V.O.I.C.E. Project Meeting

From the Urban League of Portland:

Make Your VOICE Heard! Voice Our Importance through Community Engagement!

Our community has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. We have poor health outcomes and our children face unfair discipline in schools that lead to high drop-out rates. What is being done to fix these issues?

Come learn more about how the Urban League of Portland is helping to build a better future for African Americans through the Portland Plan. We want to hear your ideas about how to build a better future for our community. Join us for an evening of sharing and engagement, Wednesday, February 16, 2011 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Light refreshments will be provided.

For more information please contact Inger at 503-280-2600 ext. 641 or imcdowell@ulpdx.org

http://anyvite.com/events/home/itzfs5rmlj

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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NECN Opposes Rose Quarter’s Inclusion in ICURA

Reflecting the dissatisfaction many North and Northeast residents feel with the incomplete urban renewal that has resulted from the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area, the NECN Board of Directors has taken the position that the inclusion of the Rose Quarter district in the URA would siphon off remaining funds to projects that would have little benefit to N/NE residents.

“The NECN Board feels strongly that Rose Quarter projects, which are large and discontinuous with the North/Northeast community, will pull resources away from more community-based projects within the ICURA boundaries. For the first ten years of ICURA, the majority of the funding went to two large projects, the Interstate Light Rail project and the New Columbia project. Now that there is additional funding available, it should be spent on neighborhood level projects that benefit existing North and Northeast residents.”

Read the full letter here: NECN Position on ICURA-RoseQuarterJan 2011