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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2013)
street roots June 7, 2013 Holistic, vibrant communities also mean bikeable neighborhoods BY ROB SADOWSKY issues facing communities of color and transportation. The City Club rightfully uch has already been written about points out the great impact that our the City Club of Portland’s recently bicycling improvements have made on the released report on bicycles, No economy and on saving health care costs. Turning Back: A City Club Report on However, if you look closely, the new jobs Bicycle Transportation in Portland. Most that are being created at bike shops, frame reporters have covered the issue of a builders, clothing manufacturers, and proposed bike sales tax. The reporters have related businesses are not going to mostly missed a underserved communities, but are attracting critical section of talent from outside of Portland. »ip H T WWW the report that To solve these problems is not a problem discusses that is individual to bicycling. It is a problem diversity and for all of Portland and its business Bicycle equity. The community. We need to find more tools that Transportation authors of the will help elevate the opportunities in this Alliance _______________ City Club report new economy for all of its citizens. New affirm the businesses that cater to the hip young importance of biking crowd should not forget that there bicycling in Portland. They also point out are great economic opportunities in building that we can and should do better in reaching opportunities and marketing to communities broader constituents, both in planning for of color. projects and the outcomes so that The City Club report also calls on the city bicycling’s many benefits are available to to better integrate planning across communities of color. transportation choices including freight, Like many discussions of race and equity walking, driving and biking. We should plan in Portland, the report only broaches the for holistic communities while embracing subject, but fails to dive in deep to the root that our vision for that “community” can C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N I S T M Healthy Streetbeat is a m onthly colum n fo r Street Roots w ritten by the Bicycle Transportation A lliance (BTA). Rob Sadowsky is the executive director o f B TA . differ greatly from culture to culture. Yet if we work toward building walkable neighborhoods with vibrant shopping districts throughout the city, we will also be building bikable neighborhoods. To begin this work, we must build out the lik e many ilscussloas of East Portland Action race and equity lit Portland? Plan and its vision for the report only breaches the connected subject^ but fa lls to d lw la communities so that we no longer have deep to the root issaes lacing swaths of com nianlties of color and neighborhoods transportation® disconnected from important services, schools and economic opportunities. If we can focus on these efforts (rather than the well-intentioned but flawed proposal to tax bikes), then we can start moving forward together. We at The Bicycle Transportation Alliance are excited to see the City Club’s report embrace bicycling and raise very important issues that we can take part in to improve Portland. Screening for HIV first step to realizing an AIDS-free world Benjam in Gerritz is the Prevention with Positives coordinator at Cascades AID S Project. Michael Anderson-Nathe is the Director o f Prevention and Education. BY BENJAMIN GERRITZ AND MICHAEL ANDERSON-NATHE by task force; and 2) Any recommendations by the task force that receive an “A” rating are C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N I S T S required to be covered by insurance e have never been at a more hopeful companies. When the Affordable Care Act point in the fight against HIV/AIDS. goes fully into effect in January 2014, much of For the first time ever, we have a our community currently uninsured will gain clear roadmap for ending this epidemic. This access to medical providers. is due in large part to a study published last The remaining piece to ending AIDS is you. year demonstrating that when HIV-positive One of the most significant things each of us individuals get on life saving HIV medications can do to realize an AIDS-free world is to get and take them as directed, they can lower tested for HIV. Please, take it upon yourself to their risk of passing HIV on by as much as 96 talk with your doctor and community about getting tested. Knowing your HIV status is percent. The study was cited during World empowering. Knowing your HIV status will go AIDS Day (December 1, 2012), when a long way towards ending the epidemic. We President Barack Obama stated a vision for have a roadmap to ending AIDS in this “ushering in an AIDS-free generation.” The country - it is simple, and it starts with you President’s statement has built momentum in getting an HIV test. policy and community efforts to encourage To learn more about where you can get free HIV testing. or low-cost HIV or STI testing, please contact One such example was announced late last the Oregon AIDS Hotline at 503.223.AIDS or month. The U.S. Preventative Services Task 800.777.AIDS, en espanol 800.449.6940, or Force formally recommended that all web chat www.oregonaidshotline.com physicians and other health care professionals should screen everyone ages 15 to 65 for HIV Cascade A ID S Project is a 501(c)(3) and gave the recommendation an “A” rating. community-based organization in Oregon and This is significant for two reasons: 1) Many SW Washington whose mission is to prevent private health care systems base their H IV infections, support and empower people standards of practice off of recommendations affected and infected by H IV /A ID S, and W Fight To The Finish By Austin Rathmann Behold A new art has been mastered The artists, they live all around. Invisible though, Two worlds apart, Masters of shadow, Dynamic of origin. Unified by chaos. Broken, sometimes beaten. Down for the count? Fuck that Down, never out!
