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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2011)
street roots Nov. 11, 2011 RAIFORD from page 8 T.R.: It’s not there. It’s despondent It’s gone. It’s sad. Like I said, it’s a defeated city. And when I talk to people, and you say what happened? It happened so fast When I go into businesses there that have moved in from out-of-town, they say, it’s great You know, they told me to come out here, and we’re getting help with housing and credit. And I say, well that makes a lot of sense, but they market it to you and you were 2,000 miles away, and they didn’t give that same information to the people who actually live here? Because that would have given us a level playing field, and you wouldn’t have people feeling disgruntled or gentrified. You defeat your city that way and not allow us to get in? I have to go into City Hall at this point J.T.: There are old wounds in Northeast Portland. What do you do to heal those wounds? T.R.: You resolve them. You say okay this is what we have, what can we do with it? You have to basically reprogram the people based on the opportunities that they have available instead of people not knowing that there are opportunities available. You show them how to use them. It’s sb simple. J.T.: You mentioned the Portland Development Commission earlier. What’s your assessment of the PDC and how it’s changed over the years and how its made efforts to be. more inclusive? T.R.: Well, I know from people like John Jackley and Steve Green, they’re wanting to be progressive. When you have people that have been on the inside for a long time, it’s hard to proriiote these objectives to people they don’t have a relationship with. If the people don’t know about these opportunities, then the PDC is going to seem like a criminal that comes in and knocks them out and takes things away. That’s what you get on the streets, the PDC is the bad guy. They’re not the bad guy. The messenger is probably the bad guy. The guy who’s supposed to let you know that there’s an opportunity, to let you know that there was a community planning event and should have let you know that it was in your neighborhood and invited you to that event I’ve gone to a lot of community planning and organizing events, and I’ve known about it from a direct email or tweet and I go, and people are looking at me like I shouldn’t be there. And I’m like, well, I need to be here. I live here. Would you call that transparency in politics? J.T.: I want to talk to you about youth violence, an issue you’ve been personally affected by. Your nephew was shot outside an Old Town night club. What is the city doing right and what is it doing wrong to address youth violence? T.R.: We have a police force that cannot afford to investigate crimes. We have 119 unsolved homicides, and you’re asking me what the city can do to make that better? They need to investigate the crimes. They - need people to help them with their budget issues that are stopping them from investigating crimes. I think we’re spending more money on service-oriented tasks than we are on investigative tasks. An investigation will solve a crime. If you have 119 unsolved homicides that are gang related, you need to put money into investigating those crimes, because that’s a lot of murderers out there on the street That’s seriously dangerous. We’ve got to get rid of something — whatever we need to do to get money back into investigations. Our children are not safe. J.T.: Do you think it would be better to have money for investigations rather than money for prevention or outreach? T.R.: Well, I don’t see it preventing anything. At that Gang Task Force meeting, they’ve been meeting for 25 years talking about prevention and control and enforcement and violence, and I guess this year we’re back to the 1990swith bur numbers. They need to bring the community into the policy-making. Bring the community into some of the outreach and committees. It seems like the public doesn’t even know about these meetings. Wouldn’t you think that if prevention is something we want to do, you’d want to invite the public? 3035 S.E. Division • Portland, OR 97202 503.234.7499 J.T.: The city’s inventory of affordable housing continues to shrink and wait lists are long. Do you have any ideas on how to increase the supply of affordable housing in Portland? T.R.: Absolutely. I think free enterprise. I think that if we’re always contingent on what the county, state or federal funds can; do for housing that we’re not looking at the big picture. Being a resident of Portland, there are a lot of houses in the community that are empty. We’re currently working on turning some of those into transitional housing to provide housing for some veterans. I think people just need to sit down in their communities and start discussing opportunities that they can bring together and make that happen because we have an abundance of opportunities out here. I feel like a kid in a candy store. J.T.: Do you have any ideas on how the city can collaborate with the county on social services and other challenges facing the city? T.R.: I think they need to expand their grassroots efforts. The community needs to have empowerment They need to be empowered so that they can provide each other social services. People right now don’t want to deal with the social services. Sometimes, if there’s a social service, they won’t use it. They think everything is a scam right now. J.T.: TriMet keeps getting more expensive each year, while cutting services and chipping away at Fareless Square, which is now the Free Rail Zone. Do you have any ideas on how to make mass transit more affordable? T.R.: I grew up here and I used to work at the court house, and the idea of it not being free is a scary thing. I think there needs to be more community investment If there is a cost that needs to be factored in, then they need to work with corporations to keep it free. We have to be more progressive in how we do business and form partnerships.
