A mix of BDNA board members and neighbors collectively applied for a record five SE Uplift Small Neighborhood Grants in one grant cycle. Watch out, Portland. Brentwood-Darlington is on fire. We’re moving and shaking and asking for MONEY. We’re dreaming and visioning and planning and keeping our eyes on the prize: creating beauty and community in every corner of Brentwood-Darlington.
Meesa Long, BDNA board member, applied for a grant to put up banners with our name and logo in strategic places to create a sense of place and community and celebrate who and WHERE we are. Yes. We’re part of Portland. Meesa Long is no stranger to grant writing, as she’s our fearless sidewalk champion who’s gone to bat for Brentwood-Darlington to get us millions in regional flexible funding by working closely with PBOT. Stay tuned. We should know more about that grant status February 2nd. Fingers and toes crossed, please.
Kendall Palmer, long time BDNA board member and director of FEAST for Southeast, is also one of our fearless doers whose wanted to bring communication boards to BD for ever and probably a day. She wrote a grant so we can purchase community communication boards and place them in strategic places. Without a main street style business district and few gathering spaces in BD, we’ve been relying on the internet and word of mouth for announcing things to our beautiful community. And probably some have illegally stapled things to light poles. I’m not naming names. This would add so much beauty, better reach to all our neighbors, and support all the hard work so many of us put into events by ensuring people actually ATTEND! Good luck!
The Woodmere Multicultural Garden located at Woodmere Elementary on 78th and Duke is applying for a grant to help fund their Depave project, chunking up some of the asphalt and replacing it with soil, gardens, and so much more. They are BIG dreamers and doers. This is a project I’ve personally been advocating for since 2014 so I am thrilled and hope above hope they are selected. Thank you Chris Samples, Xeandra Wescott, and Erin Robertson, and Carrie Collenberg Gonzalez. Go Dolphins!
Neighbor Dunja Marcum wrote a grant for VIBE of Portland to create Second Saturday Community Arts days at the Moose Lodge. Creating space for all ages to enjoy crafting, painting, playing music, and sharing space together as a community. BD neighbors have been clamoring for opportunities like this. Since we don’t have access to our community center much, this will be a great way to be together, create, bond, and grow community. Good luck!
Neighbor Julie Reardon ( you may know her from her work with SPAQ) is applying for a grant to create a communication board for her neck of the woods in BD. We love the ingenuity of her plan and Julie’s tireless commitment to civic action.
On deck for future grants? A seriously beautiful gathering space where all are welcome…more mom and pop businesses….gorgeous affordable housing…our own version of the Portland Mercado…more culture….more music…more access….more equity….we’re dreaming and growing and searching for funding!
Keep dreaming, Brentwood-Darlingtonians. And when YOU ARE ready to bring your dream into reality, make a plan and get ‘er done! Way to go, team. And if you want to sponsor BDNA projects, these other great folks or in any way get involved, email us brentwood.darlington@gmail.com and we’ll happily connect!
Cheers,
Lesley L. McKinley
Chair
Do you have wine corks for a project at Woodmere Multicultural Garden? Also, they just applied for a grant to bring Depave to Woodmere. Want to help/get more info/support Woodmere’s school garden? Connect with them here.
Photo: Learning Gardens Laboratory site showing the Multnomah County Master Gardener’s present garden (bottom right) and proposed at top.
Announcing a Proposed New Garden and a Community Meeting
A new garden will soon be constructed at the north end of the Learning Gardens site, just east of the existing orchard. The Multnomah Master Gardener Demonstration Garden will be used two mornings a week and occasionally for daytime classes and workshops. The public will be encouraged to enroll in these classes. Gardeners and students will park on the east side of 57th Avenue where a proposed new pedestrian-only entrance will be opened. A proposed vehicle-only entrance will be opened on 58th Avenue for pickup and delivery only (no on-site parking). A greenhouse, approximately 30’ x 40’, will be constructed on the site. All existing trees will be preserved.
For more information, please join us
Saturday, January 14, 2017
10:00am
Learning Gardens Laboratory
6801 SE 60th Avenue, Portland (across from Brentwood Park)
Or send your comments or questions to MCMGDemoGardenAnnex@gmail.com
From 5-8p.m. Halloween family fun at the Brentwood-Darlington Moose Lodge on the corner of Flavel St. and 52nd Ave!
Brentwood-Darlington is in fierce competition for Regional Flexible Funding dollars for Safe Routes to Schools that would infill sidewalks from 52nd to 82nd on Duke and Flavel St. that lead to our three Title 1 schools serving 1,500 diverse, low income students as well as the Green Thumb Transitional School that serves students with disabilities. This would also create a Greenway on Ogden and Knapp, including much needed traffic calming, crosswalk creation and infrastructure in underfunded Brentwood-Darlington, home to 13,000 Portland residents. $3 million dollars would come from RFF funding with a matching $3 million from PBOT.
The sidewalks on Duke and Flavel are patchy, incomplete, and 8 months out the year, under water, forcing children, residents with mobility issues, and parents pushing strollers into the bike lane with oncoming traffic. TriMet users stand in the street or ankle deep puddles to wait for the bus on the only two major transportation lines in Brentwood-Darlington. Ogden and Knapp is another major pedestrian avenue for BD with no sidewalk from 52nd to 82nd, no safe crosswalks on 72nd or 82nd. If it became a greenway it would be the first of it’s kind in this area, connecting to the Springwater Corridor and to major points in Lents. Funding of both projects would improve the walkshed and bikeshed to new Lents town center and provide more pedestrian friendly paths in car dependent Brentwood-Darlington. There is currently only one grocery store in all of BD and it is located on Flavel.
Representative Kathleen Taylor, BDNA Chair Lesley McKinley, Vice Chair Chelsea Powers, BDNA board member and project champion Meesa Long, and Lane Vice Principal Mike Rowell all testifed at Metro Council last night along with many Brentwood-Darlington residents. They presented both written and oral testimony, visuals of the stark inequality in Brentwood-Darlington, and highlighted the extreme need in BD.
Currently, Woodmere, Whitman, Lane and the Green Thumb are activating their students and parents as well as teachers and admin support to lobby for these much needed improvements.
Public comment and input will weigh heavy in this process and your support is needed. Here are ways to reach out to Metro and be involved in the process:
Share comment by phone 503-797-1750 or TDD 503-797-1804
Email transportation@oregonmetro.gov
Letter to Metro Planning, 600 NE Grand Ave., Portland, OR 97232
Comment on map http://www.oregonmetro.gov/public-projects/regional-flexible-funding-transportation-projects
