Friday Roundup
Dec 12, 2013 at 3:35 PM
News from and about Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish
phone: 503-823-3589
Email: nick@portlandoregon.gov
1221 S.W. 4th, Room 240, Portland, OR 97204
Village Gardens Open House
Dec 13, 2013 at 10:27 AM
Join Nick and community members at the Village Gardens & Village Market Open House December 13.
December 13, 2013
Join Nick and community members at the Village Gardens & Village Market Open House this evening.
Village Gardens brings a spirit of hope to the community by growing and sharing healthy food, learning and teaching skills, and empowering neighborhood leadership.
Heading into its third year, the Village Market continues to provide quality, fresh, healthy, and affordable groceries to our North Portland neighborhoods. In October, Nick was proud to join City Council in approving a grant to continue the nonprofit grocery store.
The Open House is free, and all are welcome. The event will include updates on the Village Gardens progress and vision for 2014, stories from Village Gardens participants, and a Michoacán dinner.
Visit the Village Gardens website to learn more about this exceptional organization.
Village Market Open House
4632 N Trenton
Friday, December 13
6:30 – 8:30 pm
Portland City Council, Multnomah County chip in to keep Village Market alive
Casey Parks in The Oregonian
Clean Rivers Education Program
Dec 16, 2013 at 3:49 PM
It’s never too early to learn about keeping our rivers clean.
December 16, 2013
It’s never too early to learn about keeping our rivers clean.
The Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) offers a Clean Rivers Education program for kindergartners to college-level students. The program gives students the chance to have first-hand field experience and learn about watershed health, urban ecology, the causes and effects of water pollution, and what they can do to protect rivers and streams.
BES receives many thank you notes throughout the year from visitors expressing their gratitude for the education program and the valuable learning experience it provides.
A local 4th grade teacher and her students recently wrote to BES sharing their appreciation for the program:
“The lessons were age appropriate and relevant to our science curriculum. They were also engaging and accessible to all learners. Your provision of bus fare so the children could experience public transportation, visit a site in their community, meet more scientists and examine the experiments and data again with different variables made the experience simply outstanding and a highlight of our school year.”
Special thanks to the Clean Rivers Education team for providing local students with a hands-on classroom experience to keep our rivers clean and safe.
To learn more about the Clean Rivers Education program, visit the BES website or call (503) 823-7185.
2013 Year in Review
Dec 17, 2013 at 8:32 AM
Commissioner Fish's highlights from a busy 2013.
December 17, 2013
2013 was a busy and productive year.
We welcomed a new Mayor and Commissioner, closed a significant budget deficit, and took on new bureau assignments.
In June, Mayor Hales asked me to lead the Portland Water Bureau and the Bureau of Environmental Services — and to serve as Council liaison to Elders in Action, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and Portland’s small business partner, Venture Portland.
I am grateful to the dedicated teams at my former bureaus - Portland Parks & Recreation and the Portland Housing Bureau - and proud of what we accomplished during challenging times.
Facing a $21 million deficit, we made tough choices: cutting budgets and laying off employees. But we also prioritized funding for the Safety Net, invested in job creation and small businesses, and protected vital programs for families, children, and older adults.
Here are three more highlights:
Most Inspiring Moment:
Touring the visionary Bull Run Watershed with Water Bureau employee (and Spirit of Portland award-winner) Briggy Thomas.
Proudest Achievement:
Working with our public and private partners on Operation 305— a community-wide effort to find homes for over 300 homeless veterans.
Unsung Heroes:
During an extended cold snap in December, water mains broke in neighborhoods across Portland. The challenge of quickly responding to these breaks (at all hours of the day and night) brought out the very best in our City employees.
As always, it is an honor to serve you on the City Council — and to work with the talented professionals in my bureaus and my City Hall office.
Thank you for all that you do to make Portland a special place.
Chronicling Portland
Dec 17, 2013 at 2:43 PM
The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) recently announced 17 new art pieces to The Visual Chronicle of Portland collection.
| A View of Portland, Rene Rickabaugh |
December 18, 2013
The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) recently announced 17 new art pieces to The Visual Chronicle of Portland collection.
The Visual Chronicle of Portland is a city-owned collection of artwork on paper – including photographs, paintings, prints, and drawings. It’s managed and taken care of by RACC. The artwork in the collection focuses onPortland’s social and urban landscapes. The goal is to capture the “spirit of the times” as Portland changes throughout the years.
The collection started 28 years ago, and has grown into a collection of 320 pieces by 193 different artists. The collection strives to reflect a diversity of populations, artistic disciplines, and points of view. Artwork is selected by a panel of independent artists and curators, based on how well the artist’s work matched the purpose and spirit of the chronicle.
The new pieces are on display at RACC’s offices at 411 NW Park Avenue, Suite 101. Eventually, the pieces will move to public displays in City and County buildings.
If you can’t make it to RACC, you can view the entire collection online.