Jacob Loeb began writing for newspapers in high school, first for the school's publication and then for a Vashon, Washington, community paper. He graduated college with a degree in English Literature and Television Communications. After graduating, Loeb worked in film distribution for a pioneering DVD company that supported independent filmmakers. Years later, he wrote for a weekly newsletter about technology and ran a popular computer advice column called Ask Jacob. Moving to the Montavilla neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, with his family in 2005, Loeb firmly planted roots in the community and now writes for the Montavilla News. He is a Society of Professional Journalists member and volunteers with non-profit organizations serving East Portland.
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The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) plans to break ground this Fall on a new 60s Greenway exiting Mt. Tabor Park and leading south until SE Harney Street. The new route, which prioritizes pedestrians and cyclists, will feature traffic calming elements and enhanced intersection improvements at five crossings. Neighborhood greenways offer a low-stress path for people traveling outside automobiles and are a critical part of Portland’s Safe Routes to School network.
Greenway Map Courtesy PBOT
This project takes advantage of two other projects along its route to enhance safety while reducing cost. The recently completed Portland Parks & Recreation path and multiuse trail leading to Mt. Tabor Park from SE 64th Avenue and SE Division Street provides the northern segment of the Greenway. TriMet’s Powell-Division Safety and Access to Transit project offers tentative plans to improve the SE Division Street at SE 64th Avenue crossing. A temporary pedestrian refuge island and marked crosswalk at this intersection currently helps people cross this busy street until crew build the TriMet funded enhancements.
Temporary pedestrian refuge island and marked crosswalk at SE 64th and SE Division
PBOT crews will install signage and striped crossings while improving visibility by removing on-street parking near corners at SE Foster at SE 67th Avenue, SE Harold at 67th Avenue, SE Woodstock at 67th Avenue, SE Duke at 67th Avenue, and SE Flavel at SE 68th Avenue. Engineers will only recommend parking removal where stored vehicles could inhibit visibility at sidewalk corners. Along the entire Greenway, workers will install speed bumps and painted bike direction markers called sharrows.
sharrow example
The 60s Neighborhood Greenway will contribute around four miles to Portland’s more than 100 miles of low-traffic and low-speed streets where people walking, bicycling, and rolling have priority. This project delivers on a long-requested north-south connector for people living in the South Tabor, Mt. Scott-Arletta, and Foster-Powell neighborhoods. Look for work to began later this year.
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Thang Long Cuisine opened in the former Thai Fresh location at 8409 SE Division Street in late April, replacing HÂP Fresh, which briefly occupied the space. The new restaurant will host a grand opening celebration on the weekend of May 11th and 12th. Co-owners Minh Pham and Thuy Nguyen took over the shop from the previous business to start their first Portland restaurant. This new dining location will inherit some of the more popular dishes from the last tenants while eventually incorporating traditional northern Vietnamese dishes of the new owner’s creation.
Thang Long Cuisine is the product of a mother-and-son team looking to blend flavors of their past with the culinary landscape in the Jade District. This shop is the first restaurant for Minh Pham, who currently works for a knife manufacturer. Consequently, they will rely on his mother’s culinary skills honed in Vietnam. Nguyen ran a restaurant for almost six years before moving to the United States and has a deep passion for feeding a community.
The new owners purchased the restaurant equipment and took over its lease from the previous operator with plans to pick up where it left off and then slowly convert it to their vision. “We will take over everything, including the menu. So we’re going to still focus on dumplings, and in the future, we’ll turn to our own recipes,” said Pham. Inspiration for the new dishes will come from their native home, Hanoi, and focus on the classic dishes that the modern inhabitants of that region still enjoy. The family history in that city extends beyond the future menu to influence the business’ name.
Thang Long is the historic name for Hanoi, Vietnam. It translates to ‘Ascending Dragon,’ and the owners felt it was a perfect fit for a restaurant opening this year. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, providing a fortuitous double meaning. Designers incorporated a dragon into the Thang Long Cuisine logo, and Minh Pham created a long-bodied dragon along the dining room wall, with steamer baskets providing a scale-like texture to the design.
They offer table service seven days a week for lunch and dinner. The owners will finalize the schedule as they gauge community demand and work out staffing needs. People can dine in or grab takeout, with some delivery service through Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. They plan to expand to offer delivery service through an employee to keep pricing reasonable. Pham explained that they will rely on customer feedback for many decisions, including menu changes. Part of the sale contract includes guidance and training from the previous restaurant owners, allowing the kitchen to prepare many requested items from past iterations while working on introducing new menu items. They also intend to bring back catering and event hosting services that were appreciated functions Thai Fresh offered the community.
Minh Pham and Thuy Nguyen invite the community to visit the restaurant next weekend, May 11th and 12th, for special discounts. Guests visiting those two days will receive buy-one-get-one-free pricing on all appetizer menu items. However, they are open now if people want to stop in or order delivery. Pham hopes people will share feedback about what they like and want to see from his shop. They recognize that this area has diverse tastes and hope they can find a niche in the community by offering quality Asian cuisine with a focus on dishes from northern Vietnam.
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Recently, crews working at SE 82nd Avenue and SE Clinton Street closed the outer southbound lane, repurposing the center turn lane to maintain capacity. This work is related to the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) bundle of 82nd Avenue Critical Fixes. Crews will install a pedestrian half signal, a continuous protected concrete median refuge island, updated curb ramps, and new marked crosswalks. Work will also require limited road reconstruction down to its base layer near the intersection. When completed, road infrastructure at the intersection will prohibit left turns.
This project is less than 500 feet from the fully signalized intersection at SE 82nd Avenue and Division Street but 700 feet from the next signalized intersection at SE Woodward Street. Since Portland City Council adopted the PedPDX update to Portland’s Pedestrian Master Plan in 2019, PBOT began installing marked crossings roughly 800 feet apart on major streets. Engineers place marked crosswalks closer together at around every 530 feet for designated Pedestrian Districts like the Jade District, adding median refuge islands, Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFB), and signals as needed. “Clinton Street was identified early on in our planning process as a desirable location to fill this gap, being the closest intersection to the mid-point between the two existing crossings, and the closest to meeting the 530-foot guideline, and being a four-way intersection that serves a larger area of the neighborhood on both sides of 82nd Avenue,” explained PBOT representative Hannah Schafer.
Graphic from 82nd Avenue Critical Fixes 60% Draft Concept Design, January 2024. Courtesy PBOT
City planners also chose this location for improvements based on future projects planned along SE Clinton Street. This crossing will eventually lead to an affordable housing development planned for the former Canton Grill site at the northeast corner, and the street will receive upgrades as part of the Jade and Montavilla Multimodal Improvements Project. “An upcoming funded project will be paving some gravel blocks of Clinton Street just east of 82nd Avenue and adding sidewalks that will connect to this new signalized crossing,” remarked Schafer. She noted that this crossing was the site of a 2015 traffic fatality, along with several other non-deadly crashes involving pedestrians struck by motorists, elevating the need for safety upgrades at this intersection.
The Half Signals selected for this project stop vehicle traffic on 82nd Avenue. This equipment works similarly to RRFB signalized crossings. People request the light by pressing a button when ready to cross. However, instead of activating flashing amber lights, drivers see a stoplight, clearly halting traffic so pedestrians can cross. In addition to signals and a continuous protected concrete median refuge island that prohibits left turns, contractors working for PBOT will construct enhanced stormwater inlets and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant corner ramps at SE 82nd Avenue and SE Clinton Street.
Since April 23rd, construction at the site closed the southbound number 72 TriMet Bus stop (ID 7948). The stop will reopen in early May. Drivers should anticipate continued construction at this intersection in the next few months, blocking various traffic lanes on 82nd Avenue and closing SE Clinton Street access from 82nd Avenue as work requires.
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The new owners of 8358 NE Holladay Street recently submitted a request to replat their double lot, making way for a new four-home development and Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) while preserving the original 1940-era home. Rees Bettinger purchased the corner property through a Limited Liability Company in September 2023 as he was in the process of building a new cottage cluster across the street. The housing density he created with his first project on Holladay Street was an effort to repurpose the lot’s vast yard. However, the density planned for this second property is mandated by City zoning rules for redevelopment.
Supplemental map from Replat Review LU 23-098034
Although both corner lots sit across NE 84th Avenue from each other, 8358 NE Holladay Street is in a pocket of Residential Multi-Dwelling 2 (RM2) zoned properties instead of Residential 2,500 (R2.5). RM2 zoning allows large buildings up to three or four floors. However, it has a base size requirement triggered by redevelopment to encourage efficient land use in the zone. The minimum density for an RM2 zoned property per Portland City Code 33.120.213 is 1 unit per 1,450 square feet. For this 10,000-square-foot site, the City requires at least seven housing units. That was more housing than the development team felt would fit the existing scale of the area, so they got creative. “If the existing house is retained, then that house will count as two units,” explained Bettinger. Now only needing to create five more homes, he plans to achieve the required density by building four townhouse units on the new lot where the garages once stood and adding an ADU to the original home’s yard facing NE 84th Avenue.
Draft rendering of townhouse building from side, subject to change. Courtesy Rees Bettinger
In preparation for the replat, crews demolished the attached garage that would have extended over the property line. The original home will sit on a 5,438 square-foot parcel, and the smaller 4,562 square-foot property will contain an older accessory structure. Demolition workers will return to remove that detached garage ahead of the townhouse construction. Those two-story units will offer residents around 1,200 square feet of living space, three bedrooms, and two-and-a-half bathrooms. The northmost home will face onto NE Holladay Street, and a walkway will provide access to the back three units with doors facing east. “We’ll have ten feet between the building and the western lot line to have some outdoor areas for a patio with a place to put a little outdoor picnic table and a barbecue,” said Bettinger. The two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom, detached ADU will remain with the original house, with its door opening onto NE 84th Avenue.
Similar to the project across the street, Bettinger will need to reconstruct the sidewalk corner ramps to comply with current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. He also expects to re-pour the sidewalk concrete and rebuild curb segments around the property, particularly where crews removed the driveway. This site will not offer onsite vehicle storage. Instead, it will rely on curbside parking for residents and guests. “I think [parking] is probably the biggest deal in terms of where people are negative on these types of projects. There are a lot of projects that the City of Portland won’t allow off-street parking on. As a realtor, I know most people want a garage, and now the codes [require] quite a bit of [building] width to even have a garage approved. I understand the City’s perspective on it; by the time you get a [driveway] approach and then the wings of that approach, oftentimes you’re taking two [on-street parking spaces] away to create one onsite,” said Bettinger.
Draft site map for townhouse building, subject to change. Courtesy Rees Bettinger
Bettinger and his family live in the area, and this development work grew out of seeing many infill opportunities in Montavilla yards. Early in his life, he worked in construction as a framer and a remodeler before going into real estate. In 2020, Bettinger bought his first lot and paid a builder to develop a new home intended for sale. By 2021, he obtained an Oregon Construction Contractors Board license and started taking on subcontractor management work on his projects. However, Bettinger continued working as a realtor, sometimes working more than reasonable hours. Development work came at the right time, as a hot housing market meant many of his clients could not close on a property in a bidding war, and he was not making regular commissions on the sales. For Bettinger, becoming a full-time builder is not an easy solution to weathering a challenging housing market. It has its own problems and frustrations, including nearly a dozen instances of break-ins and vandalism at his last project site. On top of building delays, that damage cuts into project feasibility, creating a sense of dread during some parts of the work cycle.
Draft rendering of townhouse building from street, subject to change. Courtesy Rees Bettinger
Bettinger’s knowledge of the selling side of the market helps shape the projects he takes on, but his consideration for the community also plays a factor. “My wife’s been a wonderful partner in every way. She’s great at asking me questions. ‘What are we doing to these neighborhoods? Can we run a business that’s profitable but also something you can be proud of at the end of the day?'” recalled Bettinger. That consultation helps the business adjust project scope to factor in the neighboring properties, which is why Bettinger does not always build to the highest density allowed. As he moves forward, projects will trend to smaller-sized units as that is what people can afford at an entry level.
Bettinger expects this project to take a few more months before he can submit building permits, likely pushing construction back to the end of this year. Details of the project could change based on the City of Portland’s feedback, and the total number of units for sale will depend on further land division allowances. Residents in this area should expect more construction at this site towards the end of the year. Additionally, people can anticipate greater density in the RM2-zoned blocks as properties redevelop with the City’s higher minimum unit requirements.
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Motorists in Montavilla should use extra caution when driving on May 1st. Wednesday morning, commuters on SE Stark Street encountered a Portland Police Bureau Photo Enforcement van parked near SE 78th Avenue. Drivers traveling over the posted speed limit of 20 miles per hour saw their speed displayed on the van’s attached reader board and flash. To the north, posted road closure signs on NE 78th Avenue at E Burnside Street and NE Everett Street prohibit through traffic as Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) crews work in the roadway.
Although outside the active NE 78th Avenue project area, PBOT crews have begun repairing the sinkhole that appeared on that street last week near NE Glisan Street. NE 78th Avenue remains open on that segment, but cars must navigate barricades covering the sinkhole area. Look for construction to disrupt local travel as work progresses.
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Over the next 30 years, more property tax dollars collected in parts of East Portland could go directly towards projects in that geography. If evaluators recommend new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) expansion to Portland City Council later this year, Portland could gain new TIF Districts along 82nd Avenue, East of Interstate 205, and in the Parkrose-Columbia Corridor. In 2023, Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s office convened an East Portland TIF Exploration Steering Committee to identify three possible TIF locations. That work progressed to the next phase of investigation in November 2023 with the formation of working groups charged with creating TIF boundaries, guiding principles, and permissible project lists. Those groups of community members, organization leaders, and business people must also communicate with the people in the affected area to determine if a TIF District is the right project funding tool for each proposed District. Community members can learn more about TIF and voice their opinions at TIF Open Houses this May.
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a funding tool for physical improvements to a specific geographic area. Although funding comes from people’s property tax payments in that District, it does not raise tax rates on its own. Instead, it freezes the portion of the taxes sent to the County and City at its current level and then diverts any increases to a special fund that TIF Districts can use for projects in the area where those funds were collected. Because of Ballot Measure 50 passed by voters in 1996, property tax increases are mostly capped at three percent annually. The City can issue bonds based on that expected three percent TIF District income, providing capital for projects in the District years ahead of collection. TIF has the benefit of reserving a segment of tax dollars for use in the community where it’s collected instead of spreading all tax funds across all areas of the City. Portland also dedicates 45 percent of funds collected towards affordable housing, a policy that has led to TIF districts now supporting 47 percent of Portland’s affordable housing units. Even with those upsides, forming a TIF District has the potential to cause harm to communities and has displaced people for decades under another name, Urban Renewal.
Past Urban Renewal projects used TIF District funds to fuel the destruction of communities across the country by demolishing “blighted” neighborhoods. The municipalities created new infrastructure and other public works in those areas, causing displacement and gentrification. The Albina neighborhood stands as a prime example from Portland’s past, where Urban Renewal displaced hundreds of Black families and businesses by creating Interstate 5 and other public projects where people once lived. However, even the relatively recent Interstate TIF District caused substantial displacement in the corridor surrounding the MAX Yellow line. Consequently, Prosper Portland adopted a new approach to implementing TIF Districts that relies on community guidance and early anti-displacement work. Portland’s newest TIF District in the Cully neighborhood spent nearly four years shaping a plan to fund projects meant to strengthen the existing residents while improving conditions. Approved in November 2022, the Cully TIF District is too young to prove this new model, and it will take years to see if it can meet all its goals. However, the three new TIF Districts under consideration will leverage the Cully work in an effort to create an equitable tool for funding improvements and provide community stabilization during a transformation already underway.
The issues around TIF District formation are complex. Past projects have shown that an improvement for some can cause injury to others, and it often disproportionately harms people from communities of color. It is essential that a variety of residents participate in conversations, learning about the positive impacts and helping shape risk mitigations that will prevent harm. Montavilla Residents can attend the May 6th meeting in The Orchards on 82nd building at 8118 Southeast Division Street from 6 to 8 p.m. or the May 9th meetings held in the African Youth & Community Organization (AYCO) building at 2110 SE 82nd Avenue. All three sessions are presented in English with translators available for Cantonese at 6:15 p.m., Vietnamese at 6:50 p.m., and Somali at 7:20 p.m. Attendees are asked to pre-register online for the Orchards meeting and the AYCO meeting. For people looking to attend on another day or are more invested in the East of I-205 TIF, there is an event on Saturday, May 11th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Gethsemane Lutheran Church at 11560 SE Market Street. People can request translation services when registering online.
Update: Added additional meeting information for May 6th event.
Disclosure: The author of this article serves on the 82nd Ave TIF Working Group. It is a unpaid volunteer position. However, participants can receive honorariums for attending each meeting that have a cash value. Montavilla News does not endorse candidates, ballot measures, or government initiatives. The Authors participation in this Working Group and votes should not be considered the opinion of this publication.
On April 27th, the 18th Annual 82nd Avenue Parade entrants marched down SE 82nd Avenue. Elected officials, community groups, and organizations started the precession from Eastport Plaza Shopping Center, heading north towards SE Yamhill Street. Hundreds of community members lined the streets to watch the 90-minute event, cheering and clapping. Portland Police and event organizers cleared barricades by 11 a.m., reopening the busy street to cars. However, attendees lingered on the sidewalk for a while longer, filling the pedestrian realm on 82nd Avenue to a degree not seen since last year’s parade.
Event organizer Nancy Chapin remarked that it has never rained on this parade. Drops only started to fall after the precession moved off 82nd Avenue, securing another dry year of community celebration. Organizers hope to increase parade fundraising efforts to bring back the event’s live stream for those unable to make it in person.
List of registered parade participants (in order of appearance)
City of Portland Police Bureau – East Precinct – Commander Jake Jensen
Parade Banner presenters
Troop 24 (BSA boy troop) and 5024 (BSA girls troop)
Grand Marshals
The Royal Rosarians
Portland Rose Society
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757
Portland Rose Festival Foundation
Ascension Catholic Church
TenBridge Partners/ The BlackPearl Friesian Dance Troupe
Montavilla Farmers Market
56th Army Band
Mysti Krewe of Nimbus
Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio
PageantsNW Miss Oregon USA | Miss Oregon Teen USA
Past Queen & Princess
Saint Anthony Catholic Church
Beneficial State Bank
White Lotus Dragon & Lion Dance
Portland Commissioner Mingus Mapps
Portland Winterhawks Booster Club
Madison South NA
SEI King SUN School Drill Team
Chelsea McManus with MORE Realty and Aidan Keller with Guild Mortgage
East Portland Rotary Clubs
Portland Raging Grannies
Rip City Scooter Collective
Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers
Portland Skyliners Tall club
Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez
KC Cars Inc.
Military Vehicle Collectors Club of Oregon
PCC Gateway to College & Yes to College
Kim’s Taekwon-Do
Squares of Warmth
SEI Kalros PDX Sun School Drill Team
State Representative Thuy Tran and Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards
Throughout 2024, the community group APANO will work to create up to five new East Portland community gardens. Currently, Portland State University (PSU) students working in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program are gathering public input that will guide site selection. Residents have until May 10th to complete a survey before the MUPR team compiles submissions, discussion results, and research data into a proposal that APANO staff can implement east of 82nd Avenue.
APANO developed the Community Gardens project specification based on interest expressed by people living along the 82nd Avenue corridor and in East Portland. “There were many people asking for places to garden, gather, and connect in the Jade District, a neighborhood that APANO heavily works in,” explained Sam Guthman, Policy Manager at APANO. The organization identified a lack of public green space and a scarcity of produce diversity as an issue APANO wanted to address in 2024. “Our members were asking for places where they could grow culturally relevant produce, as most western grocery stores aren’t going to have Thai basil or galangal and other staples common in Asian American and Pacific islander cuisine,” remarked Guthman. However, garden placement and organizational structure require planning and partnerships when creating that type of community resource. For that part of the project, APANO looked to the graduate students at PSU working to complete their final project.
PSU MUPR students participate in a Planning Workshop where they apply their skills in real-world endeavors. This two-term grad-student project provides clients with professional recommendations based on direct community consultation and situational assessments. APANO saw the Community Gardens project as fit for the workshop process and submitted a request at the beginning of the year. “They sent a request for proposal to help them find and develop community gardens with a focus on culturally specific food, particularly with an emphasis on BIPOC (black, indigenous, and other people of color) and low-income individuals,” said Tyler Smith, one of the PSU MUPR students working on the project. Early engagement sent the MUPR team to food pantries and other places where people seek food assistance. They also spoke to community garden operators to learn about the efficacy of their models.
Smith explained there are many models to consider with different approaches to organizational structure. Outgrowing Hunger, for instance, uses a grassroots, bottom-up system that keeps organizers out of operational decisions, letting the mostly refugee and immigrant participants manage gardens. With a top-down approach that assigns space and manages access, the Portland Parks Community Gardens program is on the other side of that spectrum. Other groups, like the Ethiopian Eritrean Cultural Resource Center, work within different models, maintaining a few plots at the Dharma Rain Zen Center with others housed in Portland Park run locations.
Operational modeling is an integral part of this project. However, it is secondary to identifying site opportunities and narrowing them down to three to five viable locations. Smith points out that properties not owned by public entities are rapidly redeveloping in East Portland. Consequentially, nearly two-thirds of community gardens exist in Park bureau sites. Securing the half-acre or full-acre needed for the garden is challenging. It is also difficult to find property near the communities interested in working the land and accessible for people who may not have a vehicle capable of accessing remote sites. Smith also notes that relying on Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) run sites poses other obstacles and keeps some users from participating in those programs. “Accessibility can look like a lot of different things. I think there were some access issues around needing background checks to garden, and that could be a barrier. [Also], the knowledge that the garden exists and the ability to get a plot. Portland Parks have these immensely long wait lists. You also have to know about those wait lists and a lot of people with limited English language proficiency are not necessarily in the know about those things. Sometimes those wait lists can tend to privilege certain demographics,” explained Smith. He noted that PP&R is doing its best to address equity imbalance in its systems. However, limited staffing in the Community Gardens department restricts how fast they can improve the program for all Portlanders.
Micro Community Garden on SE Division street near 80th Avenue
The MUPR team has already made progress surveying the community and existing landscape, identifying design alternatives that could affect site placement. Considerations around soil conditions and accessibility for gardeners with limited mobility could dictate using raised beds at the cost of available planting space. Access to transit and sidewalks is also a key consideration. They need more public input through the survey at this phase to begin shaping community priorities. “We want to get more people to weigh in on the survey. It asks questions about what kind of things they would like to see in a garden. Would they like the garden to be more educational focused, food production focused, or have space for community gathering,” said Smith. “We’ve been hearing about how it’s more than just growing food; it’s about growing community.” He explained that many immigrants and refugees came from places where they farmed land. They no longer have that option when moving to Portland because gardening space is often a luxury in the American urban environment. They miss the process and the human interaction that comes with growing their own food.
The PSU MERP students and APANO hope more people can participate in this process, lending their input and knowledge of potential sites to team members. The MURP group will complete their report by early June, just before graduation. Then, APANO staff will use that siting work to advance their goals of creating places for people to grow culturally relevant produce. “Our goal is to set up as many Community Gardens in East Portland as funding allows and ensure that the community has full and equal access to these spaces. We are hoping to lay the foundation for at least three to five gardens by the end of this year, but I suspect our ambition and need for these spaces will extend far beyond that,” said Guthman. As plans transform into action, look for more information about this project later this year.
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At 3:30 p.m. on April 24th, firefighters responded to reports of a commercial rooftop fire at the PDX Peaches adult entertainment venue. The fire at 9243 NE Glisan Street started from ignited trash that spread to the roof structure and parapet of the single-story building. A helpful neighbor notified the team inside the building, and everyone escaped uninjured. Responding Portland Fire & Rescue crews quickly extinguished the flames. However, damage from the fire and water closed part of the lobby, and restoration crews are working to repair this woman-owned business.
Image courtesy Portland Fire & Rescue
Lexi, the manager at the location, was not at the shop when the building caught fire. However, after reviewing security footage and speaking to neighboring business owners, she has a good idea of how it happend. “A couple of days ago, I noticed a bunch of trash in front of the neighboring hair salon. Yesterday, I noticed the trash was picked up and put in a trash bag set against our outer wall,” recalled Lexi. After hearing of the fire from women working at PDX Peaches and rushing to the shop, she reviewed the business’s surveillance footage. “It shows a man walking up and lighting the bag of trash on fire and casually just walking off,” said Lexi. She is disappointed that a trash bag was left on the street as kindling for a fire that nearly destroyed the business, but she is also thankful for the quick work of neighbors.
“A hero neighbor was skating by when he noticed the fire. He ran in to alert the girls working. Everyone made it out, and no one was hurt. He called 911 and also tried putting the fire out along with another neighbor, but at that point, it had already made its way into the walls and roof,” said Lexi. A restoration crew arrived hours later and began clearing the debris and securing the structure, making the lobby safe for guests. PDX Peaches is open for business again after the brief interruption. Lexi is thankful for the help they have received and hopes it will continue as the team recovers from the fire. “We are a small business, and we really appreciate the community’s support throughout this difficult time.”
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On Wednesday, April 24th, Portland Parks & Recreation invites community members to a Portland Urban Forest Plan open house at Leodis V. McDaniel High School. Event attendees will learn about the plan and help shape the plan’s future vision and goals for Portland’s tree canopy. Those unable to attend can still participate through the Portland Urban Forest Plan Survey. People specifically interested in the tree planting project along 82nd Avenue can also join the 82nd Avenue Transition Round Table meeting online for a focused conversation with the project arborist.
Wednesday’s open house at 2735 NE 82nd Avenue runs from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The event will include activities and opportunities to speak directly with project team members. The family-friendly program will not have a set agenda, so attendees can come by anytime during its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. Organizers will provide light refreshments at the open house and enter people who complete the survey into a drawing for a $45 Fred Meyer gift card. They will draw a winner’s name each week until the survey closes on May 2nd, 2024.
April’s monthly meeting of the 82nd Avenue Transition Round Table will feature the Building a Better 82nd program‘s arborist, who will describe tree selection and answer questions. The 82nd Avenue Business Association will host this meeting focusing on improvements related to 82nd Avenue’s jurisdictional transfer from the Oregon Department of Transportation to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Those projects will add more trees to the roadway in medians and along the street’s edge. The meeting is accessible online via Zoom this Thursday, April 25th, from 10 to 11 a.m.
Join Zoom Meeting on April 25th at 10 a.m. Meeting ID: 812 5378 3045 Passcode: 538088 Phone: 669-900-6833
Portland has seen a diminishing tree canopy as properties redevelop with more housing, and people avoid planting due to maintenance costs. Over the last several years, private and government organizations have increased efforts to reverse that trend in an attempt to reduce the heat island effect experienced during the summer months. These events and survey are opportunities for the public to learn more about the work while providing direction to officials on better meeting the community’s need for more trees.
Update April 25th, 2024: This article was updated with images from the open house and the 82nd Avenue Transition Round Table posted an audio recording of the presentation.
