Bridging Division: Crosswalk Planters project

Neighbors are getting involved to finish up this wonderful project. Bridging Division: Crosswalk Planters (BD:CP) is the culmination of conversations, meetings, decisions, and effort that began in August, 2010. The project calendar will be available to keep updated and help install the Crosswalk Planters this Spring as part of Village Building Convergence 2012. Check it out on the Calendar and get involved!

The community project at SE 41st & Division is called Bridging Division. You can follow the progress from the beginning on the Neighbor Meetings page. We built planter box structures and created tile designs as part of City Repair's Village Building Convergence, May 27^th - June 5^th,2011. In order to accommodate the structural requirements of spacing in the grout, we still need to fill in some of the spaces of the tile designs. We will also be reinforcing the structure of the planter boxes.

One way to fill up space in the design is to create small shapes from the colored glass donations we received. Stephanie of H.A.R.P. has offered to cut the glass for any designs we create for this purpose. Another way is to add smaller design elements that compliment the overall design. We will also be reinforcing the planter box structure so that they stand the test of time. We'll be making these improvements this spring, so please contact us if you want to be a part of this process.

Marino's Adriatic Cafe provided coffee each day of the Village Building Convergence in 2011. Lunch was provided for volunteers by Off the Griddle, Om Nom Sandwiches, and SouthWestern Pizza Company, which are all found at Ala Carts - just South of SE Division on 50th AVE.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has been working with us to obtain permits. With so much input from the community, we were able to come up with a design for the corner of SE 41st AVE & Division. During this process, one neighbor complained about the design, yet refused to work with us to accommodate his ideas into our plan. We are including his idea within a new set of drawings anyway, because even grumpy people have good ideas, and ultimately the new plan benefits pedestrians and cyclists.

Crosswalk Planter Project at Village Building Convergence 2011

Sat, May 28

We washed, counted, and prepared the site materials, then built 1 of 3 raised bed planters using recycled materials from the neighborhood.

Sun, May 29

Michael Schultz and Cyd Manro finished building the planter box prototype.

Tue, May 31

Michale Schultz built 1 more planter box. We began laying out tile mosaic design ideas and visions. On The Move offered to be stewards of the planter boxes.

Thu, Jun 2

The community came to SE 41st & Division to create tile mosaics for the planter boxes. Kimberly cut some reclaimed boards for the top of the planters.

Fri, Jun 3

Jay and his brother Paul helped to build the third planter box, and to make changes to all three to improve strength and continuity. Carbide Saw and Old Portland Hardware & Architectural wrote letters of support for the Crosswalk Planters project.

Sat, Jun 4

Since the project materials had been stored outside throughout the week, they needed to be power washed. Ralph, and some of our friends from On The Move volunteered to help get the materials ready for assembly and decoration. Cyd consulted with Jason at Oregon Tile and Marble, and the community tile designs still needs work in order to meet the strength specifications of the grout.

Sun, Jun 5

We still need to add to the current designs to fill in structural gaps. We need to fortify the basic structure of the boxes with braces and brackets. We then need to create a base wih a drainage hole, mesh, gravel, and weed shield layers. On top of this will go the leaf mulch donated by the City, which we will mix with perlite and vermiculite. We will work on this throughout fall and winter to prepare to install the planter boxes next Spring 2012.

Richmond Residents Choose Community Project

Since launching their pilot project in the Richmond neighborhood on August 9^th, 2010, CR:ECO (City Repair: Empowering Community Organization) has knocked on over one thousand doors. More than one hundred people have gotten involved in the project. Two neighborhood meetings have been held already in the community as an outgrowth of these conversations at the door. This community dialogue produced many ideas for community projects and a vote taken by the community prior to the second meeting narrowed it down to three top ideas: a public art project, neighborhood garden installations, and addressing pedestrian safety. At the second meeting, community members resisted the urge to fight for their favorite idea, and instead worked to bring together two of those ideas into a neighborhood project to initiate. From this collaboration, the Bridging Division community project was born.

CR:ECO (City Repair: Empowering Community Organization) launched in Portland's Richmond Neighborhood on 8/09/10

Eco-mUNITY is partnering with City Repair to launch a pilot project called CR:ECO (City Repair: Empowering Community Organization) beginning Monday, August 9th, 2010 at the new moon. The launch is in the Richmond Neighborhood, where Cyd Manro, the local Eco-mUNITY director has lived for several years. Dwayne Beals, director of the Montavilla Eco-mUNITY and Michael Schultz, director of the Brooklyn Eco-mUNITY will be working as Empowering Community Organizers in Richmond alongside Cyd before taking the program back to their own neighborhoods.

CR:ECO is building the social, informational, and technological infrastructure necessary for Richmond (and then other communities and neighborhoods) to meet needs locally and sustainably. Asset Mapping is a fundamental building block to helping neighbors work together to meet their own needs, generate local economy, and build trust in their community. This means that an Empowering Community Organizer will endeavor to visit each home in Richmond and not only build a database of community assets and needs, but will work with the other Organizers to facilitate community projects to meet those community needs with local assets. These projects will be funded locally and will generate hyper-local economy.

photo by Dwayne Beals Building trust is an important aspect of building community. Organizers will host events and encourage potlucks and neighborhood meetups, and will build bridges between people through direct interactions. During community outreach, Organizers will provide opportunities for neighbors to tell their stories and to share their visions of how to improve their community. The stories will become part of a newsletter delivered 8 times a year timed with the natural cycle of the year. Through this newsletter, readers will learn the stories of their neighbors, and learn about the events and aspects happening during that time of year. The visions may become community projects, facilitated by Eco-mUNITY and made possible in part by City Repair. These visions could spawn anything from an intersection repair to building a community center. They could also manifest something as simple and beautiful as a flower garden. The point is that we want to make your vision of a more livable, fun, and sustainable community come true!

Super-Van We are asking you to give a little so that we can give a lot. By supporting CR:ECO, you support local people making a living wage by organizing your community to meet its needs locally. You support opportunities for you and your neighbors to generate local economy using your skills, knowledge, and resources. You will help to build a system to search for community assets offered by neighbors to meet your needs. You will help to tell the story of your community and connect to natural cycles through a newsletter. You will build a social network strong enough to survive peak oil, natural disaster, or other things disruptive to the standard infrastructure. Please give generously to support empowering community organization.