Save NE 82nd (formerly Save Madison South)

Take Back 82nd

82nd AVENUE NEIGHBORHOODS UNITE TO CURB PROSTITUTION
“TAKE BACK 82nd”

Two-Part Community Town Hall Series Slated for Sept 15th and Oct 7th

(Portland, OR) –The second citizen-driven town hall meeting working to create understanding of the root causes of prostitution and what community members can do to fight it at an individual, street, neighborhood and city level will be taking place on October 7th from 6:30-8:30pm at PCC-Southeast Center, located at SE 82nd and Division. 

Hundreds of citizens turned out for the first Town Hall meeting held at Vestal Elementary School on September 15^th, which provided attendees an opportunity to provide detail on the problems they are observing and also suggestions for solutions.  Feedback garnered from the first meeting will be incorporated into the second one to ensure continuity between the two meetings and build upon knowledge and feedback. To read attendee comments and questions, click here.

Keynote speakers for the October 7^th meeting will feature Jeri Williams from the City of Portland and Melissa Farly of Prostitution Research.  A hands-on breakout session will focus on the development of action steps and sharing of resources and tools that have been effective in deterring prostitution.

The idea for a "Take Back 82nd" summit evolved both within the Montavilla Neighborhood Association and the Save NE 82nd Avenue Coalition almost simultaneously, and the groups came together to develop agendas for the town hall that will include panelists, breakouts and goal-oriented work groups. 

The purpose of the "Take Back 82nd" summit is to encourage neighbors and concerned citizens to come together to find community solutions.  Ideas and feedback generated from both meetings will be compiled into a report distributed to Portland City Council, city officials and neighborhood leaders to create a tools to empower people to step up to combat prostitution.

Neighborhood leaders all agree that they all share a common purpose and passion for preserving neighborhood livability, and see curbing prostitution as a key factor in taking neighborhoods back from criminal activity.

The Save NE 82nd Coalition was originally formed to halt the development of a 943-parking spot big box store directly across from Madison High School that would have damaged neighborhood livability with increased traffic, congestion, cut-throughs and shoved a large-scale retail setting five blocks into a quiet residential neighborhood.  Save NE 82nd's coalition of 2,300 supporters claimed victory when big-box developer Smart Centres withdrew their site application and dropped the project.  It was later revealed that the undisclosed big-box client was Wal-Mart, despite denials by the developers that no anchor tenant had been selected.

Save NE 82nd remains committed to neighborhood livability and sensible retail development that activates NE 82nd for pedestrians and provides sustainable development, while providing the land owner with reasonable return on investment.

E-Mail:
Phone: 503-539-3954
Mail:  Save Madison South           P.O. Box 30266           Portland, OR 97294