View this email in your browser

April 2026
Kerns Neighborhood Association Newsletter

Next Meeting

All Are Welcome!

Neighbors, renters, owners, workers, residents, supporters, visitors, alumni, friends of all stripes

Wednesday April 15, 2026 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Splash Apartments on Sandy by the Pepsi Pavilion

NE Sandy Blvd and NE 26th Ave

Map Link

We are meeting at a new location starting April 15, 2026

We are meeting at the Splash Apartments near the Pepsi Pavilion – just to the West side. See picture for location.

Splash Apartments have graciously offered this space for Kerns NA to meet each month. We wanted a location that’s more central to the neighborhood, more visible and on bus lines. Hope to see you there!!

IF YOU HAVE A SMALL RUG AVAILABLE PLEASE BRING IT JUST FOR THE MEETING TO HELP REDUCE THE ECHO!

Hybrid in person and Zoom meeting

Zoom link:

https://kernspdx.org/zoom

View Agenda here

Kerns Neighborhood Association

Meeting Agenda

Splash Apartments by the Pepsi Pavilion: NE Sandy Blvd and NE 26th Ave

875 NE 27th Ave, #2207 Portland, OR 97232

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

6:30pm – 8:30pm

https://kernspdx.org/zoom

kernspdx.org        facebook.com/KernsNA        kernsna@gmail.com

6:30 Zoom entry / Introductions. Collect Names and emails All

6:40 Vote on Minutes from previous meeting Board

6:45 “Welcome and Introduction to Splash Apartments Meetings and Team Meetings. Presentation of The Neighborhood Realization.

May Elections” Dave

7:00 Barbie’s Village Jillene Joseph, Future Generations Collaborative

7:20 Good Neighbor Agreements: Barbie’s Village, 16X Burnside, Anna Mann Dave, Ndem, Jim

7:25 Kernside Street fair and updates Mallory

7:35 Picnic Update David

7:45 Houselessness and Sanitation issues All

7:55 Land Use Updates Harper

8:05 FUNdraisers Board

8:10 Instagram, Website, Communications Elizabeth, Dave

8:15 Bylaws rewrite, Mission, Community Agreements Daniel D, Dave

8:25 SEUL Updates, Tree Project Elizabeth

8:30 Open floor All

8:40 Adjourn All

All board members are urged to attend each meeting so that we can have a quorum for votes.

Voting times may be adjusted depending on when a quorum is present.

Our bylaws are the blueprint for our ideals, values, goals and processes that we follow. Below is one example:

ARTICLE XIII.    NONDISCRIMINATION:

The KNA will not discriminate against individuals or groups on the basis of race, religion, color sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, legal citizenship national origin, income, or political affiliation in any of its policies, recommendations or actions.

If you’d like an item included on the agenda, email kernsna@gmail.com
Meeting agenda and latest news is on our website: https://kernspdx.org/

The Kerns NA meets every 3rd Wednesday of the month  6:30-8pm, except August and December

---

Team (Committee) Meetings at Splash!

Splash has also graciously offered their conference room and clubhouse for Kerns Teams (Committees) to meet and work on projects. Dave will be setting up in the Splash conference room on the first floor by the Pepsi Pavilion on Wednesday April 15 from 2:30pm – 6pm. Everyone is welcome to join. Call or text me and I’ll let you in! 503.522.7409

Team (Committee) Meetings

I plan to start holding twice-a-month blocks of meetings for our teams (committees). I like to call them Teams instead of Committees because Committees sound stuffy and dry whereas Team captures the Teamwork and Energy of what we are trying to accomplish with these meetings. And instead of Chair let’s call the leader the Captain – like the Team Captain!  We can vote on this – but this is my suggestion.

We have the following Teams plus new teams that we kind of already have but not yet officially. I will move to make these official at our next meeting. We will try to find captains but if not we will captain them together! – Dave Weaver, Kerns NA Board Chair

Kerns Proposed Teams

Outreach includes: Social Media, Website,  Newsletter, Postcards, Google Groups. Captains: Elizabeth and Dave Weaver

Picnic is all about planning for the annual Picnic. Captain: David Champion

Finance and Fundraising is about managing our money and holding fundraisers to raise more money – and working on plans on what to do with our money. Interim Captain: Dave Weaver

Cleanup is about cleaning up the neighborhood through litter cleanups and also annual events like we used to have with Buckman where people bring their large garbage to dumpsters and recycling.  Captain: Open

Land Use and Transportation is about traffic calming and improvements and monitoring developments in our neighborhood.  Captain : Harper

Locations is about finding locations for our monthly meetings and team meetings and casual meetings throughout the month. Captains: Tom, Elizabeth, Dave

Community Care is about helping the hungry and the homeless and the depressed. Things like community fridges, charity drives, mental health outreach, etc.  Captain : Open

Banners and Placemaking is about monitoring and maintaining our banners and looking into more ways to do placemaking in Kerns.  Captain: Open

SE Uplift is about connecting with SE Uplift and all the other 18 neighborhoods in our District 3. Captain: Elizabeth

Business is about connecting with the robust business community in Kerns such as Kernside Business District and Central Eastside Industrial Council.  Captain: Mallory

Charter is about modernizing our bylaws, and setting up a Mission statement, a Vision statement and Community Agreements about how we conduct our meetings and events.  Captain: Open (I nominate Daniel Vogel. I can also help because I had a lot of experience with this when I was on the board and board chair at SE Uplift)

Kernside updates
Kernside is our new business district in Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods. Check out their website here: Kernside.org and sign up for their newsletter to get the latest updates.

Portland City Council Candidate Forum (D3 & D4)

By Tom Sollitt for Portland City Council District 3

Taborspace Portland, OR

Sunday, May 3  •  1:15 PM – 4:35 PM

Overview

Meet some of your Portland City Council Candidates for Districts 3 & 4!

Portland City Council Candidate Forum (D3 & D4)

Voters deserve equitable access to the candidates seeking to represent them. In recent elections, the large number of candidates made it difficult for even the most engaged Portlander to know who was running for City Council, especially grassroots candidates who did not come with strong name recognition, advertising budgets, or established political networks.

This event is being held early in the election cycle to provide voters enough time to understand their options, interact directly with candidates, and begin following campaigns before elections are right around the corner.

This forum has invited District 3 and 4 candidates to gather in one place to support transparency, accessibility, and informed civic participation. There was a deadline of March 31st to confirm, and we tentatively have six panelists, three from each district.

Candidates that replied late to the original invitation will be welcome to join and table or fill in if someone is unable to attend.

We will be located in the Dining Room of Tabor Space.

Please expect the following:

1:15 PM – Start

1:15 PM to 1:45 PM – Casual Tabling as Guests Arrive

1:45 PM to 1:55 PM – Welcome, Set Ground Rules

1:55 PM to 3:15 PM – Moderated Panel (80 minutes)

• Candidates Introduce themselves (12 minutes/2 minutes each)

• Moderated Questions (40 minutes)

• Audience Q&A (28 minutes) – (submit them in advance link here)

3:15 PM to 3:45 PM – Community Testimony (30 minutes)

• Pre-Signup Required (link here)

• Speakers (2 minutes each)

• Visible Countdown Timer

3:45 PM to 3:55 PM – Break (10 minutes)

3:55 PM to 4:25 PM – Casual Tabling (30 minutes)

4:25 PM to 4:35 PM – Closing Remarks (10 minutes)

• Opportunity for Candidates to share upcoming events

• Gratitudes

4:35 – Event Ends

Where is Kerns?

Kerns Neighborhood is in Portland, Oregon – on the inner East Side along the West side of the Willamette River between Burnside Street to the South and I-84 Banfield Highway to the North and 33rd Avenue to the West.

Kerns is bordered by the Buckman and Sunnyside Neighborhoods to the South,  Laurelhurst Neighborhood to the East. and Lloyd District and Sullivan’s Gulch to the North.

Kerns is in District 3 in the City of Portland and is proudly part of Southeast Uplift – the District 3 Neighborhood Coalition of 19 Neighborhoods.

Meet Southeast Uplift

Kerns Neighborhood Association is proud to be part of the Southeast Uplift District Coalition. Southeast Uplift – also known as SE Uplift or SEUL – represents Portland’s City Council District 3
Southeast Uplift does many things to help Kerns Neighborhood Association and all of the people and organizations in  the 19 neighborhoods within the District 3 footprint. Examples are: Neighborhood Support, Fiscal Sponsorship, Community Small Grants, Community Capacity Building, Meeting and Event Space,  Community Committees and more. To learn more about Southeast Uplift go to their website SEUplift.org and you can sign up for their newsletter in the footer.

Thank you SE Uplift!!

Kerns is proud to be part of the SE Uplift District Coalition
SE Uplift is also our Fiscal Sponsor

https://www.seuplift.org/