This morning at 9 a.m., Mayor Sam Adams is scheduled to announce the winners of the city's Main Street Program, at LadyBug Cafe in St Johns.  This is the first year of the city's program intended to help revitalize commercial streets.  Three of the five of neighborhood commercial districts that applied will be selected. Applicants are St Johns, NE Alberta, Hillsdale, 42nd Avenue and Multnomah Village. Of those applicants both Multnomah Village and Hillsdale are located in Portland's relatively affluent and suburban southwest hills.

In 2000, the US Census reported that St Johns had the poorest commercial census tracts in the city.  The area has seen significant investment and revitalization over the years. But unlike much of North and Northeast Portland, the area does not have investment tools like urban renewal to channel public dollars into local projects. 

The five neighborhoods that qualified for the program were required to raise $30,000 in matching funds. The St Johns Boosters committed approximately $12,000 to the project.  

If awarded, the Main Street program would, among other things, provide technical support and networking opportunities to help better market the district.

Photo teaser from PortlandBridges.com

North Portland’s most unique and eclectic summer event has to be No.Fest InterArts. This June 25 the free experimental art and music festival will fill the streets, stores, allies and sidewalks of downtown St. Johns for a two-day carnival of homegrown avant-garde acts. . Now in its third year, organizers have expanded the range of performances and added a second day in order to include 51 acts in 29 hours: 36 musical, 5 visual, 4 youth, 3 movement, and 3 spoken performances. 

The festival organizers, Sean Ongley, Jeffrey Helwig and Chad Ferguson, began with a simple idea: hold a free daylong music event in St. Johns. With only months to organize, the event grew to include 25 performances on four stages. The trio knew they had stumbled on something great and founded InterArts, a not-for-profit corporation, to represent the No.Fest project for the coming years. Three years later the event had almost doubled in size, attracting major sponsors such as KBOO community radio.

The program for No.Fest 2010 starts off with an art walk on the last Friday of the month. At about 6 p.m. businesses throughout downtown St. Johns will function as makeshift galleries for viewing public art. Local merchants exhibiting art include The Parlour, Lady Bug Café, James John Café, Town Square, Proper Eats, Legong Gelato, and Salty Teacup.

“None of these are traditional galleries,” said Ongley who is pleased to have the galleries hosted by the local business community. Ongley stresses that one of the ideas behind NoFest is the breakdown traditional boundaries between high art and the average person. “It is another example of our desire to blend the arts with daily life.”

Law enforcement and rescue officials are stepping up their efforts to find a boy who disappeared yesterday from Skyline Elementary School. Seven-year-old Kyron Horman (photo from yesterday on the right) was last seen at 9 a.m. at his school science fair. Residents of Forest Park, Linnton and St Johns have been involved in the search for a boy that one resident described as "part of the community." Please read the following article for more information. If you have details about Hornman's whereabouts call 503-261-2847. 

The location at the corner of Lombard and N Richmond has been having trouble holding a tenant these last few years, sitting vacant since Blue Moon Coffee moved out last fall. Recently, St. Johns residents saw a new business take root. On April 30, the doors opened to Sultan Hookah Lounge and Smoke Shop, with a grand opening celebration that took place on May 8.

“About 300 people came through the night,” says co-owner Mike Makoul. “We had DJ music...the neighborhood has been very supportive.”

Makoul opened the Hookah Lounge with business partner Asem Samman because of the anti-smoking legislation that went into effect last year. Makoul has owned the Sultan Cafe on NW 18th for the past six years. In addition to being a restaurant, the cafe offered patrons hookah smoking. As of 2009, that was no longer permitted in establishments primarily serving food. Wanting to continue the Middle Eastern tradition of his youth, Makoul sought to find a new establishment to be built around hookahs.

“The law says that 75% of our business has to be tobacco related...we're trying to stay close to 90%.” Makoul explains that the smoking law permits businesses to be smoking lounges so long as that is their primary function. The Sultan Lounge does offer snacks and beverages, but these refreshments are ancillary to their main business of selling tobacco products and offering a lounge for hookah smoking.

This Saturday the St Johns Bizarre will kick off for its fourth year. The all day celebration of what makes Portland Strange and St Johns Bizarre happens in downtown St Johns with a beer garden, vendor's market and musical acts occurring before and after the annual St Johns Parade.  This year's event promises to raise the bar on 'bizarreness,' hope to see you there. 

Have you heard a coyote’s call in your neighborhood? [today's O article]

Folks in St Johns say they have.

Lecture on Urban ‘cay-yotes’ coming next Tuesday, April 27th

Where’s the Roadrunner when you need him?
Many of know about or have seen “urban” coyotes in or around Portland International Airport. At about 6am, I once saw one scampering through the high grass in the vacant lots off Airport Way. The little fellar pictured here, hoped on the Airport MAX back in 2009. It was almost like he did it in obedience to the song Light-Rail Coyote by Portland’s own Sleater-Kinney, released the year before. (see video below).?“They’ve been seen on occasion along Baltimore Woods and heard! There is also coyote scat in Pier Park on the trail on the east side of the Park all the time. Apparently they come over from Chimney Park to hunt at night,” wrote Barbara Quin, of the Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association in an email today. “One of our FOBW members saw one trotting down Decatur in daylight and the neighbors at the deadend of Edison have lots of stories.”

Three years after Northeast Portland residents teamed up for an Earth-Day litter bust on Martin Luther King Boulevard, it seems like something's going right.

Simply put: there's way, way less trash on the streets lately.

"We've gone from 300 volunteers four years ago to 85 this year because we don't have enough work to engage them all," said Gary Marschke of the North Northeast Business Associaton. "That's a great situation to be in."

The big picture of what a new North/Northeast urban renewal area will look like will be revealed tonight at Billy Webb's Elk Lodge. Whether or not the Rose Quarter will be a part of that picture won't come into view until this summer.

Tonight, the Portland Development Commission hopes to start wrapping up its plans to consolidate the neighborhood's two urban renewal districts. But an earlier request from the mayor to plug the Rose Quarter into the new SUPER renewal district is being taken off the table.

This will decouple both large scale renewal projects in the pipe for the area: the URA merger, and the redevelopment of Memorial Coliseum and Blazer's Live District.

The announcement will be made at this evening's meeting of the PDC's North/Northeast Economic Study Area.

The hatchet finally seems to be buried after months of protracted hissy fitting between the St Johns Boosters and the organizers of the St Johns Farmer’s Market.

“The boosters, never intended the shut the farmer’s market down,” said St Johns Boosters Sarah Anderson. “I could not be more happy that its all worked out.”

Representatives of the Farmer’s Market could not be reached by phone at the time of this posting.

Last year’s launch of the St Johns Farmer’s Market was a huge success. But downtown businesses had some concerns about scheduling, and the vendor mix.

Last night the Farmer’s Market, St Johns Boosters issued a joint press release:

The Board of Directors from the St. Johns Business Boosters and the Friends of the St. Johns Farmers Market met on Tuesday, March 31st to discuss solutions on a handful of issues and to determine how to best work together in their common missions of further building and supporting the St. Johns community. The groups agreed to meet to mediate issues around communications, scheduling of the St. Johns Plaza, and products and services offered by market vendors.

The Plaza, which was for decades more eye sore and hang out for street drinks appears to be getting ‘over booked’ with family oriented events. It’s not a bad problem to have.

FCPNA meeting, Tuesday, April 13, 7-8pm, BES Water Lab, 6543 N. Burlington

• There will be a continued conversation about homeless camping in the neighborhood and what we as neighbors can do. Our community police officer will answer questions/offer advice. Also, next options for neighbors near the large campsite at the end of Tyler St. will be discussed. Clean up of the site is being scheduled.

• There is a new development notice for a 4-plex at 8935 N. Syracuse. Come and learn about it!