<\/p>\n
General notes:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>A quick update on the Ford Family Foundation\u2019s new cohort, otherwise known as Highway to Hood version 2.0.\u00a0 They have chosen their project recipient, and it is the AntFarm.\u00a0 The project concept is to improve the facilities at the Leather\u2019s lot (paint and a new roof for the shack, construction of farmer\u2019s market booths and new equipment for their bottle & can recycling program, etc).\u00a0 In discussing this with Nunpa, I discovered that his next project is to find a way to create a farmer\u2019s market in this lot, and the FFF project dovetails nicely into this.\u00a0 He said he understands that the lot can be sold at any time, which is why he is trying to direct most of the funding to pieces that can be removed from the property if necessary (everything but the roof \u2013 the paint should be provided by MetroPaint and the labor will be volunteer, so the paint job will be of minimal cost).\u00a0 He would like to work with the City (Tracy and myself) as well as other businesses (Organic Sandy, local farmers, Thompson Farms, etc), the County (grant funding) and anyone else that wants to be a part of it.\u00a0 More as this develops…<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):<\/strong><\/p>\n Amarin Thai\/Try My Thai:\u00a0 I have been getting some feedback about this restaurant now that the new owners have taken over, and it is overwhelmingly positive.\u00a0 The general opinion is that the food has improved so much (not that Amarin was particularly bad or anything\u2026.just a bit pedestrian) that TMT has possibly overtaken Thai Home as the best Thai restaurant in Sandy.\u00a0 I have now had lunch there a couple of times, and I would say it\u2019s a tie!\u00a0 The general quality level of Sandy restaurants moves up a notch\u2026huzzah!<\/p>\n Beaverbrook Dental:\u00a0 I stopped into Beaverbrook for my annual cleaning and x-rays last week, and ended up in a conversation with their front office manager about a number of City-related issues.\u00a0 First, they are interested in business fiber, so I am efforting to put together a meeting with Dr. Claggett, myself and Scott Brown to see how we can get them service.<\/p>\n Her primary issue, however, is with the changes to the downtown parking district.\u00a0 With all of the slots around their business being limited to 2 hours, they are very concerned that their employees will have no where to park without risking a parking ticket.\u00a0 Some of their customers have complained as well, stating that some of their procedures require more than 2 hours to complete.\u00a0 I told her that I helped put together the parking study, and that this is what downtown businesses told us they wanted, primarily because employees of neighboring businesses were parking in front of their businesses all day long.\u00a0 She said she didn\u2019t know anything about that.\u00a0 I told her that there was a free public parking lot 2 blocks away (the one behind 2 Bros) that was well lit and frequently patrolled.\u00a0 She said she absolutely would not use it, claiming that walking to that lot in the dark would be dangerous.\u00a0 I told her we had never had an incident with that lot that I know of.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t care and reiterated that she would not use it for safety reasons.\u00a0 I asked her what she would do if, hypothetically, the business relocated to downtown Portland, because there\u2019s no way she would have free parking 2 blocks from her place of employment.\u00a0 She said \u201cwell, that\u2019s not as big of a deal because there are more people around at night.\u201d\u00a0 I said \u201cAnd that makes it safer somehow?\u00a0 Are you sure about that?\u201d\u00a0 She didn\u2019t have an answer for that, but was still not having any of my argument.\u00a0 I asked her if they had considered talking to Ernie at AEC about purchasing some space in his private lot across the street.\u00a0 They had already taken that step, and Ernie offered 1 space to Dr. Claggett, but this does nothing for the other 10 employees of the business.<\/p>\n They want this policy changed, and already have an appointment scheduled with Seth to discuss it.\u00a0 I told them that changes to policy would have to be brought before the Council and approved by that body, so it would be in their best interests to attend a Council meeting and state their case as well.<\/p>\n There is one other variable to this problem that might help ease this issue along.\u00a0 AEC employees seem to be taking up all of the untimed spaces in Pioneer Parking Lot during regular business hours, even though Mr. Brache has gone to great lengths (and personal expense) to expand his private AEC lot across the street.\u00a0 A certain percentage of his employees simply won\u2019t park on the other side of Pioneer under any circumstance.\u00a0 I have asked Ernie on a number of occasions to please ask his employees to use the private AEC lot, and he is always happy to do so.\u00a0 He sends out a company-wide email, and in the past his employees have obeyed him\u2026.for a week or two.\u00a0 They seem to be outright ignoring him at this point.\u00a0 If we could figure out a way to politely ask Mr, Brache to be a little more\u2026um\u2026.assertive with his staff, we might be able to head this off at the pass.\u00a0 If any counselor has any suggestions as to how to do that, I\u2019m all ears.<\/p>\n Whitney Signs (Estacada):\u00a0 Sandy Main Street will be getting our highway banner for the Tree Lighting Ceremony altered with WS shortly, so I will use this as another opportunity to check in on them.\u00a0 The construction project over at Jody Argue\u2019s place continues \u2013 new roof should be getting installed as I type this \u2013 so that property keeps moving closer to economic productivity.\u00a0 Watch this space.<\/p>\n Starbucks:\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s open.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t been in yet, stop by.\u00a0 It\u2019s impressive.\u00a0 And the employee count has literally doubled (from 11 to 22).\u00a0 No word yet on what will go into the old Starbucks space \u2013 the manager from Phillips Edison (complex property manager) said that Starbucks is still under lease at their old location, but that they will probably buy out the lease shortly.\u00a0 There have been no inquiries into the availability of this space so far\u2026<\/p>\n Barbara Sah Properties:\u00a0 Unfortunately, our rock hound business has already petered out\u2026.Barbara Sah tells me that they backed out a number of weeks ago citing lack of funds and a need to do more research.\u00a0 There is a 50-50 chance that they will revisit this idea later in 2015 when they become more established in town.<\/p>\n We have also started the discussion with the Sahs about wiring their building with gigabit fiber this afternoon.\u00a0 Scott Brown has committed to providing them with a quote for gigabit fiber within the next several weeks.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0We have not settled yet on the exact approach to take, but there is the possibility that we can keep Barbara out of it and just bill her tenants directly for the service with her approval.\u00a0 This would allow us to charge each business a discounted rate and keep the Sahs from having to deal with collecting payment and other housekeeping chores. \u00a0\u00a0It would also eliminate the need for the Sahs to be involved in dealing with service and performance issues, as they are not particularly tech-saavy.\u00a0 It would, however, allow them to market the existing spaces in their building as \u201cgigabit-fiber ready\u201d, which they would be.<\/p>\n Frontier Properties\/46&2 Properties LLC:\u00a0 With Peak Mortgage (large office) and Legends of Lore (a Magic the Gathering card shop \u2013 small office) taking over the two spaces left unoccupied by the departure of ITZetta and Boring Properties LLC occupying Lori Ryland\u2019s old space, this building is now full.\u00a0 Ribbon-cutting ceremony for Legends of Lore occurred last week, and I was pleasantly surprised to see dozens of people show up for this event.\u00a0 This appears to be a very interesting (and potentially lucrative, judging by the turnout) niche market that I will enjoy watching in the coming months.\u00a0 If proprietor Jonathan Soriahkoff plays his cards right (sorry, I couldn\u2019t resist), he is well on his way to a comfortable profit. \u00a0The only housekeeping issue left on the table is to \u201cencourage\u201d Boring Properties to apply for a business license, which they should probably do sometime soon considering they are up and operating.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sandy Main Street: \u00a0<\/strong>I have been continuing with my mission to ask locals who are \u201cconnected\u201d in Sandy to consider accepting a position on the executive board of Sandy Main Street to reconstitute the program.\u00a0 So far, of the 25 people I have identified as being potential candidates for these 9 positions, I have received 12 responses.\u00a0 They have all been negative, with the primary reason for turning the position down being \u201cI am already over-committed with (kids, family, church, Kiwanis, Lions Club, City committees & boards, County committees & boards, the Chamber of Commerce, AntFarm, the Action Center, 4-H, Sandy High School, etc.)\u201d.\u00a0 I will continue to ask until I have exhausted the possibilities, but for now it looks I will be recommending that the City cease funding Sandy Main Street at the end of the biennium due to lack of community commitment.\u00a0 Sadly, there is an abundance of support for the underlying principles of the organization and the community largely has a positive view of it.\u00a0 However, community development organizations need extremely dedicated volunteers to plan, administer and fundraise properly in order to be successful.\u00a0 It seems to me that our dedicated community volunteers are already full to the brim with other responsibilities at the moment.<\/p>\n Trick or Treat Trail: \u00a0Another smashing success!\u00a0 We had roughly the same number of kids as last year (600-700), but the traffic patterns were different.\u00a0 Last year we had a huge rush of people at the 3PM to 4PM hour, and very little in between.\u00a0 This year the flow seemed very steady from beginning to end.\u00a0 We had about half a dozen business participate this year that did not participate last year, and 95% of the feedback was extremely positive.<\/p>\n The only complaint I heard was from two separate business owners with the same complaint:\u00a0 they didn\u2019t understand why we advertised the event in the Oregonian, because that goes out all over the region, and while they enjoyed the event, they didn\u2019t want to pay for candy for kids who \u201cweren\u2019t from this community\u201d whom they felt were taking advantage of them. (!) My response to this Scrooge-ish complaint was this:\u00a0 \u201cThe purpose of this event is not to give candy to kids \u2013 it is to promote downtown businesses by getting those kids\u2019 parents to understand that there are retail stores downtown.\u00a0 If the parents of these \u201cnot-from-Sandy\u201d kids decided they wanted to purchase something in your store, would you turn them down?\u00a0 Of course not, right?\u00a0 So why would you have a problem giving their kids a $0.10 piece of candy?\u201d<\/p>\n Some people need to work on their holiday spirit a little bit, it seems….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Project work:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Nothing at the moment<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Conferences\/training:\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0[Clackamas County Practitioner\u2019s Roundtable \u2013 November 6th<\/sup>]\u00a0 Our regular quarterly meeting at the Red Soils campus in the OC.\u00a0 I introduced Jennifer as our new \u201cAubrey\u201d to a warm welcome, and reported out on the following:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" General notes:\u00a0 \u00a0A quick update on the Ford Family Foundation\u2019s new cohort, otherwise known as Highway to Hood version 2.0.\u00a0 They have chosen their project recipient, and it is the AntFarm.\u00a0 The project concept is to improve the facilities … Continue reading \n