street roots
3
June 8, 2012
Quiz, culture
and, oh yeah,
community
service
BY ROBERT BRITT
A day on the
p a vem en t with
co m m u n ity
service
taskm aster
(a n d trivia
buff) Wayne
B aseden
S T A F F W R IT E R
eading his community service crew
through the heart of downtown
Portland, crew-leader Wayne Baseden
doesn’t so much as slow his stride when
poses a question to the group.
“Which country lies furthest north on the
continent of Africa?” Baseden asks. “Is it
Tunisia, Sudan, Madagascar or Nigeria?
One of the 12 members of the crew, each
wearing a fluorescent yellow reflective vest
branded with “Community Court Crew” on
the back, hesitantly guesses Sudan.
“I might even suggest you change your
mind,” Baseden offers, before pointing out
some trash along the curb of NW Davis that
needed to be picked up.
Not heeding the advice, the group stands
by the incorrect answer while removing
cigarette butts and other litter from the
area. Despite missing the answer, ample
time still remained for redemption, as this
was just one of more than 50 questions that
Baseden would ask his litter removal crew
on a Thursday late last month.
Baseden, 62, has spent the past three
years leading community service work
L
crews for Portland’s Westside Community
Court, which handles the adjudication of
petty violations in the Clean & Safe District.
“I have these strangers, all wearing the
mighty yellow jacket and picking up trash,”
Baseden said. “I could leave it at that, but I
don’t.”
Instead, as Baseden leads his crew
around the sidewalks of downtown Portland
to clean up litter, he quizzes them on topics
ranging from world geography to pop music.
He is engaging them with what he calls
“cultural literacy.”
“Some people call it trivia,” Baseden
says. “But the goal is to be able to talk to
he
anyone about anything.”
Hours before, as Baseden checked the
names on his roster and passed out the
vests and other tools of'the trade - brooms,
dustpans, trigger-action trash pickers, and a
pushcart to ferry an industrial-sized garbage
can — he set the tone for the day.
“Everybody in here,” Baseden said as he
gestured to the group, “This is your
Internet. This is your Facebook. This is your
Cash Cab.”
According to the Portland Business
Alliance, which manages the Clean & Safe
District and the Westside Community Court,
134 people reported for community service
on Baseden’s crew in the month of April. In
that time, they removed 123 bags of litter
from 972 city blocks and cleared 598 drains.
M ore than 7,000 people have perform ed
community service through the Community
Court program, and the PBA estimates the
value of the restitution done by the crews to
be worth nearly half a million dollars.
Alexandria, a 20-year-old student at PCC,
ended up on Baseden’s crew after being
cited for failing to pay MAX fare. (The last
names of those serving on the Community
Court Crew were omitted out of respect for
their privacy.)
“We had three options,” she said. “It was
go to jail, pay the fine, or do eight hours of
community service.”
Baseden says people generally end up on
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his work crew because of their values,
attitudes and beliefs, which stem from their
choices and decisions.
“Oftentimes, the people who come to see
me are people who have made one or a
series of the same kinds of mistakes,” he
said. “A key thing that I’ve had to do is to
challenge their
thinking, not only on
an individual level, but
You have to be a little o i an
also as a group,” he
enterta iner. Yon have to he
said. “So I use
teaching techniques
the psychologist. Yon have to
such as cooperative
be the counselor. Yon have I®
learning. I use the
group dynamic, where kn o w w hen people need
h e lp ."
the whole is greater
than the individual.
— W A Y N E BASEDEN
“What I try to do is
get people to think
about their decisions
and what they’re doing,” Baseden said. “And
then from there, they can make better
decisions for themselves so they don’t have
to come back and do community service.”
Heading out of the parking garage at NW
1st and Davis, Baseden quickly fell into the
role of quizmaster.
“What is the second-oldest toy in the
world?” he asked. “Is it the doll, the Yo-Yo,
or none of the above?”
See QUIZ, page 5
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Go to rally.streetroots.org. You can be a team of one or
one hundred. Here’s what to do:
1. Start by clicking the Create a Team tab
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2. Invite your friends, family and/or coworkers via)) /x, /-Í
e-mail or social media and start collecting donations
today. (Add new team members that join your team.)
3. Join us for the Street Roots Barbecue, noon,
Sunday, June 24, at Irving Park (NE 7th and Fremont)
and celebrate with us.
WBi .BBBBB
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fa i
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Street Roots mission it to create income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and
by producing a newspaper and other media that are catalysts fo r individual and social change.