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.