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Holiday marketing grants The Holiday grant requests must be postmarked by Friday, September 28th to be considered. The committee will meet in early October and the funds will be awarded by October 30. For an application, email info@apnba.com or call 503.234.7642.

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Portland Business 2.0 - How to do Business in the 21st Century October 23, 2007 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM at the Oregon Convention Center. For more information and to register, visit Business 2.0.

Anti-graffiti ordinance
Commissioner Leonard, true to his word, has convened an Administrative rules committee complete with business people to work out just how the ordinance will work and just what information needs to be kept. Store owners and the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) are each presenting and explaining their point of view. The ordinance takes effect October 1, but ONI plans to take until November 1 to notify every business that may be affected.

The ordinance reads that spray paint, paint nozzles, glass cutting tools, and marker pens using paint must be stored away from the public and that customers must identify themselves and sign to purchase those items.

Safe and Sound Streets
Commissioner Adams' plan to repair and maintain Portland's streets is still in the planning stage, but polls have indicated that residents and businesses are both willing to pay. As it stands now:

• Every Portland household would pay a small monthly fee, which would be collected with the Water bill.
• Every Portland gas purchase would cost a few cents a gallon more, collected at the pump and paid through the State of Oregon.
• Every Portland business would pay a monthly fee, the amount depending on the size and estimated number of trips the business generates. Hospitals and churches are included. Only governments (City, County, State, and Federal) will not pay.
• The fees would stop after 10 years.

With everyone contributing, the cost can be kept to a minimum for any one. More definite details will be available after all the town halls and group meetings are concluded.

Ornamental Tree Lighting
The APNBA has agreed to sign the Letter of Guaranty for all the active business districts. Any district that plans to light their street trees for the holidays is encouraged to apply for the permit so the Urban Forestry can schedule their inspection.

To obtain an application and instructions for stringing the trees, contact Rob Crouch in Urban Forestry at 503.823.4489.

Clean and Safe in the districts?
Marshall Runkle of Bureau of Housing and Community Development (BHCD) is researching the possibility of offering business districts a version of the downtown's successful "Clean and Safe" program.

He proposes a partnership where business districts, non-profits that serve the homeless, and the city will work together to find a way for homeless persons to work for a living wage keeping the streets clean, maintaining the greenery, and perhaps assisting the business districts with some of their labor intensive tasks like passing out literature to businesses.

Marshall is still in the very early stages of his plan and will be calling all the business districts to talk to them about how they might make this work. Expect a call this fall.

visionPDX update
visionPDX passed City Council. It now goes to Planning who will report by year end on the projects needed to obtain that vision.

The project ideas introduced by the visionPDX group are:

• A community gathering center that could house community organizations as well as Human Relations Commission, potential city bureaus, and potential satellite office space for service delivery organizations.


• Community Action Grants to provide seed resources for community organizations to take action on the vision. Criteria will set clear expectations accountability. The funds will be matched by community organizations and will be one time in nature. They are asking $250,000 for grants and $125,000 for personnel to manage the grants process.
• Creating small parks in park deficient areas using donated materials, sweat equity and Spirit of Portland Award- winning drive. They are asking $30,000 per park for basic level of improvement. Work will be volunteer.
• District energy systems to replace heating and cooling equipment inside individual buildings with a distribution network that delivers energy to each building as needed. They are asking $100,000 for a feasibility study.
• City of Portland employees to focus volunteerism on youth. HR Administrative Rule 4.05 allows City of Portland employees to take paid time off work (up to four hours per month) to "volunteer" in programs around the City. Cost is up to 4 hours a month of salary, benefits, retirement, etc per participating employee and the price of a self-reporting electronic tracking system.
• Micro and Small Business Services Pilot project, a seven-month project where The Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber (HMC) would act as the prime contractor and subcontract with AVITA to provide outreach to new and existing businesses partners, needs assessments, technical assistance and other services as needed. They are asking $250,000 for pilot project, followed by ongoing funding through the budget.

Corridors vs. Centers
The lively debate between Patrick Condon (Corridors) and Gordon Price (Centers) was both entertaining and enlightening. It was a humorous and light hearted discussion which addressed the inevitability of urban growth and asked how best we could adapt our cities and our expectations.

Business Privacy law - SB583
The Oregon legislature recently passed SB 583, Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act, which states that every business that collects and retains certain private information about their customers and employees must notify them of any breach of data, safeguard their data, and pay penalties in the event of their violation of the act. The safeguarding requirements become effective on January 1, 2008.

For more information, contact Duane McCreery at Duane@itagpdx.com, a commercial security firm.

Business District Events
Sept 30: Farmers Market, 7700 SE Stark, 10 - 2 PM, Alema McCrea, 503.318.5741.

October 4: First Thursday, Pearl District, 5:00 - 9:00 PM, http://www.firstthursday.org.

October 5: First Fridays
Multnomah Village, 5:00 - 9:00 PM, Joan Steinbach, 503.245.3936.
Division/Clinton, 6:00 - 9:00 PM, Rin Carroll Jackson, rinzart@spiritone.com.
Greater Brooklyn, 5:00 - 9:00 PM, Madeline Janovic, 503.231.8346.

October 11: Second Thursday, Hawthorne Blvd, Justin, 503.963.8200.

October 18: Third Thursday, Hollywood District, Jeffrey Baird, 503.331.7650.

October 25: Last Thursday, 13th - 30th NE Alberta, Allan Oliver, 503.493.1909.



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