Southeast Portland's Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood has changed and grown much in the past, and is poised to undertake much more in the coming years. It also stands as an example of what can be accomplished when neighbors pull together to create a real and active community.
History
Hosford-Abernethy gets its name from a middle school (Hosford, at SE 28th place, named after a onetime nearby landowner Minister Chauncey O. Hosford)) and an elementary school (Abernethy, on SE Orange Avenue, named for George Abernethy, Oregon's first provincial governor) that reside inside its boundaries, but the area was originally a group of several small neighborhoods.
In the mid-nineteenth century, within what is today Hosford-Abernethy were such neighborhoods as Tibbet's Addition, Stephen's Addition, and the Central Eastside Industrial District. Tibbet's split up in the 20's with the increase of automobile traffic, creating today's Hosford-Abernethy neighbor Brooklyn. Stephen's Addition was purchased by William S. Ladd, who, in the 1890's, designed within it a community with streets laid out in geometric patterns like he had seen in Washington, D.C. Ladd's Addition is the oldest planned community in all of Portland, and was recently designated as one of 2009's ten great neighborhoods by the American Planning Association.
These little communities puttered along after more traffic on the expanded Highway 99, Powell Boulevard, and Division Street divided them, and after a suburban exodus hurt businesses and left many older buildings and homes in disrepair
The Formation of HAND
These individual communities formed the Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood Development Association (or HAND) in the 1960's, motivated in part by a proposed Mt. Hood Freeway that would have run from the Willamette River, adjacent to Division Street, and then would have shifted onto Powell Boulevard. Not only would it have divided communities, it would have also resulted in the destruction of many homes along the southern boundary of HAND.
The victory over the freeway (plans were permanently shelved in 1974) really set the stage for the kind of neighborhood HAND would become: involved, forward thinking, self-sustaining. Stretching from Hawthorne to Powell Boulevard, and from the river to SE 30th, HAND is a large and diverse neighborhood that has seen plenty of change just in the last few decades. Amy Lewins, current Communications Chair, and Linda Netteloven, Vice Chair of HAND say there is much to point to that shows evidence of change.
"I walk the Seven Corners so much, and see it there," Netteloven said, referring to the area along SE Division Street between 19th and 22nd Avenues. "Bars, restaurants, green things, old things—lots of change. The challenge is in managing it all." Perhaps because of its size and population diversity, there have been some rifts in the community over different issues, but overall the neighborhood is unified in its desire to "love the streets they live on."
Growing Schools Towards Inclusivity
They also point to an unexpected jump in enrollment at Abernethy Elementary as another sign of the re-generation of the area.
"There are four kindergartens," says Lewins, saying that indicates a shift in thinking among young families. Instead of running off to the suburbs when they have children, many people are opting to stay in the inner-city neighborhoods, and be a part of the change they hope to see in their schools.
"People are making choices about where they live. They want to be part of the bike/walk neighborhood model," Lewins believes, referring to what is called in the Portland Plan a "20 minute neighborhood," of which HAND is one.
The result, they tell me, is a powerhouse PTA and parent-run partnership group called the Abernethy School Foundation.
"People are choosing their neighborhood school more and more," Abernethy principal Tammi Barron tells me, adding that parental involvement and support has been key in getting initiatives at the school up and running.
"It is an exceptional school, I think," Barron confides. Besides excellence in Math and reading (95% of students have met the benchmark), she says that they have made excellent progress at creating a mind-body connection for their students.
"We focus on character education, teaching skills in making friendships, in conflict resolution. We focus on stress reduction, striving to create a safe and happy climate at school. We are firm believers in recess and in gym. We focus on nutrition—we have a chef who creates lunches from locally grown food, sometimes from food grown right here in our own garden."
In fact their kitchen, headed by school chef, Linda Colwell, acts as the demo kitchen for the entire district, coming up with healthy menus for other Portland schools. The school's Garden of Wonders also acts as an outdoor classroom.
"The kids plant, harvest, cook with the produce, put the garden to bed," Barron says, "[we believe] the more they learn about food the better the decisions they will make about what they eat."
Barron goes on to say that during her four year tenure here, she has tried to lead the charge in being open and welcoming to the community, encouraging interaction and volunteerism.
"We have a really strong volunteer base here. We are strongly tied to the community."
Kevin Bacon, principal of Hosford Middle School, says his school is also trying to be inviting, and inclusive. It has been a bit of a slippery slope for Hosford. In 2002 the Spanish Immersion program began there, followed a year later by the Chinese Immersion program. These popular programs did a lot to boost Hosford's sagging enrollment numbers, and encouraged many the middle-class families to send their children to the neighborhood school instead of elsewhere. Bacon says that this change in demographic brought with it more parental involvement, children who were often better academically prepared, and better stats for the school (free or reduced lunch numbers went down, test scores went up). But, he says, this might have more to do with the gentrification of the neighborhood than anything else. He sees the challenges realistically; as the neighborhood gentrifies many things improve in the schools but a vulnerable group of people, poor and often racial minorities, are sometimes written out of the equation. These families often find themselves priced out of their neighborhoods and head to East Portland or elsewhere outside of the city.
"It is a continual challenge to address the needs of the underprivileged," Bacon admits. Hosford has after school groups aimed at empowering minorities, cultural sensitivity, and opening lines of communication about race. He sees value in duplicating these types of efforts in the classroom as well.
"There are systemic things about the way we teach [in this country] and assumptions that are made [about minorities] that need to change. Sometimes the learning environment needs to be taken into consideration," he says. He is hopeful that the reorganization of Portland Public high schools is a strong step in the right direction.
"I believe Portland Public Schools is dedicated to focus on equity for all our students," he says.
Sustainability
As the neighborhood grows, and grows out of some of its old infrastructure, sustainability becomes another hot issue. HAND has several livability issues currently on the radar; among them the Division Streetscape Project, which will increase green and pedestrian space on the busy street, and the creation of a pocket park within it to create a much needed community space in the Seven Corners section of the neighborhood.
Ethan Timm, HAND board member who leads the sustainability charge, says that many people in the neighborhood are interested in "loving the streets they live on," but sometimes need a little guidance on how they can get involved in efforts to improve the livability of the community. Timm realized early on that organizing large groups of people was often difficult because of busy lives and conflicting schedules, but he still figured out a way to help.
"The amazing thing about Portland is that when you have an idea about something, there is often someone already on their way to making that happen," he points out, using projects like the Clay Street Green Street, Solarize Portland, Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition, and the Portland Fruit Tree Project as local organizations in and around HAND already mobilized in sustainability projects.
"We have a desire not to re-create but to add to sustainable projects," he asserts. "I realized that this was a valuable service—connecting interested people to these endeavors. We're open to ideas for new projects, but [we can also] help publicize efforts already underway, help people find out about them and get involved." The HAND sustainability group sponsored a tour of the Bullrun Watershed, and of the Columbia Boulevard wastewater treatment facility, helping people to "become more connected to the infrastructures we depend on." He also points to block and neighborhood-based resource sharing, the SE 19th and Division Pocket Park plan, proposed NW Earth Institute class participation, and a proposed food production and composting program, as some of the hyperlocal sustainability efforts in HAND.
"Another great thing about Portland is we're not fighting against the government—a lot of these sustainability projects are supported by city government," Timm says, mentioning the Portland Plan and its focus on encouraging neighborhood involvement. He reiterates that he thinks it is an important role to lead to things that are going on in HAND and all around the city.
"Portland is basically a small town," he says, "You can be involved as much as you want to be—there are so many opportunities."
Washington-Monroe High School Project
Another hot-button issue is what is going to be done with the old Washington-Monroe High School building and surrounding land (which is located in the adjacent Buckman neighborhood). Closed since the 1980's, the historic building is considered by many in HAND and elsewhere in the city to be worth saving. The land around the building is owned by the Parks Department, the building itself by Portland Public Schools. The entire parcel is 6 city blocks, and development will be costly, much more so if a renovation of the existing building, which would need seismic upgrading, were included.
According to Susan Meamber, Portland Parks and Recreation project manager, that during the debate over the different proposed options for the site, an as-of-yet unnamed developer stepped forward, interested in using the high school for 40-50 housing units, while leaving the second-floor auditorium intact. She says that at this time, there are no guarantees for any of the plans, but that they are hopeful that the addition of an outside developer may offer the best solution for all parties involved.
Speaking to residents here, and even visiting the extensive and well-organized HAND web site, you can feel the passion people have for this neighborhood. The road that has led them here has been a meandering one, full of growth and change and ultimately a determination to work together to create a community that honors its past while paving the way for a livable future.
