BPS Releases Draft Report of 82nd Avenue Study

The City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has released a draft report titled 82nd Avenue Study: Understanding Barriers to Development. According to a post on their website, the goals of the study are to:

  • Update our understanding of 82nd Avenue as a “Civic Corridor.”
  • Identify the most strategic locations for public action or investment support for businesses and property development on 82nd Avenue.
  • Generate policy recommendations to address physical and social needs in the corridor, and address barriers to development while managing equity and social issues.

Many of the recommendations are related to code adjustments, but one of the key near-term action items listed is “Jade District and Montavilla should be highest priorities for placemaking investments. They have some market momentum for the development types envisioned in the Civic Corridor concept (recent and proposed development), including adaptive reuse projects.”

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New Pilot Program for Sharps Disposal Boxes

There is a new pilot program in partnership between Multnomah County, City of Portland, Metro, and TriMet and Downtown Clean & Safe to respond to community concerns about syringe waste.  Syringe waste is one symptom of a complex set of issues related to livability that intersect with each of the jurisdictions. In early 2019, the pilot program will be adding 15 new Sharps Disposal Boxes (SDBs) across the city — for a total of 18 SDBs.  SDBs are about the size of a mailbox and provide a place for neighbors to safely and conveniently dispose of found syringes, which can not be thrown into a regular garbage can.

One of these boxes will be located at the Holgate Library parking lot. Please note that the SDB is not a program of the Multnomah County Library.

The agencies are hoping that convenient SDB locations will reduce carelessly discarded syringes, as well as help neighbors who are cleaning up their community to safely dispose of this waste. They have also launched a separate pilot program to provide neighbors with free small disposable sharps containers that can be placed into the larger disposal boxes.  “How to” videos and FAQs on safe syringe disposal as well as more information on these programs can be found on Multnomah County’s new syringe disposal web site.

The participating agencies will evaluate the effectiveness of the SDB program on reducing syringe waste, and they will be reaching back out to your Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association once the box is in place to get feedback.

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Foster Shelter Steering Committee Meeting Tonight 9-Oct

There is a Foster Shelter Steering Committee meeting tonight at the Brentwood-Darlington Community Center (map). The meeting starts at 6:00 PM. See the agenda posted here.

There is a 10 minute period set aside in the agenda for public comments, if you would like to provide your thoughts.

The Good Neighbor Agreement draft was recently finalized and will be signed during the meeting.

Multnomah County has offered $100k in a community investment grant to address public safety concerns, which were presented (PDF version) in the September meeting. There is time scheduled on the agenda to discuss how to spend that money on mitigations in the surrounding area, such as improved lighting, graffiti abatement, etc. You can find more details in last month’s meeting minutes (in the “Resources for community concerns” section).

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