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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2009)
WWW. M M J U L Y 10, 2 0 0 9 street roots CELEBRATING a d ec a d e o f THE EYE OFTHE BEHOLDER A new exhibit looks at artists' interpretation o f poverty through the ages org Page 8 Education ♦ Dialogue ♦ Independence PB m HHN P H O T O B Y K E N H A W K IN S W W W .K E N H A W K IN S .C O M M ultnom ah County C hairm an Ted Wheeler says local government, including M ultnontah County, cannot survive u ndercurrent urban renewal formulas. ; Do not avert your«eyes. Yes, the subjects of urban renewal areas and tax increment financing, rom his corner office on the sixth floor of make for a powerful sedative, but they have begun the Multnomah County building, County to light fires under politicians’ and taxpayers’ feet. Chairman Ted Wheeler has a panoramic view They are workhorses in local development plans; of a lot of money; looking west is downtown includirig.a 30 percent dedication of those funds Portland and the Pearl District, and looking north, toward affordable housing. It’s how tax dollars the interstate corridor and the Northeast / move in this town» for better or worse. renaissance. Thecity grows all around him. The urban renewal construct - which draws an Which makes dealing with a $46 million budget increment of property tax dollars as a funding shortfall all the more bitter. incentive for projects in “blighted” areas —most For the ninth year in a row, Multnomah County recently flared up over the Major League Soccer has been defunding — cutting public safety and deal. That proposal sought to draw urban renewal health services — in order to adjust to a regressive funds to build a minor league baseball stadium in tax formulafor urban renewal. Lents. It was later withdrawn, with Wheeler being' BY JOANNE ZUHL STAFF W R IT E R ■ the stony messenger decrying the use of such fundsfor such a project, and the consequences in depleting a property tax base that suports education, health care and safety programs in the most populated county in Oregon. J o a n n e Z u lu : In your opinion, do you think the city has responsibly used urban renewal areas to this ■point? Ted Wheeler: I support urban development, I support job creation, I support the creation of urban renewal areas around truly blighted areas See WHEELER, page 10 Precinct shuffle brings new faces, attitudes into Southeast BY A M A N D A WALDROUPE C O N T R IB Ü T IN G W R IT E R ne month since the Portland Police Bureau’s June 11 consolidation of inner southeast Portland into Central Precinct, no one is quite sure what lasting effect the consolidation.will have on policing in inner southeast Portland. v “In terms of service delivery, there’s no change,” says Central Precinct Captain Mark Kruger. \ Officers formerly reporting to Southeast Precinct are continuing to patrol the same geographic area they patrolled before the consolidation, but they are now part of Central - Precinct That is a relief to the neighborhood advocates, who will take as much time as needed to praise their neighborhood officers for the work they do in the largely residential area comprising inner southeast Portland. (The boundaries aré the B Willamette River, Burnside Avenue, 39th Avenue and the Mhltnomah/Clackamas county line.) . “We have worked really hard to build up relationships,” says Valerie Chapman, the pastoral administrator of S t Francis of Assisi Church. “Officers know who people are and who we are, and what people heed.” But the consolidation presents another challenge to S t Francis, which provides lunch and a day center for the homeless: How to work with the police as they begin to more strictly enforce the city’s anti-camping and no-structures ordinances, sweeping homeless people and their camps. Seasonal sweeps are nothing new to the St. Francis area, which has long been known as a gathering place for homeless people. Camps swell in the early summer and Rose Festival time, and complaints from residents and businesses grow, pressuring the police to respond. Officer Mike Castlio, who has patrolled the luckman neighborhood round St. Francis for the "Southeast hadn't been taking last 25 years, says that any consistent action regarding ¡outheast Precinct police whether or not (tents are) zould encourage campers o have their tents and allowed. Southeast has, over amps taken down before time, chosen to do it one usinéssesopened, and fashion, and Central Precinct o make an effort tp have low impact on the area has been doing it slightly round them. Describing differently." he method as, “sporadic,” CAPT. MARK KRUGER / 'P O R T L A N D C E N T R A L P R E C IN C T ¡astlio said that; loutheast Precinct fficers only dealt with amping when complaints mounted. ' “P n lip p in Southeast have been farrfvPatient See POLICE, page 11
