MNA Community Meeting – October 2011
Community meeting about 79th & Glisan shooting
When: Monday October 24, 2011 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Montavilla United Methodist Church – 232 SE 80th Portland, OR
Notes:
Many neighbors have expressed shock and concern over the recent shooting incident at 79th and Glisan on the night of Friday, September 30. To help address this, Montavilla Neighborhood Association will be hosting a community discussion about the incident on Monday, October 24 at Montavilla United Methodist Church, from 7 to 8 PM.
Residents, business owners and other concerned parties are encouraged to attend to learn more about the incident, hear from City of Portland representatives about how they are following up, and brainstorm how residents and businesses in the neighborhood can help. Representatives from Portland Police and other City bureaus will be present at this meeting.
For background information, here is an Oregonian article on the incident:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/10/police_investigating_a_gang-re.html
Public Safety Chair, Temporary Co-Chair, Montavilla Neighborhood Association
MNA October Meeting Update
Fall Leaves
Neighborhood Events and Opportunities:
- Opportunities to contribute to the quality of life in Montavilla abound. The Montavilla Neighborhood Association is currently looking for a chairperson. It’s easy to put yourself in the running for this critical position: Simply come to the general meeting on Nov. 14 and state your case. Other open board positions include a sustainability chairperson and a delegate to Southeast Uplift, the organization whose steady hand holds an umbrella over many neighborhood associations.
- Parks chairperson Roger Warren shared some inspiring statistics: In Portland there are 10,000 acres dedicated to parks and recreation. There are 365 athletic sites, one for each day of the year, and according to a city audit 90 percent of those surveyed rated their experiences at Portland parks as good or very good. To further solidify the link among public spaces, public education and the overall well-being of the community, Warren plans to propose the creation of a new board position to represent Montavilla’s four public elementary schools.
- In addition to dedicating its Oct. 24 workshop meeting to discussing the widely covered recent gunfire exchange at N.E. 79th Ave. and N.E. Glisan St., the incident was discussed during the crime update at the general meeting. The presenting officer said that contrary to the current perception, People’s Grill has not been a problem in terms of calls made to the police. On another note, she cautioned attendees to keep in mind that as the holidays approach burglaries usually increase. In addition to reminding people to not leave valuables in their cars, she suggesting photographing your items’ serial numbers, which are required by law to be checked by pawn shops before those items are put on sale.
- Fritz Hirsch, who is currently serving as both public safety chair and temporary co-chair of the association, reported that a one-year graffiti cleanup campaign was recently completed. Funded by a grant from Southeast Uplift, Hirsch worked with a group of volunteers from JOIN to eradicate nearly 500 tags throughout Montavilla.
- A representative from Highland Christian Center, located at 7600 N.E. Glisan St., informed the meeting that the organization offers a Head Start program and counseling services and that it plans to feed 800 families on Thanksgiving.
- Montavilla Neighborhood Association yard signs have arrived. They’re bright yellow, they announce the monthly meetings and you can be the first person on your block to have one by contacting Lew Scholl at lewscholl@msn.com
- If there’s a disaster of any type, knowing how to shut off your natural gas is important. To learn more about this and other subjects that are critical during an emergency, please visit www.portlandonline/oem
The Montavilla Neighborhood Forum:
Choya Adkinson-Stevens, community engagement coordinator with the YWCA of Greater Portland, presented on events and activities happening in conjunction with national Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which took place in October. As of early October, in 2011 27 people in the state of Oregon have died as a result of domestic violence. Opportunities to formally acknowledge the issue during the month included special film screenings, lighting of the Morrison Bridge and a community vigil. While the month may have ended, the problem, unfortunately, has not. On a year-round basis, the YWCA of Greater Portland offers domestic violence services, senior services and camp opportunities for children of a wide age range as well as families. The YWCA of Greater Portland is also one of the nonprofit partners of Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services, which is located at 10305 East Burnside and offers those dealing with domestic violence advocacy services on a drop-in basis every weekday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. For more information about the center, please visit www.gatewaycenterdv.org or call 503-988-6400. If you’d like to learn more about the YWCA of Greater Portland, please visit www.ywcapdx.org or contact Choya at 503-294-7480 or, via e-mail, at choyaa@ywcapdx.org
To learn more about how you can contribute to the quality of life in Montavilla, please visit the association online at www.montavillapdx.com, where you’ll find information on volunteer opportunities, contact information for local resources and several options for connecting with the Montavilla Neighborhood Association, including Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and flickr. The best way to connect with your neighborhood association, however, is to attend the next monthly meeting on Monday, Nov. 14. Meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. and are held at the Montavilla United Methodist Church, located at 232 S.E. 80th Ave., where parking and childcare services are both free and plentiful.
