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 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.

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.

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.

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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.

A new proposal by the City of Portland to restore Cathedral Park's Willamette Cove  and turn it into a natural habitat area comes as positive news to residents in the neighborhood. However, there was one question on the minds of many residents at tonight’s Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association meeting: What to do about the homeless camp that has existed for years on the proposed site of interest?

It's that time again, tree huggers: Friends of Trees is comin' to the neighborhood for its annual planting party! This Saturday, join your neighbors and plant some trees in Kenton, University Park, St. Johns and Cathedral Park. Next weekend, bring your shovels and spades to Boise, Eliot, Humboldt and King. (Time and location info on the Friends of Trees calendar)

We've written about these annual plantings in the past, and how beneficial they are for the neighborhoods in which they take place. If you've never taken part, we highly recommend it, for you and your green thumb. 

Could it be that not only the St. Johns street banners have been found, but now the mysterious James John School banners have been found as well?  In the wake of the "discovery" of the St. Johns street banners, reader Barbara Parmalee asked the community (via the Sentinel) if anyone knew what had happened to the banners that once flew over James John Elementary School (named after town founder James John). We've just received this response through email:

I was reading the article regarding where are the James John banners. I work in the cafeteria at James John and I had the janitor look in the basement and we believe we may have found them. We would like someone to let us know or come by the school and look at them to see if these are the ones. I am there from 9A.M- 12:20P.M I believe the lady's name is Barbara Parmelee. So if you can contact her and let her know that not only have the street banners been found but we may have the James John banners also. thank you  

Rebecca McCullough