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.

It will be a subject of conversation as well as today's city council meeting. Email from Gary Marschke

Help Strategize Urban Renewal Recommendations to the People in Power

• Voice your concerns
• Hear draft community recommendations
• Strategize action steps
• Speak directly to Mayor Adams

  Thursday, March 11th, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
  Billy Webb Elks Lodge
  6 North Tillamook St.
  Snacks and Drinks will be provided
  20 Community Savings Cards as door prizes!

  For more information, please see attached flyer, visit www.necoalition.org or contact Shoshana Cohen at 503-823-4575 ext. 5 orforums@necoalition.org

  
  

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.

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

UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: OK, the dust is finally settling, and here's what we know, courtesy of WWeek, OPB reporter April Baer and Blue Oregon, among others:

-Newest candidates for Jeff Cogen's District 2 MultCo Commissioner seat: Roberta Philip, a new hire at County Chair-turned-Interim State Treasurer Ted Wheeler's office; and Paul van Orden, the former pro skateboarder and City of Portland Noise Control officer. They join Cogen aide Karol Collymore, Rev. Chuck Currie and former MultCo commish Gary Hansen in the race to fill the District 2 seat. (That's our district, yo!)

-Full slate of candidates for Wheeler's now-vacant MultCo County Chair seat: Cogen, former state Sentator Margaret Carter, and Mike Darger.

-And for State Treasurer: Jim Hill-D, Rick Metzger-D, Chris Telfer-R, and Wheeler-D.

UPDATE 3:13 p.m.: OPB's April Baer breaks the news that Steve Novick has withdrawn from the Multnomah County Chair race. On her Facebook fan page (I know, I know), April says, "Novick just told me he had been on the phones all day. Ultimately, a conversation with former MultCo chair Bev Stein led him to step back."

UPDATE 12:32 p.m.: OPB reporter April Baer resets the MultCo chair race: Margaret Carter, Jeff Cogen, Mike Darger, Steve Novick. And for State Treasurer: Jim Hill-D, Rick Metzger-D, Chris Telfer-R, Ted Wheeler-D. In her words, "Still 4.5 hours to go, folks!"

Meanwhile, WWeek reports the candidates (as of 12:30ish p.m.) for Cogen's District 2 seat are: Karol Collymore, Rev. Chuck Currie, and former MultCo Commish Gary Hansen. Check back here for more updates, including (gasp!) some original reporting.

UPDATE 10:33 a.m.: WWeek reports that former state Senator Margaret Carter will run for Multnomah County Chair. The position was vacated this morning by Ted Wheeler (pictured in slide show) when Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed him as Interim State Treasurer to replace the late Ben Westlund, who died of cancer over the weekend. More details on the political shuffle below. 

Last fall's Senate shuffle's got nothing on this morning's political developments. Here's the scoop, courtesy of WWeek and BlueOregon:

-Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced this morning that he was appointing Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler as Interim State Treasurer, replacing the late Ben Westlund, who succumbed to cancer over the weekend.

-Then came word that former U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick and United Church of Christ minister Rev. Chuck Currie planned to file for Wheeler's now-vacated County Chair seat.

-Then we learned, via WWeek, that Karol Collymore, a mover-and-shaker in MultCo Commissioner Jeff Cogen's office, was filing for her boss's seat, leading to rampant speculation that Cogen will be filing for County Chair. (Cogen has just confirmed that he will indeed run for County Chair.)

Why the sudden flurry of activity? Well, the deadline to file for the state's May primary is today. The clock is ticking. Let the games begin.

Photo in slideshow by Leah Nash, from Street Roots. Photo embeded in article of Wheeler at a past event with Portland City Councilor Nick Fish from Portlandonline

In addition to a spat about the St. Johns Farmers Market, there's plenty goin' on in the John this month. Thanks to St. Johns Neighborhood Association President Babs Adamski, we've got a quick 'n dirty wrap-up of events, meetings and must-know news for March. Here goes:

Monday, March 8 (that's today!): St. Johns Neighborhood Association General Meeting, 7:00pm - 8:30 pm, St. Johns Community Center Auditorium, 8427 N Central St. (at Leavitt). Agenda includes the introduction of Angela Wagnon as our new Crime Prevention Coordinator, planning for the Community Clean-up and Trash to Treasure in April.

Wednesday, March 10th 6-8 p.m.: St. Johns + Art Organizing Potluck. Interested in helping form the SJ+A group for 2010? We're having a family friendly organizing meeting & dinner. Send an e-mail to babsia@gmail.com for the address.

Friday, March 12th and Saturday, March 13th -- 7 p.m., Saturday, March 13th -- 2 p.m: MATINEE! Wizard of Oz  - Roosevelt High School
Tickets for the performances are now on sale online at www.roosevelttheatre.org or you can contact the box office at 503-916-5260 ext. 71424

Try to picture Brandon Roy never getting the chance to wear a Blazers’ jersey.
 
Go ahead and imagine him playing for another NBA team.
 
Painful, isn’t it?
 
Believe it or not, there was a time when Portland wanted to pass on selecting the three-time All-Star guard.  It was back in 2006 before the NBA Draft.  Roy was fresh out of the University of Washington and was in town for pre-draft workouts with a trio that included Adam Morrison (Gonzaga), Rudy Gay (Connecticut) and Hassan Adams (Arizona).
 

Last month, Sentinel reporter William Crawford covered a N/NE Urban Renewal Area Town Hall hosted by the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods. This Thursday, March 11 is your last opportunity to take part in a community education/Q&A session about proposed changes to Urban Renewal Area boundaries and investment. Here's all the info you need, courtesy of NECN:

The final Urban Renewal Community Forum for the Interstate Corridor Urban
Renewal Area is next Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 6:30 - 8:30pm at the Billy
Webb Elks Lodge, 6 North Tillamook St.
This is the final meeting in a series which has focused on educating and
engaging community members about upcoming Urban Renewal Area investment
changes and decisions that will change the built environment of inner
North/Northeast Portland.
Notes from the first three meetings are available at the NECN site:
http://portland.necoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&i...

If you are a resident, business owner, or other type of stakeholder in this
area your presence is sincerely requested and we ask that you also take a
moment to give us your valuable opinion in this survey:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/PXD6V35

I love the smell of new books in the morning! I also love adorable press releases. Which is why today is positively heavenly. Fresh from the Inbox, a press release from Multnomah County Library, detailing how local children will perform the final inspection on the brand-spankin'-new Kenton Library tomorrow before it officially opens to the public on Monday, March 8. Will The Sentinel be there with camera in tow? You bet your sweet bippy we will! (Sorry, Public; you're not invited)

Check back tomorrow for "aww"-inspiring photos featuring kids in hard hats testing the book return. And be sure to mark your calendar for the Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday, March 13! Dr. Seuss plays: Need we say more?

Portland has big plans for the Memorial Coliseum, but major factors must be addressed before the council selects a design in April. Apart from choosing one of the three top proposals and arranging funding, Coliseum designers say the operating agreement must be finalized.

Currently the Blazers, who developed one of the three successful designs to be recommended by the advisory committee, have an agreement with the city that gives them exclusive control over the Coliseum’s operation. But potential planners of the revamped venue say the current arrangement gives the Blazers’ proposal a distinct advantage.

From St. Johns neighbor Robin Plance [unsubtantiated account]:

Good morning friends and neighbors!

Yes you read the subject line correctly.

I am sorry to report to you all that with the nice weather prowls and home invasion increases and so it was this morning one of our neighbors woke up this morning to find that their home had been invaded while the family was asleep.

This is a good reminder for folks to check around your house to make sure you are keeping your loved ones safe and secure.

Lock up anything that you do not want to grow legs and walk off.
Secure ladders and tools that a person could use to break into your home.

Have adequate outside lighting around your home.

These are just a few of the things we can do to help ourselves.

As friends and neighbors we need to watch out for each other, so keep your eyes and ears open.
Together we build a better community.

Your friends and neighbors,

Robin & Pamela Plance

ps. please feel free to pass this along to your friends and neighbors.

Friday, Feb. 26, 6:45 p.m. - We just received this message from the Kenton Neighborhood Association, forwarding an email sent by a concerned resident about strange activity in Kenton Park. [unsubstantiated account]

I live on Terry Street and my husband had a very bizarre
experience at Kenton Park today involving a woman/child approaching another
child who appeared to be there alone...the woman was probably eastern
european, very heavy set, about 60+, pale skin, black/gray long hair. She
was with a teenage girl that was very, very thin with long black hair. They
had a blanket with a teddy bear print that seemed very worn and
inappropriate for the age of the girl she was with.

The teenager approached a child on the tire swing that was maybe 10 or so
years old and started asking her a bunch of questions (what;s your name,
etc.) but the line of questioning evolved into the pair asking the girl if
they could take her picture (which they did) and asked her how long she had
been at the park. My husband says his "spider sense was tingling." He got
a really, really bad vibe. There has been quite a bit in the papers
recently about human/child trafficking in the Portland area. I know it
sounds crazy but Rob is really freaked out and calling the police right now.
Could you send this out to the neighborhood list? Rob will be filing a
police report in the morning.

I just remembered something else. When my husband and I were walking into
the park we walked past the bench on the middle path that faces the play
area but is across the field from it. There was a woman with another person
(I didn't pay attention to who she was with). She had binoculars and I
remember it vividly because I thought to myself ?why does she have
binoculars and what is she looking at?? She was looking at the swings. I
thought to myself ?maybe she has grand kids and they?re over there but why
is she sitting over here? because she was much too old to have young
children. I just remembered this while I was nursing my son...one of those
observations you make and file away that don?t seem important at the time.
Something weird was definitely going on. We just missed the call back from
the police and are calling again...
 

This weekend brings plenty of opportunities to develop your green thumb. The Northeast Portland Tool Library's sponsoring a seed swap on Saturday, and the Concordia neighborhood's hosting a tree stewardship workshop tomorrow too. Read on for all the details:

Come join us at the Northeast Portland Tool Library on Saturday, February 27th, for a free seed swap and library stock-up event to kick off the new gardening season!  We have a wide range of seeds available that you can take home to start or supplement your garden for 2010.  You may find some interesting local varieties that you wouldn’t see at the store!  If you have seeds of your own that you’d like to share with others or with the library, now is a great time to bring them in. The event will be from 11AM to 2PM at the Tool Library (in the basement area of the Redeemer Lutheran Church – 5431 NE 20th Ave).  In addition to swapping seeds and stories, we’ll also have info about upcoming gardening and seed-saving workshops.  For more information, please contact Chris Price ( chris// @ //digitalnotions.com ).  Hope to see you there!

Tree info below the cut...

Bob Melbo, state rail planner for the Oregon Department of Transportation, says $750,000 has been allocated towards two projects in and around North Portland. The rest of Oregon’s $8 million grant from Federal Rail Administration will go to renovate Union Station, he says.

The first project would improve the connection between the Union Pacific line and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) they share near the entrance to Terminal 6 and Marine Drive. The improvement would increase current train speeds of 10-15 miles per hour to 25-30 miles per hour, Melbo says.

“This makes a big difference for an 8,000 foot long train,” he added. “It will occupy less time on the track, so by virtue that helps with delays [of Amtrak service].”

FROM THE OREGONIAN

Rose Quarter advisory group forwards three for Memorial Coliseum makeover
By Janie Har, The Oregonian
February 23, 2010, 8:15PM
The 32-member Rose Quarter advisory group voted tonight to forward three concepts to the Portland City Council for the full ‘request for proposal’ treatment.

To no one’s surprise, the three include the Trail Blazers’ plan for a JumpTown entertainment district and developer Doug Obletz’s proposal for a community athletic center. The third is the Veterans Memorial Arts and Athletic Center, which would carve up Memorial Coliseum for use by arts groups, nonprofits, as well as sports.

The council also voted to forward two alternate proposals should any of the three decline to go ahead: the multicultural Rose Quarter Community Crossroads project and the Portland Action Sports Complex. 

The Portland City Council will formally take up the advisory group’s recommendation on March 11.

READ THE ARTICLE

Exciting news from our friends at St. Johns' own Writers' Dojo: They're teaming up with Reading Local to present Read to Rebuild: A Haiti benefit reading. Set for March 16, the event boasts an impressive slate of writers/readers, including Tom Spanbauer and Ariel Gore. 100 percent of proceeds will go to Mercy Corps. All the details are below, courtesy of Reading Local:

Haiti still needs our help. They must rebuild. Let the Portland literary community come together to do our part and help Mercy Corps in their efforts to support Haiti. (You can see our Fundraising Page Here.)

Good news this morning from Craig Fondren of the venerable Sabin Community Development Corporation: he and other CDC staffers will be opening a second Digital Learning Lab at the Gladys McCoy Village Apartments at 4430 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. The grand opening celebration of the 18-station, open-to-the-public computer lab and community classroom takes place at the McCoy Apartments next Thursday, Feb. 25 from 5-7 p.m.

We covered the launch of Sabin CDC's first Digital Learning Lab at Reflections Coffeehouse back in December '08. At the time, Fondren said of the lab, "“It’s more than teaching a person how to use the computer, it’s teaching them how to have a career in the digital movement.” Free classes are offered, ranging from the basics - "Step 1: push the Power/On button" - to more involved subjects such as web design and audio streaming.

Here's more from Fondren and Sabin CDC from the official press release: