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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1983)
5TQ p Linda leaves Portland Racist V Ì g lene e 3 » violence U o fO profile Page 8 Page 4 Page 14 ¡PORTLAND OBSERVER 939-680-85$ Volume XIII, Number 51 October 5, 1983 25C Per Copy t> t r » FvNuA«,« C o , lot. IM I Eliot neighborhood opposes housing plan The Eliot Neighborhood Im provement Association voted 36-5 to continue its fight against the de velopment o f a 3O-unit housing pro ject for the handicapped in the Eliot neighborhood. It w ill appeal the recommendation o f a City hearings officer to re-rone the block to allow construction of the project. Eddie Newingham, Nural Willie Jr., and teacher William P. Floyd work on auto body repair at the Portland Opportunities Industrial Canter. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Body shop trains youth by Lanita Duke Grassrool News, N . W. — The true definition o f On the Job Training is functionally being carried out at Portland Opportunities Industrial Center's auto-body shop. Instructor W illiam P. Floyd stat ed, "O u r purpose is to provide peo ple in the community the opportun ity to learn a different skill. W ithin this program we teach them the ba sic fundamentals o f auto-body re pair and refinishing. We touch ground on painting and every other skill in the trade ” The students are first accepted into the regular P O IC program. Once accepted, C E T A funds their presence at the auto-body school. When 26 weeks pass, Floyd said, "W e have a job placement program and we have worked with indivi duals around the neighborhood who hire our students." W ithin the last 5 Vi months Floyd has graduated four students. " T w o o f our students are presently gathering funds to open up their own shop.” Floyd stated that the key to P O IC ’s body shop is care and patience. " W e are not in the market to get the money. " W e have quite a few satisfied customers. They have turned us on to their friends." He also said he be lieved their prices to be competitive. " A t least ten dollars an hour less than the other auto-body shops. However, we make sure the car owners understand that we take our tim e.” P O IC 's body shop provides ser vices the same as any other auto body shop. " W e straighten and re pair dents. Also we perform com plete paint jobs, pen-stripes and de tail work. We try to touch ground on everything within the tra d e ." Floyd has always tinkered with cars. A graduate from Benson High and the 18-month program at P o rt land Com m unity College's auto body and refinishing program, prior to PO1C he worked for various commercial shops and a Ford dealer. " I t started as a hobby for me and I just stayed with it. I will al ways enjoy working on cars. It's great to see it come in a wreck and leave looking like new ." The auto body shop will accept cars in need o f surface repair as long as the public understands that stu dents will work on them. The ad dress is 3223 N .E . Union. C ity hearing officer Paul N o rr, following two public hearings, des ignated the lots which St. Vincent de Paul plans to develop as R-2 devel o p m e n t— w hich includes houses, court-style apartments or rowhouses — and attached a covenant that al lows development for handicapped or senior housing. The property is now zoned 1-2.3, which is for houses or rowhouses. St. Vincent de Paul, on behalf o f itself and Bethel AMF. Church, had requested R -l medium-density apartment zoning Zr»e 'h - «nttr* in n u n « I in n The meeting, the first called since the issue was raised two months ago. was attended by approximately persons. Sprinkled among the ung, apparently middle class whites who are relatively new to the neighborhood, were residents o f the Unthank senior citizen housing pro ject whree the meeting was held. Absent were the Black residents o f the community— only four Blacks being present. This absence was explained by one Black woman who said she re ceived her meeting notice in the mail that day and not previously heard about the dispute. A man said he had read about the meeting in The Oregonian and called that news paper to ask where the meeting was to be held. You don't need notices, he said. "Every homeowner in the neighborhood gets a paper, or can get a paper." Phil Conti, member o f the Land Use Committee, explained that the neighborhood position was to retain housing and that this block (aside from the frontage on Union) is zoned for row housing T o zone the property for the 30 units for St. V in cent de Paul Society's handicapped housing and for the possible later building o f 30 senior citizen units by Bethel A .M .E . Church, would in crease density and preclude using the property for owner-occupied housing. Conti said the reason for the meeting was that the Land Use Comm ittee is not really representa tive o f (he community and it had a responsibilty to inform the commu nity residents. Bob Russell, a member o f the Land Use Committee, said the issue was not the need for handicapped housing (the City says 4,000 units are needed) or the fine reputation of St. Vincent de Paul. The issue is the concentration o f subsidized (low -in come) housing and the preservation o f land for home ownership. Eliot neighborhood has 20 percent subsi dized housing and this project would bring it to 24 percent, he ex plained. This is not appropriate, based on the City's policy to "avoid concentration" and "th is was the time to say stop." Eliot is a "good diverse neighborhood," and " p u t ting in certain types o f projects will destroy that diversity." Oordon Shields, volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul, said the agency op erates a training center for 150 to 180 handicapped persons on Union and Alberta. In M ay o f 1982 they applied to H U D for funds to buld residences. They now plan to build 30 units on five lots, three on Knott (2 blocks west o f 7th Avenue) and two on Russell (3 lots west of 7th Avenue). There would be 3 2-bed- room units, 3 studio apartments and 24 one-bedrooms units. Residents would be handicapped persons who are capable o f independent living, most o f whom would be trainees or employed graduates o f the (raining centers. This site would give easy ac cess to the training center, to trans portation, and to work sites. St. Vincent de Paul contacted the immediate neighbors— on Knott, Russell and 7th Avenue— and o f 31 contacts they received 30 positive re sponses. Prefaced with such statements as " I have nothing against handi capped housing or elderly housing," "There's no question about the good work St. Vincent de Paul is d o in g ," " It 's nothing against St. Vincent and Bethel - uh - uh uh - A M E Church— the issue is land use." the discussion continued Ollie Smith said his biggest con cert is the increase in crime across the country and in Eliot. The pro posal would place handicapped and elderly at the mercy of "th e dudes shooting heroin, sniffing cocaine, gambling all d a y ," on 7th Avenue, "m aking them vulnerable to the vul lures." He spoke against apart ments or another set of row houses. " W e don't want to end up like ( In cagoor New York in the fu tu re." A woman said it "is im poriant to look at it in terms o f a higher piob lem— the land use problem " Smith added, " I f the zone is changed lor this facility, the City H all bureau crats will get with developers and make changes for individuals." A recent "transplant from Chi cago" said the South Shore o f Chi cago is a good example o f concen tration o f subsidized housing "W e don't want to see concentra tion . . . " Another added, "T h e re ’s so much in the neighborhood now, we’re losing the neighborhood." Everyone was not against the pro ject. Fr. Chuck Lienert o f Immacu late Heart Church said he had dis- cussed the issue with his parishion ers: "1 talked to old-time residents, Black and white, and found consis tently that people say we need peo ple in our neighborhood." Jim Howell tried unsuccessfully to gel precise inform ation about how the zone change would affect density. He reminded the Land Use (Please turn lo page 4 column 4) Soviets propose nuclear freeze The Soviet Union called on the United Nations to adopt a resolu tion condemning nuclear war as "the most hideous crime against m ankind ." and called for a nuclear freeze. C hief o f the U .S .S .R .’s dele gation to the United Nations Oleg A Troyanovsky also accused the U.S. o f "w ar hysteria" and questioned the advisability o f the U .N .— an o r ganization dedicated to peace— hav ing its headquarters remain in the United States. The freeze proposal came in a let ter from Soviet Foreigh Minister Andrei G rom yko to U .N . Secretary- General Javier Perez de Cuellar, read to the General Assembly by Troyanovsky Tuesday. G rom yko declined to appear at the U .N . when he was barred from landing at civili an airports in New York and New Jersey. " O u r proposal is to cease, under effective verification, the buildup of all components o f nuclear arsen als ," Troyanovsky said, "including all kinds o f both delivery vehicles and weapons, to renounce the de ployment o f new kinds and types o f such arms, to establish a m orator ium on all tests o f nuclear weapons and o f new kinds and types o f deliv ery vehicles, and to stop the produc tion o f fissionable material for the purpose o f creating arms.” Grom yko's letter said the Soviets "consider it possible for the U .S .S .R . and the U .S .A . to be the first to implement it on a bilateral basis by way o f example to other nu clear powers." Troyanovsky said, " T h e imple mentation o f that initiative would markedly raise the degree o f trust among the nuclear weapon coun tries and would make it possible to move decisively toward breaking the vicious cycle o f the arms race. Moreover, this would also promote the reduction and, eventually, com plete elimination of nuclear weapons.” He condemned U .S. plans to de velop M X and Midgetm an intercon tinental missile, the B -l bomber and the neutron bomb. He accused Washington o f engaging in a policy that "runs counter to the age-old yearnings for a peaceful l i f e . . and is at variance with the interests of the peace-loving m ajority of states." He charged that the U .S. wants military superioity while the U .S .S .R . wants to maintain a rough parity between the two sides. President Ronald Reagan an nounced his latest position Tuesday — the "b u ild d o w n " option that originated in Congress. Reagan’s plan would require that two missile warheads would have to be de stroyed for every one produced, and three submarine-launched warheads eliminated for every two new ones produced. " L e t me em phasize," Reagan said in a Rose Garden ceremony, "th at the United States has gone the extra mile. Everything is on the ta ble.” King bill progresses to vote Ronald Reagan has indicated for the first time that he would not veto a bill to make D r. M artin Luther King, Jr.'s, birthday a national holi day. Senator Jesse Helms threatened a filibuster against the bill on Monday. Among other charges Helms leveled at King was that he followed a phil osophy o f "action-oriented M a rx ism " that is "n o t compatible with the concepts o f this co u ntry." Helms also charged that " I think his whole movement included C om m u nists at the highest possible levels." Senator Edward Kennedy, in an angry exchange with Helms, ac cused him o f using "R ed smear" tactics to defeat the bill. The bill will receive support for Republican Senators who fear op position to the King holiday, which has strong support o f Black voters. will nurt their parly in the coming elections. Seventeen Republicans are up for re-election. In addition to persuading Reagan to agree to sign the bill. Senate M ino rity Leader How ard H Baker, J r., personally introduced the bill and pledged to help break the filibuster. The bill, already adopted by the House, 338-90, would make the third M onday in January a national holiday effective in 1986 " H e ’s been out o f step for many years," Rep. Robert Garcia (D - N .Y .) shouted during the debate. " H is filibuster will go down to de feat in spite o f Jesse Helms; we will have a national h o lid a y." O n Tues day, Helms suddenly dropped his filibuster threat, agreeing to a de bate and vote on October 18th and 19th. Commissioner Charles Jordan greats an admirer — Krundu Adair — who was w ith har parents, M r and Mrs. Donny Adair, at Jordan’s birthday party. (Photo: Richard J. Brown)
