Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2009)
IB é Â B B â Â T l K S Ä S 1 € Ä '» 5 Street roots Education * Dialogue * Independence x W EST, from page 1 out of their houses to walk or ride bikes together. There’s lively music and How many Portlanders are serious cyclers community taking place. Thisis something — maybe one out of 40, if that? What elected the city does very well. (The Office of officials have done is to move transportation Human Relations) felt like we needed to engage different populations to be a part of alternatives like bicycling to the forefront of these exciting events. the city’s mindset and now cycling is a part We asked the East Precinct commander, a of everyday life. Portland is now a national greatguy, if new Portlanders could help out model for transportation alternatives and The newest newcomers to Portland have livability. So that one.out of 40, or whatever been coming from tribal communities in the ratio might be, now affects the entire Burma. There are six ethnic groups — they city. have been living and fighting the military One outoffive Portlanders is foreign regime there since 1958 - two generations born. So if our collective communities can of traumatized people living in guerrilla or do the same thing as the bike community refugee camps. Not urban, but in rural has done — the newcomers to Portland can camps - they are not shopping of schooling. shift this entire city’s ethos.. They have now been dropped in East Then we become the new Portland — not immigrants: or refugees. We are Portlanders, Portland. We are talking about traumatized human beings who have been living without If we can get rid of these lexicons and come running water. They have no concept of to a place where we embrace a new schooling or getting a credit card or a new Portland. Imagine the possibilities. car to get around. But it has to be th e entire Community. It So we have worked with the police in can’t just be one person dashing around , East Portland to reach out to these different holding hands with cops, with Park and Rec ethnic communities and, we invite people and other politicians. I’m a policy guy. I’m into to meet the police. Precinct happy setting and brokering relationships Commander Mike Crebs talks to the parents and helping getting things rolling. But it’s and kids and says, “Welcome, this is your not just my job. It’s your job. It’s police station. These are your policemen. If everybody’s j6b. That’s new Portland. you have problems and need help, call us The old Portland simply doesn’t work. It and the police will be there.” Back home, if breaks people’s hearts. For example, where you see a gun or a uniform, you run. We’re I come from we have lots oHiomeless educating people. people, but it is unthinkable to treat a . Now the police are working with Burmese homeless person badly. Don’t give them kids and Sunday parkways. These kids with money if you don’t want to, but never vests on and little badges are out there mistreat them. Are you nuts? What kind of directing traffic. They may not even be able world are you from? Didn’t your mother to speak English, but they are' a part of the teach you any manners? community in a way that wouldn’t be In the old Portland it was OK to dehumanize people. In the new Portland we . .possible otherwise. There’s many ways we can organize people to be a part of the have to have mutual respect economically, community. And that’s what we’re working racially, and socially. We have to absorb towards. these values coming from different parts of We’re looking to lead. We’ve tried letting the world as a community. HIfmiS? I.B.: How do we begin to walk down that anymore; it’s too painful. For us, the worst path to a new Portland? thing we can-do is to create a culture of assistance, a culture of co-dependency. We P.C.: We have to become engaged and have to break Out of this'pattern. We have to people have to be engaging. Being a part of be able to take leadership roles and act the immigrant community is not a spectator upon them. sport - you have to participate and r communicate with one another. For I.B.: Why are people coining to the new example, Portland has the Sunday Portland? Alternatives. *’ One Sunday every month, the city shuts P.C.: People end up here because down city streets and asks people to come Portland has the infrastructure and has historically been kind to refugees from around the world. And if you get 10 families then all of the sudden you have a hundred families because people follow one another, right? Portland has the llth-largest refugee population in the country. I.B.: What are some of the biggest challenges facing the immigrant community today? P.C.: Jobs. If you look at refugees — refugees get eight months of federal assistance — so they have an eight-month window to create an American way of life. Most of the low-income jobs that would normally be available to immigrant or refugee families no longer exist with the economy. Folks want to work. They will work three jobs. It’s not that the jobs don’t pay enough. They just aren’t there. The extraordinary joy of being able to work when you damn well please is amazing. Many places around the world there are ho jobs. No one is going to pay you a wage by the hour. Work hard or not you get paid — really? It’s unthinkable. The next thing that people need is tty • have their own businesses | j especially if you have a skill and an ambition. It’s crucial: that we develop micro-enterprises and micro-loans for people to start their own' businesses and mentors to help with this process, . Back home you get yourself a wok and a propane burner and you make the best damn fried rice on the corner. Then you move from a wok and burner to a cart, from a cart to a; stand and from a stand to a restaurant. We have to give people to opportunity to lift themselves up. Lastly, and maybe the most important, our schools are failing our kids — specifically the ethnic and minority kids. You take the kids from Burma, for example. We have 18-year-old kids coming to the country with a fourth-grade education. You put an 18-year- oI^iTf'rrKirgfe'Ti'ignl*schoolm Portland and they are not going to last. They are going to get frustrated and quit, especially our young men who need their macho on. They are going to get made fun of and made.a fool. They don’t last long. Our system is failing. The schools recently aggregated 25 years worth of data. It had never been done before. Don’t ask me why. In 25 years, the ethnic minority in Portland has been. “ growing, while the staff at the schools working with these kids has seen no growth. CONTROL THE MEDIA! Mother Nature’s Find out how YOU can listener sponsored C O M M U N IT Y R A D IO PORTLAND; 90.7 FM » CORVALLIS: 100.7 FM COLUMBIA GORGE; 91.9 FM P.C.: Media is real important Without that voice it’s very hard to. make a common cause. I think what you do really well at Street Roots, and what I would like to think we do well at The Asian Reporter, is to create a narrative and then push the narrative. If we leave that to someone else, it’s not going to be pretty. The people on the ground have to control the narrative. Your people on the corners are a fabric of our community. You’ve had bad guys in the past and really good guys, and that’s just something we all haVe to deal with. It’s about hope. And that’s what to me Street Roots stands for. We try to capture the same at The Asian Reporter. , I.B.: Do you see yourself running for public office anytime in the future? P.C.: No. I come from a line of men whose job is to reconcile things. That’s my place, and that’s my plan for the future. We solve all of our problems around the kitchen table. You get your big uncles and aunts and mothers and daughters. Everybody contributes. One individual can talk to God, this guy ban cook really well (laugh), and this woman can talk to my enemy and so forth. We all have things that we do to j g contribute. So we solve our problems together. So the idea of being*a leader and having people elect me because they like me is foreign to me. Saying-that, we have many people that are being trained to bepome future leaders in our community. We need to be running three to four candidates at all times because it’s about the conversation. Winning and losing doesn’t matter sb much, because we’re all going to win if we have people talking about our demographics. One more week to have your donation matched 2:1 by our/generous Operation Cornbread grant! Afl individual business and faith community Donations made by July 31 will be matched by a pool of generous donors. PROVIDES THE ALTERNATIVE! REVOLUTION! I.B.: Tell us about your experience at The Asian Reporter and your take on the media. Keep the cornbread cornin’ this summer! BIG CORPORATIONS JOIN THE MEDIA In 25 years! There’s no accountability there. We have one of the richest school districts in the country, yet nearly half of our students are failing and/or dropping out of school. Something is wrong with this picture. Unbelievable. You look at the people working in the schools, and they are great human beings, smart, energetic, but we still can’t seem to account for the system failing. There have to be changes. Earth Friendly Baby Products , . ■ * r * ; Large selection of cloth diapers & wraps, natural baby & mama care products, baby slings & carriers, organic cotton baby clothes, wooden toys, . personal service 2627 SE Clinton St. 503-230-7077 |j | Sisters Of The Road -If Become a Sustaining Member! We currently have over 360 monthly donors who give to Sisters through automatic withdrawal from their, bank account or credit card. Please join this generous group of donors by signing up to be a sustaining member.'Our goal is to add 30 new sustaining members during the summer months. Contact development@sistersoftheroad.org or 503-222-5694 ext 12 to sign tipt Join us this summer to keep the cornbread cornin’ all summer long! www.sisffefsottheroad.org 133 NW 6th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97209 503-222-5694
