November Neighborhood Association Meeting

We are losing the war on weeds! (Here's the backstory)

So we were all witness to the power of celebrity last night at the MVNA meeting, as the popular City Commissioner Sam Adams (website, blog) drew around 20+ people to the normally small monthly meeting. Discussions of sewers, traffic speed and of course the infamous tram ensued.

The theme of the night was likely "Capitol Highway is a deathtrap". This was aided by the unfortunate rear-ending of a village resident's car in front of West Hills Early Childhood Learning Center. Since Jr. V was at West Hills for nearly three years I can attest to the adventure that is pulling in and out of their parking lot, not to mention any of the adjacent homes' driveways, which was the case last night. Lots of talk of sidewalks and ways to reduce speed of traffic.

This has particular resonance for me, since I live on 35th, which is just as much an arterial street and LOTS less improved than Capitol. Speeders are a regular thing and Tri-Met is the worst offender. Although in their defense I think they have to build up speed to get up the hill. I would very much like to see the stop at 35th and Logan Street made into a mandatory safety stop, just to slow down the buses.

Sam is the commissioner in charge of, amongst other things, Arts and Culture funding and Sewers. (Insert your own joke about arts funding going down the drain here.)

I enjoyed his comments. He seemed in command of the wide ranging topics and the labyrinthine system of City versus State and Federal funding on a number of projects. No mean feat. He presents well, and I can understand why he's become such a celebrity of the local political scene, if there is such a thing.

In other meeting notes, the attendees were a refreshing cross-section of ages from hippie twentysomethings to hippie sixtysomethings and beyond, and a wide range of in-betweeners such as myself. We nominated and elected officers to the four positions. All candidates ran unopposed. The new Secretary was a young woman who came to her first meeting and said something along the lines of "I'd like to get involved". Well, she's involved now! It's good. It's nice to see more people taking an interest in our neighborhood.

With that said, there is a "placemaking" potluck being hosted at the Multnomah Post's office this Thursday the 10th (tomorrow) at 7PM. Placemaking is a concept taking hold in some Portland neighborhoods, particularly in Southeast, and is probably most famous for creating decorated intersections that become neighborhood gathering spaces. There has been some momentum lately toward creating a "center" for the Village - a sort of town-square sort of place. This is another step on that road. If you're interested in this sort of thing, stop by. Here's a link to the City Repair Project's About Us Page which gives more info about the organization behind this event , and the theory behind the organization.