CULLY, from page 7
will be a gathering and event space, “which
the community is just begging for,” Ojeda
said.
Since Living Cully took control of the
building, the coalition has paid for some
renovations: tearing out the deep red carpet
and removing the red and white tile from
the walls. It has also been opened to
community groups for meetings and events,
including dance and lucha libre classes.
Ojeda said she was surprised by the
sheer demand for community space.
The commercial space on the first floor
will include a professional kitchen and
catering services through Hacienda’s
economic development program. There will
also be a community hall and a day care
center, a huge demand among residents,
Ojeda said. Hacienda and Living Cully are
trying to find an organization that will help
keep the costs deeply subsidized for the
residents.
What else could go into the space
remains to be seen. During the Oct. 27
open house, residents expressed support
for a café, an indoor farmers market, a
grocery store, an outdoor playground, a gym
and public art.
Demolition will occur in early 2019 and
will include a “thoughtful deconstruction,”
Ojeda said. “We would like to reuse some of
the important materials that are still here.
There’s a lot of old growth lumber (in the
building).”
Construction will begin in the spring of
2019 and last 18 to 20 months.
The development of Living Cully Plaza is
happening during a time that other
initiatives of Living Cully are reaching
fruition, including finishing Cully Park,
which will be the newest park in a
neighborhood with the least amount of
parkland per capita in Portland.
Living Cully formed in 2010 to reduce
poverty and prevent gentrification in Cully,
an inner northeast neighborhood that is the
most ethnically and racially diverse
neighborhood in Oregon.
More than half of Cully’s residents,
according to census data, are African-
American, Hispanic, Latino, Native
■ u u h m u h
Street Roots • Nov. 3-
News
Page 10
American, African and Asian.
Cully is also known for its poverty.
Compared to the regional average of 9.9
percent, a quarter of Cully residents live
below the poverty line. Nearly 9 in 10
students living in Cully qualify for free or
reduced-price lunch. And the
neighborhood’s median income is $10,000
less than the city’s average median income.
The neighborhood lacks basic
infrastructure. More than 10 percent of
Cully’s streets are unpaved, almost two-
thirds of Cully’s streets do not have
sidewalks, and there is only one grocery
store, an Albertsons. Laura Young, the chair
of the Cully Association of Neighbors, said
the neighborhood’s lack of basic
infrastructure is the result of decades of
“disinvestment” by the city.
All of Living Cully’s work centers on
creating the infrastructure to support a
tight-knit community without causing
gentrification and the displacement of
Cully’s residents.
“We don’t need things that bring rich
people in the neighborhood,” Sweet said.
“We need things that serve the people in
the neighborhood and maintain our
diversity.”
How to improve a neighborhood without
causing displacement is a million-dollar
question in Portland these days. In 2013,
Living Cully collaborated with students in
Portland State University’s Master of Urban
and Regional Planning program, who wrote
the “Not in Cully” report. The report argues
that neighborhood-level investments that
involve local organizations such as Living
Cully can stabilize a neighborhood and
residents’ lives while also preventing
displacement. The report emphasizes
retaining and building affordable housing.
Sweet said Cully has an unmet need of at
least 2,000 units of affordable housing.
Hacienda CDC has developed or
rehabilitated hundreds of units in the
neighborhood, including rehabilitating the
133-unit Clara Vista apartments directly
across the street from Living Cully Plaza.
FARMWORKERS, from page 5
At E&S Farms in Woodburn, where we
visited the Leary Road Camp, workers
earn minimum wage, Ramirez said. They
work 10-hour days, and because they are
agricultural workers, overtime pay does
not apply to them.
In 2012, the owner of E&S Farms,
Stanley Dansky, was forced to pay his
workers $11,301 in back wages after a
U.S. Department of Labor investigation
found he had failed to pay them the ,
minimum wage. It also found that
Dansky’s farm was violating child labor
laws.
“Our people are getting cancer and all
other kinds of diseases. Lymphoma,
diabetes, tendonitis, back problems -
we’re paying the price so that Americans
can eat cheap,” Ramirez said.
He believes the solution will have to
come from the consumer, that people
need to start demanding food that is
humanely farmed, just as some demand
food that’s organically farmed.
p e o p le ’s
JL
1 J L fqod co - op
experiencing
or at risk of
and are
homeless?
FARMERS’ MARKET
WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM
3029 SE 21st Ave. btw n Powell & Division
At Health Share, we
believe good health is
more than what happens
inside your doctor's office.
Good health starts in your
community and includes
staying active, eating
healthy food and getting
regular check-ups.
Share your healthy habits
with family and friends. We
can all have better health
when we share it together.
Transition
Projects
Please call 855.425.5544
or visit 650 NW Irving Street
emily@streetroots. org;
Twitter @greenwrites
We're passionate about helping our community
access healthy food that they can tru s t By shopping
at our market you'll get extra food dollars while
supporting local farmers and community.
you serve in the
Armed Forces
PCUN has worked with the anti-poverty
charity group Oxfam to create a
certification label under the Equitable
Food Initiative that focuses on farmworker
health and safety. It’s currently carried on
produce in select Whole Foods and Costco
stores, but Ramirez hopes consumers will
demand to see it elsewhere.
Farms growing produce that carries
this “Responsibly Grown, Farmworker
Assured” label are operating in
Washington, California, Utah, Arizona,
Canada, Mexico and Guatemala, however
there is none in Oregon.
But Ramirez is optimistic.
“We just started this. We have about 40
farms that we’ve certified so far - about
16,000 workers,” he said.
In the meantime, he hopes Oregonians
will push for better standards for
farmworker housing and stronger worker
protections, and for their local grocer to
carry the Equitable Food Initiative label.
Better health
together.
www.healthshareoregon.org