Neighborhood Notes

River District Families have been invited to meet with Commissioner Sten's Chief of Staff. This is an opportunity to educate an elected official on our needs, and to develop a sense of urgency around retaining families in the River District and building family amenities like a community center, daycare and a school.

Dramatic changes are being proposed for the River District Urban Renewal Area, including expanding it to include David Douglas, and building a David Douglas community center and school using URA funds.

We've been doing our best to keep track of the implications of those changes as they affect families. To better understand the implications, we've talked with staff from Commissioner Sten's office, the Portland Development Commission, and the City of Portland's Planning Department to try to determine what the timeline is for the family amenities that were part of the 1998 URA plan, such as a community center, childcare and a school.

We've told them that, for a lot of us, it felt like a punch in the gut to see big headlines about building a community center and school in the David Douglas area by expanding the River District URA, with no urgency around existing families in the current URA boundaries. We've also provided information on the number of kids who we know currently live in the neighborhood, the 'churn' of families leaving the neighborhood because they can't find what they need, and the loneliness that many of you expressed during the family conversations.

The folks we've talked to all have read economist Joel Kotkin, who says that cities benefit when they put extra efort into retain families. And they generally support the development of family amenities. But we haven't consistently seen the urgency that we'd hoped to see. And, no one has been able to assure us that the proposed URA changes wouldn't delay or actually halt the development of family amenities in the River District.

Commissioner Sten's Chief of Staff Jim Middaugh is interested in meeting with River District Families to learn more. If you're interested in joining that conversation, please contact the River District Families team.