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Street roots
15
Education * Dialogue ♦ Independence
editorial
Spend urban renewal
on real renewal
The Guard Home Campaign
is too important to fail
AN OPEN LETTER FROM THÈ
GUARD HOME CAMPAIGN
F I
city of Portland is pushing the idea of using
$42 million - mostly from Portland Urban
J - Renewal funds — to build a minor league
baseball stadium in Lents. Bad idea.
The citizens of Portland already are on the hook for
$30 million from the last stadium. How can the city
justify spending another $42 million on another
stadium? We can’t.
The Portland Beavers play 72 home games a year.
Each game lasts two to four hours; That’s an average
of about 216 hours a year. That equals about one full
workweek a month for five months. And most of the
jobs at the stadium are.
low-wage jobs with no
Whether or not readers benefits. Hardly an
support baseball In
investment in the local
Lents, taking the funds community, it’s a slap in
slated for housing for
the face to average U
families and seniors
Portlanders to serve a
does not make sense.
man who doesn’t even*
five here. Urban renewal
investments need a
better payoff for Portland
than a baseball stadium.
The city of Portland is currently considering
relaxing the 30 percent set aside policy for the Lents
Urban Renewal District in order to fund the stadium.
Whether or not readers support baseball in Lents,
taking the funds slated for housing for families and
'Jenjors does not make sense. Considering Portland’s
long history of gentrification, this deal would almost I
certainly drive poor and working 4olk out<of th e .
neighborhood.
I The new light rail that will help bolster east
Portland will improve Lents and many neighborhoods
that traditionally have not been prioritized by
Portland’s elite. Lents has the chance to become one
of Portland’s coolest neighborhoods - much like the
Umversity/Portsmouth, Concordia and Mississippi
neighborhoods in North and Northeast. If the
Beavers move to Lents, the stadium will actually
become a symbol of what is wrong with the
neighborhood.
If we are investing public funds in Lents and
surrounding neighborhoods, we should be investing
in local affordable-housing efforts, small business
startups and improvements. Helping attract a grocery
store Such as New Seasons, for example, would do
more in the short- and long-term for the
neighborhood thaft a baseball stadium*
Street Roots is not against baseball being in our
region. Possibly our neighbors in Vancouver or,
Beaverton would benefit from such a deal. We just
can’t see spending $42 million on something that
doesn’t pay off and isn’t really wanted by the majority
of Portlanders.
Street Roots supports much of the great work that
the city of Portland, the Portland Development
Commission and other interest groups have done to
make Portland a livable city. Saying that, we also
know that the same engine that has created a livable.
city for some has affected poor, folks and minorities
over the years in a negative way. We can t let the
latter happen again, especially in a time when
Portland needs long-term sustainable jobs and
innovative ideas to lead us out óf the economic
downturn we all find ourselves in. Baseball in Lents is
the committee would send'our bill to the
House for a vote if the campaign team could
t’s been almost a year since the Keep
assure the committee that we would get a
the Oregon National Guard in Oregon
majority “yes” vote in the House. Little did
campaign began. We’ve gone from •
gathering signatures on petitions to keep they know how that possibilitywould
3500 Oregon National Guard members from motivate us to redouble our efforts. After
being sent to Iraq to 1) having peace-
several more weeks of intènse lobbying, we
activists deliver7200 petitions to every OR
were sure that 32 of 60 representatives
legislator, 2) introducing a House bill
would support HB2556.
(HB2556) in Salem with many co-sponsors,
The effect of Oregon’s campaign has also
3) having a hearing in the House Rules
influenced other states, according to the
Committee with no public opposition, 4)
national “Bring the Guard Home; It’s'the
marching in Salem plus lobbying the next
Law.” There were just a few states last year
day, 5) getting support from county political
that were challenging the authorizations
parties, and 6) getting constituents state
that Congress passed to send the Guard to
wide send E-letters.
What have been the results of all this
Iraq and Afghanistan. Now there*are 22
wprk? Well, the Rules chair never scheduled states.and the District of Columbia working
a committee vote after two months. You
on this., No state has gotten as far with their
probably read in! The Oregonian about a
bill as ours, however. One, New York State,
series of deployments saying good-bye to
tried a petition campaign but could not get
2600 Oregonian .National Guard before they
as many signatures as we did in Oregon.
were sent back to Georgia for final training
They wanted to know how we got so many
prior, to flying to Iraq. Well, we lost round
signatures when we were using volunteers!
one, but we haven’t failed. There’s still
We’re trying some new things. By the
apother 800 Oregonian National Guard'due
to go to Iraq next year. And we’ve had other time the next Street Roots is published, we
important achievements*
will have had a press conference on the
While the Campaign team was lobbying,
Capitol steps in Salem oh Wednesday, May
our lead sponsor,. Rep. Chip Shields (a
27, in between the historical date of May 30
liberal) got nàore Democrats as co-sponsors
for Memorial Day and this year’s
or simply supporters. Then a conservative
observance of it on May 25. We are inviting
member of thè GOP, Rep. Dennis
veterans, churches and other faith groups,
Richardson joined the campaign, and these
members of the armed forces as well as just
two representatives forged a strong bond.
plain folks to come; Cindy Sheehan is one of
They agreed on a minor amendment to
the speakers. We urge you to telephone or
HB2556 which gained support in both
parties. With too many biilsjit^s frequently
e-mail the Rules Committee Chair, Rep.
hard to get bi-partisan supportili this as
Arnie Roblan (503-986-1409, rep.
well as many other states in addition to
arnieroblan@state.or.us), and Speaker of
Congress. When the media heard about this
the House Dave Hunt ^503-^86-1200, rep.
wonderful pair of representatives recently,
davehunt@state.or,us), to ask them to bring
OPB, as well as Air America commented on
HB2556 to thè House for a vote. We want
i t Plus, there were favorable articles in
to pass HB2556 in the House to encourage
several newspapers.
other states to , challenge sending their
This bi-partisan support encouraged the
state’s National Guard to Iraq and
campaign team and maybe even the Rules
Afghanistan.
Committee. There was even an idea that
I
WHAT DO
YOU THINK?
Street Roots
. encourages readers
to submit letters
and columns for
publication. Letters
to the editor may
be submitted to the
Street Roots office,
211 NW Davis St,
Portland, OR 97209,
faxed to 503-227-
3t>7or
e-mailed to
streetroots ‘
©emaii.com.Please
address your
submissions as
TetfersTb tfi^elwr
Genesis Redux
by Dharma Bum
'The first man .
Urban and wild
The hum of traffic
The music of the city
Rivers of asphalt
Canyons of concrete
This is the jungle
This is Eden
Under skies of wonder
We stand at the cross roads
With Infinity below our feet
As we wiggle our toes in a dream.
OREGON CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
not one of them.
STREET ROOTS* EDITORIAL BOARD
contributing volunteers. -
,
David Wu
District 1
House of Representatives
2338 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, D.C, 20515
Phone:(202)225-0855
Fax:(202)225-9497
Greg Walden
District 2 '
House of Representatives
2352 Rayburn "H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202)-225-6730
Fax:(202)-225-5774-
Earl Blumenauer
District 3
House of Representatives
2446 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone:(202)225-4811
Fax:(202)225-8941
Peter DeFazio
District 4
House of Representatives
2134 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone:(202)225-6416
Kurt Schrader
District 5
House of Representatives
1419 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202)225-57^1-
Fax: (202) 225-5699 "