agendas are posted the week before at richmondpdx.org and are sent to the RNA Announce listserv. Meetings will be via Zoom until further notice. Preregistration is required, the link is on the agenda and sent to the listserv. To be added to the RNA’s listserv, email richmondnasecretary@gmail.com.
Annual Board Election: The election was held Tuesday, July 14. Most people filled out print-at-home ballots, but a few voted onsite at the Waverly Church balloting site in the parking lot. All the candidates were elected to the Board: Albert Kaufman, Allen Field, Heather Flint Chatto, Leslie Poston, Denise Hare and Simon Kipersztok. At the July 13 RNA meeting, the candidates either gave a short statement or had their candidate statements read.
July 13 RNA Meeting: Zach Katz and Quincy Brown presented the Healthier Hawthorne Initiative. The goal is to install permanent, parking-protected bike lanes on both sides of Hawthorne. The bike lanes would be right next to the sidewalk, protected from the auto/bus travel lane by a parking lane. This is PBOT’s’ Alternative 3B outlined in the Hawthorne Paint and Pave Mid-Project report – Draft: May 2020, found at portland.gov/transportation/planning/se-hawthorne-pave-and-paint. The stated purpose of the initiative is to increase safety, accessibility and air quality. More information is at healthierhawthorne.com. A trade off would be the elimination of 40-50 percent of the parking spaces on Hawthorne.
Zack and Quincy requested a letter of support for their design, i.e., PBOT’s Alternative 3B. Several people stated it was too early for the RNA to vote on any alternative since PBOT still has another round of outreach in September/October and the RNA should wait for PBOT’s final report to issue. This was PBOT’s recommendation as well.
PBOT’s Maggie Derk, Mauricio Leclerc and Bryan Poole presented the SE Hawthorne Paint and Pave Project. They described the three alternatives for traffic configuration west of César E. Chávez Blvd.: (1) keep everything the same, (2) remove a travel lane in each direction and install a permanent center turn-lane, i.e., mirror the configuration east of César E. Chávez Blvd, and (3) install permanent bikes lanes, remove one auto travel lane in each direction and have no center turn-lane.
PBOT will finalize its evaluation of the different alternatives in August. They anticipate completing their public outreach in September/October 2020, followed by an online survey in November. The repaving work is scheduled for summer 2021. For more information, visit the Pave and Paint link above.
RNA Land Use Chair Heather Flint Chatto gave updates on the Residential Infill Project (RIP), Design Overlay Zone Amendment (DOZA), Historical Preservation Code and the Shelter to Housing Continuum Project (S2HC). She described a project to develop grant-funded solar powered kiosks to promote community outreach and participation and advertise RNA meetings and projects.
Many of the RNA’s annual events have been cancelled or put on hold due to COVID-19, such as the Spring Cleanup, the Litter & Graffiti CleanUp and the summer Movie in Sewallcrest Park. It’s not certain yet whether the annual Friends of Trees tree planting in December will be cancelled, too.