Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 1978)
M r* F ra n o ** Schoen-Neespaper Roo* U n iv e r s ity o f Oregon L ib r a ry Eugene, Oregon 97403 Seek Park PORTLAND ___ Concordia wins downzoning OBSERVER Volume > Na. IS Thursday, March 23, 197» 10c per cop The Concordia Community Association won a victory as the City Council voted Wednesday to downzone property adja rent to the Dekum Court public housing project. The property, owned by the Housing Authority of Portland, had been zoned for multiple family dwellings. The Concordia Community Association became actively involved in 1975 when H A P announced plans to build an addi tional fifty units on the vacant ten acres. When the Concordia Community Associa tion objected to that proposal, H A P agreed not to build. Then, in 1976, H A P received permission from the U.S. De partment of Housing and Urban Develop ment (H U D ) to sell the property in order to purchase other sites for public housing. The Community Association took a survey of residents in the area and found that most preferred development of a park. The second choice was develop ment of single family homes. When the pending sale by H A P became public and the city expressed no interest in developing a park Wally Priestley, an active member of the C N A , wrote to the City Council asking that the property be rezoned so that apartment complexes could not be built. This request was referred to the City Planning Commis sion. The Planning Commission proposed that the property be downzoned in keeping with the remainder of the neigh borhood which, with the exception of Dekum Court, is single family homes. H A P disagreed, claiming the land could not be sold because of the cost of building would make it disadvantageous for de velopers. A fter a heated hearing on December 5, 1977, the City Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend down zoning to the City Council. On March 22nd, the City Council accepted that recom mendation. The new zoning (R5) permits one dwelling on each 5,000 square feet. The land can either be sub divided into 5,000 square foot or larger lots with a single family dwelling on each lot or can become a planned unit development (PUD ) which permits clustering. The Concordia Neighborhood Associa tion now will return to its first goal developing a park. "The neighborhood has always wanted a park. When H A P decided to sell and we had to stop and insure that if we lost in our efforts to get a park we did not get an apartment complex instead Now that can't happen so we can get back to work on the park," said one C N A member. Al Batiste, C N A president, said work to get the city to agree to a park will begin immediately. "The site is a natural place for a park. On nice days there are families using it for picnics, elderly people walk there, and the children use it to play.” In recent years it has been a neighborhood park and we intend to keep it.” Citizens organize against middle school A group of Beaumont neighborhood residents are organizing to oppose the move to make Beaumont Elementary school into a middle school. Two years ago the community turned down the option to chose a middle school with a 62 per cent to 38 per cent vote, but on March 18th of this year John Beck, Principal of Beaumont, announced that a series of meetings will be held to discuss the possibility of forming a middle school. Beck said in his w ritten statement that if no changes are made, lower grade class sizes will increase and some courses offered for sixth to eighth graders will be dropped. The second option, to change to a homeroom program for seventh and eighth graders, would result in split classes for grades one through five and dropping of some courses for upper graders. New Northeaat Y W C A School Age Päreet Butler, left, discusse» Easter “get together" parents A rae ta Allen, center, and Princess F unchess, right. with young Butler joins YWCA 'School age parent’ program The journey from childhood to adult- h<Mid is seldom easy, but for teenage parents the transition is sudden and sometimes overwhelming. Yesterday they were only children themselves; today they have children of their own. , K special program to provide much needed services to school age parents, in operation for over three years at the Northeast Y W C A . 126 N .E . Alberta, has been given • big boost by the recent appointment of Rose Butler as full time roordiaator, Ms. Butler, a life-long resident of Northeast Portland, brings to the School Age Parents program a wealth of exper ience as an information referral specialist for the Senior Citizen Center and a parents. She also makes a distinction between younger and older counselor with the Residential Care Cen parents in the program, which involves ter, a group home for girls. W ith Ms. Butler as a guide young ^ap proxim ately fifty girls. "Some of the older girls have been in the program parents meet - it athly to discuss mutual since the beginning and they now have a concerns, have social activities and go on whole new set of problems. The older field trips. Community resource experts provide information on parenting skills, girls will be planning their own activities and 1 hope to recruit more younger girls." job counseling, legal aid, nutrition, sex Ms. Butler hopes to expand the pro education and health. For example, at the last “get together” gram even more once she gets rolling with perhaps more classes and child care..,, on March 19th. Laverne Springer from ‘T h e re is a growing need for this the Rape Victim Advocate program program in this area. I know I have a lot showed a movie and answered questions of work ahead of me." about this controversial issue. For more information, call the N o rth Ms. Butler said she is planning some activities specifically for children and east Y W C A , 288 5173. PRS seeks advisory committee applicants Applicants for nine adult and six student positions, which will become vacant June 90, 1978, on the three Area Citizens' Advisory Committees, are cur rently being sought by the PogJand Board of Education. Three adult and two student positions will be open on each of the committees. Nomination petitions for the nine two- year adult positions are available in the School District's Public Information O f fice, 631 N .E. Clackamas Street, and at Area Offices and local schools. Nominees must be residents of the Portland School District. Adult applicants must be at least eighteen years of age and a resident of tire administrative area of the District they wish to represent or have a son or daughter attending a school within the area they wish to represent. High school students do not circulate petitions but are selected by their stu dent bodies. Student members serve one-year terms and must remain in good academic standing. Petitioners for adult community mem ber positions must have signatures of th irty adults residing in the area they wish to represent. Petitions, along with biographical information, are to be filed in the Public Information Office before 5:00 p.m., April 14, 1978. Student nominations are to be filed in the same office before 5:00 p.m., A p ril 7th. A five-member city wide review panel - appointed by the School Board on March 13th - will compile a list of qualified candidates from among the adult petitioners in A pril and May and make recommendations to the School Board. The School Board will meet with student nominees and review their quali fications during the same time. Announcement of the School Board's appointments for both adult and student memberships and a joint meeting be tween the School Board and incoming, outgoing and remaining committee mem bers are scheduled sometime in June. Each nine member committee repre sents one of the three administrative areas of the School District. Members ?dvise the area superintendents and School Board on m atters relating to educational programs, building needs and school operations. The committees also help identify educational goals and bud get priorities. Citizens Advisory Committees evolved from the 1970 administrative decentrali zation of the School District and are designed to allow greater citizen involve ment in education and to bring the schools closer to the citizens and students they serve. Advisory committees are bound by policies, rules and regulations of the School Board. To date, no completed petitions have been filed in the Public Information Office. Only a short time ago, moderates seemed to have the upper hand in the search for peace in the Middle East. But that was before both Israeli and Palesti nian hard liners were strengthened by renewed fighting. This article analyzes the new dilemnas facing President Carter as Israel’s prime minister arrives in Waahuigiun. Jimmy Carter and Anw ar Sadat now confront a new factor in the Mideaat: Yasser Arafat and Menahem Begin have become allies allies against peace. U.S. peace efforts long have encounter ed the stiffest opposition from the Is raelis. and the bitterest opponents of President Sadst's peace initiative have been his fellow Arabs. But with recent events, the Israeli Palestinian opposition to the Sadat-Carter peace efforts has Its u med a pattern of synchronization. Before the PLO raid on Israel, Begin was on the defensive - both at home and in Washington. Before the Israeli inva sion of south Lebanon, A rafat was also on the defensive. Today, thanks to each other's actions, the prime minister of Israel and the leader of (he Palestine Liberation Organization have regained both international and popular support for their hardline policies. They have reduced the pressures on each other for compromise by deepening the Mideast conflict. The terrorist nature of the PLO attack, for example, was far more important for the opportunities it offered Begin than for what it accomplish ed for the Palestinians. Had the PLO attacked an Israeli m ilitary position in the Occupied Territories, it would have been widely accepted as a legitimate act of war, and further undermined Begins position by showing Israel's conquests as a m ilitary, as well as diplomatic liability. Instead, the PLO chose to give credence to every one of Begin s assertions about the terrorist menace by attacking civi lians inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Prime Minister Begin quickly recipro cated with a major political favor for Arafat. Israeli retaliatory air raids also might have been accepted as an under standable response to the PLO attack. But by invading and occupying parts of south Ijebanon, Prime M inister Begin in turn strengthened all Arafat's claims that Israel opposes peace and is an expan sionist, militarist power. The Certainties of War Why should two leaders whose peoples have suffered the most from the Mideast conflict so oppose the peace plans of their respective allies in Cairo and Washing ton? Since 1967. the Palestinians have suf fered far more at the hands of the Arabs than they have from the Israelis. Jordan, Ixbanon and Syria all have tried to emasculate the PLO. The PLO des perately fears that when President Sadat speaks of “comprehensive peace," it really is a code word for Arab abandon ment of the Palestinian cause. The PLO sees continuing war as the only way first to retain Arab support, and eventually regain at least part of th eir homeland. One has only to visit Yad Vashem, the memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem, to understand Israeli fears. When four Mideast wars and Menahem Begins religious fundamentalism are superim posed on that trauma, the consequence is a preference for the certanties of confron tation over the risks of compromise. The Mideast conflict, however, always has been a most understandable conflict. The test of statesmanship, under such circumstances, is not to resolve enigmas, but to break down hostilities that are all too comprehensible. Jimmy C arter began soon after he took office, by attem pting what no other ITesident had dared a dialogue with the Palestinians. Behind the President's equivocation over a "Palestinian home land,” U.S. policy was clear. The C arter Administration would deal with the PLO and support Palestinian self determination within the Occupied Territories if the PLO , in return, recog nized Israel's right to exist. When President Sadat flew into Jen) saiem, he carried a similar offer. Egypt would deal with the Begin government, and support Israel's right to exist if Israel, in return, agreed to the principle of Palestinian self-determination. I t now is clear that both the Israelis sions. "The Superintendent and the Board have pledged that they will not create middle schools unless they are favored by the community. There is widespread mistrust of the District. Perhaps D r. Blanchard and the Board respond im properly to community concerns and it appears to the people that there is an increase in arrogance and defensiveness. There is a new sense of community parti cipation and somehow the Board has to reverse the present tendency of mistrust and return control of the schools to the people." The Committee plans to make a motion at Beaumont Sehools’s public meeting that a neighborhood vote be taken belore a final recommendation is made. That meeting will be held at the school at 7:30 p.m. Public meetings are also scheduled for April 4th, 5th and 6th at 7:30 p.m. These predictions are based on the fact that the number of students in the upper grades are decreasing while the numbers of lower grade students are increasing. The’e are now approximately ninety students bused to Beaumont from Sabin, The “Citizens Committee to Retain Beaumont as our Neighborhood K-8 School" met Wednesday night and elected Mrs. Donna Frey as Chairperson. Com mittee Chairpersons are: Telephone>(Ms. Karen Masterson; Door-to-Door, 'M s . Janice McKee; News media, John Rum- pakis; Librarian of Information, Ms. M a r ie Hanchez; and Picketing, Ms. Libby Hill. Those present expressed a number of concerns including the long range effects of a change that would be made to meet short term problems; the School District's procedure for determining neighborhood wishes; the future of Beaumont School if the middle school plan is not accepted; and the impact of a middle school on the community. The School Board policy is to promote middle schools but not to force them onto neighborhoods that are not in agreement. John Rumpakis expressed the opinion that if the community is to decide, “We need to get everyone involved." Fears were expressed that neighborhood resi dents and business people who have no children in the school will not be allowed to vote. One resident suggested, “I f Alameda is bursting at its seams and is the largest grade school, why not change the boun dary with Beaumont if our enrollment is King votes The King Neighborhood Association will hold its regular meeting on March 28th at 7:30 p.m. at King Neighborhood Facility. The agenda will consist of re ports on the Association's findings on the proposed Nordstrom development plan and a vote to accept or reject the plan. All residents of the King neighborhood are urged to attend and are eligible to vote. Begin and Arafat: Allies against peace by T.D Allman declining?" " If it is a short term problem, a scheduling problem, you can interchange science programs. You don't need to transport the students. You can transport the teachers and the programs," Mrs. Cleo Kumpakis said. Other members were concerned about the effect on the community. "How can children have pride in their community when one child goes to one school and his or her brother or sister goes to one or two other schools.” "Middle schools destroy our sense of community.” “You live in a community to be close to everything - your office, your school, your church". Attorney Alex Schneider said. School Board member W ally Priestley, who attended the meeting, advised added community involvement in school deci and Palestinians have failed to rise to these unprecedented overtures. Menahem Begin, just after his first visit to Washington, personally affronted President Carter by authorizing new Jewish settlements in tit* Occupied T e r ritories. Since then, in Washington, Ismailia and Jerusalem, Begin has stone walled every attem pt to open the road to peace. Yasser Arafat has had similar success using similar tactics. The terrorist incident in Cyprus, whichever Palestinian faction authorized it, was a calculated effort to humiliate the Egyptian presi dent before his own people. The PLO raid into Israel was a premeditated attempt to kill Sadat's peace initiative entirely. While Israeli and Palestinians hardline tactics have succeeded, they amount to an awesome failure of responsible leader ship on both sides. Had Prime Miniser Begin been capable of matching Sadat's statesmanship, peace might truly be at hand in the Mideast today. Had Yasser Arafat arrived at the Cairo conference with a comprehensive peace plan of his own, rather than boycotting it, the worldwide pressures for Palestinian self- determination by now might be irresis tible, even inside Israel. Instead both leaders now are riding high on the untamed forces of division and hostility. The result is new proof (Please turn to Page 2 Column 3) FAYE W ATTLETO N Planned Parenthood proxy visits Faye W attleton, the new President- designate of the nation's principal family planning organization. Planned Parent hood, will be in Portland for the Planned Parenthood Western Region Conference, March 27th 29th. Headlining the con ference will be discussions on the moral and ethical implications of family plan ning. A t 34. Ms. W attleton becomes the youngest President in Planned Parent hood history, as well as the first woman, and the first Black, to hold that position. Ms. W attleton became interested in the field of family planning the night she saw a seventeen year old girl die of a botched abortion at a Harlem Hospital. One of the highest priorities of her presidency will be "restoring access for the poor to safe, legal abortion, so cruelly destroyed in two-thirds of the states by recent Federal and state actions limiting payments for abortion under Medicaid." Other imme diate priorities are “raising reproductive and biology research and contraceptive development to the highest level of the nation's research agenda" and reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy. Before being tapped as President, Ms. W attleton served as Executive Director of Planned Parenthood in Dayton, Ohio, for seven and a half years. She has degrees in nursing from Ohio State University, and Columbia University, is a licensed midwife, is married, and has a two year old daughter. Other highlights of the convention are an address by Governor Robert Straub and a workshop on “natural family planning." Two hundred delegates are expected to attend the meeting at the Benson Hotel. At 9:00 a.m. on March 28th, a panel of clergy and community leaders will dis cuss the moral and ethical side of family planning. Included on the panel will be the noted local author, Ursula LeGuin, who will present a philosophical feminist viewpoint. Other speakers will represent the Catholic, Mormon, Presbyterian, and Jewish philosophies. Governor Straub will address the group at a noon luncheon on Tuesday, March 28th. His topic will be women's rights and reproductive freedom. An alternative to the pill and other contraceptives will be explained at a workshop on March 29th, from 2:00 4:00 p.m. Marsha McKay, of Portland's Planned Parenthood, will describe the ovulation method of family planning. Also on the agenda for the three day meeting are sessions on "holistic medi cine," public affairs involvement, and improving Planned Parenthood organize tion. I
