In 2017, the Division Midway Alliance and its many volunteers were busy improving the quality of businesses and communities along Southeast Division Street. We plan on building on these achievements with your support: Please consider donating to DMA!

Here are some of DMA’s achievements:

Showcasing community:

• The 2017 Festival of Nations, the third, was a great success. Though rain dampened the third annual event just a tad, a steady stream of area residents, reflecting the diversity of Outer Southeast communities listened and danced to music from the four corners of the world, and once again enjoyed the treats in the Taste of Nations tent. The 2017 Festival of Nations boasted a record number of sponsors, vendors and entertainers.
• Record snow on Martin Luther King Jr. Day delayed DMA’s annual neighborhood cleanup to February, when DMA partnered with the Powellhurst Gilbert Neighborhood Association and cleaned up the neighborhood. Over 110 neighbors filled 8 dumpsters with an estimated 16 TONS of unwanted debris and household items.
• In recognition of the difficulty many community members have during the cold winter months, DMA began taking donations for Winter Warm Clothing to donate to the community. Thank you to Duke’s American Bar & Grill, Whelan’s Irish Pub, local band Beltaine and community members who have already contributed over 50 pounds of warm clothes to the cause.  Remember, Portland winters are long and chilly, so plan to share your used warm clothes after receiving your new warm clothes.   Drop them by the office at 11721 SE Division Street.

Advocacy:

• PBOT’s Outer Division Safety Project promises many good features to improve safety along outer Division Street, including increased lighting, sidewalks, crosswalks and lowered speed limits, as well as medians.
• DMA’s May Business Mixer at Whelan’s Irish Pub brought together dozens of local entrepreneurs, who got the first glimpse of both PBOT’s and TriMet’s ambitious plans for Division.
• In response to business owner concerns DMA’s Executive Director Lori Boisen created and circulated a petition in November, urging City Council and the Portland Bureau of Transportation to considering altering the major Division redesign. The plan, which highlighted medians, blocked left-turn access to a number of businesses. The petition was signed by 50 local businesses and organizations representing presented to City Council after a meeting at East Garden Restaurant with PBOT and 25 business owners left business owners feeling the need to speak out to Council. The result has been a slowing of the project to allow business owners the opportunity to work with PBOT on project changes.
• TriMet’s new transit project will bring high capacity bus service to East Portland; this service comes with trade-offs, including the loss of almost half of the Line 4’s bus stops. DMA worked with TriMet to add two stops back to Division Street.
• Executive board members joined community groups and members in providing input to the redesign of Mill and Midland parks as well as the creation of a new community park at 150^th SE Division. As a result, Master Plans are currently in place for all three proposed parks.

DMA’s programming and office as hosting in 2017 include:

• Citizenship classes – The Bhutanese Society of Oregon concluded the citizenship class program at DMA in September 2017. During the two-year program, 21 Bhutanese community members achieved citizenship.
• PSU’s Business Outreach Program continues its Wednesday office hours at DMA for the third year. Local businesses took advantage of one-on-one technical assistance to help with all aspects of running a business from marketing to planning to accounting to access to capital.
• DMA continued its Neighborhood Social Services Networking Office hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays targeting outreach to the Myanmar community. In 2017, DMA served 675 community members with 108 community members served in November alone.

To keep up these good works, please consider contributing to DMA.