Youth for Parkrose 2021 & the Parkrose Community Plan From March to May, nineteen youth of color (ages 14-20) who live and/or go to school in Portland's Parkrose district organized to make themselves and their communities thrive, more resilient, and become safer. They spent eight weeks in design workshops to learn and practice participating in urban planning and policymaking. These workshops were hosted by Historic Parkrose NPI, Your Street Your Voice, Camp Elso, the City of Portland BPS and ODOT as part of the Parkrose Community Plan. Sandy Blvd runs through the heart of the neighborhood, connecting us to home, work, school, and nature. Parkrose has many community assets, like active community groups and a thriving school district, but the community faces serious issues like rising rents, the need for more living-wage jobs for students and their parents, unsafe conditions on Sandy Blvd, and the lack of a disaster preparedness plan for underserved communities. The Parkrose Community Plan will address these community concerns through four outreach groups and five topics. The four outreach groups include Youth for Parkrose, Residents of Color workshops, Community Working Groups, and Open Houses. The youth engaged with the five topics of the plan through guest speakers of color who are local leaders in the topics along with hands-on activities: 1) Transportation & Green Streets, 2) Jobs & Homebased businesses, 3) Housing & Anti-Displacement, 4) Community Placemaking & Connections to Nature, and 5) Emergency Preparedness, Climate, and Disaster Resilience. Then each youth chose a topic to focus on and develop for their final presentations. We hosted a public event on May 4 for others to learn about the projects and ask the youth about their perspectives. Watch the event here: tinyurl.com/youthforparkrose-watch
transportation youth for parkrose 2021 We need safer transportation options for everyone in the community. It is important to have safer transportation because we want to be able to travel to places without having to worry about our surroundings or what's going to happen. As we travel from one place to another we can make sure we are safe by having more street lights. What makes it unsafe on transportation is people, cars going too fast, or something worse like being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We can make these safe by being cautious of who we are with and where we are at and having more street lights to be able to see what is going on.
ANA TATAFU The problem in Portland is safety. We aren't safe here(or anywhere)when people are using our public transportation, there are so many people that are dangerous and just not cool. I've experienced some scary/ odd encounters with people all over portland. It gets dark and scary at night and many people are scared to go out. Public safety is important because everyone needs to feel safe no matter what their background is. Most of our youth and other civilians don't have cars and we depend on TriMet to get around. It is important for us to feel comfortable and safe because we don't want to develop anxiety and fear over something as simple as public transportation. My location to focus on is 122nd & Halsey - 122nd & Sandy. My solution is more street lights. Definitely, more trash cans at bus stops. I would like to see better and brighter Portland. Long-term safety goals are difficult but hopefully things change. We shouldn't have to watch our backs and be so alert.
MARIAH FISHER
where do you live, work, earn, eat play?
transportation youth for parkrose 2021 As clean as our streets and sidewalks are, i feel there’s still a lot of problems here we could address and maybe fix. Overall safety is my main concern. There’s not enough light for the sidewalks, and they aren't wide enough to account for distancing, as examples. Right now, on my site, cars are the focus. Because of that it make it dangerous for pedestrians and bikers. It’s important that people feel and be safe on the streets because it helps out communities of color. It’ll also builds trust for communities of color. My project is focusing on all of Sandy Blvd., from 205 to 122 st, and on 122 st from sandy to 84. My solutions for transportation in Parkrose are: Lighting on sidewalks, wider sidewalks, signage prioritising pedestrians and bike (caution! Look out for people crossing by), bus shelters, different designs for public buses for distancing.
XAVIER BRAKER The streets that we drive in are pretty safe right now; But there are things that make them scary. This includes car accidents, and drug deals. This can also include thiefs in the night. And just the feeling of being unsafe in their own communities. This is important because there are intersections where there are no stop lights, creating a higher risk for accidents to occur, as well as harming pedestrians on the side of the road. Street lights are just as important for night time. The night alone is already scary, and especially when you are by yourself. To hopefully prevent any suspicious activity, and keep people safe from what the night might bring, and feel more comfortable at night. The best way for us to make our community a safer place is to add more street lights. And stop lights. In this particular intersection where there a lot of car accidents, stop lights would a good way to prevent car accidents. This intersection is on 102nd and Wygant street. That would reduce the risks of people getting killed, or harmed. This includes those that were involved in the accident, and those who weren’t. Street lights have made it harder for bad things to take place. And have helped keep people safe, and easier to navigate where they are going.
MARYJANE TOKELAU
transportation youth for parkrose 2021
THINGS THAT DO AND DO NOT MAKE ME FEEL SAFE ON THE STREETS LUIS LOPEZ CABRERA
jobs & home-based businesses youth for parkrose 2021 My problem- A lot of teenagers want money and struggle with money because they dont know how to get money or there too young to get hired for a job. My Question: Why don’t Jobs hire at a young age? Why is this important: I feel like Jobs should hire at a young age because it can help kids develop a sense of responsibility. Also hiring kids at a young age can help them know how to manage their money and that's a really good thing to learn at a young age. Another reason why jobs should hire at a young age is because it can teach them good work habits that they can use later in life and when they get older. Solution: making a place for kids only so they can all work, learn together and gain experience.
JADEN ROBINSON My problem: Many teens struggle with money, so to fix that problem they try to get jobs but can because age. My question: Why does most places only hire at age 16 and older? Wouldn’t more people provide the workplace more money? Why is this important: I think we should change the starting work age to 14 because there should be an opportunity for 8th graders and 9th grader to have an working experience. Solution: Making a restaurant where teens can work at and gain experience and points for colleges. Location: Place by 7/11 because there aren’t many stores that people go over there.
MARI'YA SYKES Have you ever rushed to the store and when you finally get there you realized you forgot the most important thing...your mask. Masks are very important currently. Masks protect yourself and others. According to healthline.com,cnn.com,npr.com and many other credible websites state that 100,000-130,000 lives could have been saved between the dates November 2020 and March 2021 if everyone wore a mask. My business idea is to have a stand that sells reusable masks outside stores so that people can come to get a mask and then when they're done with it they bring it back so we can wash it with detergent and give it to someone else. The standard detergent will wash and sanitize the masks according to my research so it is perfectly fine to reuse them. The masks will be handmade and will be made with 100% cotton since that is the best material for fabric masks. I think the best location for this would be in front of a store that has a lot of stores nearby so that we wouldn’t have to have so many stands. Since the people coming to the stand won't have a mask and it takes two masks in order to prevent covid, there could be a clear plastic bored. The people working at the stand would-be volunteers who want to help.
SAVAH ASMELASH
jobs & home-based businesses youth for parkrose 2021 Jobs and Businesses strengthen the “violent” stigma of POC by treating us “unsafe” or “threats”. They do this by following us around in stores to see if we’re stealing, and not hiring us for higher job positions. With these unconscious biases on my community we might not ever grow. This topic is so important because of it’s collateral effect on the world. How you’re treated within a work environment or simply a store can be a reflection of how you’re treated in everyday life. It’s also important for people who work in fields that are meant to benefit other people (ex; teachers, doctors, store clerks) need proper training on how to conduct themselves in a way that makes other people feel safe and respected. As a solution I think businesses of all kind should start having more leadership roles for POC. It’s a heavy ask but I think it’s the best way to appeal to their audience/customers. I believe having someone there who can voice their opinion from a personal standpoint who be heavily affective and needed for communities. I live in the Halsey area so stores like Walgreens, McDonalds, Target etc are within my reach and can be starting points to helping.
DRAIA SHELTON
YOUTH POC BUSINESS
PRESENTATION BY DRAIA
jobs & home-based businesses youth for parkrose 2021
BY CHELSEA LOPEZ
housing & anti-displacement youth for parkrose 2021 There are a lot of people in parkrose that are houseless. I want to find a way to get them a safe place to be or seek shelter in. Shelters are kind of scarce and if they have places where they can feel safe in that’ll be perfect. This is important because without a place to feel safe it really messes with people. It also kind of needs to be an area where they’ll be able to buy things for cheap. They deserve to feel comfort as well even if they’re looked down upon in society. I would like to revamp the area near the budget inn. I think this area would be really helpful if it was a bit more safe. It could be used as shelter and right across the inn is a gas station and restaurants. The restaurant has great food for not too much.
BEN TORRES
The problem is rent is REALLY high to high in my opinion. I want to work on the homelessness that’s in the Parkrose district. The reason I am working on this specific topic is because I understand it. I want to help the homeless to at least get Them somewhere safe to lay their head. I want to solve this around the Plaza around Grocery Outlet because that’s a very know area and they have Subway which is good and cheap for the homeless. They have dollar tree which is also good. There is bus stops near there and they also have a hair shop! And near there is the Parkrose Transit which Is good for people with no cars because it a really short bus ride. So I think that will be a good place they have everything thing you need over there! The way I plan to solve this problem is by RESOURCES! My plan is to give them numbers, places, emails, shelters, etc. I want to make sure that they actually have a chance to move around and find them a place whether it’s for a few days or for a few months :)
SUMAYAH CONEY
community placemaking youth for parkrose 2021
JAIDEN BLAIR
Why we should create a gym for help and fitness? One main reason is that in Parkrose, there are not many local gyms that anyone can go to. If there are,, there little with no more than 20 people in the space. Parents will not want to drive their kids 30 minutes to a gym and then just come back an hour later. The lack of accessibility leads to shortness of physical activity for students children. Physical is really important and can help in school by reducing stress levels. On the other hand, you have kids playing, but in unsafe places. There are many kids that get injured every year because of chasing a ball into an oncoming car. Building relationships with elderly people Relationships with youth Job board(getting teens access to sign up for a job) Teen instructors teaching younger kids how to play games and how to have fun playing games Tournaments of all sports(and activities;good way for money) The projects most important idea is helping relationships and socializing. Bringing people together to have fun in the community is the first step to being able to change our community. The gym would be perfect for all ages due to its size of 13 acres. The gym would be a great place for me, because it could host tournaments which are really fun and necessary to compete in. But the gym wouldn't be just for me. The gym would hold space for seniors to interact. The location of my project would be the empty Kmart right across from the Parkrose High school. This site is perfect because it has lots of space and it would be convenient for high school students to just cross the street to get to the gym. The red dot in the middle is the location.
community placemaking youth for parkrose 2021
SAY’YONCE TATE
community placemaking youth for parkrose 2021
I feel like Parkrose needs an after-school hangout place because I feel like that is something that can bring a lot of kids together and help out kids in need and it can be like something some kids never had because I have been in a lot of classes such as jobs 101 and also youth for Parkrose and in EmpowHER and your street your voice and these programs they help connect with people learn new things and also we get paid. I would love this to take place at killingsworth because there is not a youth center place on killingsworth and I think that this is something a lot of youth would love. While this is not in Parkrose there are a lot of people that part of the Parkrose community but don't live in the district. Because of the rising housing cost and long distance from work many folks are forced to leave the district. This project is in my neighborhood to connect my Parkrose community with my neighborhood community. Things i would want: lazer tag, studying, playing sports, chillings with friends, and classrooms.
CAMBARO ABDI