Category Archives: livability

Public Meetings to Discuss “Respectful Traveling” on Williams

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From PBoT:

Dear North Williams Community Members,

This summer, the City of Portland will run a special educational campaign to encourage safe and respectful traveling on North Williams.

While discussions about changes to the roadway continue as part of the North Williams Traffic Safety Project, we have heard loud and clear from the community that how people interact with one another while traveling up North Williams is just as important as engineering, and that conditions on the street feel dangerous today and should be addressed as soon as possible.

Please come to a special brainstorming meeting to answer these questions:
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Friends of Last Thursday Seek Community Input

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Friends of Last Thursday, the organization tasked with taking responsibility for the administration of the monthly street festival, is seeking feedback from the communities surrounding Alberta and the Last Thursday participants. This is your opportunity to explain what is good about LT and what needs to change.

From FoLT:

Friends of Last Thursday (FoLT) is on the move! Tasked by the city to localize stewardship of Last Thursday within the Alberta community, FoLT began hands on engagement during May Last Thursday to extremely positive result. Infractions were down, the street was reopened in record time and the FoLT Ambassador program made great progress in its education and outreach component. One of the cornerstones of the FoLT mission is to help create a safer event, which means working with participants to gain their compliance with city and county safety laws, including observance of ADA, parking, noise, fire and food handling codes, zero tolerance for open containers, and a Leave No Trace refuse goal. Also of high priority is engendering greater neighborhood respect. FoLT has listened to the concerns of our neighbors and is actively working to educate Last Thursday participants in the ways in which they can exert the lightest possible impact on our community.

FoLT Letter and Community Survey

Volunteer for the King Graffiti Cleanup

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On Saturday, July 23rd from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, King will hold its second collaborative graffiti cleanup.  This is a combined effort by City-contracted graffiti removal crews, and volunteers from King. Be a part of the solution!

There are two phases to the cleanup:

  1. Volunteers will survey their area and compile a list of sites that have been vandalized by graffiti and then submit the list to the Graffiti Abatement Coordinator at least a week ahead of the event.
  2. Contractor-crews will focus on paint-out or power-wash removals from private properties (provided we have signed owner-permission prior to the event). Volunteers will remove graffiti from properties “in the right-of-way”, including utility poles, dumpsters, newspaper boxes, and other sites that are not routinely cleaned by agencies or owners.

Previous years collaborative events have resulted in more than 1000 sites cleaned in a “season”.  Supplies will be provided by the Graffiti Abatement Program.  Volunteers must sign a volunteer agreement and application form, available at the Graffiti Program webpage: http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?c=32420

Volunteers can sign up for one or both phases.  Those who have already expressed interest in volunteering will be contacted this weekend to select an area to survey.  If you signed up and don’t hear from us by Sunday, contact trace.salmon@kingneighborhood.org.   There is only a week until the surveys need to be submitted.

King Cleanup Flyer

Meeting to Address Additional Regulation of Liquor Licensees

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PUBLIC MEETING:
Proposed Changes to City Code Time Place and Manner Regulations of Alcohol Licensed Establishments (PCC 14B.120)

What: Community members are invited to a public meeting to learn about the proposed changes to local regulations of liquor licensed establishments, ask questions and submit testimony or comments. Comments may also be submitted in writing to the contact above.

When: June 28th, 2011 at 6pm

Where: Portland Building, Room C
1120 SW 5th Ave Portland, OR 97204

Why:
The City of Portland will be proposing changes to the city code that allows local regulation of liquor licensed establishments and is seeking comments from community members. Enacted as an avenue for neighbors and local enforcement agencies to address problem establishments, the Time Place and Manner code has been effective in addressing many livability and public safety issues that arise out of the sale of alcohol. The goal is to work with the licensee to address the issues before they become egregious. However, there are several areas that the City’s authority is insufficient to address problems. The proposed changes will expand the authority slightly to allow:

• Drug activity, prostitution, overcrowding, and serious incidents involving death or the risk of death to be considered nuisance activities for the purpose of this code.
• A violation and abatement process if three nuisance incidents occur in 60 days (rather than 30 days currently allowed).
• A violation and abatement process in the event that a serious incident occurs at an establishment.

The proposed changes have been reviewed and supported by the Time Place and Manner Oversight Committee, which includes community and industry representation. Time Place and Manner is a reasonable process to a responsive licensee and has been effective in mitigating harm. These changes will help to better serve the communities of Portland, and ensure that licensed establishments do not act irresponsibly or negligently at the cost of the community. It will also allow the City of Portland to take intervening steps with a premise earlier and avoid more serious problems from occurring. This is the only avenue to address problems at licensed establishments at the local level. All other regulatory authority is held by the state Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

The proposed changes are viewable online at www.portlandonline.com/oni. A second meeting will be held in July as well. If you would like to hear more, or would like to comment on the proposed changes please attend the public meeting or contact Theresa Marchetti.

Theresa Marchetti
Liquor Licensing Specialist – ONI
1221 SW 4th Ave Ste 110
Portland OR 97204
503-823-3092
theresa.marchetti@portlandoregon.govTo view applications currently in process go to http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?&c=48007

EV Charging Station Opens on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd

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From PDC:

On Wednesday, June 8, at noon, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) will unveil a new electric vehicle charging station and solar canopy on a PDC-owned parking lot at 3620 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The grid-tied solar canopy, one of only two of its kind in Portland, was constructed by EV4 Oregon, which markets it as an Energy Transfer Merchant (ETM™); it is owned by Lease It Inc. The canopy was built locally, using photovoltaic panels manufactured by Hillsboro-based SolarWorld, and is available from North Coast Electric in Portland.

The canopy has two Ecotality Blink Level-2 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations available for community use, with the capacity to fully charge six electric vehicles per day. The Blink commercial locations form a critical component of the charging public infrastructure to be developed by Ecotality as project manager of the EV Project.

“This project exemplifies innovative work that creates local green jobs and at the same time, enhances the community and reinforces our support for neighborhood economic development (pdf),” said Mayor Sam Adams. “It joins nearby businesses Yeebo and Conexiones, recent PDC clients, in demonstrating our ongoing commitment to neighborhood investment.”

William P. Emberlin, president of Lease-It Inc., expressed his enthusiasm to be a part of the progressive move toward renewable energy in the Pacific Northwest. “This solar canopy/charging station makes an important contribution to reduced oil consumption without adding additional stress to the electrical grid,” he said. “As a local business person I consider ownership of an ETM™ a good investment, and I hope to add more locations throughout Oregon and Washington.”

The installation represents the continued deployment of the charging station infrastructure necessary to support the continued roll out of electric vehicles. The charging station will be able to service cars such as the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan LEAF and a variety of electric vehicles under development by Drive Oregon companies.

For further information on Portland’s progressive EV strategy, please visit the city’s electric vehicle website, Chargeportland.com, powered by PDC.