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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1984)
SSS“ Martin Luther King Black History Dellums on King Month Oh those Ducks! Page 7 Section II Page 15 Page 3 PORTLAND OBSERNER Volume XIV, Number 13 January 18, 1984 25C Per Copy Tw o Sections C C m PWAAaA*W Ce .tar /BB» City plan raises issues by Chuck Goodmacher A resolution calling for a Central City Plan, a brainchild of Comm is sioner Margaret Strachan, was unanimously passed Wednesdays by the Portland City Council. Adop tion o f the resolution sets in motion a complex process to create a " v ia ble central city" for Portland via a comprehensive Central C ity Plan just as former mayor Neil G old schmidt's Downtown Plan shaped the downtown area. The Central City Plan is expected to be more than simply an updated Downtown Plan Rather, as the adopted resolution states, there is a recognition o f the interdependence o f the Northwest Triangle, Colis eum-Lloyd Center, Central East- side, Macadam C orridor, and Downtown, and developments in the area should therefore be planned accordingly. Commissioner Strachan believes the emphasis on a Central City is vital for the survival o f the entire city, not just the specific areas men tioned. Strachan points to Eastern cities currently in economic trouble "because they let the core area d ie ." “ A viable central,” she con tinued, is important to every citizen in Portland.” Citizen reservations about the plan are already surfacing. Some neighborhood activists told the O b server o f concerns that, given lim it ed resources available for develop- ment, areas in dire economic straits (such as inner Northeast) are being bypassed for the more glamorous central city area— an area where big business has a greater stake. South east U plift board members M onday Norihw««t Buckman ri". tl H o s to /d A b ern ath y ■ * * Corridor r. ' * - 'B J I - V" \ expressed concern over possible loss o f a significant voice on develop ment proposals in their eastside neighborhoods. T o mitigate such concerns, the re solution seeks to recognize the need for broad public participation throughout the two- to three-year planning process. Big business, gov ernment bureaucracies, and the ma jo r media are all sure to be active participants in the process and will have their desires reflected in the plan. According to Dean Smith, C o m missioner Strachan’s assistant (and a principal architect o f the plan), the real question about how the plan will develop is “ how much attention are neighborhoods and citizens in general going to pay to it?” I f the final plan "isn 't a common vision." he added, " i t ’ s just an economic plan and will cause imbalances." The adopted resolution calls for a Citizens Advisory Committee charged with gathering "public in put and developing a vision for the Central City P la n ." The powers of the committee, the composition and size o f its membership, and its rela tionship to established committees and commissions such as the Planning Commission, the Portland Development Commission, and the Economic Development Advisory Committee are issues which, as Commissioner Charles Jordan com mented, “ remain to be deter m ined.” Many crucial questions about both the planning process and the plan itself remain to be answered: •W h a t are the precise boundaries o f the area to be studied? •W ill the plan include studies o f how development within the “ cen tral city" will solve or create prob lems in "secondary" areas such as inner Northeast? • W ill the W illamette River Green way park system be affected? (Continued on page 4. column 1/ Crime commission seeks input by Robert Lothian The first Public Safety Comm is sion for Portland and M ultnom ah County is basing its work on the idea that "every citizen in the city and county has the right to feel safe in their neighborhoods." according to Sharon L. Nielson, chairwoman. The 30-menber commission has been meeting since October to de fine the issues and then put together a comprehensive set o f crim e-fight ing and budget recommendations for city and county commissioners. Commissioner M ike Lindberg, who steered the Public Safety C o m mission proposal through a not-al- ways-supportive City Council, said policy makers too often tend to think that public safety means more police and prisons. " M y feeling was that it was more complicated than th a t. . . that we ought to develop a more comprehensive approach to crim e,” he said. " A creative, cooperative e ffo rt" o f agencies, institutions, social ser vices and neighborhoods is needed to come up with "m ore creative and community-based solutions,” ac cording to Lindberg. He said issues besides police and jails which the commission might consider in its two-year study in clude drug and alcohol rehabilita tion, police-community relations, employment for ex-offenders, and neighborhood organization and crime prevention. Nielson added that health and environmental de sign, as they relate to public safety, might also be studied by the com mission. Commission membership reflects a cross-section o f the population, she said, with half women. 20 per cent minorities, IS percent seniors, 10 percent youth and no more than 25 percent representation from public safety experts. According to Lindberg, commission members are reading "reams o f materials" and listening to panels o f experts in an effort to pull together inform ation from local national and internation al sources. Nielson said the commission is working now to put together a plan for how to proceed with its two-year inquiry. " W e are just getting start ed,” she said. One thing the plan will include is a lot o f public participation. " C it i zen involvement is a crucial aspect to creating and making things w o rk,” she said. " W e will be going out into the community to solicit in put about what they see as their needs." A series of community hearings should be under way by A p ril, she said, and for those who can't make it to the hearings, there Continued on page 4, column /J .AUlaon Obarbllllg. Rachael Ziady and Patra Ba bon proudly dlaplay the placquaa praaantad to them for thalr winning aaaaya In the Harriet Tub Teens receive aw ards T be Harriet Tubman Human Hela lions Composition A w ard was ini tiated as one o f the last formal acts of the Comm unity for School Inte gration. It was designed to reinforce a positive, multicultural educational environment at Tubman Middle School, and to encourage the de velopment o f sound communica tions skills in youngsters who attend enlists and farmers could cultivate lots of land to provide the fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products to keep everyone's body healthy. I f the wealthy and the powerful would not be greedy and would share the world's wealth, then it wouldn't be necessary for people to live on the streets, and people would have homes with clean water and Tubman This year's award winners were Petra Babón. 6th grade. Rachael Ziady, 7th grade, and Allison Ober- billig. 8th grade. The text of their winning essays follows. warmth. People of all colors and cultures should be able to have the freedom to worship in the religion o f their choice. They should be free to go to the same churches as everyone else without being ignored or insulted M y dream for all the w o rld by Petra Babon Grade 6 There are many problems in our world that need to be changed. These problems cannot be corrected or changed by just one person alone. Everyone in the world of d if ferent cultures and colors needs to cooperate to make our world a bet ter place to live. People in all nations should be free o f fear. That is, they should not have to be afraid o f criminals that would steal from them or do them bodily harm. They should not have to be afraid o f their political leader and that leader's soldiers. People of different cultures or colors should be able to get an edu cation and have the job they want or that they have been trained for with out being turned down because they are different. A dream world would have clean waters, fresh air and ground that hasn’t been polluted with chemicals. A world where humans, animals, and fish can live without breathing in bad air or drinking polluted ïb “ Thaaa youngatara at King School calabrotad Dr. Martin Luthar Klng'e birthday Monday with an all- achool aaaambly. (Photo Richard J. Brown) man Middle School Human Relatione Com peti tion Awarda. (Photo: Richard J. Brownl water. An ideal world would be one in which governments and their scien tists would work together to make it possible for all people to have plenty o f food to eat I f the governments would all agree to cooperate, the set- because o f their appearance A ll people should be able to ex press their opinions in newspapers, on television, on radio programs, and during meetings that they at tend without being persecuted or censored. Now , if I were President of the United States, instead o f spending all the money on bombs and nuclear warheads, I would spend it on im proving the environment, helping other countries to develop natural resources, increasing food produc tion, and increasing medical care. For my community, I think that I can help out by volunteering my time and sharing my education with others that are not as fortunate as myself. I think that if everyone co operated with each other and treat ed all the people the same way by lis tening to other ideas and being hon est and trustworthy, that our com munity would be a better place to live. M y dream for th e w o rld by Rachael Ziady Grade 7 I dream of a world where every man, woman and child is equal I dream of a day when Japanese can live with Chinese, Jews can live with Catholics, and Blacks can live with Whites. I dream o f a day when Black children can walk into an all- white school and not be subject to I stares nor be leased by the other stu- I dents. I plan to travel throughout the I world and spread my dream. I I would like to go to every city, state, I and country possible. I hope to talk I to the kings, queens, emperrors, I presidents, and czars of different I countries and encourage them to en- I force equal rights. Part o f my plan would be to help I enforce the equal rights laws we I have now. Many people know of I their existence, hut literally ignore I them. I would try to convince peo- I pie to obey them. I would also try to I pass them in places where none I exist. i I want it to be known that while I people are different colors, races I and religions, everybody is a human I being and should be treated like I one. ' As in a situation where a job is I being applied for, a person should I not be judged by race or religion, but by his or her qualities and quali fications. I f an employer is preju diced, he might hire someone un qualified for the job while others who were qualified could have been denied because of the color of their skin or for what they believed in. In my community I plan to organ ize groups who would attend com munity meetings and give talks on equal rights. I shall hope to set a good example and to influence others to practice equal rights. I would like to raise enough funds so that it would be possible to build and run an inlercultural community center. People would have a chance to mingle with other cultures. It would, most likely, be a new exper ience for most o f them. I think the center should host dinners in which the community’ s people could bring a dish from their culture or religion. I hope to build a society that does not judge people by their shape, size, color, culture or religion, but by their intelligence, character and feelings. That is my dream. (Continued on page 2, column I)
