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Some community members didnt see the virtue in this plan, as the money could just as easily reside in the BNA accounts until it could be used for community purposes. One point that folks didnt tend to understand was how $4000 could impact a $250,000 production...which is going to go forward whether or not the community supports it. When asked what $4000 could do for them, Koichi Kurisu said "$4000 would be a symbolic gesture or support" and that he would like the BNA to invest in their private interest. He was asked if a letter of support would be enough for them to feel that the community is behind them, and he said "money is an action" and as we all know, actions speak louder than words. There was a motion to vote, the first motion was that the Kurisu's would get the entire grant money and it would cascade over a year to them. That motion tied at 16 for and 16 against, abstentions werent recorded. There were two more failed proposals/motions for how the money could be distributed. The final decision was that the BNA would write a letter of support for the Kurisu project and the Kurisu's would recive $2000 of the grant money after one year of working with a community space. There were 27 yay votes, 7 nay, and 3 abstentions. Next came the drug free zone discussion. David Woboril from the City Attorney's Office, and public defender Chris O'conner both showed up. For background information on the DFZ, please see this article. This started with the current BNA president reading through a letter that was sent by the BNA safety chair to City Council, that letter can be read here. There was a bunchof discussion and similar questions asked at the Temple Church gathering. Mostly, it was Woboril answering the questions. He was asked about the exclusion statistics in the Beech neighborhood and he said he didnt recall them. I had the notes I took and read off the figures of 128 African American exclusions and 18 Caucasian exlusions (the two total 88% of exclusions in the Beech zone, in my notes). David Woboril, however, corrected me by saying that there should be thousands of exclusions and said "I think you can count on several exclusion a day". There was much more discussion on this and the community didnt seem to be coming together on the issue. The room had been divided most of the evening. There was a suggestion to have a straw poll to see where folks stood on the issue. That poll generated the results: one person said that she would like to see the DFZ remain as is, 15 community members felt that the DFZ should not exist at all in our community, and 23 neighbors wanted to see a DFZ with specific changes, all of which could not be discussed tonight. Since it was getting later and there wasnt a clear resolution we decided to postpone discussion until after we held the elections. However, we never did get to that. Tentatively we talked of getting folks together at the next Saftey meeting: Boise Neighborhood Association Safety and Livability Meeting Every Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7pm Albina Youth Opportunity School. There should be two more city hosted DFZ meetings in December. The next meeting is on December 1st, location not specified at this meeting, but hopefully can be found on http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/ where we were told to look for such things. Onto the elections. This was something I felt would be a rather moot formality, but turned out to be semi-contested. The required positions for the BNA are: Chair/co-chair, Secretary, Land Use, NECN Rep (x2), Safety Chair, Treasurer, and Grievance person. There was only one nomination coming into the meeting, me, for Land Use chair. At this meeting, after all that other discussion, we that were left had to nominate and vote on the next years board. First, the nominations were people in the room saying that someone across from them should run for a position. It was rather haphazard. However, there came be someone nominated for each position. Even Land Use. A property owner in the community decided that it would be a good idea to run for Land Use chair, and since I was already nominated, there was a vote. This was the only position on which a vote was necessary. Anyway, after some light campaigning to the room, we had a vote and the room was split 13-13. We decided to be Land Use co-chairs, in the interest of the community. That is my interpretation of the evening. I was involved in all of these issues and am trying to present things as they were. I have held off in my personal feelings about some things, but encourage others to report their versions of the things that happened at tonight BNA meeting. If you live in the Boise neighborhood and are interested in getting involved, here are the meeting times and schedules: Boise Neighborhood Association General Meeting
Every Second Monday of the month at 7pm
Albina Youth Opportunity School
Boise Neighborhood Association Safety and Livability Meeting
Every Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7pm
Albina Youth Opportunity School
Boise Neighborhood Association Board Meeting
Last Monday of the Month, 6:30pm
contact boisena@gmail.com
Albina Youth Opportunity School
Land Use Planning meetings and others are scheduled as the chairperson's schedule allows. And if you dont live in this community, get involved in the one you do live in!
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