2 • The Southwest Portland Post
EDITORIAL
October 2013
Portland suicide rate is more than twice
the national average
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
By Melinda Hasting
Special to The Southwest Portland Post
Officer Scott Foster of the Portland
Police Bureau attended the Maple-
wood Neighborhood Association
meeting in September and made re-
marks about the increase in suicides
in Southwest Portland this last year.
There were three or so in the last
month on his beat and I spoke with
him afterwards to get details.
He said usually Portland Police
Bureau gets spikes during the holi-
day season but this year the numbers
have remained high city-wide and
haven’t dipped back down to the
usual levels.
Officer Foster said he is seeing a
trend with older people and gun-
shot wounds. If you want to pur-
sue something like this, please let
me know and I’d be happy to dig
deeper and look at the comparative
numbers from year to year.
I talked with Mark Marshman,
public information officer for Port-
land Police (he returned my call
asking for Scott Foster ’s contact
info), who said that Portland has a
much higher rate of suicides than the
national average.
He also believes that our sum-
mer numbers are strange, given the
weather being better. He referred me
to Lt. Cliff Bacigalupi, head of the de-
partment’s Behavioral Health Unit
that was formed to address the issue
(I didn’t ask when it was formed).
The national average of suicides is
17 per 100,000, whereas Portland’s
is 40 per 100,000. (Our 40/100,000
rate now exceeds Las Vegas.) More-
over, there seems to be no sub-par
economic correlation; most of them
here are white men between the ages
of 45 to 55 years.
He said Cliff would give me the
rates on SW Portland, but believes
that the spike Foster was referring to
was reflective of an overall pattern
in Portland that spans years.
He said the suicide rates are tak-
ing a toll on first responders. He
said NW Portland has the highest
rates of suicide conventionally, but
that there could well have been a
recent rash in SW Portland and that
Lt. Baciagalupi would give me the
recent stats.
Left a message with Cliff and will
prepare questions for his return call.
Marshman said that Cliff would give
me more details about Vista Bridge.
I know that Foster told the group
last month that the (temporary)
fence around the bridge was largely
ineffective because people can sim-
ply go around it and enter the area.
Update: Lt. Bacigalupi stated the
police bureau would hold a press
conference on Monday (Sept. 30)
to release new figures on Portland
suicide rates. He said he wasn’t sure
what the 40/100,000 rate Marshman
was referring to, but I left a message
for Marshman asking for some clari-
fication. We’ll see.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Fax: (866) 727-5336
email: editor@multnomahpost.com
Local filmmakers looking for
$20,000 kickstart to finish
comedy
I’m writing to see if you would
be interested in publishing a story
about Bad Exorcists, the independent
film we shot in Portland earlier this
summer.
You may remember leaving me a
voicemail when we were filming at
Riverdale High School. I apologize
for not returning your call, but things
were a bit hectic at the time as I was
handling dozens of extras for the
school scenes.
If you’re interested, please check
out the Kickstarter campaign we
launched yesterday (September
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http://www.kickstarter.com/proj-
ects/573714290/bad-exorcists
Correct, we have completed shoot-
ing the movie and are now in the
post-production stages. However,
we have publicity stills from our nu-
merous locations across Southwest
Portland including Riverdale High
School.
Essentially, I think Bad Exorcists
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20
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Business!
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Phone: (503) 244-6933; Fax: (866) 727-5336
general email: news@multnomahpost.com
web address: www.swportlandpost.com
Editor & Publisher: Don Snedecor
Reporters/Writers: Melinda Hasting
Erik Vidstrand
Copy Editor:
Rich Riegel
Advertising Sales: Don Snedecor, Harry Blythe
Graphic Design:
Leslie Baird Design
Printing:
Oregon Lithoprint
© 2013 by The Southwest Portland Post. All rights reserved. The opinions of the artists
and authors contained herein are not necessarily shared by the publisher.
Deadline for news and advertising is generally the 20th of the month prior to
publication. Please call for current deadline information. Advertising rates are available
upon request.
The Post has a circulation of 7,000 in Multnomah Village and the surrounding
neighborhood business districts including Burlingame, Capitol Hill, Garden Home,
Glen Cullen, Hillsdale, South Portland, Raleigh Hills, West Portland and Vermont
Hills. The Post is published on or about the 1st of every month. Subscriptions are $14
per year. Back issues are $2.50 each when available. All major credit cards accepted.
The Post is printed on recycled
newsprint using soy-based inks.
Louie Sloss
Producer
Thank you from Spring
Garden Park
RE: "Volunteers support Mult-
nomah's Spring Garden Park and its
natural play area, " by Erik Vidstrand,
The Post, September 2013.
Thank you very much for the great
coverage of National Night Out. We
really appreciated our spot on the
cover and hope that it attracts more
great families to our project.
Lori Howell
Chair
Friends of Spring Garden Park
well
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6256 SW Capitol Hwy.
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Celebrating
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possible.
The core cast and crew members
began making movies together at
Wilson High School before going
their separate ways for film school
and work in the industry.
Our writer/director Kyle Steinbach
was able to bring everyone back
together from across the country to
rally around his terrific script and
shoot the movie on a remarkably
small budget.
K y l e i s c u r re n t l y l i v i n g i n
Multnomah. Please let me know if
you’d like to interview him or re-
quest any more information about
the project.
Susan Ferreira, LMT #13618
503-244-7582 • email: hdrx@pcez.com
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