Recycle, Reclaim Clean-up Event + Art Show – May 4th

Your chance to de-clutter, donate and do good E-RECYCLING Bring computers, electronics and small appliances to be recycled by Green Century Recycling.
DONATE / SWAP Gently used working household items and used clothing for the Swap Tables, where you can donate or claim small appliances, linens, kitchenware, etc.

Saturday, May 4 •9:30 am to 1:30 pm
PNCA Parking Lot at 511 NW Broadway (between Glisan and Hoyt)
RE•VISION ART EXHIBIT
At this event, visit a one-day juried show of works by artists created exclusively of recycled or found objects. All works for sale.

Pearl District Neighborhood Association is partnering with Pacific Northwest College of ArtNeighbors West Northwest, and Green Century Recycling to bring you this event

North Park Blocks hosts Green Loop / Sunday Parkways

Sunday parkway map close up

North Park Blocks will be one of the best stops along  (7 mile) Green Loop / Sunday Parkways on July 22, 2018
(11:00 am to 4:00 pm)

Here’s the activities we are hosting:

  • All Day Zumba Classes from Portland Parks and Recreation
  • Kids soccer nets
  • BIKETOWN – Portland’s bike share system: sign up and take your first ride today!
  • Pacific NW College of Arts: Check out the interactive art station and take a tour of PNCA
  • The Circus Project: Aerial acrobatic performances
  • Prosper Portland: See and hear about the exciting development options for the Post Office relocation
  • New Seasons Market: Your friendly neighborhood grocery store. Stop by and say hi!
  • Potluck in the Park -Feeding Portland Homeless since 1991
  • Kaiser Permanente sticker stop

More info:








Felicia Williams on Neighborhood Empowerment

“Portland’s neighborhoods have the local knowledge necessary to know if an idea will work."

This post is the fourth in a series based on our interview with Felicia Williams, City Council Candidate for Position 3. More on Felicia here.

Q: What’s your experience with Portland’s neighborhood politics?

Felicia:  I joined the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) Board of Directors in 2010, and have served as president since 2011. I also represent the DNA on the Neighbors West-Northwest (NWNW) Coalition Board of Directors and have spent the last two years as the NWNW Board president.

After being actively engaged with Portland City government for the last decade, I understand how we can improve our government

Q: If elected, what will you do to include neighborhood associations in the initial conversations about plans that affect their neighborhood?

Felicia: In 2011, my first term as DNA president, we asked the City for a loo in our park because we had problems with people peeing everywhere.  However, we also understood that a loo was going to be a shoot-up site. With that in mind, we walked around with Water Bureau and Parks Bureau reps suggesting sites.  There was one block that we specifically asked them to NOT use because it was in front of a daycare. Guess where they put the loo? Now the daycare staff have to pick up needles before they allow the toddlers to play in the park.

Neighborhoods have the local knowledge necessary to know if an idea will work and they are designed to be partners with city bureaus. As a neighborhood volunteer, I will absolutely continue listening to neighborhood volunteers and their input will inform my decision making.

Q: Please discuss the balance of City Council representation for Southeast and North Portland.  Would you support changing the City’s charter to allow for district-based representation?

Felicia: We absolutely need to change our form of government and that requires a City Charter change.  The commission form of government clearly DOES NOT WORK. I think we should have geographic districts based on population and a mayor elected by the entire City.  No more commissioners running bureaus, no more dysfunctional government.

Q:  When the Yellow Line was constructed in North Portland, many people of color and impoverished renters, homeowners and business owners were displaced. What is your plan to not repeat the same mistakes in the SW Corridor?

Felicia: The Yellow Line gentrification was not unique to Portland, but we have learned from the mistakes we made.  -I support the SW Corridor Equitable Housing Strategy.  Portland is being proactive with the zoning with the Better Housing by Design project, which will change the zoning along the SW Corridor to accommodate higher density residential areas, which preempts the displacement we saw with the Yellow Line.

Q: What would you do to deliver on the long ignored promises of pavement and sidewalks for the miles of unimproved streets in Southeast and East Portland?

Felicia: This one is easy. The City has already collected revenue that can be used for adding sidewalks and paving unpaved streets: System Development Charges (SDCs).  All we have to do is take $4 million of SDCs from the Portland Bureau of Transportation and $4 million of SDCs from the Bureau of Environmental Services (the sewer bureau) and within two years all of the sidewalks and paving would be finished.  That’s all it takes: $16 million, two years, and the political will to do it.

Q: Any Portland stories from the campaign?

Felicia: I had an interesting exchange of emails with a Portland voter who lives in Clackamas County.

He wrote me: “Dear Felicia, I rec’d my voter’s pamphlet yesterday. I note three candidates with messages for Portland City Commissioner Position 3. Yours is not included. Was that your decision or an error in the pamphlet?”

I replied:   “Thank you for contacting me regarding the Voters Pamphlet. Our campaign looked carefully at the costs of of being in the Clackamas County and Washington County Voters Pamphlets ($600) and concluded that is was cheaper and likely more effective to go to each voter in those areas of Portland and personally hand deliver a high quality Voters Pamphlet card  than it would be to pay to be included in the Voters Pamphlet. Not only is this fiscally responsible, but it also comes with the added benefit of being able to meet voters where they are so l can learn more about the challenges of living in the odd twilight zone areas of Portland. For context, there are approximately 160 households in Clackamas County that are Portland voters and 274 households in Washington County. I hope to meet you this weekend!”

He responded, “Thx for your reply. Your assessment makes sense. And is, perhaps, revealing re: your opponents. I won’t be home Saturday. Ducks spring game in Eugene. Sunday we have an event in the AM at Oaks Park …. Stop by and I’ll buy you a registration and a Tee if you want. Big crowd of voters you could meet. Text me and I will let you know where to meet me.”








Felicia Williams on Housing, Homelessness, Compassion and Common Sense

Homelessness is a public health issue

This post is the third in a series based on our interview with Felicia Williams, City Council Candidate for Position 3. More on Felicia here.

Q: What steps will you take for low income families to get affordable housing?

Felicia: My neighborhood was hit hard by the condo conversions.  We lost approximately 500 affordable apartments to condo conversions.  We still haven’t gotten them back.

One of our neighborhood board members unexpectedly lost his job at Portland State at the same time the rents were skyrocketing.  I watched helplessly as the stress caused by housing insecurity took a toll on his physical health. He put his name on the list to get into the Rose Schnitzer Tower (HUD housing) but the waiting list at that time was five years long. Now the waiting list is closed.

Q: What would you do to prevent homelessness and ensure we have stable, healthy and adequate shelter space?

Felicia: Homelessness is a public health issue, but currently we only treat the shelter element and don’t fund the medical, addiction, and mental health issues that trap people in a cycle of homelessness. I’m opposed to the reliance on shelter when we should be prioritizing funding housing.

We need to balance our compassion with common sense.

Low barrier shelters are scary and that’s why people don’t want to go to them –  who wants to live in a six bunk room with a crack addict and a meth addict. I have a friend with cerebral palsy and when faced with going to a shelter, he checked himself into a psych ward rather than going to a shelter.

We need to prioritize housing over shelters – breaking the cycle of homelessness will require us to treat the underlying conditions that cause homelessness. Bottom line: Prioritize housing and public health.

Q: How can we create more affordable housing?

Felicia: Housing is a basic human need. We can create more affordable housing by utilizing a combination of 99-year ground leases, land swaps, and by developing currently underutilized city-owned land. Removing the cost of land will spur development and put the property back on the tax rolls, allowing the city to direct this revenue into a range of housing options at affordable prices. If there is any chance of creating more affordable housing in Portland, we need to start making City owned property available for housing, while at the same time retaining ownership of the land as a long-term public asset.

Q: What’s your position on Inclusionary Zoning?

Felicia: When the Community Alliance of Tenants contacted us to see if we would support the effort to overturn the Inclusionary Zoning ban at the state legislature, we agreed to consider it. Our neighborhood is 87% renter and we understood that any new buildings built under an IZ program would likely be built in our neighborhood; we could get our 500 affordable units back.  At the time, our board had a developer, several public housing residents, renters, and a couple of homeowners on it. In order to get a unanimous vote on the IZ letter, we agreed not to fight height in the Central City West Quadrant Plan. We understood that if Inclusionary Zoning had any chance of working, the buildings would need to go taller in order to pencil out.  For us, more affordable housing was the most important greater good.

Q: What can City Council do better to address the housing crisis?

Felicia: I want Inclusionary zoning to work, but if it’s going to happen, we need City Council to stop destabilizing the development market with ad hoc decisions, we need a formal housing strategy, and we need to make sure we are generating enough revenue to develop more subsidized housing in the 0 to 75% Median Family Income range.