​Welcome Neighbors!

The Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood lies between I-84 ("the Gulch") and NE Broadway St. and from NE 15th to 33rd Ave. ​ The Sullivan’s Gulch Neighborhood Association works to make our neighborhood more livable through various committees, activities and projects.  Meetings are open to all.

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Upcoming SGNA Activities

 We are meeting via Zoom again!  See links below. The beginning of every SGNA meeting starts with a public comment period to share your ideas and concerns about the neighborhood,  Or let us know by email or phone.

SGNA Board of Directors Meeting
Tuesday, December 7,  7:30 - 9:00 pm
Agenda and Zoom/phone link here.

Neighborhood-wide Leaf Sweep
Friday, December 3, 7 am - 3 pm
NO on-street parking anywhere in SG. All vehicles will be towed starting 7 am.  Alternate parking in parking lots of Grace Memorial Episcopal Church and Fred Meyer.  SEE PARKING INFORMATION BELOW.
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City Leaf Pick Up — Fri. Dec. 3
No On-Street Parking 7 - 3 pm

It's time to get ready for the city's annual leaf pick up, happening Friday, Dec. 3.    That  means NO ON STREET PARKING staring 7 am - 3 pm or YOU WILL BE TOWED.

Because of the density of parked cars in the Gulch we are one of 2 neighborhoods in Portland  that  PBOT has instituted the towing restriction so they can get a "clean sweep" of the leaves.  Residents are encouraged to sweep leaves from their property into the street.

As in the past SGNA has arranged for residents to be able to park overnight and the following afternoon at either Fred Meyer or Grace Episcopal Church parking lots.  As in the past, Fred Meyer and Grace Church are not responsible for any damage while parking there.  Please print out  and display on your dashboard this Permit identifying your vehicle.

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1903 Panoramic Photo
of North East Portland

The panoramic photograph below is of NE Portland in 1903.  It was taken just before the Sullivan's Gulch and Irvington were developed.  The view is east-northeast.    It's part of a bigger panorama of Portland taken by courtesy of local historian Doug Decker.

First a little orientation: 
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• Point 1 is Rocky Butte
• Point 2 is on the Alameda Ridge, with just a few structures on it — probably farms
• Point 3. This open area is farm land that was on a trajectory to be part of the broader Irvinginton development, but not yet subdivided on the ground. Doug Decker says,  it's bordered by today’s NE Thompson-Fremont between 7th and 15th.  This may have been used by the Multnomah Fair Association for various activities.

A higher resolution version of the image, without the circles, can be found here.  Smaller images of the full panorama are here.

Welcome New Board Members

At the annual Oct. 12 SGNA Members' Meeting, the following people were elected for 2 year terms to your neighborhood association Board

• Ryan Krellwitz
• Emily Herbert
• Dave Galaty
• Keith Iding

Also re-elected for another 2 year term are:

• Kathy Hansen
• D.J. Heffernan

We are looking forward to another year of service to the neighborhood.  Join us (virtually) at the next Board meeting on Nov. 2 - information to the left.

     — Dave Brook
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See Gulch History
in Pictures & Maps

In case you missed the excellent History of Sullivan's Gulch at the recent General Membership meeting here's the link.

The hour-long presentation, by neighborhood historian Doug Decker, used pictures and maps to show the early days of Sullivan’s Gulch - both the neighborhood and and place itself.

Doug has now written up the information for a 4 part series on his website AlamedaHistory.org.  He's included some new information and the old photographs and maps are available in higher resolution than on the video.  

Sullivan’s Gulch: A look back in four parts
(+ bonus)
Chapter 1: Homesteads and railroads
Chapter 2: Manufacturing comes to the Gulch
Chapter 3: Old Lloyd Golf Course + Shantytown
Chapter 4: The highway nobody wanted (coming)
Bonus: What’s a Gulch and where is it exactly?

Latest on Heidi Manor Fire

Christine Cordner, who has been so instrumental in getting assistance for Heidi Manor fire victims, reports: 

​I come with some bad news today. Kelsi Edmonds, the young lady who has been in the hospital since the July 4th Heidi Manor fire, passed away suddenly yesterday (Oct 14). Her parents are heartbroken as she had been relatively lucid over the past few weeks--and now this.

She was the brave woman who jumped with her cat Paloma from 30 feet up to cement to escape the fire, her boyfriend Seth did the same and passed away that night. They also lost their friend Bill who perished in the fire. Three lives of wonderful, vivacious young people have now been lost. I will be updating the memorial on the tree across from Heidi in honor of Kelsi's valiant effort to live these past months as her family with the parents of Seth and Bill fight Nase Property Management in court for justice.

I know many of you have given so generously to the Westminster Presbyterian Fund to help the Heidi victims, including Kelsi, as well as supporting her fund to pay medical bills, which her parents will still have to pay off. If you are so inclined to help further, the link to that family fund is below.

Please think of Kelsi Edmonds today, her parents Sondra and Brian, her wee kitty Paloma, and all the family and friends who lost their loved ones. And hold your loved ones tight, make sure your house is fire safe, care about others even if you never meet them. This is a very sad, sad day....RIP Kelsi...

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The Gulch Gets a
​Spring Cleaning

Thanks to the 40 people of all ages who came out on Saturday morning, April 17 to clean up every corner of Sullivan’s Gulch — from 11th to 33rd,  along Broadway and the gold mine area for debris — the slopes of the gulch itself off  NE 16th Ave!

 We couldn’t have asked for better weather.  And it wasn’t just Gulchers, I spoke to a gentleman from SW Portland who just loves picking up litter!  And, I agree, I’m kind of hooked myself — it’s such a good feeling when you can turn around and see you’ve made a difference. (Plus  we collected 3 Sharps containers worth of used hypodermic needles from Holladay Park, the gulch slopes and even a few in the neighborhood.)

Special thanks for Lloyd Center management for make their dumpster available to us.  We ended up collecting FAR MORE STUFF than Dan, Michael and I imagined when we were planning the event.   

And additional thanks to SOLVE.org for providng the tools of the trade!  

Below — the dumpster before and after 

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Are you interested in participating in future clean ups?   If so, contact Dan Lerch-Walters or David Brook and we'll add you to our Clean Up Crew list.

— Dave Brook​

A North-South Bus on 20th-21ST?
​MAYBE  SOME DAY...

Trimet provides really good transit service to Sullivan’s Gulch.  It’s easy to get downtown, NW Portland, Hollywood and beyond. And we’ve got several lines that go north to Alberta, Woodlawn Concordia, as well as along 11th & 12th to Sellwood.

One area that’s hard to get to on public transportation is due south on 21st/20th Ave.  Imagine being able to take a bus to Revolution Hall, get to Cleveland High School (the neighborhood high school for Gulch students) without changing, eat at Castagna on Hawthorne or even go to a concert (or class) at Reed College?  That’s the possibility sketched out by Trimet — a new north-south bus line on 20th-21st — Line Y.

• North from the Gulch Line Y would travel on NE 21st and then up 24th-27th (in place of the existing #17, which would be re-routed to 33rd) all the way to Concordia College.
• South from the Gulch Line Y travels on 20th, jogs over to 26th past Cleveland High School, then past Reed College, swing thru Eastmoreland and on Bybee to 13th in Sellwood.  In the concept maps (below) the #70 would end in Lloyd District (as it used to).

 The proposed route is shown on the maps below.  Note that Line Y is shown as an orange line in the NE map and a light blue line in the SE map.  The route is easier to see in Trimet's long range Service Enhancement plan (click on North/Central and Southeast to see the maps in detail.  (Text continues below.)

Last year SGNA Land Use Chair, DJ Heffernan, and I met with the head of Trimet Service Planning to learn more about what it would take to make Line Y a reality.  We were told that even with all the expansion and improvements that Trimet is currently implementing it appears promising that Line Y could happen in the 5+ year time frame.  But we were cautioned that there are some competing interests for the estimated $4 million it would take to operate Line Y.  This includes the possible conversion to electric buses or making all of Trimet free!  Since Trimet is a public agency they have an open process in setting the priorities each year.  It’s guided by a Citizens Advisory Committee and, ultimately, the Trimet Board of Directors.

Given COVID-19, Trimet will certainly put this kind of service enhancement on hold, probably for several years.  If you think it’s a good idea and would like to spend time trying to move this forward, we need help contacting neighborhood associations along the route to alert them to the possibility of N-S bus service on 20th-21st and work together to rally support to move it up Trimet's priority list for future investments.  But it’s going to take regular attendance at the Citizens Advisory Committee and later Board meeting to move the project along.  We’ll post new information as we get it.  If you want to help out, get in touch with Dave or DJ directly or via the Contact box on this page.   

Source of information and maps 
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North/NE
https://trimet.org/future/northcentral.htm
https://trimet.org/future/pdf/north-central-final-map.pdf

SE
https://trimet.org/future/southeast.htm
https://trimet.org/future/pdf/southeast-final-report-map.pdf

Current bus routes map
https://trimet.org/maps/img/trimetsystem.png

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