Previous | Image 1 of 9 | Next

libraryopens.crop_.3.jpg

The Kenton Library opened at last today, officially and ceremoniously. The place has been packed all day as residents pore over the library's shiny bookish bling.  The library is around the corner from the Sentinel's office and I literally stopped in this afternoon only because I had to return some Terry Pratchett audio books. Today was a great day for the neighborhood and North Portland, and one that will be well covered by the mainstream press.  If you as a resident have photos you'd like us to post here or link to, please comment below or email them to pub@portlandsentinel.com. -Cornelius Swart

UPDATE: I stopped in as well, and it was packed to the gills with people - and, of course, books. City Council candidate Ed Garren was there, as was Multnomah County Commissioner candidate Karol Collymore and a host of other local luminaries. In the storytelling space, women read and used puppets to act out Dr. Seuss stories as enraptured children looked on. People perused the shelves, marveled at the extensive DVD collection (which pulls out, file cabinet-style, from the wall) and noshed on mini-cupcakes and lemonade provided by nearby Posies Cafe. The library is shiny, spacious and state-of-the-art (well, at least by Kenton standards), and brings Kenton one step closer to being a gentrified destination neighborhood. YEAH literacy! -Rebecca Robinson

We know, we know..this video is  "like, like soooooo posted-last-week"- but still fresh in some minds. This is another logistical bit of brilliance from OK Go.

Will the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area (ICURA) be expanded to
include the Rose Quarter? City Council won't decide until next year,
but organizations in Portland like the Northeast Coalition of
Neighborhoods (NECN) are trying to figure out what residents of North
and Northeast Portland want.

NECN held its last community forum on the future of ICURA last night
at the Billy Webb Elks Lodge. Although most residents at the meeting were more concerned about process, politics and racism than about the specific boundaries of ICURA, some did have
strong opinions about expansion.

I've reposted this review of Terribly Happy, which I first caught at PIFF a month ago, to coincide with it's opening this weekend at Fox Tower downtown. I wasn't a huge fan, and it doesn't appear to be getting many good reviews around town, but for lovers of the funny cruelty the Coen brothers have made their name with (or for lovers of the Danish the countryside) this is definitely worth a look.

Terribly Happy - Directed by Henrik Ruben Genz - Denmark - 2009

Opens Friday March 12 at Fox Tower 10, 846 SW Park

by Alex Peterson

Somewhat along the lines of the darkest work of the Coen brothers, this slick piece of Danish cynicism has a psychologically frail young police chief (Robert Hansen) become helplessly entangled in the sexual politics of an incestuous rural town, with nothing but bad consequences. His earnest-yet-warped good intentions are never a match for the town brute, the town brute's damaged-goods wife or any number of oily, smirking townspeople. It's all funny, in a way, and is only aimed at stylish black comedy, but still.

Plans are underway for the Kenton Street Fair, gracing North Denver Avenue in May. Jessie Burke, the owner of Posies Cafe, is helping to spearhead the fair's organization, and is giving Kenton businesses first dibs on booths. We've got the info below, and Kenton business owners can download the vendor form as an attachment at the bottom of this post.

We've completed our vendor forms and they are being prepared for distribution and to be posted on our KBA website.  I wanted to send them around to the Kenton area businesses first, however, because we wanted to give Kenton businesses first priority for booth space, and also a discounted rate for all KBA members.  At next week's KBA meeting we will be discussing KBA membership, dues, etc if you want more information on how to qualify for the discounted rate.

The rate for Kenton businesses is $25 per booth (10x10).  You must provide your own tent, table and chairs.  The remainder of details are listed on the application.

In today's Oregonian, columnist Steve Duin offered a thoughtful view on Portland Public Schools imminent high school redesign.  I recommend reading it.  Most of his comments align with our recent editorial. But we do differ in one area. The Sentinel recommends that Jefferson become a vocational special focus school.

Duin seems to believe that the redesign is on the right track, but doesn't go far enough. He makes the case that PPS is not looking into the future with it's vision. His case, perhaps, being that the redesign is, at it's least, triage rather than transformation.  Duin does not argue against PPS logic that a reapportionment of students to fewer and larger high schools would level some of the playing field. But he does say that's not good enough for a forward looking school system.

FROM THE OREGONIAN: BELOW THE CUT

Wanna eat corned beef 'n cabbage while jigging to Great Highland pipe music in Linnton?(?!?!?) Of course you do...especially b/c this St. Paddy's Day celebration is also a fundraiser for the Linnton Community Center, which hosts everything from children's enrichment programs to quinceaneras and is where the lively locals of Linnton come together. Here's all the info, courtesy of Linnton mover-and-shaker Pat Wagner:

St. Paddy's Day Celebration and Dinner! $15 gets you corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and dessert. No-host beer and wine, silent auction, "Luck of the Irish" 50/50 drawing (winner keeps half, LCC keeps half), plus music and dancing with Irish quartet!

Sunday, March 14; doors open at 6 p.m.

Linnton Community Center, 10614 NW St. Helens Rd.

Sarah Stevenson, Executive Director of Innovative Housing addressed the Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association Tuesday night. She was responding to neighborhood complaints about Innovative Housing's 14-unit facility, with part-time service and care providers by Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.  The building, located near North Trumbull and Edison streets, was purchased by Innovative in 2005 and renovated and rented the following year.

Tenants are formerly homeless residents who must be single when they apply and go through a screening process.

We love it when we can present positive updates to past coverage. Case in point: the Emerson Street Garden proposal, which we reported on last April and which is coming ever closer to fruition. The site at Northeast 8th and Emerson streets has been sitting vacant for decades, its soil contaminated by lead and other toxins. But as Sentinel reporter Cassandra Koslen discovered nearly a year ago, Groundwork Portland and the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT) are working with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on a unique experiment to determine if the lead can be removed or more thinly distributed with plants. The desired result is soil safe enough to support a community garden.

We just saw an announcement today (via King Neighborhood Association) from Groundwork Portland inviting citizens to a meeting next week to "help come up with a community outreach and engagement strategy for Emerson Street Garden." Looks like the soil-saving idea is alive and well. We'll check back in with Groundwork Portland and bring you updates as they arise. Date and time: March 16 from 4-6 p.m. at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, 4815 NE 7th Ave.

Exciting event tomorrow in Piedmont! From the Piedmont Neighborhood Association website:

Piedmont Neighborhood Association invites you to come meet your neighbors on March 11th at 7 P.M. at Rosemont Court, 597 N Dekum St. This is a new meeting place for Piedmont Neighbors. Come see this beautifully restored building. The front doors are located at the corner of Dekum and Kerby.

Piedmont Neighborhood will be having a “SHOW AND TELL” Event at this gathering. You will have a chance to talk to your neighbors and see all the good work Piedmont Neighborhood does for our community.

This is the first piece in an ongoing collaboration between The Sentinel and Oregon News Incubator. More information about this journalism experiment is forthcoming.

With Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler being named the new State Treasurer following the tragic death of Ben Westlund, Commissioner Jeff Cogen, who represents North/Northeast Portland is leaving that seat to seek the now-open County Chair position. 

Cogen may not succeed. However, several speculative candidates have emerged who wish to replace Cogen as North/Northeast reps on the County board, if Cogen should move to the Chairman position.

The Sentinel will do its best to keep you informed as this shakes out; we begin with interviews with the first two people to file for the North/Northeast County seat as of Tuesday morning.  They are likely to be considered the front-runners in this incredibly full race.

Karol Collymore
Karol Collymore has served as Cogen’s aide since he took office three years ago.  Her political career began in New Mexico where she worked on Al Gore’s 2000 campaign, following that with further work in New Mexico and Oregon, where she moved in 2004.  A resident of the Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood, Collymore also sought, and nearly won, appointment to open House legislative seat 43 in 2009 [See Senate Shuffle].

At long last, the Kenton branch of the Multnomah Library System opened on Monday March 7th. A grand opening ceremony and party is scheduled for this Saturday March 13th.

Last week, we reported on the unease of Memorial Coliseum redesign finalist Douglas Obletz regarding the city's current Coliseum operating agreement with Portland Arena Management.

Obletz, a principal with the firm Sheils Obletz Johnsen, which proposed the Memorial Athletic & Recreation Center (MARC), took issue with Section 2.2.3 of the operating agreement, which allows the city to reclaim the Coliseum with 18 months notice. However, the agreement also says the city would then only be able to use the site as a “Non-Spectator Facility."

“Our project would be dead in the water,” Oblitz told Sentinel reporter William Crawford. The agreement, in Obletz's opinion, would also put the Blazers' JumpTown proposal at a distiinct advantage.

The Daily Journal of Commerce reported yesterday that Obletz has sent a letter to City Council requesting a delay in the Coliseum Request for Proposals process until the onerous operating agreement can be re-negotiatied between PAM and city officials.  The issue will be discussed further by the Rose Quarter Stakeholders Advisory Committee tonight from 5-7:30 p.m. at the Portland Development Commission offices.

Has one of the key players in a series of commerical and residential break-ins along North Mississippi Avenue and Northeast Alberta Street finally been caught?  Has the recent crime along these streets been the cause of a select few or many small groups?  The Oregonian reports a man arrested whose MO fits the more sophisticated styles of commerical break-ins that have been seen along NE Alberta and N Mississippi.  Unlike other 'smash and grab' style break-ins, this suspect appears to be associated with break-ins where alarm systems had been cut pre-buglary.  In one case along Alberta, a safe was stolen. That's not your troubled teen or thrill-seeker crowd there.  We will see if this arrest has an impact on crime reports.
FROM THE OREGONIAN

Early Christmas Eve morning, Kurt Huffman was dismayed to find a mess when he arrived at the Whiskey Soda Lounge on Portland's Southeast Division Street. It was the second break-in at his business within 10 days. 

"You put your heart and soul into something, and then somebody physically destroys it," Huffman recalls. "It's really disturbing and makes you feel very exposed."

Huffman wasn't alone. As many as 30 other restaurant and taverns had been broken into much the same way since July -- many along Northeast Alberta Street, North Mississippi Avenue and Southeast Division Street.

 

READ THE ARTICLE