Blue-collar plea
The proprietor of my favorite little gas station handed me a small, red flyer today while he was filling up my tank. The flyer alerts inner Southeast Portland residents that the City Council will be making a move this week that could be very important for the neighborhood.
It's a vote on whether the city should buy the old Washington High School at SE 14th and Stark and turn it into a community center. The council has been promising something like this to Southeast for about 20 years. In the meantime, city and state officials have delivered to the neighborhood nothing but one high-impact social service facility after another. Two methadone clinics. A gangster halfway house about a block from a public elementary school. More institutional group living homes per block than anywhere else in the state. Just last week, a grossly out-of-proportion monstrosity of a nursing home was approved. (Only Randy Leonard had the smarts to vote no.) Meanwhile, the rich developers of the Pearl and North Macadam get subsidy after subsidy for their soul-less condo towers and overpriced California boutiques.
It's about time the city came across with something for the hard-working, clean-living folks in inner Southeast. The Gabriel Park shangri-la swimming center up on the west side has been open for years now -- can't we even get started on facility acquisition for a community center for Southeast?
Maybe not. Neighborhood activists say they're afraid that the Downtown and West Hills Boys, with the mayor in their pocket, will be pushing their sports complex pipedream for the Memorial Coliseum so hard that an easy, eminently do-able community center for Southeast will get lost in the shuffle. Again. For the umpteenth time.
The flyer urges folks to come out for the City Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and if they can't, to send an e-letter to the commissioners, expressing interest and support.
The easy place to go to send the e-letter is here.
| Posted at 9:47 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
For what it's worth, the agenda for Wednesday indeed has this resolution listed as a "time certain" for 9:30 AM. It also has the next agenda item listed as starting at 9:50 AM.
Posted by The One True b!X | February 15, 2004 10:00 PM
Also for what it's worth, I support the MARC, but not if it's at the expense of neighborhood community centers. I'm waiting to hear back from the MARC proposers about their position.
Posted by The One True b!X | February 15, 2004 10:22 PM
For a good time, ride Tri-Met's 15 (east side).It's no street car, but it's always colorful despite lacking the blue/red/green/teal paint.
Posted by beerick | February 16, 2004 12:51 AM
Inner-city SE residents could solve the problem easily, in four simple steps:
1. Raise $200,000 or so.
2. Buy a few old buildings on the same block.
3. Give them to Homer Williams.
4. Wait three years for the City Council to follow his lead.
Posted by Isaac Laquedem | February 16, 2004 11:43 AM
FYI, the Council today did approve entering into negotiations to purchase this property. It's one of three items from today's Council session I'm busily at work on and should be up later today.
Posted by The One True b!X | February 18, 2004 4:01 PM
You know, there's a pretty nice community center with a "shangri-la" swimming pool already in Southeast Portland; admittedly, outer Southeast Portland. It's the Sunnyside Community Center and it's a great place.
So at least as far as community center's go, Southeast Portland hasn't been completely shafted. And the gibe at Gabriel Park, in that light, is kind of a cheap shot.
Posted by Gordo | February 19, 2004 3:24 PM
Sounds like I hit a nerve. The Mount Scott pool (which I assume is what you're referring to) is not anywhere near inner southeast. There are some nice public pools in Reno, too, but they don't much for the Buckman neighborhood.
Ironically, I remember the West Hills matrons marching around saying they didn't want the Gabriel Park swimming pool. This was about the same time the Buckman folks were picketing their second methadone clinic and fighting a losing battle against the gangster halfway house that was dumped a block from their public elementary school, running out its neighbors.
There was nothing cheap about that shot. If anything, like everything else in the West Hills, it was overpriced.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 19, 2004 5:52 PM
Thank you, Jack, for your very apt comments on Buckman and our struggles to maintain a livable community. The Inner SE community center will serve the Buckman, Kerns, Sunnyside, and Hosford-Abernathy communities, just for a start. Currently, the closest community center to Buckman is Matt Dishman, approximately 3 miles away. You are probably aware of the high poverty rate in Buckman, which means that many residents (including myself) don't own cars, and so have a harder time accessing other centers. A community center that is reachable by foot will be a real asset to our community. As a former swim instructor at Matt DIshman Center, I have seen first-hand the positive contributions that community centers provide to the surrounding communities. We Buckmanites hope that this community center will be the hub of the Inner SE and a defining feature of our neighbourhood.
Lily WItham
Buckman
Posted by Lily Witham | February 19, 2004 7:19 PM
My pleasure. Regards to Andy Eisman and Sylvia McGauley, and also to Susan Lindsay.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 19, 2004 8:57 PM
As a Buckman resident I am really thrilled to find out about this community center. This area is far too bogged down with these social services in one community. I own a house next door to a Reach Community duplex and we have had problems with junkies and you name it living there. Although they have been proactive solving problems they have created, enough is enough! With the recent serial rapist on the loose my question is, have the police looked at that halfway house? Does anyone know the exact address?
Posted by Buckman Neighbor | March 4, 2004 11:23 AM