Hello Neighbors!

We are here! Right in the thick of summer and I am loving it. It’s so nice to wake up every day and not even have to check the weather because you know its going to be nice out.

We have been busy all summer so far! Our Safer Together Block Parties are humming along nicely with many coming up in the next few weeks. If you would like to locate a block party close to you take a look at this Map we have created and will continue to update as the summer goes along. If you want more information about Safer Together you can check out this link here.

One piece of house keeping, we will be at ZOOM ONLY for the August General meeting as James John is currently unavailable for some summer cleaning ahead of the school year next year. We will be back in person in September. Here is the zoom link for you: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5416158293

One thing we are excited to announce is we will now have Live Translated Closed Captions for our meetings on Zoom! Please help spread the word as we are excited to be more accessible to all of our neighbors.

Miss last month’s meeting? You can always rewatch the recordings on our YouTube channel which you can subscribe to here: SJNA YouTube

Upcoming Events:

• 8/27 Safer Together Block Party Frog Ferry (green acres)

• 8/14 7pm SJNA General Meeting - Online ONLY (Click Here to Join via zoom)

We hope to see you at our general meeting on Monday! Here are a few topics we will be discussing:

• Safer Together Summer of Block Parties More Info Here

• Guest Speaker DaWayne Judd - Independent District Committee

• Community Corner (hear directly from you!)

• And more!

August General Meeting agenda - August 14th

July General Meeting Minutes - Monday June 12th

Minuta: Junta General Lunes 12 de junio de 2023 - UPDATE FROM JUAN

Previous Recorded Meetings

More community updates below!

Take care,

Patrick Theiss

Chair

Community updates below:

The Kidz Outside Festival is returning!

The Kidz Outside Festival is returning to St. Johns again for its second year as part of Summer Free for All with a day of live music, free haircuts, school supply giveaway, clowning, caricature drawings and other family fun you won’t want to miss.

Featuring performances from C’est La, Yawa (formerly known as Amenta Abioto) and TKO co-founder and St. Johns native Mat Randol whose returning to headline again, across the street from the place he called home for 30 years, this promises to be another can’t miss effort.

The Kidz Outside is an ongoing effort to reimagine George Park, located in the heart of St. Johns, with the community and this festival is key to dreaming up what’s possible together! With special fun provided by Nikki Brown Clown, free food from Woe’s Snackz & Grill & ice cream from Rose City Scoops there are a million reasons to join us for a day of fun at the park.

Oh, and did we mention it’s all FREE? It’s FREE. So now there’s a million and one reasons.

We’ll see you outside for The Kidz Outside Fest 2! 

Watch the documentary here to learn more!

PDX Yard Share 2023

WHO: PDX Yard Share is partnering with Portland Fruit Tree Project and Urban Gleaners to bring this event to life.

WHAT: PDX Yard Share is a seasonal community event that invites Portlanders to distribute and gather homegrown, backyard produce. People with produce that they've grown (fruits, vegetables, flowers, eggs, and seeds) will register to give and then their location will appear on an interactive map. On the day of the event, givers will place their produce in front of their house in a box or on a table. Anyone can use the interactive map to then find and gather produce.

WHEN: Saturday, August 19, 2023 from 10am to 3pm

WHERE: St. Johns and City-wide, Portland

WHY: The purpose of the event is to reduce food waste by creating a marketplace of free backyard produce, distributed and gathered by neighbors. Our goals are to reduce backyard food waste, foster community among neighbors, and connect people with local food resources.

Learn more here

You are Invited to an Evening with Commissioner Dan Ryan

Portland Street Response

Thank you to our guests last month Portland Street Response. To learn more about the program please see below.

Here are some links and their flyer below:

• Portland Street Response FAQ

• PSR Dashboard

• PSR Website

PBOT North Portland In Motion

Thank you to Mike and PBOT for the presentation at our last general meeting. For more information on projects coming to St. Johns see below:

North Portland in Motion: Priority Project Recommendations

North Portland in Motion recommends three distinct project types, each of which are We  to the needs and context of the street. Considered together, these projects build a complete and comprehensive network of safer, more welcoming, and more accessible streets.

I. Neighborhood Greenways

Neighborhood Greenways are calm, low-speed shared neighborhood streets that connect people to community destinations like schools, parks, and commercial areas.

The recommended Neighborhood Greenway network in North Portland in Motion is designed to provide a low-stress, comfortable walking and biking route to every school, park, community center, and business district in the North Portland peninsula.

II. Corridor Improvements

Investments to reduce speeding and improve the safety and comfort of people traveling along busier streets in the neighborhood.

Project elements vary by individual project, and include:

• Designing for safer speeds

• Improved crossings & sidewalks

• Safer and more comfortable bike lanes

• Transit spot improvements and stop access

III. Public Realm: Plazas & Places to Connect 

Projects and partnerships that help create places of community, connection, information exchange, and activation. 

Photo credit: Fat Pencil Studios

PBOT believes that the public right-of-way can serve an important community function by providing a place for people to connect with each other and access transportation services in their neighborhood.

Sometimes a transportation project is more about enhancing an important community place than it is about moving people and goods. This collection of projects leverages partnerships with existing community stakeholders to enhance the public realm.

This bundle of projects varies from place to place and includes:

• Public plazas and street activation

• Street paintings

• Small business support

• Information hubs with access to transportation services

Learn more HERE

Safety and Livability (PSAC Meeting notes)

N/NE PSAC MEETING NOTES 7/20/23

PPB website, Chief was relaying statistics. Crime rates. link

Lieutenant Chadd Stensgaard chadd.stensgaard@police.portlandoregon.gov

Q&A Session

• Reasons PPB would not responding to an assault?

  • none, high priority

  • cold assault – the perpetrator is no longer there, it is slightly lower priority but an officer should still respond eventually

• Will PPB come out for drug dealing?

  • Police cannot build a case on secondhand information of drug dealing

  • Dealing has to be witnessed by a trained law enforcement officer

  • Low priority call, probably will not come out unless it's happening on a regular basis and a mission can be made around it

• Human trafficking is made up of a small unit in all of Portland.

  • Best responding via email

• Will police come out for trespassing?

  • Multnomah County is not sending people to jail for trespassing 

  • low level priority

• Will PPB come out for theft of water or vandalism?

  • Reporting crime via non-emergency or file a report online

  • If you have a suspect on camera with a very clear picture of who they are then an officer may come out

  • Wait time for non-emergency number is 3 hours

• BOEC takes dispatch calls and cannot hold many callers at one time.

  • Short on staffing

  • Not associated with PPB

• Issues with crime on county or district borders – who will be sent?

  • Police will respond based on where the caller is standing.

• Staffing in North Portland

  • Ideal 122 officers

  • currently have 80 officers to cover all of 52 sq miles of North Portland

• Detectives 83

• Homicide has 24 detectives and 3 sgts (up from 2020 where they had 12 detectives)

  • Move resources from other areas to person to person crimes

• 45-50 officers waiting to attend state academy training

• Staffing crisis will continue through 2024 until middle of the year 2025 as it stands currently.

• Seattle has about 1,200 officers and Portland has somewhere around 700.

• PPB is implementing the Ceasefire (see similar California Oakland / Sacramento) strategy

  • Making contact with people in at-risk areas via faith leaders such as John Canda johngcanda@gmail.com

  • Portland website link

• Were there any fireworks fires?

  • Citywide there were 55 fires related to fireworks vs last year there were 16 fires.

  • Large increase because of good weather.

  • No firework related arrests.

• Street Racing when 600 people masked together can do what they want when there are only 8 officers

  • Asset forfeiture on speed racing vehicles? We need to find legislation that can hit racers where it hurts. Getting a vehicle tow or a short trip to jail isn't enough of a deterrent.

  • Watching is participating but when there are hundreds of people it becomes impossible

  • PBOT and PPB are talking about rumble strips and medians in intersections.

• NERT was an investigative group prior. Moving toward street crimes model. Find an area, make numbers of arrests to make a larger impact in short-term. High impact focus.

SJNA Contacts:

Position - Name - Email

Chair - Patrick Theiss - info@stjohnspdx.org

Vice-Chair - Robert (RJ) DeMello - vicechair@stjohnspdx.org

Secretary - Drew Gremel - secretary@stjohnspdx.org

Treasurer - Bernadine Lee - treasurer@stjohnspdx.org

Safety & Livability Chair - Austen Courpet - salt@stjohnspdx.org

Outreach - Carol Tricoche outreachoutreach@stjohnspdx.org    

Land Use Chair - Vacant

At Large - Paul Rippey

At Large - Lesley Hollon

At Large - Juan Vildosola

At Large - Matthew Gimbel

PDX Reporter

Help us fundraise for SJNA

We are looking to fundraise to continue providing services to our community. Our goal is to revamp our forms of communications to meet community needs better.

Ideas, but not limited to enhancing our subscriptions Zoom/Mail-Chimp, Multi-Language captions, polling accessibility, membership enrollment, etc.

Our SJNA Treasurer Bernadine will provide blue bags to anybody interested. Please email Bernadine at minimouse1950@outlook.com with the subject line SJNA Bottle Drop, and she will provide two bags to start.

-Bernadine Lee

SJNA Treasurer