Traffic Safety Initiative to Target King

Vision Zero Oregon has chosen King as one of the neighborhoods they want to work with this spring to educate people on how to pursue roadway safety strategies.

From their website, www.visionzerooregon.org

We are a group of five Portland State University Masters of Urban and Regional Planning students working with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance to develop new community-based strategies to improve roadway safety. Through June 2011 we’ll be assembling a toolkit of tactics and working with a specific neighborhoods to build up the capacity of people in that community to pursue roadway safety on their own. The project is really about finding ways to get all the relevant groups together to work towards making streets safer for users of all types of transportation, from people who drive to people who walk to people who roll. Whether you’re a traffic engineer, a safety advocate, a neighborhood resident, or just a user of Portland’s streets, we want you involved.

We are planning a walking tour and an existing conditions survey to hear from King residents their experiences and thoughts about roadway safety in their neighborhood. I hope that anyone from the neighborhood association (and the neighborhood!) can attend and help get the word out.

Let your voice be heard on city priorities!

In addition to the police survey that was recently announced on this blog, there is another Citywide Budget Survey going on right now. Why is this important for King residents to participate in? So we have a voice in where- and how- our tax dollars are spent! Is there a pothole near your house that needs attention? How about that intersection at MLK and Failing- ever wished for a crosswalk? Wish there was a bench in Two Plum Park? Sick of seeing graffiti along Alberta? Every home should by now have received a hard copy of the Citywide Budget Survey in the mail. No need for a stamp to return it, just fill it out, fold it up and pop it back in the mail. Alternatively, go to www.portlandonline.com/omf/budgetsurvey and share your thoughts- it’ll only take a few minutes. Thank you!

KNA Urges City to Protect Livability on Last Thursdays

The King Neighborhood Association has delivered a letter to the mayor and city council urging that the Last Thursday events be managed by a responsible entity that is accountable to the neighborhoods along Alberta. As many as 10,000 visitors come to Alberta Street on some summer months. The impact of such a large street fair occuring monthly in a dense residential neighborhood had brought chronic complaints of noise, disruptive behavior, and illegal parking. KNA believes that the benefits to the Alberta business community should not come at a cost to residents’ livability.
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Sherman: A Jazz Opera

Sherman Jazz Opera poster

From NECN:

Sherman: A Jazz Opera (see attached poster) is loosely based on the life of saxophone player Sherman Thomas, who died tragically in the ’70s. But it also celebrates the legacy of post-war North Williams Avenue when it was known as “Black Broadway,” because live jazz by black musicians and singers from around the country – including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Billy Holiday – was being played night and day in a least 10 clubs along the entertainment strip and in other parts of the city. Continue reading

Draft Agenda for February 9th KNA Meeting

4815 NE 7th Avenue
February 9, 2011 – 6:30 to 8:30 pm

Draft Agenda–Revised

6:30 Introductions and approval of agenda and minutes; additions to the agenda; announcements (including Movie in the Park; King’s facebook page; Spring clean-up information and other possible King projects; the Columbia River Crossing forum; the Community Watershed grant program; and the liquor license application for I&A Market)

6:50 Proposal to change the by-laws to eliminate the requirement that a candidate needs a year of service on the NA board before standing for election or appointment to Chair; other NA board positions that are currently vacant.

7:10 Irek Wielgosz: Friends of Tree King planting, & the Williams Transportation Project.

7:15 Officer Ryan Bren, Portland Police Bureau update.

7:25 Shoshana Cohen, NECN announcements, including King Action Planning meeting.

7:35 Sherrie Smith: Community Energy Project presentation.

7:45 Chris Goodell, AKS Engineering: the Vanport Housing project.

8:00 PSU Community Development Group: the King mural project.

8:10 Kevin Brake: pedestrian crossing at NE MLK Boulevard & Failing Street.

8:15 Time for further discussion on any topic.

8:30 Adjourn