Dear Sabin neighbors,
2021 is coming to an end and we know it has been a challenging year for many people. Hopefully, 2022 will be brighter for our community and the world. While some of us are busy trimming and enjoying their Christmas trees, we have some non-holiday tree news to share with you. Do you have any trees on your property? If so you might be looking forward to the last Leaf Day collection days coming up this week. So that’s good news (and a call to action). And unfortunately, we also bring sad news from our Giant Sequoia…
Happy holidays to our dear neighbors and we thank you all for sticking together through these unprecedented times!
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Leaf Day
Grab your rakes or leaf blowers because it’s the last chance at Leaf Day! Depending on what Leaf District you’re in, Portland Bureau of Transportation scheduled Sabin for leaf pickup on 12/16 and 12/18. Just shove any remaining leaves onto the street, park your cars elsewhere and make sure to pile leaves with some extra space from the curb – 12 inches are recommended. For more information on how to prepare or to check the Leaf District Locator, click here.
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Letting Go of Sabin’s Giant Sequoia
Do you remember the Giant Sequoia between two properties near 12th Avenue and Mason Street? How the neighbors on the one side got a permit to remove the tree because it damaged their house while the neighbors on the other side did everything they could to save the tree? All the sweat and tears, the successful Go Fund Me campaign “Sequoia Standing”, and a possible solution involving a purchase of the property and a development plan that would have preserved the tree? Many of us would have loved the story to end here! Instead the tree was poisoned with glyphosate (Roundup® as many of us know it commonly) through holes that had been drilled into the tree. There was hope that the tree would survive, but it was clear that much of the tree, especially its South side, was dead. Shayan and Claire, who fought so hard to save the tree on their property, have announced that they will let the tree go. “The world we live in doesn’t allow the time and space [the Sequoia] needs to attempt to recover. So now, we ready ourselves for goodbye. We intend to pursue compliance with the requirement of Portland's Department of Urban Forestry that this magnificent specimen be cut down. We will be left with a 100 square foot stump that will remain indefinitely as a cautionary tale.” A silent vigil was held a few weeks ago, where people were invited to write messages and hang them from the tree. Shayan and Claire moved to a different state thereafter and state: “Through this painful experience we continue to harbor hope in the power of humans to collaborate to solve complicated problems. We believe in the importance of mother trees in our urban canopy. We know that there need to be wild spaces in urban places.”
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Community Action to Make Prescott Street Safer
The Sabin Neighborhood Association has approved a letter that details the unsafe street conditions on Prescott Street. This past fall, a group of neighbors collected public traffic data and documented the pedestrian hazards at 15th and Prescott and other deficiencies along the street, such as long gaps between marked crosswalks. The SNA Land Use and Transportation Committee then summarized the information in a letter addressed to the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT).The letter asks PBOT staff to walk the street with community members to review safety issues and identify opportunities. The letter stresses that Prescott is designated a Neighborhood Collector Street, a classification that, according to PBOT, should discourage cut-through traffic. The SNA letter invites PBOT to collaborate with the community in building a more pedestrian-friendly Prescott that helps the city meet its goal of reducing our climate impact.
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A Blog on Northeast Portland’s History
While we cannot look into the future, we can always take a look back on our history. Doug Decker, a neighbor from Alameda, does so regularly and shares his findings on his blog alamedahistory.org. He highlights the history of Northeast Portland and just finished a four-part series on Sullivan’s Gulch. You can check out more than 270 articles containing hundreds of photos, documents, maps and other items related to the early history of Northeast Portland neighborhoods and also join his mail list.
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