Woodlawn Neighborhood Association General Meeting Minutes 

(draft until approved at next meeting)

May 5th 2021, Online only at Zoom 

This is your neighborhood. This is our neighborhood. 

Together, we have the power to make it a beautiful place to live for everyone.

7:00 – 7:10 Welcome and Introductions-Meeting is recorded

Board members present: Melody Randolph, Maija Spencer, Beth Heins, Dennis Kennedy, Anjala Ehelebe, Shirley Minor, Chida Chaemchaeng, Thelma Diggs

not present – Keith Baich, Nancy Flynn

Community members present: Erin E, Lisa, Anna

7:10 – 7:15 Approve April meeting notes: Beth move, Dennis second, all in favor
Approve April agenda : Anjala moves, Thelma seconds, all in favor

7:15 – 8:00 General Business

1. Guest Speaker: Randal Wyatt – founder & executive director of Taking Ownership PDX – started in June 2020 to provide free home repairs to Black residents, mostly in N/NE Portland (and other homes in the area). The project started organically with the offer to repair one person’s home, and donations kept coming in. They’re an LLC with a fiscal sponsor, working toward becoming an official non-profit. They’ve helped more than 30 families and raised more than $300,000. Projects have included roofing, painting, landscaping, weatherization and cosmetic work. They have 300+ volunteers and are making plans to clean up Portland and raise funds. They have a wait list of 120 or more homes and projects. Most of the money comes from the community.
   Question: Are they still taking applications? Right now they’re contacting people but can’t do projects until June or later. The pandemic is making it tough to access materials right now. 

Anna works at Community Warehouse and would like to connect to have the two organizations put together. 

Their fiscal sponsor is Friends of Noise – providing musical opportunities – registered to All Ages Music PDX. 

Go to https://takingownershippdx.com/ to donate, volunteer, or nominate homes for projects. (Also check out Randal’s album at randalwyatt.bandcamp.com) 

1. BIPOC, Immigrant, & Refugee Vaccine Clinic
   1. The City’s Community Vaccination Clinics are specifically for Black and Indigenous people, people of color, immigrants, and refugees.
   2. The drive-thru clinics are located at the closed Kmart Parking Lot at 4500 NE 122nd Ave. *No ID is required.*
   3. Interested folx can get an appointment at the following sign-up links:
   4. 5/14 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/nvxcdjsvkjsbkcas
   5. 5/15 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/hfdoashfudashfkjdashfkj
   6. 5/21 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/dhsbhfjdasbhjbhfj
   7. 5/22 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/nckakshfiallkshj
   8. 5/28 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/ghdkjsaghkljas
2. Stride For Seniors raised $195,000 for Meals on Wheels! The NE Center came in first place!
3. Woodlawn Community Garden feat in Oregon Live

1. https://www.oregonlive.com/hg/2021/04/see-how-portlands-community-gardens-are-growing-this-spring.html
2. Could they perhaps start a GoFundMe to replace the broken Thai Water Jars? Nancy isn’t on tonight’s meeting so perhaps table that question for next time.

7:45 – 8:00 Old Business – none 

8:00 – 8:20 Board Business

1. Treasurer’s Report-Dennis Kennedy $7314.95 – have done all our annual reports to the Oregon Secretary Corporate Division; did our Federal report in April; today Dennis did our CT-12, our charitable reporting, which costs $20 and hasn’t been deducted yet. 
2. Land Use and Transportation-Anjala Ehelebe
   1. Window Replacement https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bds/article/783359 – Woodlawn is a historic conservation district. Some houses contribute to the historic nature of our neighborhood and have to follow some processes to make changes. A house at 1044 NE Oneonta is considered a contributing house; the owners want to replace some old (possibly original?) windows with similarly-era-appropriate multi-paned windows. If anyone objects, let the Land Use and Transportation committee know. The options for the Neighborhood Association are to protest the change, or to do nothing. The general consensus for now is that it’s fine to change the windows, no formal position taken. 
   2. Have requested a few items from the city two months ago but have not heard anything from them. Anjala will remind the city that we need responses, starting next week.  
   3. The Oregonian article about Community Gardens mentioned that the Thai water jug in our neighborhood garden is cracked/it’s not useful. Would Nancy/John want to set up a GoFundMe to fund repairs, if they know anyone who could do it? Anjala moves that we ask them to gather information; Thelma seconds. All in favor. Anjala will contact Nancy and John about this.
   4. NE Coalition of Neighborhoods had a zoom meeting to discuss Land Use and Transportation topics. They discussed three topics of interest to Woodlawn: 
      1. Columbia Crossing (I5 bridge replacement) seems bound to repeat all the mistakes of the last time around. 
      2. ODOT seems fixated on widening I5 at the Rose Quarter. Many community groups are not in favor of a widening project. Keep an eye on this project. 
      3. A member has identified plots of land owned by ODOT – mostly at the base of the Fremont Bridge, on the NE side. Could the plots be returned to the city to be used for affordable housing? So far in the idea/discussion stage. The air wouldn’t be great for residents, but the air quality in general is not good in Portland. 
      4. Another idea: could some of the land taken by Emanuel Hospital in the 1970s be used for affordable housing? 
      5. Many pilot projects for small durable shelters on small plots of land – if it looks promising there may be recommendations for more parts of Portland to participate. The latest estimate of numbers of unhoused people in Portland is 6000. 
         1. Questions: is there a good way to get involved with the houseless issues? Anjala knows a couple of people on the NE LUTC to connect with.  
      6. There have been some conversations among neighbors looking for ways to make systemic changes to address gun violence. One suggestion is to get to know your neighbors and have block parties, but block parties are on hold right now. 

1. Farmer’s Market-Will start back up in June, looking for business sponsors
2. NECN-Dennis Kennedy, Shirley Minor: no updates at this time. 
   1. Maija updates from their newsletter: they are looking for articles for Hey Neighbor for the early July issue; the article submission deadline is June 5th. Email articles of 500 words or less to lisa@necoalition.org. They’re also looking for new volunteers. 
3. NET-disaster preparedness workshops-Erin Cooper – not at meeting

8:20 – 8:30 Final words

1. Other upcoming events, final announcements, thoughts: Commissioner Hardesty will be joining our next meeting in June. What topics do we want to ask her to address? People should also be sure to look at her areas of responsibility and what she’s working on already, so we don’t ask her to restate easily obtainable information. 
2. Chida volunteers to help do an email 2 weeks ahead of our meetings to find out if we have agenda items. 
3. Do we want to meet in person? Maybe in July in the park? 
4. Maija’s idea: have WNA-publicized Wednesday night picnics in our park for the month of August? Suggest local businesses make Picnic Packages to help publicize/make it easy for people to participate. 
5. Oregon Public House has reopened. 
6. Woodlawn Yoga is pausing classes after the end of May. They’ll have a final party in mid-June. 

8:30 Meeting adjourns

Thank you for coming! Hope to see you Wed, June 2nd at 7pm for our next meeting!