Local Headlines

By Midge Pierce   With the clock ticking on disconnecting Portland’s open air reservoirs, a procedural catch 22 may buy concerned citizens a precious few days to comment or sign […]

By Midge Pierce   It has become a familiar refrain: We’re losing what makes Portland, Portland. Mature tree canopies. Affordable single-family homes for first time buyers. Classic craftsmen houses. Century-old

By Don MacGillivray   Portland’s Street Funding proposal has undergone much review by both business people and residents and it still remains a question in the minds of the public.

By Nancy Tannler (Note: the scheduled Dec 10 meeting has been postponed)   The Mt. Tabor Reservoir meeting with Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish was like something one would

By Nancy Tannler   Eastside Village PDX is a group of like-minded people living on Portland’s east side who have come together to develop resources they will need to age

By Midge Pierce   Portlanders may assume historic designations protect treasured places from the SE wave of new construction, but the saga of the Herman Vetter Property, midway up SE

By Don MacGillivray   If you’ve wanted to know more about neighborhood associations and the many advocacy groups in Portland, the Office of Neighborhood Information (ONI) Community Summit is your

By Don MacGillivray   Portland is increasingly interested in addressing issues about equity of opportunity. In a society with wide economic diversity, opportunities are not distributed equally. Much of the

By Karen Hery   Hopes for a morale-boosting decision by city council were dashed last month when a land use appeal requested by the Central Eastside Industrial Council for the

By Sandy Polishuk   From Eastmoreland, to Kenton, to Ladd’s Edition, to Northwest Portland, Portlanders are fighting to save good old houses and maintain the character of their neighborhoods–the City

By Bob Kellett Neighborhood Planning Program Manager SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition   The City of Portland turned 163 years old this year. It is young compared to cities on the

By Midge Pierce   The Water Bureau’s final construction plan for decommissioning the Mt. Tabor Reservoirs has been submitted to the Portland Land Use Review Board. This means the clock

By Nancy Tannler   People do have the power to change decisions that governments make. A case in point is the Eiffel Tower, originally built for the 1889 World’s Fair

After years of construction and disruption, Division Street is once again Open for Business! The neighborhood survived the chaos – and can proudly say many of your favorite businesses are

By Karen Hery   SE Portland has a long history of fostering, preserving and protecting everything from bike lanes to open space and a vibrant local business scene. That explains

By Don MacGillivray   Livability is important when businesses decide to locate or relocate. System Development Charges (SDC’s) help maintain Portland’s quality of life as city infrastructure grows. Most people

by Karen Hery     The words sanctuary and industrial wouldn’t come up in the same sentence in most parts of Portland. If you spend time around Mike Redmond of

By Robin Corrigan   “Fall for Elms,” is the fundraiser Saturday, September 20 at the Jagger House, 609 SE 16th Ave. from 4 to 8 pm. The recently-restored Jagger House

By Midge Pierce   A citizens task force that met frequently this summer with engineers from the Portland Water Bureau reports the final plan application has not yet been filed

By Don MacGillivray   Comprehensive is not a meaningful enough term for the all encompassing qualities of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Portland voters will decide in November whether the city’s

By Don MacGillivray   Transportation funding has long been an important issue in Portland. Our streets are deteriorating under the pressure of weather, age and normal use. At the same

By Midge Pierce   In response to last month’s story, The Rubble Within, Justin Wood with the Portland Homebuilder’s Association says the association has not done any formal research on

By Don MacGillivray   The City is embarking on its Seventh Regulatory Improvement Code Amendment Package (RICAP #7). Those that remember the temporary vacation rentals flap may know the term.

By Don MacGillivray   Portland residents are invited to view and comment on elements of a long-range plan to direct growth and change over the next twenty years. Draft 2035

By Nancy Tannler   In 1988, the Central Eastside became an official district of Portland’s Central City and is now part of the Central City 2035 Plan (CC2035). The SE

By Midge Pierce   You may feel like your car, bike or sandals are barely squeezing through Portland’s tightly-packed commercial corridors and detours this summer. Inner SE is bursting with

Portland’s longest running STREET FAIR  Hawthorne businesses are looking forward to hosting our community on Hawthorne Boulevard on August 17. The Boulevard will be closed from SE 30th to SE Cesar

By Don MacGillivray   The Nature Conservancy is an organization taking climate change seriously. The Conservancy has revised its activities across 23 million acres in Oregon to ensure that priority

By Midge Pierce   The progress presented by a citizen’s group that reduces damage in Mt. Tabor Park from Portland Water Bureau’s upcoming, 18-month reservoir disconnection project was almost overshadowed

By Don MacGillivray   Quality homes are being scraped away. This is not infill or added density, it is the gradual devastation of many neighborhoods and perhaps their rebirth. Demolitions

By Rich Riegel   An initiative petition for a proposed ballot measure is being circulated in our area in an effort to give guidance to how the region’s water supply

By Midge Pierce   The year-long Franklin High School Centennial ends this month with an alumni weekend that starts with the planting of a Centennial Rose during a school open

By Don MacGillivray   Nearly 1,100 public comments were received in the review of the second section of the Draft Comprehensive Plan in the forth quarter of last year. Most

By Don MacGillivray   While some graffiti shows artistic talent all of it is considered vandalism. Perhaps, more importantly it is criminal behavior that is expensive to repair. Generally, modern

by Karen Hery   It’s taken quite some time for a closed down high school in the inner Southeast to graduate to its next use.  The diploma is almost in

Heavy equipment enthusiasts may have been delighted with the massive 20-plus ton excavator digging up the old Portland Impact Building at 4703 SE Hawthorne recently but neighbors were less than

By Nancy Tannler   The community meeting about the Mt Tabor Reservoir Disconnection Project was co-hosted by Portland Water Bureau (PWB) and Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association (MTNA). It came about

By Nancy Tannler   The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new SE Center Library and Student Commons Building at Portland Community College was an important celebration  for the vision of higher

By Midge Pierce   High drama capped a 15-year-saga that saved a priceless, century-old tree. Thunder clapped and the sky spit shards of ice as nearly two dozen arborists climbed

By Don MacGillivray   The Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID) appears to the layperson as a unique, but under-developed section of Portland’s central city. Those that know it are aware

Greg Hulbert, a popular and highly-respected adviser at the information desk at Portland Nursery for twenty-three years, passed away at home on Sunday morning, April 13, 2014, following a short

By Midge Pierce   Mt. Tabor’s Proposed Reservoir Construction Project plan is now posted in southwest sections of the park prior to a public meeting May 6, 6:30 pm at

By Don MacGillivray     The improvement of community life in Portland is often the topic of policy discussions resulting in implementation difficulties. The current conception of a neighborhood’s commercial

By Don MacGillivray   Airbedandbreakfast.com, known as Airbnb, is initiating a “Shared City” concept to help the city of Portland and local businesses attract visitors showing off Portland as a

By Nancy Tannler   Co-petitioners for the Portland Public Water District (PPWD) Floy Jones and Kent Craford held a meeting that detailed the reasons they have pushed to get their

By Midge Pierce   Time is running out on the preservation of the Mt. Tabor reservoirs with the April filing of a Portland Water Bureau land use application to disconnect

By Karen Hery   The inner Southeast’s pride in being ever so unique gets one more boost and another notch in our not-like-anywhere-else persona this Spring when the primary elections

By Midge Pierce   Experts predict 400,000 people will move into Portland over the next few decades. Builder, scholar, entrepreneur Eli Spevak believes he has solutions for how to house

By Nancy Tannler   Portland Water Bureau (PWB) announced plans to disconnect Reservoirs 1, 5 and 6 from the city’s drinking water and construct new piped connections, valves and other

By Don MacGillivray   How well do you know your neighbors? Are they renting out a room or two to visitors from out of town? There are over 250 homeowners

By Don MacGillivray   With the increase of the number of apartment buildings without parking and the anticipated general growth in the future, parking is a big issue. To address

By Karen Hery   First to market can be a fast path to success or a lonely walk. Stephanie Sheldon, is far from lonely right now. Sheldon is the owner

By M. Pierce   Neighborhood children, a giant heritage tree and property listed on the National Park’s Register of Historic Places were endangered by illegal excavation over last month’s MLK

By Karen Hery There’s a building boom going on in the inner SE. It’s not a sudden surge in box stores or single family homes, not a slew of new

by Karen Hery   There’s not much stirring as winter approaches St. Francis Park except the final work of a city sewer project along the walkway between the park area and

By Don MacGillivray   The Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID) has been the subject of planning activities for the last forty years. It’s time to renew and update these plans

Nestlé’s proposed water bottling plant in Cascade Locks may still be years away, but a recent state ruling helped Nestlé over one of multiple legal hurdles it must clear before

Over the next several months, the 25-million gallon underground reinforced concrete reservoir being built atop Kelly Butte in SE Portland will begin to rise from the ground. The 394 by

By Rose Kelsch King   It’s been nearly two months since students in SE Portland headed back to school. Homework, spending time with friends, and the next big sporting event

By Don MacGillivray   For those interested in the planning of Portland, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has outdone themselves. The new Draft Comprehensive Plan (Part 2 was released

By Karen Hery   Picking the next neighborhood hot spot is, at best, one part social science, two parts intuition and a fair bit of luck. As long-time residents age,

By Nancy Tannler   Providence Portland Medical Center on NE Glisan held its annual meeting with the community recently and presented plans for the Providence Guest House to be built

By Rich Riegel   Wandering the streets with overloaded shopping carts, camping under bridges, viaducts and next to businesses, and congregating in local parks, Portland’s homeless population is everywhere, and

By Nancy Tannler   The future need for more water in the Portland Metropolitan area is making the news. Most recently the Tualatin Valley Water District declared they plan to

By Nancy Tannler   Montavilla residents held a town hall meeting to address government officials, environmental experts and Portland Public School about their worry over the recent installation of a

By Eve Dodds   The people of Oregon are about to get healthier. A national study by the Department of Health and Human Services has shown that Oregon’s health reform has

By Rich Riegel   A $20 million renovation in the heart of the Central Eastside Industrial District is proof the area in inner SE continues to boom. Viewpoint Construction Software,

By Don MacGillivray   With approximately 3,000 potentially susceptible elms throughout the city, Dutch Elm disease (DED) would have a catastrophic impact on Portland’s urban forest if it were allowed

By Jean Baker   The Burnside Bridgehead site is located at the base of the east end of the Burnside Bridge. Extending north from Burnside Street to I-84 between 2nd

By Nancy Tannler Additional information provided by Mark Bartlett and Shannon Loch The struggle to identify the best use of the Mt. Tabor Park reservoirs is about to heat up.

By Nancy Tannler   Last month in a series on the reservoirs, The Southeast Examiner wrote the article Open Air Reservoirs and Your Health. This month, we look back over

Lee Perlman was one of our ace reporters here at The Southeast Examiner. He knew how to meet deadlines, follow local news and tell great stories. Lee was our intrepid

By Don MacGillivray   Unfortunately, Portland still has many people in need of basic emergency assistance. When the paycheck is gone or is not enough for the rent and folks

By Lee Perlman   According to some of its neighbors, Colonel Summers Park has become too popular as a place to hang out and drink. Reactions from the bureaus of

By Lee Perlman     Urban renewal advisory groups abolished   Portland Development Commission announced plans for the abolition of the Urban Renewal Advisory Committees (URACs) that have provided local

By Lee Perlman   There are many other community gardens in Portland, but it’d be hard to find one with a more spectacular view than the Brooklyn neighborhood’s plot. With

Even though it seems as if Portland’s elected officials have capitulated over the covered reservoir ordinance (EPA Long Term 2 Enhancement Surface Water Treatment–LT2), a group of concerned citizens believe

Around noon on Sunday, July 28, a couple thousand people will climb into inner-tubes and other human-powered watercraft and set sail down the Willamette River in downtown Portland. This merry

By Don macGillivray You may have noticed the towering sixty foot high rust-colored steel sculpture at the corner of SE Grand Ave. and SE Hawthorne Blvd. The massive installation is

Bridgehead development continues   Portland Design Commission last month held a second hearing for Key Development’s plans for a 20-story building on Block 67, vacant land immediately north of the

Dan Valliere is not only new to Portland and to REACH Community Development, but he is new to housing development in general. However, he is no stranger to organizational collaboration,

Kerns parkless apartments get in under the wire   New rules recently passed by the Portland City Council now require new apartment projects of 30 units or more to have

Portland has lost a great civic and environmental activist with the death on May 4 of Cascade Anderson Geller at age 59. A resident of the Mt. Tabor neighborhood, Cascade

The 2013 Village Building Convergence (VBC), themed “Urban Succession: Shift and Sprout,” will happen May 24 – June 2 in Portland. At this year’s annual, ten-day Convergence on urban permaculture,

by Allen Field   Commissioner Nick Fish, Parks & Recreation staff, Portland Parks Foundation, Friends of Portland Community Gardens, community gardeners, and neighbors officially opened the new Mt. Tabor Community

By John McLaren Construction of the NE/SE 50s Bikeway, plans which were hotly debated two years ago in the Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association (MTNA), is now expected to begin in

The Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission heard testimony last month that proposed new parking requirements for new multi-family development was unnecessary and contrary to city goals, and also that it

  by Tim Hall Portland Water Bureau Making way for a better Kelly Butte landscape   During first three months of the year, construction vehicles were at work clearing a

Tower planned for Burnside Bridgehead   Representatives of Key Development, and LRS and Skylab architects last month treated the Kerns Neighborhood Association to their plans for Block 67, next to

By Don MacGillivray and Lee Perlman The one-acre private park that graced the Buckman neighborhood for 40 years is about to disappear. The St. Francis Parish is in the process

Historic Resources Code Improvement Project makes it easier, cheaper to make minor modifications to Portland’s historic resources PORTLAND, Ore. — This morning Portland’s City Council unanimously voted to adopt code amendments that

By Don MacGillivray Mayor Charlie Hales campaigned on “common sense” priorities for the City of Portland. In the next three months the City will find out what this means. Mayor

By Nancy Tannler Back in 2005, Carol Levine, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker here, recognized the need to assist veterans reintegrate themselves back into society after returning from the war

By Lee Perlman Green Castle to become apartments Joe Westerman waged a long legal battle to allow his parking lot on NE 20th Ave. at Everett St. to be used

By Lee Perlman     At the direction of Portland City Council, and response to outcries from many neighborhoods, the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has proposed to impose

Editors note: Have you ever gone by a non-descript building and wondered “What’s going on in there”? So have we. In this new column, we will explore the interior of

The minimum parking requirements for new multi-family buildings along high density corridors has residents living in the immediate neighborhood very concerned. At the City Council session of January 10, citizens

Sunshine Dairy seeks street vacation   The Sunshine Dairy at 801 NE. 21st Ave. is seeking a pair of street vacancies to facilitate its truck loading. As consultant Peter Fry