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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1993)
r , * » - , . •A-v M S, W ■ Arv*^-t , -v-»- <\*V ** * <9 ' - • S c p tc iiit "Servine the co m m u n ity tb ro u y h c u ltu ra l diversity.’ Voinnin XXIII. N um ber 40 k » 7 • • • ; • ; ■■■•• •■".y! . . r-- ’ • » MED Week ’9 3 A v e . » i . ’S - ' - >.r y£ 'W 1993 Minority Enterprise Development Week Minority Subcontractor Participation On Walnut Park Project Higher Than Expected Portland Mayor Vera Katz Say» Project Represents City’s Commitment to do Things Right Saying that work on the W al- ut Park Project represents a num- er o f positive steps tow ard im- iroving the C ity’s record o f hiring ninority co n tra c to rs, P o rtlan d 4ayor Vera Katz today announced hat the project would include 31.7 »ercent m inority su b co n tracto r »articipation as part o f the venture. Fhat num ber increases by five fold he C ity’s average o f 6 percent ninority participation. “ We tried some new things on his project th at w orked,” said vlayor Katz. “The 6 percent num- >cr was one ou r attorneys felt would >e legally defensible, but it’s not :nough. When we met with prime :ontractors, we were encouraged ,y their interest in exceeding that ¡tandard ” As o f Tuesday afternoon 17.5 Krcent o f the subcontractors signed ip to work on the project were ninority contractors. As a result o f ingoing negotiations between City ifficials, the prim ary contractor, m d minority subcontractors, that luinberjumped 14.2 percent shortly ifter 6:00 p.m. The C ity’s Bureau i f General Services estim ates the :ost o f the W alnut Park Project at S3.8 million. Koll C onstruction’s bid came in at $3,449,700, making it the low bidder, and winner o f the construction project. “Wc intend to set an example for the rest of the contracting commu nity,” said Steve Lilly, Senior Project Manager, and Director of Business Development of Koll Construction. “If there is a willingness to ac tively pursue and become involved in and develop relations in the minority contracting community, that these people who in the past have not had an opportunity to participate at this level will be able to go out and enter into, not only the public arena, but the private arena of the construction in dustry,” said Lilly. In planning for this project, the City embarked on a new program to encourage minority participation dur ing construction. The bidding period was extended for six weeks, twice the normal time for a project of this size. The extra time allowed minority firms the op portunity to work with prime contrac tors to submit bids. Special technical assistance has been available through the Portland Development Commission to assist minority firms in bidding, project planning and financing. In addition, subcontracts werebroken into smaller units, allowing greater access to mi nority firms which tend to be smaller operations. “This is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate that people in Port land are willing to work with each other, especially in the contracting community, which is historically based on old aligned relationships,” said O.B. Hill, President of the Port land chapter of the National Associa tion of Minority Contractors. “Those old relationships can no longer re main if we are to all be citizens of Portland working in cooperation, and in the spirit of brotherhood. BGA also estimates that Afri can-American contractors would re ceive approximately $644,792 of the $1,022,895 going to minority con tractors through Koll. Hispanic con tractors will receive approximately $291,721, and Native-Americans will receive approximately $86,376. The W alnut Park Project is a renovation o f the form er Fred M eyer complex on the com er o f N.E. M artin Luther King Blvd. andN .E. Killingsworth. When com pleted it will house the Portland Police B ureau’s N orth Precinct office, a Boys and Girls Club, re tail space, and a public plaza. Construction is scheduled to be gin in October. Police are expected to move in May, 1994. Retail develop ment will take another year or so to complete. “Our work with the Walnut Park P roject dem o n strates this adm inistrations’s commitment to north and northeast Portland is more than a commitment to just focus re sources on north/northeast,” said Katz. “Our commitment is far greater than that. It is a commitment to do things right.” Immigration Undermines Support For Affirmative Action by George R. La Noute In recent years opinion polls have show n in creasing public skepticism toward affirm ative ac tion. O ne reason is that, as the num ber o f groups benefitting from affirm ative action have constantly increased, the program s have lost their m oral legitimacy. The drive toward gaining pub lic acceptance o f affirm ative ac tion really began w ith Lyndon Johson’s Commencement Address at H ow ard University in 1965. The President declared, “You do not take a person who, for years has been hobbled in chains and liberate him , bringing him up to the starting line or a race and then say ‘you are free to com pete with all the others ’ and still believe you have been com pletely fair.” This pow erful im age obvi ously referred to the nightm are o f slavery and segregation that had afflicted A frican-A m ericans. It was the moral energy stem m ing from the desire to erase those na tional stains that led Johnson to issu e E x ec u tiv e O rd e r 11246 which becam e the fram ework for affirmative action in em ploym ent and elsewhere. It was clear to all concerned that blacks w ere to be the princi pal beneficiaries o f such program s because they had suffered the greatest injustices. But, with al m ost no debate, many other groups were added to the protected affir mative action in em ploym ent and elsewhere. It was clear to all concerned that blacks w ere to be the principal beneficiaries o f such program s be cause they had suffered the great est injustices. But, with alm ost no debate, many other groups w ee added to the protected affirm ative action, blacks have becom e a m i nority o f even the racial and ethnic groups included in the programs. In 1970, blacks were 66% o f all the racial and ethnic m inorities cov ered by affirm ative action. Tw enty years later they were only 49% and the num bers are dropping rapidly. B etween 1970 and 1990, the black population grew by 33% , while Hispanics and Asian-A m ericans grew by 144% and 380% respec tively. O verw helm ingly this in crease is from legal and illegal im migration. In 1990, 42% o f all the Hispanic population was bom abroad, as was 62% o f all the Asian-Am erican population. Increasingly, Americans who were inclined to support affirm a tive action for those w ho truly had a history o f discrim ination in this country are opposed to extending those benefits to groups com posed o f new or recent immigrants. In Atlanta, Richm ond, Jacksonville, and other cities, minority business i? -3 ’ • - 'TX-’v A. - programs have eliminated non black groups from coverage. On the other hand, Dade County (M i ami) has a black-only programnow, but is spending a large sum to justify the addition o f Hispanics, even though that group is almost all recent immigrants and now m a k es-u p a m ajority o f th e County’s population. In Ohio, the legislative black caucus mounted a successful campaign to have Asian Indians, a recent immigrant group among the best educated and most affluent ethnic groups in the coun try, excluded from the State’s mi nority business program. Still black businesses receive only 32% o f the contracts under the federal 8[a] affirmative action pro gram. Joshua Smith, the success ful black businessman who headed the U.S. Commission on Minority Business, concluded that the per centage o f black businesses in the minority business category was falling so fast that in ten years they “w on’t make a difference.” Whether affirmative action sur vives will depend in large part on whether its benefits can be focused on truly deserving groups. Surely it will be hard to defend a concept when millions o f new immigrants are granted favored status in business, education, and employment over fami lies who have been in this country for generations. B L A C K C O N T R A C T O R S A L L IA N C E 2808 NE MLK Blvd, Portland, OR 97212 (503) 335-3092 Specialty Company Phone Numbers Specialty Company Phone Numbers Bill Suell-Painting/Contractor Bill Suell 1020 N. E. 3rd Ave, Suite 12 Portland, OR 97232 Office (503)284-1167 Mobile (503)781-3945 Fax (503)235-9661 Painting Scott’s Masonry Walter Scott 4552 N. E. Jarrett Portland, OR 97218 Concrete Office (503)287-8577 Office (503)281-1874 Beeper (503)555-8704 Fax (503)287-0552 Gro-Jac Wall & Ceiling System Grover Jackson 4631 N. Albina Ave Portland, Or 97217 Office (503)288-5850 Pager (503)294-4521 Fax (503)284-1656 Drywall/ (Wall & Ceiling) Riggins Remodeling Herschel Riggins 2739 NE Alberta P. O. Box 11591 Portland, OR 97211 Office (503)284-3285 Mobile (503)880-0455 Remodeling S.G. Minor & Associates Shirley Minor 1020 N. E. 3rd Ave, Suite 12 Portland, Or 97232 Office (503)235-9655 Pager (503)299-7321 Fax (503)235-9661 HVC/ Plumbing Courtesy Janitorial Service Inc. Floyd N. Booker, Sr. 1705 N. E. Alberta Portland, OR 97211 Office (503)287-7354 Fax (503)298-6521 Janitorial Services J Boyd Lawn Landscape & Maint James Boyd 2808 NE MLK Blvd Portland, OR 97212 Office (503)335-3092 Fax (503)335-0395 Landscaping Reid Construction Elliott Young 1020 N. E. 3rd Ave Portland, OR 97232 Office (503) Pager (503)790-1470 Carpentry Kline Masonry & Remodeling Inc Harrison Kline III 536 N.E. Failing Portland, OR 97212 Office (503)287-2114 Pager (503)299-7972 Fax (503)282-5341 Concrete Brick Laying Remodeling Holefield Construction Darnell Holefield P. O. Box 11433 Portland, OR 97211 Office (503)286-6571 Beeper (503)286-3284 Fax (503)870-8127 Paving G.C. Brown Construction Greg Brown Office (503)730-3860 Fax (503)762-2046 General Contracting Portland, OR 97236 A-Mar Electric Inc Greg Martin George Christian 1020 N. E. 3rd Ave, Suite 11 Portland, Or 97232 Office (503)281-5528 Pager (503)299-7863 Home (503)335-3901 Lampkin’s Construction Ray Lampkin 516 S. E. Morrison Suite 705 Portland, OR 97214 Office (503)235-5954 Mobile (503)320-8813 S u p p o rt P eo p le C arl F lip p e r O ffic e Hom e Fax 50 3 2 2 8 -9 4 1 6 5 0 3 2 8 6 -7 6 4 2 5 0 3 2 2 8 -5 1 2 6 D a rrell S im m s O ffic e Fax (5 0 3 )8 2 3 -7 2 0 3 (5 0 3 )8 2 3 -6 9 9 5 G e o rg e C h ris tia n Hom e (5 0 3 )3 3 5 -3 9 0 1 S te p h a n ie B ro w n Hom e Fax 5 0 3 ) )3 3 1 -1 0 9 7 (5 (5 0 3 ) 2 8 3 -2 9 7 7 J e a n D rew O ffic e O ffic e Fax 5 0 3 )2 7 3 -2 8 2 8 5 0 3 )3 3 5 -3 1 1 8 5 0 3 )3 3 5 -3 5 5 4 Electrical General Contractor M U ■» * ***♦<♦. * > . » * • > ♦ • • *,*>£,*ît* ’ " * * * K ’Î V W . -1 'v M îO w ww» - ♦ »
