When Central Northeast Neighbors (CNN) Director Alison Stoll moved to Beaumont-Wilshire in the early 1980’s, she saw a notice that BWNA needed someone to write for the newsletter and she volunteered. Not entirely willingly, she quickly found herself drafted onto the board. Recently married and expecting her first child, she really didn’t have time to serve, but she committed and so began more than 30 years engagement with Portland neighborhood associations. BWNA’s first big win when she joined the board was getting the Bloods and Crips (i.e., gangs) out of Wilshire Park. In those days our lovely park was a prime location for drug dealing. The neighborhood association organized to get some of the children’s play equipment installed, as well as the bark pathway around the perimeter. “All it took to get the bad guys out,” Stoll said, “was to get the good guys to reclaim the park.” This anecdote illustrates two important facts about neighborhood associations and Portland: one, if you have something you would like to see happen in the neighborhood, get involved; and two, contrary to skeptics, everything isn’t getting worse; some things have improved.
Most Portlanders are generally aware that their neighborhood has a neighborhood association: there are 95 of them. As a report from Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement noted, neighborhood associations are “a basic building block of democracy in Portland. These Associations are a powerful resource which draw together a diversity of people who are concerned with issues affecting the quality of life in their neighborhoods.”
Portland’s neighborhood associations are structured under seven district coalitions, which are funded by and operate in collaboration with the City of Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement. As one of these coalitions, Stoll said, “CNN has a contract with the city to provide services to the neighborhood associations, such as liability insurance, organizing, guidance with bylaws, finances, treasurers, and bank accounts. We are the fiscal administrator for anything the neighborhood association does.” Because CNN is a 501c3 non-profit, any donations made to BWNA are made through CNN.
The biggest issue for CNN right now is the Comprehensive Plan, i.e., the rezoning of the city to allow for denser development.
“Back when neighborhood associations were formed, it was a way for neighbors to have a voice in decisions that the city makes,” Stoll said. Then as now, the hot-button issues were around land-use—zoning and development, as well as essential services such as fire, police, road, and sewers. “As time progressed and we have evolved, our voice has changed,” she said, putting into words the sentiments she hears from many of the Portlanders she represents regarding rising rents and home prices and the demolition and new development that are changing the character of the city. “It used to be that you could go down and testify before the city, and in many cases either change the decision or put conditions on the decisions. Now the feeling is that what we moved here for is slipping away. The qualities of the city are changing. The little mom and pop business are going way.”
BWNA has two representatives on the CNN board, our own board officers Barb Strunk and Kathy Campbell. BWNA has been active and vocal in pursuing the board’s objectives for the Comprehensive Plan, on which decision-making has now reached the state level, Stoll said. CNN has a land-use committee for the whole coalition. CNN has other objectives, including hosting public-safety action committee meetings (PSAC) with the Portland Police and facilitating coalition members with neighborhood cleanups. For more information, go to CNN’s website (www.cnncoalition.org).