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.

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

Project at 8629 N. Crawford St.
Cathedral Park neighbors have been closely following a new multi-lot development near the intersection of North Burlington and Salem avenues.

Three-story multifamily condominiums with two or three bedrooms each will be going in at 8629 N. Crawford St., according to Jerry Offer, a planner for Otak Architects. Offer referred additional questions to the Otak architect on the project, Sinan Gumusoglu, but Gumusoglu did not respond to The Sentinel’s request for details.

A total of three lots and 18,000 square feet of land at the location are listed as belonging to East Coast-based M&T Bank and Chesapeake Holdings West, LLC. There is as yet no name for the project.
Barbara Quinn, chair of the Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association, heard that Otak is simply designing the condos for the out-of-town owners. She hopes that Otak will answer neighbors’ concerns at the next association meeting. With permits still pending, she feels there’s time to make sure the designs fit with the neighborhood.

[Photo of 2005 St Johns Bridge Rededication ~ from offline archives]
In one of my editorials for The Sentinel, I wrote, “St. Johns is always on the verge of nothing happening.”
This area has seen decades of revitalization schemes and big plans floated by developers. The brochures and a trail of defunct newspapers were once laid out for me in the offices of the St. Johns Boosters.  “The only thing that changes is the date,” said then-Booster President Gary Boehm.  But I think history has proved us both wrong.

St. Johns has historically been the commercial and communal center of the North Portland peninsula. While given to insularity at times and dismissed as remote at others, the businesses there rely almost exclusively on customers from North Portland and far Northwest Portland. North Portland and St. Johns residents have a stronger connection to the merchants and the daily life of the town center than any other part of our coverage area.

The planning for the second season of the St. Johns Farmers Market has hit a snag as representatives of the market and the St. Johns Boosters quarrel about jurisdiction over the downtown plaza and whether the market’s sale of perishable food is hurting local businesses.

Last July, the much-anticipated market was officially established in the St. Johns central plaza.  It was organized by a board of directors, headed by Simone Streeter and shepherded along by the efforts of many volunteers.

Uncertainty has consistently remained certain in the nearly three years that Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services has been trying to develop the 0.16-acre brownfield at North Lombard Street and Baltimore Avenue. But by the end of this month, a final decision may be reached on proposed buildings for the site.

For the first two years of the proposal process, restrictions on the site scared away potential bids, and only recently have flexible terms attracted three proposals from real-estate developers. The three groups are developer Jeana Woolley in a partnership that includes Bloc Design Development LLC; Cavenaugh & Cavenaugh LLC; and a partnership among Innovative Housing, Inc., LRS Architects and Walsh Construction.

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.

From KGW

Last month the Sentinel reported that since North Precinct moved out of St Johns, the area has seen a spike in residential and commercial break-ins.  Could they all have been conducted by two teenagers?  Probably not, but someone should take these punk kids and give them a good boxing on the ears.

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.)

Sign up for the Backyard Habitat Certification Program!

The Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association and the Friends of Baltimore Woods are asking you to consider joining this tremendous program. The spring planting season is around the corner, and the Backyard Habitat Program staff will be in your neighborhood March 20th!

Every yard, large or small, can benefit wildlife with even a few native plantings. Remember, much of North Portland is directly under the Pacific flyway and hosts many migrating birds in the fall and spring.

The Backyard Habitat Certification Program, created by the Audubon Society of Portland, and Three Rivers Land Conservancy, provides technical assistance to small lot, private property owners to restore native wildlife habitat in their backyards. The program focuses on the removal of aggressive weeds, landscaping with native plants, stormwater management, and wildlife stewardship.

Participants will receive a site visit from the Backyard Habitat Program’s team of landscaping and natural gardening experts. Benefits of joining include technical assistance, a site plan, discounted services, and incentives for native plants and other resources. The program fee is $25, which covers the costs of your Backyard Habitat sign and other materials.

If you would like to receive a site visit on Saturday March 20th, please submit your application by March 10th.

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Northeast Portland businessman and community activist Gary Marschke is looking for people who can help a former St. Johns resident. The email below and photos above were submitted to Marschke by someone who claims her life has been ruined by a meth-addicted family member. The names in the email below have been changed to protect the individuals involved. If you wish to help the woman in question, contact Gary Marschke gmarschke@comcast.net

EMAIL BELOW THE CUT

Want to do a good deed for a day? Want to help improve your neighborhood? Want to hold the power to give away money?  Well, now's your chance.  Metro ( Portland's world famous, one-of-a-kind wonky regional government) is recruiting a volunteer from the Cathedral Park Neighborhood to sit on the North Portland Enhancement Grant committee.  Committee members get to award money from the North Portland Trust Fund. The fund was set up as a give-back to the community after Metro located a landfill in St Johns.  The landfill is now closed, but the cash keeps flowing. Good for you, North Portland!  Over the last 22 years the fund has given out an average of $1000 a year to neighborhood improvement projects such as tree plants, farmer's markets and the region's pioneering new "underwear exchange program"  Projects benefit residents, businesses and...ok...I made that last one up... there's no such thing as an underwear exchange program (shudder)... But the money goes to good things.  Read more below.

The photo here is of sidewalk construction along North Lombard Street south of Kelley Point Park.  I happened upon it on a Saturday dog walk.  The multi-use path that runs along North Marine Drive connects Smith & Bybee Lakes with Kelley Point very nicely.  According to ODOT signs, the construction of an extention headed south to North Rivergate Boulevard will be completed this summer.

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[ABOVE PHOTOS TAKEN AT A POLICE COMMENDATION CEREMONY AT OLD NORTH PRECINCT IN 2008 by Jason E Kaplan]

When North Portland resident Seth Russell learned he would receive this year’s Carnegie Award for Heroism, he was floored.

“It really took me aback,” said Russell, who found himself on the short list of honorees with Portland Police Officer Ryan Derry.

Mr. Russell and Officer Derry were nationally recognized for their heroic efforts after being locally honored, along with Portland Police Officer Christina Hansen-Tuma, by Police Chief Rosie Sizer for their 2008 rescue of a man from a burning car in St. Johns. [See Sentinel Sept. 2008]

Established in 1904 by Andrew Carnegie, the Carnegie Award “recognizes persons who perform acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada.” Since its inception, the 21-member board has awarded 9,000 medals to those who “voluntarily risk his or her life to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person.”

In the early morning hours of August 30, 2008, Russell and Derry did just that.

Sliding down a muddy embankment into a stretch of undeveloped land south of Cathedral Park, Barbara Quinn points to a trail that heads back into the bushes. Quinn, the chair of the Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association, says, “Wildlife will not come where there's people camping.” She's talking about a plan to restore this open riverfront area to its natural state — a plan that's complicated by the presence of a longtime homeless encampment.