Things are moving forward with the lease signing coming soon and our build-up team raring the go!
The Rosewood Initiative is an official non-profit!We're shooting to sign the lease on the building at 605 SE 162nd on December 1, 2010!The property build-up team will get started as soon as possible. (Several people are already signed up. Let us know if you want to join!)
Classical music is playing on the 162nd MAX stop! Sgt. John Scruggs says he’s noticing that no one is loitering on the MAX stop. Of course, it’s also been really cold, but there seems to be a difference. John says he’s received emails saying that things seem to be going well and the “vibe” around the area is different. Let us know what you think about it so we can pass the information on the Tri-met and County commissioners McKeel and Shiprack.
Telling the Rosewood story in the right way. When Thompson and John initially talked about Rosewood, they decided to find out how much not addressing concerns in the area was costing the whole community. They used a methodology developed in New York City http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-11-09/news/million-dollar-blocks/ to estimate the cost of the Rosewood area and discovered that the neighborhood costs about $2 million dollars a year. Last week Shea was watching the Rosewood Initiative video http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-11-09/news/million-dollar-blocks/ with some friends and someone asked if he could see the analysis. That made her think that people who aren’t thinking about the cost of services in a troubled community may need more information if they are going to take us seriously. Robert said that when he recently went on a ride-along with John he watched as the police and fire responded to a call. He said that he couldn’t help thinking about how much money was adding up as several police officers arrived and blocked off the street, fire trucks with full crews arrived for emergency medical, the person was taken to receive medical service, etc. The group thought it would be good to tell the story and make the analysis more visible. John suggested that it would be great to be able to set up a calculation that provided the cost of each “assault call” in Rosewood to make the point that not building community is costly to both Portland and Gresham.
Keeping in touch. Shea will be inviting folks to join the Rosewood Initiative on-line workspace. Please let us know if you would like to be on the list.
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