Help Us Save Fulton Park Community Center

Fulton Park is an unique resource for us. It's a big enough floor to allow traveling dances. Its a convenient location. It has a friendly ambiance. It's affordable and it has availability. Losing Fulton Park Community Center to the budget cutters would be a serious blow to our vibrant and growing community. Please support us in our battle with the city planners. Send letters to the board members (addresses below). Let them know your experiences at Fulton Park and the ways dancing has benefited your sense of well being.  We need your help.

Below is a description of the situation written by Kim Appleberry of the contra community- also a regular user of Fulton Park.

Save Fulton — Your Action Needed

Here we go again. In a budget cutting proposal, Portland Park & Recreation (PP&R) is proposing closing Fulton Community Center. It was five years ago that our community action saved Fulton from being closed. All the main city government players have now changed and the new people think we are easy pickings. We need to show them that quite the opposite is true. 

We need masses of people to show up at the public input meeting 

This Monday

6:30 to 8:30 at:

Multnomah County Boardroom
501 SE Hawthorne (corner of Grand)

(Please get there early. The room is not big and I expect it to be jammed.)

As we did last time, we all need to WEAR SOMETHING RED. We need to have our numbers recognized and only a few of us might actually speak. If you don’t have something red, tie a bow of red ribbon and pin it on your front. (The media is being alerted to a “colorful” news story.) The last time we did this we flooded the budget meeting and it was very effective. From the minutes of the Budget Advisory Committee, one of the members said “in previous years, programs that were slated to be cut were put back into the budget after citizens rallied before the Council.”

Of course letters, email and phone calls are also needed. Please write a short message. Send it in an email, print it out and put it in an envelope. Make a phone call. Give a short, clear message. Pick one to three of the bullet points offered below or your own but be sure to put it in your own words. It’s important to show that Fulton is supported by diverse groups that use it, only some of them being contra dancers.

—  Fulton was saved from closure five years ago by a group of users who worked to raise the revenues. We can do it again but are not being given a chance.

—  We just want a chance to work in partnership with you to help keep Fulton open.

—  PP&R states that “participants will be able to access services at nearby Southwest Community Center (3 miles) and Multnomah Arts Center (2.1 miles).” In fact these locations do not have the facilities, availability in their schedules or price structure for the programs that are thriving at Fulton.

—  Fulton sits at the juncture of three neighborhood association boundaries but is regularly used by people from all over the city because of its unique facilities. For many years we have searched for alternate venues when Fulton has been threatened, with no success.

—  Fulton is small but heavily used by diverse groups such as seven preschool programs, three weekly dances attended by over 200 people a week, a monthly family dance for parents with little kids, many adult and child recreation programs.

—  Closure of Fulton would directly conflict with the Budget Advisory Committee’s criteria for cuts:
-  Will this cut harm PP&R’s ability to provide recreation programs within a reasonable distance for people to participate?
-  Will this cut harm PP&R’s ability to provide equitable access to facilities and services?
-  Is PP&R the only one who can provide this service at a reasonable price?

     It also would be a step backward in PP&R’s stated goal to:
- Provide a basic, developed Neighborhood Park facility within a half mile (approximately 10 to  15 minute walk) of every Portland resident, and a Community Park within a mile (approximately  20 to 30 minute walk) of every resident.

Without public input, PP&R put Fulton as the only community center to be closed under the 4% cut package (only one other one [Hillside] is in any of the other cut proposals). All bureaus are to send the mayor budgets that include 4%, 6% and 8% cuts. Fulton is in all three. The cuts have been worked out between senior management and a committee of Parks Board members and union representatives. The budget goes to the mayor this Tuesday, the 10th. In an obvious slight of the public, the only opportunity for citizen input is for two hours the night before—this Monday. Although we’re already way behind, we need to hit this at every level, as quickly as possible. It’s a lot easier to turn a ship if you start early in its voyage.

More background information will available on the PCDC website.  www.portlandcountrydance.org


Contact List:  


Commissioner Nick Fish
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 240
Portland, Oregon 97204
503-823-3589
nick@portlandoregon.gov

 
Mike Abbaté, Director
Portland Parks and Recreation
1120 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 1302
Portland, Oregon 97204-1933
503-823-5379

Karen Loper
Assistant Director, Portland Parks & Recreation
karen.loper@portlandoregon.gov

 
Portland Parks & Recreation West Zone Manager:
Terri Davis
terri.davis@portlandoregon.gov
503-823-5197

 
Mayor Sam Adams
1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 340
Portland, OR 97204
503-823-4120
sam.adams@portlandoregon.gov

 
Commissioner Dan Saltzman
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 230
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 823-4151
dan@portlandoregon.gov

 
Commissioner Randy Leonard
1221 SW 4th Ave, Rm. 210
Portland, Oregon 97204
(503) 823-4682
randy@portlandoregon.gov

 
Commissioner Amanda Fritz
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 220
Portland, Oregon 97204
503-823-3008
amanda@portlandoregon.gov