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¡PORTLAND OBSERVER
U^PS 959-680-855
Volume XIII, Number 38
July 6, 1983
25C Per Copy
C tjne PutUuOmg Co., lot. IMJ
Rep. Mitchell urges fight
for minority business contracts
The Baltimore Clipper "Pride of Baltimore" fires
its cannons on the Willamette River, not aa an
assault but as its part in the performance of Tchai­
Jobs
kovsky's 1812 Overture, all part of the 4th of July
celebrations at Waterfront Park.
(Photo: © 1983 Oan Long)
ill projects benefit few
by Charles Goodmacher
Approximately 94.6 million in
Federal Jobs Bill funds will be spent
by the City of Portland beginning in
August. Primary beneficiaries of the
money, which is to be channeled
through the City's Department of
Housing and Community Develop­
ment, will be private developers and
large businesses in the "Columbia
South Shore” area.
A small portion of the funds will
produce a limited number of short­
term jobs for the city’s minority
community, concentrated just south
of the targetted development area.
According to Mark Davis of the
Bureau of Community Develop­
ment 420 “ person years" of em­
ployees are to be generated from the
Jobs Bill funds. The 420 "person
years" is an approximation of di­
rectly and indirectly generated job
"equivalents" based on an economic
model developed by Portland State
University.
Street development and mainte­
nance in and near the Columbia
Blvd. Industrial District develop-
ment area is allocated approximate­
ly S2.2 million of the funds (or
about half o f the total). This use of
"Jobs B ill" funds is intended to
convert “ fallow” acreage into “ de­
velopable land,” according toi
Davis.
Development of the Columbia
Boulevard area has long been a
priority of the City of Portland and
is proclaimed to provide an indirect
economic development boom for
black and other unemployed resi­
dents o f Northeast Portland. It is
the cornerstone of the City's "Eco­
nomic Development Program for
the Northeast Area.”
Retail activity on Union Avenue
is to be spurred by such develop­
ment activity, says Davis. Although
a number of other thoroughfares
also provide access to Columbia
South Shore and parking space is
lacking on Union Avenue, the City
claims retail sales will soar in the
area.
One project alone, the construc­
tion of streets leading property near
the Slough owned by M r. Merrit
and M r. Fazio, will use $750,000 of
public money. Project costs are to
be split with the private owners
(thus reducing their investment
risk), yet no requirement is imposed
by the City for employment o f area
or city residents. Nor will Merrit
and Fazio be required to gradually
reimburse the public.
“ Activities that were deemed sig­
nificant by Council" is one of three
criteria used by the City in determin­
ing how io spend the money, accord­
ing to Davis. Projects and programs
are chosen among those with the
greatest short term and long term
impact. Comments at a public
hearing in City Hall June 15 were
mostly supportive, said Davis.
Only two projects funded by the
Jobs Bill money directly benefit
Northeast Portland. The largest ex­
penditure directly benefitting the
area is $220,000 for the Peninsula
Park Community Center. Traffic
diverter construction in the Sabin
neighborhood will be built with
$23,000.
(Continued on Page 8. Column I)
Going, going.... ...gone
by Ron Sykes
Somehow
it
w o u ld .. .must,
surely on a warm May day end like
this. Since early November of 1982
Jefferson’s super sprinter John
Frazier had one thought in mind.
And that was to win the Boys 100
and 200 meters at the State Cham­
pionships. All the sweat, all the
workouts must surely lead to this.
His coach. Vic Carlson, gave him
the confidence, the workout sched­
ule and instilled a pride in the Jef­
ferson squad that was dearly lack­
ing in the past.
John John, as he is called by his
peers, was willing to put in the time
. and he did. "Back in November
I set my personal goals for the year,"
beamed Frazier. " I wanted 10.8 for
the 100 and 21.8 for the 200." What
John got was 10.7 and 21.7 — both
times acquired in winning the State
meet.
Plans are now complete for the
1983 A A U /U S A Junior Olympic
Track and Field competition slated
for the University o f Notre Dame,
located in South Bend, Ind.
And Oregon’s State sprint cham-
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pion is ready to be amongst the select
field. The only setback is it takes
nearly a thousand dollars to go. “ I
want to get this opportunity to com­
pete against the best," says young
Frazier.
Frazier has the support of his
family and is hoping for community
support as well. There are several
benefits planned to help defray ex­
penses.
Frazier qualified by winning the
100 and 200 Junior Olympic Trials
held at M t. Hood Junior College.
From there he advanced to regional
competition in Boise, Idaho. Again
he was victorious, thus earning the
trip to South Bend.
" I ’ve really come to enjoy
track," Frazier said, and my idol is
Carl Lewis.
Lewis is currently ranked No. I in
both sprints and long jump.
Frazier now sports a haircut he
says he got "just because Carl d id ."
I f he can go on to emulate Lewis on
the track, then watch out Notre
Dame, the young man from the
Pacific Northwest will come out
smoking.
Ff
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HM
GRASSROOTS N E ICS. N.tC. —
Representative
Parren
Mitchell
spent five hours in Portland with his
colleague.
Representative
Ron
Wyden of Oregon, on Tuesday, July
5th.
Representative Parren Mitchell
(D -M d .) is the Chairman o f the
House Small Business Committee
and is responsible for an amend­
ment to the Surface Transportation
Act which mandates ten percent of
all contracts awarded or monies
spent to be awarded to or spent with
a minority business over the next
four years.
In a small restaurant in N.E.
Portland, in front of a standing
room only group of minority entre­
preneurs, Rep. Mitchell stressed the
need for minority businesses to go
after their piece of that seven billion
dollars. " It doesn’t have to be in
transportation or construction. It
could be anything related to the Sur­
face Transportation Act. We are
telling states to use their broadest
interpretation.”
Prior to this rider, which was at­
tached by Congress to the 1983 Jobs
Bill, Mitchell believed the present
administration sabotaged the Direct
to an Program of the Small Busi­
ness Administration. "This admin­
istration has shown a lack of com­
mitment and information about this
program. It has not gotten the infor­
mation out and has refused to spend
one-half of the monies.”
He
acknowledged the existence of a
double standard in judging the busi­
nesses owned by people of color and
predicted an anti-minority attitude
will prevail regardless of whether
Ronald Reagan decides to run in
1984 or not.
He arrested the concerns arising
from the problems of front compa­
nies. This is where a member of the
majority group is in control of a
business and uses a minority mem­
ber as the "spook who sat by the
door" to secure governmental con­
tracts. This happens less than Five
percent of the time and the problem
associated with prosecution is the
lack
of documentation.
"For
money, some people will deny their
own mother and father.”
Rep. Mitchell was asked his reac­
tion to the Enterprise Zone which
establishes tax breaks for companies
who set up operation in an underde­
veloped area. " I'm against it," he
begins. "M inority business doesn’t
need an Enterprise Zone or lax
breaks. They need capital! My fear
is that large companies will set up
entities in these so-called rones just
to receive the tax breaks.” Another
concern about the Enterprise Zone
is the lack of an educational infra­
structure.
The representative from Mary­
land staled the need for the same
aggressive action and determination
that was a characteristic of the Civil
Rights movement to ensure that
states enforce their set-aside pro­
grams. He urged his listeners to de­
velop a monitoring committee to
oversee Oregon’s commitment to
Section 8(a) of the Surface Trans­
portation Act. “ Did anybody will-
partment of Transportation from
relaxing their Affirmative Action re­
quirements. It is tough when you are
dealing with the executive branch,
because the Congress doesn’t have
any real power with the executive
branch of the government The job
of any black congressman is to fight
laws and regulations that are against
the best interests of black people."
Rep. Mitchell said the new federal
budget that went into effect July I is
just a copy-cat budget of the one
proposed by the Congressional
Black Caucus in 1981 and was de­
feated by a coalition of Republicans
and southern Democrats. " It was
Representative Parren Mitchell (D-Md.) greets community mem­
bers during his visit to the King Neighborhood Facility.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
ingly give us Civil Rights laws? We
had to kill ourselves to gel them. No
one wanted to empower you. If civil
and political rights were not given
willingly, then the almighty dollar
will not be given willingly. You are
going to have to fight and battle to
get what you want.”
In an interview that followed.
Rep. Mitchell talked about the way
the federal government tried to
rescind on its Affirmative Action
commitment. "The Department of
Transportation has sought to ease
the Affirmative Action program for
contractors doing business with the
federal government. Under the guise
of deregulation, the Reagan admin­
istration has asked the Federal Con­
tract Compliance Department to
diminish its Affirmative Action pro­
gram. Across the board we are
seeing this. What we do each time is
to try to block the proposed regulat­
ing. So far we have slopped the Dc-
the First lime that I voted for a hud
get since 1975. We prevented cuts in
social programs and it was through
political muscle that we got it."
He believes the black vole which
resurfaced in 1982 scared some
members of Congress. " A ll over the
country that black vote came out.
We had twenty-six seats which
changed hands. Black folks just pul
those people out. So our allies who
had gotten a little shaky now recog­
nize the power of the black vote."
How does Mitchell feel about
those dark-skinned conservative
economists like J.A. Harker and
Thomas Sowell? "The only reason
why they have gotten so much alien
(ton is that the white press and the
white power structure wants to pro­
mote them. But I don't think it will
happen because black people will
not let anyone impose leaders on
us."
Arms shipments challenged
by Jim Deadv
John Fraztar. 1983 Junior Olymp­
ics hopeful.
On Sunday, July 24 and Monday,
July 25 several thousand people are
expected to gather at Port Chicago
in the Concord Naval Weapons
Station (CNW S) about 30 miles
northeast of San Francisco. A legal
march and rally on Sunday, followed
by a non-violent blockade of the
Port on Monday is being organized
to demonstrate mounting public op­
position to the escalation of the war
in Central America and to the con­
tinuing nuclear arms race.
CNW S is the primary U.S. muni­
tions handling facility on the West
Coast. It is a major site for the
storage and maintenance of nuclear
weapons and it is believed to be the
port of origin for most of the wea­
pons sent to Central America as well
as South Africa and Israel A Navy
spokesperson has confirmed that
arms are being shipped to El Salva­
dor from Port Chicago on a regular
basis.
West Coast chapters and affiliates
of the U.S. Committee In Solidarity
with the People of El Salvador
(CISPES) are co-sponsoring ihe
rally and blockade along with many
anti-nuclear groups. The demon­
strations will take place a few days
after President Reagan certifies that
"the government in El Salvador is
making a concerted and significant
effort to comply with international­
ly recognized human rights." This
will be the fourth such certification
made, despite documentation from
reputable human rights organiza­
tions, including Amnesty Interna­
tional and the American Civil
Liberties Union, which indicate
human rights abuses including
torture, disappearances, and killings
continue Presidential certification
is required every six months to
maintain U.S. aid to the govern-
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nent of El Salvador.
This fiscal year, billions of dollars
were cut from social programs and
billions more were added to the mili­
tary budget Seventy million dollars
were taken from the Food program
for Women. Infants and Children,
while $150 million will be sent to El
Salvador. Some is ear marked for
non-military purposes, but more
than half will be spent to finance the
military campaign against the poor
of that nation.
The organizers of the Port Chicago
action want people to understand
that there is a direct connection be­
tween the obvious disregard for the
needs of the world's less fortunate
people, including the poor of our
own country, and the increase in
U.S. military spending.
This will not be the first demon
stration to take place at Port
(Continued on Page 4, Column 4)