612
member households
Riverbend Neighborhood Association · est. 1974
A front porch for the whole neighborhood.
Alder Commons is where Riverbend gathers — potlucks and porch concerts, a tool library and a repair café, committees that fix the crosswalk and neighbors who learn each other’s names. Fifty years in, the porch light is still on.
74
gatherings hosted last year
1,900
tool library checkouts
51
years of porch lights on
The living surface
This week at the Commons
The living surface of the neighborhood — what happened, what changed, and what needs a hand.
Project update · Tuesday
Crosswalk petition reached 400 signatures
The Streets & Safety committee delivered the Alder & 9th crosswalk petition to the city. A traffic study is now scheduled for July.
New at the library · Wednesday
Two donated pressure washers join the tool library
Thanks to the Okafor family on Birch Lane. Reserve them like any other tool — spring porch season is officially open.
Call for hands · Thursday
Porchfest needs six more block captains
Two hours on a Saturday, a clipboard, and the best seat on the street. Sign up on the volunteer page.
Welcome · Friday
Eleven new households joined in May
If you spot a new face at the potluck, introduce yourself — the welcome committee will get there eventually, but neighbors are faster.
Mark the calendar
Coming up on the green
Three of the next few weeks — the full calendar has the rest, plus the standing rhythms.
Repair Café & Tool Library Open Hours
Date: Jun 14 · 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM · The Workshop, 214 Alder St
Bring the lamp that flickers, the chair that wobbles, the jeans that need a hem. Fixers and sewing machines on site; coffee is on.
Riverbend Summer Potluck
Date: Jun 21 · 5:30 PM · Alder Street Green
The big one. Long tables on the green, name tags for the brave, and the unofficial zucchini bread competition nobody admits is a competition.
Annual Riverbend Porchfest & All-Ages Front Yard Concert Series Kickoff (Rain or Shine)
Date: Jun 28 · 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM · Porches across all twelve blocks
Forty-one porches, sixty-three acts, zero ticket booths. Maps at the Commons table on the green — or just follow the sound.
Alder Commons was founded in 1974 by eleven households who wanted a say in where the new bus line went — and discovered they liked the meetings. Fifty years later the mission is unchanged: keep Riverbend a place where people know each other, look out for each other, and have somewhere to bring an idea.
We are member-run and member-funded. No staff, no sponsors with logos, no algorithm deciding what the neighborhood sees. Just a hall, a workshop, a green, and a few hundred households who keep the lights on together.
Community stories
Dispatches from the porch
Written by the neighbors who were there. The pie ledger remains classified.
The pie ledger
When my husband was in the hospital in March, a pie appeared on our porch every Sunday for nine weeks. I never found out the rotation. There is apparently a ledger. Nobody will show me the ledger.
Marguerite Okafor-Lindqvist, Birch Lane
Sixty-three acts, one extension cord
Porchfest runs on borrowed amps and the longest extension cord on Alder Street. This year the cord got its own thank-you card. It has earned it.
Dev Ramachandran, Porchfest committee
The crosswalk took four years
Four years of meetings, two traffic studies, one petition with 400 names. The paint went down on a Tuesday. Forty people came to watch paint dry, and it was wonderful.
June Castellanos, Streets & Safety chair
Ways in
Pick the size of yes that fits
There is no minimum. Twenty minutes counts. Pick the size of yes that fits your season of life.
20 minutes
Bring a dish, stack a chair
Come to a potluck. Carry something heavy. Introduce yourself to one person. This is genuinely most of it.
2 hours / month
Join a crew
Welcome walks, repair café fixers, green crew, event setup. Crews have rotas, so nobody is the person who always does it.
4 hours / month
Sit on a committee
Streets & Safety, Events, Newsletter, Tool Library, Archive. Committees propose, the board ratifies, the minutes remember.
A season
Host or chair something
Porchfest block captain, soup night host, committee chair. The Commons hands you a binder, a budget line, and backup.
Who keeps the lights on
An elected board, in the open
Six neighbors, two-year terms, minutes within a week. The whole directory is one click away.
June Castellanos
President
Board since 2022 · Alder St
Dev Ramachandran
Vice President
Board since 2023 · 9th Ave
Dr. Esperanza Villanueva-Greenbaum
Treasurer
Board since 2021 · Birch Ln
Announcements
The Riverbend Reader
Out on the first of the month since 1974 — events, committee updates, new neighbors, and the occasional recipe that causes a line at the potluck.
Membership
The porch light is on. Pull up a chair.
Join Alder Commons in five minutes — dues from $0, identical membership at every level, and a potluck with your name on it.