SE Updates
Innovative Pre-school Art, the outdoors and early childhood education intersect at Fiddleheads, a new program this fall that will immerse young chil…
Local Headlines
Laurelhurst Home Tour
The Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association holds its first home tour Sunday, September 9 from 11 am to 4 pm. Six homes of varying architectural styles…
RIP Changes Demographics
By Midge Pierce Shocked by a planning commission recommendation to add more multi-units to internal lots in the proposed Residential Infill …
Historic Designation Not Dead Yet
By Midge Pierce The Feds return of the state’s paperwork on the Eastmoreland National Historic District containing 5000 potentially unverifiable tru…
Turning Toxic Around, One Neighborhood at a Time
By Midge Pierce For several years, an undercurrent of tension has rippled through Richmond Neighborhood Association meetings as distrust, disrespect…
Pushback Over Parking Permit
By Midge Pierce Citing the potentially devastating effect on its commercial strip, the Hawthorne Boulevard Business Association unanimously voted to…
Montavilla Explores Remedies for Houselessness
By Midge Pierce With the Mayor, Police Union Chief and other Portland residents trading barbs that the city has become everything from ungovernable …
Increase in Water Bill
By Nancy Tannler At a recent Lents Neighborhood Livability Association meeting, knowledgeable officials fielded questions about why your water bill …
Proposed Permit Parking
By Nancy Tannler In August 2018, Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will be sending mailers to residents in the Richmond and Sunnyside neighbo…
Hawthorne Vacancies – New Normal or Not
By Gabriel Frayne Jr. The bustling allure of Hawthorne Boulevard is any realtor’s dream. A local commercial realtor describes it in a brochure this …
Mainstreet Style Design is Good for City
By Midge Pierce “Density with Sensitivity” is the motto of urban planner and architectural firebrand Heather Flint Chatto, who with longtime landuse…
SE Updates
Shelter Approved Despite Objections Multnomah County is moving forward on a controversial 120-bed shelter at SE 61st and Foster. Ignoring pleas o…
The Urbanization of the Central Eastside
By Don MacGillivray There is no end in sight to the urbanization of the Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID). What once was an industrial dis…
Tax Proposal on Unhealthy Food
By Don MacGillivray Tax Reform Initiative Petition 37 will be on the November ballot. It is a referendum to eliminate any and all future taxatio…
Petition Urges Portlanders to Take Back the City
By Midge Pierce A pair of petitions demanding the City take forceful action against criminal elements on our streets has struck a nerve. The peti…
18th Village Building Convergence
The City Repair Project, the Portland-based non-profit that hosts the annual Village Building Convergence (VBC), invites you to join in the many events…
Holgate Manor is Microcosm of Crisis
By Midge Pierce The human toll of the housing crisis is measured in the wizened face of 92-year-old Anna Lendya, an immigrant who has called Holgate…
RIP Backlash Emerges from Former Supporters
By Midge Pierce Grassroots support for the City’s Residential Infill Project (RIP) slipped during last month’s testimony before the Planning and Sus…
Blue is for Better Housing Design
By Midge Pierce Which mailer did you get–blue, yellow or none at all? Did you respond? Distinctively colored notices sent by city planners over t…
URM Update: Over-reach or Critical Need
By Midge Pierce Portlanders concerned about the changing cityscape are bracing for the outcome of a June 13 City Council hearing on new seismic retr…
Cyclists Input Needed in CEID Transportation Network
By Don MacGillivray Cyclists are a huge part of the Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID) and their numbers are increasing. The building boom …
Balancing Recreation with Nature
By Don MacGillivray For years off road cycling has been tossed around like a political football with major advocates and critics who argue about any…
The Case for Participatory Budgeting
Correction: A slight but important correction needs to be made in this article: https://www.southeastexaminer.com/2018/06/the-case-for-participat…
Police Explain Homeless Crisis Limits
By Midge Pierce Finding balance between compassion for the homeless and diffusing neighborhood tensions is a dilemma for police caught between charg…
What’s in a Name?
By Midge Pierce A name change for the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) to the Office of Community and Civic Life has surprised observers who…
Best Practices for Making Vision Zero Work
By Sean Miller Portland has rolled out its Vision Zero Action Plan in order to engineer reduced speeds into city roads. The plan hopes to accomplish…
Clarion Call Issued for Final RIP Planning Testimony
By Midge Pierce 135,000 Portland residents received notices from the City that their single family property would be rezoned under the Residential…
City Council Candidates
By Don MacGillivray It is rare to have the opportunity to choose a new member of Portland’s City Council. With Dan Saltzman retiring, the Council wi…
Frontline Communities on Climate and Environmental Justice
By Bryan Brumley The Rev. E.D. Mondaine became president of the NAACP Portland Branch in March. He remembers growing up in St. Louis, Mo., in the sh…
SOLVE Richmond’s Graffiti and Litter Clean Up Day
By Allen Field The Richmond Neighborhood Association holds its 1st Richmond Graffiti & Litter CleanUp Day, Saturday, June 16, from 9 am to 1 pm.…
Tabor Park House Sale Averted
By Midge Pierce Now that a proposal to rezone a chunk of Mt. Tabor Park has been rescinded by Commissioner Amanda Fritz, park supporters are breathi…
Community News May 2018
Run Mama Run PDX The Mother and Child Education Center invites the public to participate in the 10th Annual RunMamaRun, a 10k/5k stroller-friendly r…
Council Ponders URM Retrofits
By Gabriel Frayne Jr. The city-wide dilemma concerning how to mandate seismic retrofits for Portland’s nearly two thousand unreinforced masonry buil…
Vision Zero Has Miles to Go
By Don MacGillivray In 2016 Portland adopted the Vision Zero program. The accomplishments in its first year are impressive. Vision Zero’s intent …
PDX Transportation Goals
By Don MacGillivray Portland has serious transportation issues growing in ways that concern everyone, especially commuters. The cost of traffic cong…
Cyclists Rally For Safety
Dozens of street safety advocates rallied at Powell Park on Tuesday to oppose the removal of the bike lanes on SE 26th Ave. at Powell Blvd. one of Port…
Divisive Diverter Impacts Hawthorne and Division
By Midge Pierce Add “diverter” to a meeting agenda in SE Portland and tension and attendance rise especially if the diverter is at the junction of n…
Thorburn: Successfully Slowing Roadrunners
By Midge Pierce Love ‘em or hate ‘em, new speed bumps are doing their job along Thorburn St., the curvy route between SE 62nd and Gilham. Debra M…
Proposed Elimination of ONI’s Graffiti Abatement Program
By Adam Meltzer The Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) has proposed cutting the Graffiti Abatement Program for the 2018-2019 City budget stati…
Diesel Exhaust Emissions Control Lagging in Oregon
By Don MacGillivray Diesel exhaust has been an issue in Portland for many years. Recently the central city has more than thirty large buildings unde…
Mural Mixes Art and Ethos to Benefit Art Community
By Midge Pierce 60 Minutes viewers may think Portland’s moment has passed, but a 100 foot long, 10 panel mural is helping keep Portland’s art scene …
WP Goes from College to University
President Andrea P. Cook, Ph.D. announced that Warner Pacific College will now have the designation as a University. This reflects a new era at Warner…
Discourse Drives Homeless Protest
By Midge Pierce Hate was a no-show at a recent rally expected to bring out angry protesters over a proposed Foster Rd. homeless shelter. On a Sat…
Future Trends in Portland’s Demographics
By Gabriel Frayne Jr. Roughly a decade ago Portland acquired a reputation as a city “where young people go to retire,” or at least wait tables and b…
101 year-old School to be Reborn
By David Mayne Kellogg Middle School at Powell and 69th Ave. will be rebuilt and ready for SE Portland middle schoolers in the fall of 2021. The wor…
RIP Update
By Midge Pierce As analysts sift through thousands of comments to the Recommended Draft of the City’s Residential Infill Project, a commonality emer…
Transit Recalibration Offers Opportunity
By Midge Pierce With delays likely in federal grant funding and a design estimated at some $14 million over budget, Trimet officials have trotted ou…
Club Impact Fills Social Gap
By Don MacGillivray Last year’s budget cuts to the Oregon State Human Services budget are taking effect now. Because of the short fall of nearly $60…
Preservation Gets Its Turn
By Midge Pierce Preservationists, thwarted by Portland’s perceived pro-growth demolition practices, finally have a turn at the mike. To launch it…
Petition Calls for Public Vote on RIP
By Midge Pierce Portland’s biggest story continuing into 2018 is its housing emergency. Homelessness remains rampant despite shelters such as the 10…
Diverter Divides Cyclists and Community
By Midge Pierce Even though the Portland Bureau of Transportation has temporarily delayed a final decision on a semi-diverter proposed on the Lincol…
Seismic Retrofits for URMs
Artwork by Aaron Trotter – a wonderful local artist. Check out more of his work @ https://www.illustratedplayingcards.com/ Property owners throughou…
SE Updates December 2017
Diverters Two competing perspectives about a PBOT-proposed street diverter at SE Lincoln and 50th circulated through the Mt. Tabor and Richmond neig…
The Future of OMSI
By Don MacGillivray OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is planning for significant growth and change over the next twenty years. With o…
When it Comes to Crime, the County Matters
By Midge Pierce Crime prevention may be as close as ballot measures in the next county election or as remote as finding funds for more preventative …
New Challenges to RIP
By Midge Pierce As neighborhood associations hunkered down last month to meet the deadline for response to Residential Infill Project amendments and…
Community News December 2017
Home Energy Score If you’re in the market to buy or sell a home, you’re about to get a peek at the inner workings of your Portland home. That’s beca…
Density and Design Around the Nation
By Don MacGillivray The City of Portland is experiencing a housing boom and crisis happening simultaneously. In spite of herculean efforts by govern…
Progressives Push; Montavilla Pivots
By Midge Pierce Montavilla has become a flashpoint in recent debates over social justice and the use of police force. Last month’s neighborhood asso…
RIP Follows the Money: Splits Southeast
By Midge Pierce A shift in proposed housing densification from vast tracts east of I-205 inward to more neighborhoods in inner SE and NE is a signif…
SE Updates
An inevitable by-product of Portland densification is the loss of local landmarks. This is a tale of Two City Sites with very different outcomes. SE…
Grassroots Group Grapples Crime
By Midge Pierce Caught between crime and compassion, residents along the commercial corridors and tree-lined streets of SE are in a quandary about h…
The Opioid Epidemic
By Don MacGillivray Recent reports say that Oregon has one of the worst overall drug problems in the United States based on per capita consumption. …
Potential Seismic Shift Comes to SEUL with New Leadership
By Midge Pierce Under new leadership, Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) is steering its seven neighborhood coalitions that include…
Transportation Bill Partially Funds Congestion Relief
By Don MacGillivray Gov. Kate Brown’s signed the new state $5.3 billion road-and-bridge funding bill that will provide “congestion relief” at The Ro…
Solutions for Homeless Remain Elusive
By Don MacGillivray For developers and landlords it is the best of times. For low income renters and the homeless it is the worst of times. In spite…
Mt. Tabor Long Block Gets Makeover
By Midge Pierce The results of a 10 year process to improve sub-standard building and working conditions at the Mt. Tabor Central Maintenance Yard w…
Climate Change, Gorge Fires and Volunteer Actions
By Midge Pierce Climatologists, foresters and other experts – one of whom calls the recent Gorge conflagration “a postcard from the future” – have a…
Franklin High School Re-Opens Reinvented
By Nancy Tannler Thanks to the $482 million school building improvement bond the citizens of Portland voted for in 2012, Franklin, Roosevelt and Gra…
Affordable Family Housing and Apartments Coming to Powell
By Midge Pierce A project that will likely be the largest affordable complex in SE Portland is slated to replace an aging strip club at 30th and Pow…
Portland Map App
By Don MacGillivray Many people in Portland are concerned about the building boom currently underway within the inner city neighborhoods. Recentl…
SE Updates
By Midge Pierce Peacock Lane is on track to be the first of three SE Portland neighborhoods considering a National Historic District designation to …
Future Vision Looks Rosy on 82nd Avenue
At a recent City Council meeting held at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) on 82nd Ave., Council and audience heard from residents a…
Laurelhurst Neighbors Seek Solutions for Homeless Crisis
By Nancy Tannler Homeless camping and the negative impact on the neighborhood compelled the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association (LNA) to hold the L…
Dizzying Array of Landuse Changes Coming Your Way
By Midge Pierce Brace yourselves. The back half of 2017 will bring ever more dramatic changes to Portland’s cityscape as new state laws are implemen…
Changing of the Guard at SE Uplift
By Midge Pierce The faces of the SE Uplift board are younger, more diverse, more representative of advocacy coalitions and less likely to be homeown…
SE Uplift Welcomes New Executive Director Molly Mayo
By Michelle Frost Southeast Uplift is a community center tucked into the neighborhood just a block from Hawthorne and around the corner from SE 35th…
Community News July ’17
Improve the places you love Have you noticed invasive plants like Ivy and Blackberry bushes popping up along your favorite trails, and rivers? Have …
Foes Blast Build Bill
By Midge Pierce It’s a tough time for state passage of tax plans, pension reforms and possibly emergency housing. By the time you read this, a le…
SE Updates
At the corner of 76th & SE Stark where Beet’s Auto Repair once existed, developer Randy Rapaport is proposing a “work-force housing” project. He pr…
Better Housing by Design
By Don MacGillivray Housing in Portland is in crisis. Not only the lack of affordable housing, but the affect market rate housing has on changing ne…
Low Income Housing for Seniors
By Don MacGillivray Finding an affordable home for a low-income senior citizen seems almost impossible. The typical rent for a small apartment may …
Reclaiming the Willamette River
By Nancy Tannler This year’s Big Float happens Saturday July 15. (See details on page 13) Hopefully this year’s event won’t take place on one of tho…
Infill on Steroids Gains State Traction: Riles Residents
By Midge Pierce A bill known as a “Build Baby Build” legislative bill under the idea of addressing emergency housing statewide is fueling what criti…
Reactions to HB 2007
By Midge Pierce With astronomical rental and housing costs, no one denies the need for affordable housing. The question is whether HB 2007 is the s…
Bio-gas / Poop to Power
By Don MacGillivray Portland will soon be processing the City’s sewage and making a profit doing it. This is making “power from poop.” With over sev…
SE Updates
By Midge Pierce If the devil is in the details, as nearly 3000 legislative measures move through Salem, it’s understandable that lawmakers, many of …
The Rip in Rip City
By Midge Pierce In Rip City’s cyclical economy, the bloom may be fading from the construction boom. Now, builders are using radical new tactics to m…
Police Dog Mick Honored
By Michelle Frost At Portland Police’s community open house and dedication ceremony on Saturday, May 20, at 4735 E. Burnside station, officers will …
DOZA – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Midge Pierce Portland’s reputation for good design needs to be refreshed, according to the final version of Portland’s Design Overlay Zone Assess…
Citizens Plead Case to Keep 1.31 Acres As Open Space
By Nancy Tannler The SE Uplift Board, Buckman Community Association (BCA) and community activists continue to petition with Portland Parks & Rec…
Shape the Future of Portland
Citizens who want to help shape the future of SE Portland and be part of critical solutions to the quadrant’s urgent issues like road safety, transport…
Graffiti explosion in PDX
By Juliette Muracchioli, Graffiti Abatement Program Coordinator, City of Portland Seen more graffiti in Portland lately? You’re not alone. Graffiti …
Renaming the Multnomah County Elections Building
Former Gov. Barbara Roberts and Commissioner Loretta Smith high five after renaming the Multnomah County Elections Building for suffragists Abigail Sco…
Policing Pinch Affects Everyone
By Karen Hery and Jim O’Rourke It’s no secret that Portland’s population is growing. Unfortunately, the growth of Portland’s police force has not b…
Long Blocks’ Open Space Changing
By Midge Pierce Plants and flower pots are soon due to replace children and frisbees on a quarter of Mt. Tabor’s so-called Long Block between Lincol…
Finding a Place for Tiny Houses
By Midge Pierce Neighbors and online groups have been abuzz as hundreds of homeowners have stepped forward to volunteer for Multnomah County’s pilot…
Pro vs Con – Preservation Gets Ugly
By Midge Pierce With more than 1100 signatures in support of nominating Laurelhurst for National Historic Designation, residents are undeterred by a…
Challenges and Opportunities in Public Higher Education
By Don MacGillivray Perhaps the greatest change in the requirements for future employment is an advanced education. More than three-quarters of Oreg…
Division Residents Not Warming to BRT
A Jade District meeting last month to describe the Bus Rapid Transit proposal was a show of commitment to running elongated buses down Division St. It …