Community Safety in Mt. Scott-Arleta

As we have all sadly experienced, a dramatic and violent change has come to our neighborhood. Reckless driving and gunfire violence have become daily occurrences here and throughout the city.

About a month ago, a few community members reached out to us with concerns and the need to respond to what is happening. Those neighbors, including a member of Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association, facilitated meetings with representatives from the Office of Violence Prevention, Community Safety team from the Office of Community & Civic Life, Portland Fire & Rescue, representatives from the Office of Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, and Dr. Jonathan Jay.

Together we produced steps to address the violence while ensuring that Mt. Scott Park area remains an accessible, inclusive, and safe destination for all people. We sought both immediate and long-term solutions that center equitable outcomes for all members of our community. This includes future residents as well as neighbors here today. We hope these steps will quickly restore the sense of security and peace in our neighborhood.

Here is a partial list of ideas proposed; all of which align with Dr. Jay’s recommendations and have been demonstrated to have worked in other neighborhoods experiencing challenges to community safety:

1-Adding lighting to areas most affected and specifically Mt Scott Park to ensure safe access for all people.

2-Gating off the parking lot of Tremont Church and adding security cameras in addition to the lights. A community member has reached out to the church and is actively working with them to secure the parking lot. We are incredibly grateful to both the Tremont Church and Access Church for their immediate response, compassion, and cooperation. Civic Life and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) with the support of the Office of Management & Finance are actively working with the community to address these issues.

3-Closing off the Woodstock Interchange and turning it into a community gathering space. MSANA is consulting with Better Block PSU on both community outreach with stakeholders and design proposals.

4-Community outreach including supporting youth programs and cultural enrichment.

5-Community art projects and the utilization of public spaces for community gatherings.

6-Limiting streets around the park to local access only to reduce speeding.

7-Speed reductions along SE 72nd Ave.

8- Addition of Park Rangers to Mt.Scott Park.

Thanks to the support of the Office of JoAnn Hardesty, these requests were submitted and reviewed. We are pleased to announce that the response has been both quick and met with urgency. Effective this weekend, Phase 1 of the plan will start including limiting unsafe driving on local streets and immediately assign Park Rangers to the park. See the press release from portlandoregon.gov for details. We hope that this plan may serve as a model for other neighborhoods to use in fostering community safety.

With the recent string of daytime shootings near the park, while our children were outside, we have been informed that Portland Police Bureau will have a more visible presence in the area.

Our next meeting is on October 5th at 6:30 pm. Please join us online with Zoom. This support article can help if are unfamiliar with Zoom. Telephones and any device with internet service can access the meeting.

We will continue to update you with more information as we have it. We wanted to let the community know that we are working hard on restoring peace and keeping you and our community safe.

April 28, 2021October 2, 2021

Proposal to Amend MSANA Bylaws

At our meeting in April, we discussed amending the Bylaws in order to accomplish the following tasks:

Allow residents to be elected to the association board after attending a minimum of 2 meetings (decreased from 4) in the previous 12 months
Require a review of the bylaws annually
Clean up grammar and formatting issues

The attached document is the new version of the bylaws to be proposed for a vote at MSANA’s next general meeting, on May 5, 2021 at 6:30 pm at the monthly virtual Zoom meeting. Let this post serve as the fulfillment of Article XIV of the current bylaws, which states:

All amendments to these bylaws must be proposed in writing and submitted to members at least seven (7) days before voting on their adoption may proceed. Notice of a proposal to amend the bylaws, specifying the date, time and place for consideration, must be provided to all members at least seven (7) days before voting. Adoption of and amendments to these bylaws shall require a two-thirds (2/3) vote by the members present at a general meeting.

https://mtscottarleta.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018-Mt-Scott-Arleta-NA-Bylaws-Proposal-2018.03-1.doc

April 9, 2021April 9, 2021

Portland Street Response Pilot Adds Increased Areas of Service, Now Includes Majority of Mt. Scott-Arleta

News article originally from the City of Portland

Portland Street Response expanded its boundaries on April 1, 2021 to serve more areas and added additional call types.

Published: April 7, 2021 12:18 pm

Portland Street Response (PSR), the pilot program from the City of Portland that offers a non-police response to assist people experiencing houselessness or low acuity behavioral/mental health crises, expanded its boundaries on April 1, 2021 to serve more areas. The pilot began using the boundaries in the Lents neighborhood serviced by Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) Fire Station 11 and is now responding within eight Portland Police Bureau (PPB) districts in the greater Lents area.

Fire station service districts are called Fire Management Areas, or FMAs. After a month in service, an analysis of calls in consultation with PSR’s partners at the Bureau of Emergency Communication (BOEC) led program managers to see that the team was missing calls tied to police district areas just outside of the FMA. As part of the pilot, PSR is going to test assigning the areas to police districts rather than FMAs, which will result in expanded service to the greater Lents area.

Map showing the previous boundaries that were bordered by SE Powell Blvd. on the north, SE 82nd Ave. to the west, the Clackamas County and City of Portland boundary along Clatsop St. (roughly) on the south, and roughly SE 112th Ave. on the east. The map shows new boundaries that are primarily SE Division St. on the north, SE Clatsop St. (roughly) on the south, SE 62th Ave. (roughly) on the west, and Powell Butte along the eastern boundary. — Map showing previous boundary (shaded) and outline of new boundary in blue.

The previous boundaries were bordered by SE Powell Blvd. on the north, SE 82^nd Ave. to the west, the Clackamas County and City of Portland boundary along Clatsop St. (roughly) on the south, and roughly SE 112^th Ave. on the east. The new boundaries are primarily SE Division St. on the north, SE Clatsop St. (roughly) on the south, SE 62^th Ave. (roughly) on the west, and Powell Butte along the eastern boundary. There is a new look up tool where you can plug in your address to see if it is within PSR’s program area. You can access that tool here: https://www.portland.gov/streetresponse/address-lookup-tool

With this expansion, the team will also be taking fire calls in additional FMAs that connect through the police districts. The team will be dispatched for certain non-life threatening, non-emergency fire medical calls in FMAs 25, 19, 7, 29.

As part of an evaluation on call types from the first month, on April 1 the PSR team started responding to calls for a person either outside or inside of a publicly accessible space such as a business, store, public lobby, etc. Prior to April 1, the team only responded to calls for a person outside. The team still does not currently respond within private residences. Additionally, the team will now co-respond with PF&R on certain public burning calls (such as outside warming and cooking fires) to offer wrap-around service assistance.

PSR has also created a dashboard so the public can access our call data. The data dashboard can be accessed here: https://www.portland.gov/streetresponse/data-dashboard

“After our first month in service we were able to see areas where we can increase our call load. We appreciate our partners at BOEC, PPB, and PF&R for offering helpful insight as we build this program,” says Program Manager Robyn Burek.

“I am so pleased to see that the Portland Street Response pilot is doing exactly what it set out to accomplish: experimenting with different ways to provide service by being nimble and responding to new information,” says Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. “The City of Portland invested in a pilot so we can create the best system possible and we are using that investment wisely.”

April 6, 2021October 2, 2021

Announcing Board Elections in May

Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association will hold elections for Board positions May 5th, 2021. The MSANA Board is a participatory based volunteer organization. Board members must be Neighborhood Association members (see below) and must have attended at least four meetings within the current calendar year in order to be eligible to be elected. (See Bylaws Article VI, Section 2).

Membership in the Neighborhood Association is open to residents, property owners, business licensees and representatives of governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations located within the neighborhood boundaries. To qualify as a member one must also have confirmed their membership status on a meeting sign-in sheet (or otherwise verified within the meeting minutes). (See Bylaws Article IV, Section 1).

Board positions include Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Past Chair, SE Uplift Board Member, and At-Large Members as committee chairs or event coordinators. The time commitment is a few nights availability each month and the desire to see your neighborhood improve as the city grows. Contact us if you are interested!

In the past year MSANA Board members have installed a Community Care Cabinet at the Arleta Triangle, helped distribute US Census posters throughout the region, provided support to the Shelter to Housing Continuum Project, adopted diversity equity inclusion and accessibility guidelines, participated within a coalition of neighborhoods working together to improve safety and connectivity in the area, and more. What would you like to see happen in the next year? Join the MSANA Board and help your community today.

All are welcome. Todos son bienvenidos. Tất cả đều được chào đón.