8
street roots
Sept 30, 2011
P ie candid
candidate
Jeri Williams offers up her own brand o f politics as she puts
herself into the race fo r Randy Leonard’s City Council Seat
BY JAKE THOMAS
we’re going to have a whole group of
people who aren’t.
ongtime community organizer Jeri
If the city doesn’t look at creating a
Williams faces a tough battle against
broadband strategy that will allow
Steve Novick for the City Council seat
everybody to have the Internet, then
being vacated by Randy Leonard. But this those families’ kids who don’t have
isn’t the first time Williams has faced a
internet will do worse in school. You get
tough fight. ,
unemployed people who are told to go
Decades ago, Williams was pimped by a
home and go online and apply for benefits.
gang and coerced into walking 82nd Avenue
Well, what if you have no online to go
every night into the early morning hours.
home to? If you’re a 6-year-old girl and
After escaping, Williams went on to become
your mom works until eight o’clock ait
a labor and environmental justice organizer,
night, and you need to get on the Internet
and now manages a program in the Office of
and do something for your report, it’s not
Neighborhood Involvement aimed at getting
going to get done because Mom’s at work.
under-represented communities involved in
And if you listen to the people who use the
city governance.
library computers, they’ll tell you, you have
Now Williams hopes to make the jump
to stand in line a long time and you only
from organizing to making policy. Williams is have so long to use i t We’re creating this
confident she has a fighting chance to win
digital,divide, which is once again going to
the seat if she can activate communities that create privilege for some and lack for other
often shy away from the political process. So people. If you have enough, you tend to not
far, she’s gotten the endorsement of former
think about those who don’t.
Mayor Tom Potter.
If Sam Adams and I were to; drive down
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, we would see
Jake Thomas: You said you’re
things differently. And I think that my view
disappointed with some of the things you see
is as important as what he sees. He may see
going on with the city. What are those things?
all the buildings that are LEED-certified
sustainable. I may see the homeless people,
Je ri Williams: One of the frustrating
and the people who have drug problems
things is the Last Thursday event and how
walking up and down the street So we need
long it’s been going on and how long the city people in office who can think about all
has been paying for this party and just the
those things.
inequity of it. There are a lot other things
People say, “I believe in equity,” so let’s
the city should be spending money on, not
give East Portland some sidewalks. It’s way
somebody’s party.
more than East Portland getting sidewalks.
There are equity issues around the fact
East Portlanders need a voice. If we get
that we are making giant investments in
urban renewal areas, we get them because
certain groups of people, and those groups
some communities have been blighted like
of people are the ones most favored by the
Mississippi, and it gets built up for another
people in office. And I guess people would
community, and the other community gets
say that’s politics; I think that’s the way it
moved into a pocket in Southeast Now
works. So if that’s the way it works, we need
gentrification is no longer an unintended
to get someone in there that cares about
consequence. We know it happens when we
homeless populations, who cares about
make these decisions. We plan for our
people who are not being heard.
prosperity, but we don’t plan for our poverty.
We need to talk about people of color
issues and have the race discussion^ We
J.T.: I f elected, you’d be the only person of
need to get somebody in office to do th at I
color on City Council. There have been a
hear that my opponent is a really nice
couple of disturbing reports that have come out
progressive guy, but I don’t think that he’ll
in the past couple of years, the State of Black
do th a t
Oregon and the Coalition of Communities of
Ethnocentrism is basically: I know what I
Color reports. What would you do to address
know because of what I grew up around. So
the needs of minority communities?
we’re all ethnocentric. My Indian and
Mexican parts of me, and the white part of
J.W.: We have to look at policy. So we’re
me, all create what I grew up with, it creates
doing that now through the Office of Equity
my knowledge base. I can’t expect people
and Human Rights, which we just passed and
like Dan Saltzman to understand what it’s
a lot people were really critical of. I told The
like to be poor. I can’t explain what it’s like
Oregonian that the way it reported it is like
to him to be poor. I can’t explain to him
it s a joke; it’s not a joke to the people who
what it’s like to be homeless, a woman, a
asked for i t The people who asked for it are
woman of color.
saying, “we need you to pay attention to us.
That’s why we have a bunch of high rises
We need you to take care of our needs
downtown. That’s why we have
because if you’re not taking care of
“sustainability” centers and not “worker”
everybody’s needs then you’re not doing
centers. That’s why we have no shelters for
your job.”
little girls getting trafficked. We’ve chosen to
It’s like people don’t want to have that
look the other way on a lot of issues we find
discussion about race. They just don’t
distasteful, and that’s homelessness, that’s
During the Office of Equity vote, Dan
human trafficking, that’s the drug issue, So
Saltzman said, I don’t want to see any more
as long as we don’t make investments, real
dialogue. Well then, how are people going to
investments, in people — not just little Band-
learn? Hasn’t it always been that we learn
Aids, not just throw crumbs at them — we’re
through education about each other?
not going to have a solution. We’re going to
have people who are happy because they
J.T.: So what are some specific things
have what they have and they’re fine, and
you’d like to see come out of the new Office
C O N TR IBU TIN G WRITER
H
Street Roots is
conducting a
series of interviews
with the candidates
for City Council. If
you missed an
edition, you can
catch up at www.
streetroots.
wordpress.com
P H O TO C O U R TESY OF
JERI W IL L IA M S
of Equity and Human Rights?
J.W.: One of them is the sit-lie policy and
eventually we need to look at how the
contract with the day labor workers center
will be ending soon and are we going to
continue to fund it.
As the Cully Neighborhood gets built up
can we make sure that those people are not
displaced. It’s hot a historically black
community; it’s more Latino, Asian and
white people. But can you make sure that
those people don’t get displaced when you
put the new infrastructure in? We don’t want
to force people out because of economic
reasons, and we can take action on this and
learn lessons from i t We can’t keep pushing
people all over town.
J.T.: The city recently created Drug Impact
Areas that exclude people from sections of
downtown. The city also continues to enforce a
no-camping ordinance, even though there’s not
enough shelter space for homeless people. How
do you intend to address these issues?
J.W.: It’s almost like we need to do an
inventory on the empty buildings that we’re
not using right now, but for profit’s sake
we’d rather have them remain empty than
have people live in them. We have to shift
this. We have to increase shelters. And we’re
getting ready in December to open up the
first human trafficking center for teens with
the county, but there have to be other
options.
What I know is that the squeaky wheel
gets the grease. I went and talked to Dignity
Village, and we need to support many
different modes of living in Portland that we
currently don’t We have to really, really,
really think outside the box.
I don’t support the no-camping ordinance.
Where am I supposed to go if I don’t have
anywhere to go? The city is saying I’m a
criminal. So we’ll put you in jail, or kick you
out of town or harass you and take all the
items you have and destroy them because
you don’t have enough to worry about
already. It’s not a sustainable idea to th in k
that we can continue on like this. I believe
that really at the core of what I’m saying is
that if you don’t make those investments at
the bottom, you’re not going to really be
blessed.
J.T.: You’re a survivor of human trafficking.
How wiU you bring that experience to City
Council?
J.W.: I’m pushing for more support to get
people out of trafficking. We need to make
See WILLIAMS, page 9