T he P ortland O bserver • O ctober
30, 1996
P age
Kaiser awarded 1996 Quality Leader
Kaiser Permanente has emerged
as the leadingcommercial health plan
on overall membership satisfaction
in a nationwide survey of consumers
in several metropolitan areas.
I he National Research Corpora­
tion (NRC) today named Kaiser
Permanente s Northern California
and Southern C alifornia Regions and
its Mid-Atlantic, Rocky Mountain
and Southwest Divisions the 1996
Quality Leaders in 18 metropolitan
areas nationwide where it surveyed
commercial health plans The na-
tionally syndicated study included
170,000 households in more than
100 metropolitan areas in the 48 con­
tiguous states.
In Northern California, Kaiser
Permanente was named Qual ity 1 ,ead-
er in six of the eight metropolitan
areas surveyed there: Oakland, Sac-
ramento, San Francisco, San Jose,
Stockton and Vallejo.
In Southern California, Kaiser
Permanente received highest marks
in all six areas surveyed: Bakers­
field, Los Angeles, Orange County,
Riverside-San Bernardino, San Di­
ego and Ventura.
In the M id -A tla n tic , K aiser
Permanente was awarded the num­
ber one Quality Leader rating in Bal­
timore, Mary land and Washington,
DC.
In Kaiser Permanente’s Rocky
Mountain Division, the HMO topped
the ratings in Denver, Colorado and
the Kansas City metropolitan area
In the Southwest, Kaiser Permanente
scored highest in the Fort Worth,
Texas area. In its Northwest Divi­
sion, resp o n d en ts rated K aiser
Permanente number one in Portland,
Women’s Faire
Speeches by Congresswoman
Elizabeth Furse and state Rep
Jackie Taylor, performances by
North Coast musicians, a vintage
lingerie presentation and a variety
ofworkshops will be featured at the
first-annual North Coast W omen’s
Faire on Saturday, October 26, at
the new C latsop County Fair­
grounds in A storia. (The fair­
grounds are located on Walluski
Loop Road, just o ff Route 202, on
the outskirts o f Astoria.)
The W omen’s Faire is presented
by the Clatsop County W omen’s
Resource Center and the Domestic
and Sexual Assault Response Team
(D/SART).
The fair opens at 9 p.m. State
Rep. Taylor will give opening re­
marks at 9:30 a.m. Rep. Furse will
speak about women and politics at
12:30 p.m. Kim Shay o f Mid-Val­
ley W omen’s Crisis Service in Sa­
lem will discuss “The Cycle o f Do­
mestic Violence” at 11:10a.m. Pan­
el discussions will be held on racial
harmony and multicultural issues
at 10 a.m. and on sexuality at 2:05
p.m. A self-defense demonstration
will be presented at 3:10 p.m.
S in g e r-s o n g w rite r
C indy
Pearson will perform solo at I p.m.
and will return with her band to
perform an evening concert and a
dance at 7 p.m. Also performing at
the fair are Cannon Beach musician
Andrea Rowe at 12:10 p.m. and
Astoria musician Theda Link at 6 :15
p.m. V intage clothing collector Laroe
Johnson will narrate the "Foundation
o f Fashion” presentation at 5 :15 p.m.
Workshops run throughout the
day from 10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Adult admission is $5 for the fair
only and $7 for the fair, concert and
dance. Admission to only the Cindy
Pearson evening concert and dance
is $5. Admission for the children
and students is $2. Child care will
be available for a nominal dona­
tion. Free shuttle-bus transporta­
tion will be provided from points in
Astoria to the fairgrounds. For bus
schedule and other information, call
the W omen’s Resource Center at
325-3426.
The W omen’s Faire is sponsored
in part by C latsop B ehavioral
Healthcare, Columbia Memorial
Hospital, the Clatsop County Vic­
tim Assistance, the Law Office
Kathry n Bourn, Seaside Providence
Hospital, Happy Bear Massage, City
Lumber, Tongue Point Job Corps,
and the Astoria Rotary Club.
Oregon.
N RC asked consumers to rate their
primary health plans on measures
indicative o f quality from a consum­
er’s perspective such as: overall sat­
isfaction (e g., medical care satisfac­
tion, recom m endation to family/
friends), administrative services, ac­
cess, benefits and cos,.
The study entailed a self-adminis­
tered questionnaire w hich respondents
received by mail. In 1996, responses
were received from 167,000 house­
holds, the primary health care deci­
sion-maker of each household being
the actual respondent.
More than 400,000 covered lives
are represented in the study. At the
95 percent confidence level, the
study’s resulting error range was plus
or minus 0.2 percent.
National Research Corporation is
a Lincoln, Nebraska-based firm spe­
cializing in health care performance
assessment and is the publisher of,he
NRC Healthcare Market Guide.
Kaiser Permanente is the coun­
try’s largest health maintenance or­
ganization (HMO). Founded in 1945,
it is a non-profit, group-practice pre­
payment program with headquarters
in O akland, C alifornia. Kaiser
Permanente serves the health care
needs o f 7.4 million voluntarily-en­
rolled members in 17 states and the
District o f Columbia. Today, it en­
compasses Kaiser Foundation Health
Plan, Inc : Kaiser Foundation Hospi­
tals; and the Permanente Medical
Groups. Nationwide they include
more than 75,000 technical, admin­
istrative and clerical employees and
9,500 physicians representing all
specialties.
Department of Energy
responds to vandalism
by Perry Gruber, BPA
Hunters, be w arned—there’s a
beast lurking out there with unbe­
lievable power that could kill you if
you shoo, it. And ifyou do not take it
out, the penalty for killing this beast
could cost you and the region literal­
ly thousands o f dollars.
This fall hunting season, please
warn your readers about the dangers
and costs o f shooting at power lines
and transmitters. The Bonneville
Power Administration is asking for
everyone’s assistance to help stop
these senseless crimes by reporting
any act o f power line vandalism to
BPA’sCrime Witness hotline, I -800-
437-2744. Inform ation could be
worth up to $1,000.
Individuals who use power lines
for target practice are a danger to us
all. Downed lines can cause fires and
lethal ground voltages that can kill or
seriously injure the vandals them­
selves, as well as other people.
Recent widespread outages have
underscored the critical importance
ofthese vital transmission “ lifelines”
to our region's welfare and econom­
ic survival. Theft vandalism and ille­
gal dumping cost BPA about $ I mil­
lion each year. Gunshot vandalism
alone costs $400,000 to $500,000
These costs inevitably trickle down
to rate payers. In an effort to curb
these infractions, BPA created the
Crime Witness Program: anyone who
sees or suspects a crime to BPA
property is encouraged to report it by
calling the toll-free number. Cash
rewards are paid for information lead­
ing to the arrest and conviction o f
persons committing crimes against
BPA. Names o f witnesses and re­
ward amounts are kept confidential.
Hunters are encouraged to take
aim a, stopping these dangerous acts
of vandalism. Le, your readers know
about BPA’s Crime Witness Pro­
gram. Ifyou need more information
or would like to interview a BPA
expert about the program, please
contact me, (503) 230-5359. Thank
you for your consideration.
Home-cooked sty le chicken & dumpling dinner
Sunday, October 27, 1996
1:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. at Immaculate Hear, Church, 2926 N. Will­
iams Ave., Portland 503-287-3724
Includes vegetable, salad, dessert, coffee, tea, juice
Adults: $6.00
Under 12: $3.00
Historic Preservations and
Urban Tribulations, Part II
m P k o k . M c R i m h Bt h i
I knew it would require quite a
leap o f faith-something on the order
o f that frequently quoted "giant step
for mankind”-fo r many o f today’s
blacks or whites to accept my state­
ment that “At the turn o f the century
(1900), African Americans owned
significant amounts o f real estate in
the c ity centers o f many major Amer­
ican cities.”
This startling historical fact holds
true for the City of Portland as well
And when I first arrived here in 1943,
there still were a few strategic eco­
nomic parcels owned by blacks in
both the southwest and northwest
sectors. We find a very thorough
documentation of both early and lat­
er ownership and tenancy in " The
History o f Portland’s African Amer­
ican C om m unity: 1805 to the
Present"
This study was published in Feb­
ruary, 1993 by the Portland Bureau
of Planning. Kimberly Moreland, City
Planner, was the' History Project Co­
ordinator’. This activity, like the“Af-
rican American Building History
project” I cited last week, was also
funded through the National Park
Service. Some interesting and re­
vealing commentary is provided.
“By 1900, the majority o f Port­
land's blacks resided on the westside'
o f the Willamette River. They were
scattered within an area from S.W
Montgomery to N W Kearney, and
from the river west to 12th Street
(North Burnside District )... this area
has always had a racially diverse
population in contrast to the more
homogenous white residential sec­
tions o f upper northwest and south­
west Portland where the first families
lived.” (note 48)
The preceding commentary is from
p. 16 o f the study, and the ‘note’ cites,
MacColl, Kimbark, “The Growth of
a City: Power and Politics in Port­
land, Oregon, 1915 to 1950” ( Port­
land, 1978), P. 17-18 Also see, "Or­
egon, A P ecu liar P a ra d ise ” ,
McLagan.
The two studies I’ve cited as well
as the archives o f the Oregon Histor­
ical Society feature photographs of
some o f the black-owned westside
business properties as well as o f res­
idence. Asstated earlier, I found only
a few remaining in 1943; a large
hotel-recreation complex in the area
at the west end o f the Steel Bridge
And there was a fair-sized hotel in
about the 1200 block o f S.W. Wash­
ington or Alder, owned by a middle-
aged black man by the name of"Fair’
(He had a nephew named Frank Fair’).
I would occasionally stop by and
talk with Mr. Fair; he operated a shoe
shine stand in a sheltered alcove lead­
ing into his hotel. I vaguely remember
his stories o f major downtown prop­
erties owned by other African Amer­
icans, except to marve at the phenom­
ena in such a racist city as Portland
where few restaurants, theaters or oth­
er public facilities would cater to
blacks-even servicemen! But I do
remember his mention of earlier down­
town black churches. Two o f these are
cited in the Planning Bureau Docu­
ment, p 18
“In January, 1869 the First Afri­
can Methodist episcopal Zion Church’
was incorporated in Portland, and
property was purchased on N .W Third
Street between Burnside and Couch.
In 1883 the congregation erected a
building on Thirteenth and Main, and
remained there until 1916, when the
congregation , built a church at 417
N.E. Williams... service now held at
109 N. Skidmore " ( P I 8)
At this late date, it would be diffi­
cult indeed to retrieve the historical
and once dotal data necessary for an
accurate reconstruction of the demo­
graphic and economic scenarios or
pressures which so completely trans­
formed the ownership pattern o f Port­
land’s downtown real estate. In these
early times there was no great public
intervention’ as in the case o f pro­
gramslike Urban Renewal in the latter
half o f the twentieth-century.
And apparently, there were no oth­
er types o f major traumatic events of
a social or political nature that would
have effected a major exodus o f Afri­
can Americans over a short span of
time-race riots, serious civil distur­
bances. But then again, we do have
media, photographic andcivil records
o f Ku Klux Kian activity which in
other metropolitan areas, and in con­
junction with greedy realtors, has ac­
complished the same dislocations as
urban renewal’. Someone may make
this a ‘graduate study’.
Next week, a look at other early
cites. Will they provide a clue?
(The ^Jortlattò OObscrticr UJOlcOiTlCS
T hè K orcan A merican G roccry A ssociation
Alberto Street Market, 915 N.€. Alberto
281- 6388
of
O rcgon
Dekum Food Market, 800 N.G Dekum
Owner: Sonny Kim
283-1240
Boston Market, 726 N.€. Killingsworth
282- 6776
Ainsworth Market, 5949 N.€. 30th
281-0479
Prescott Corner Market, 1460 N.€. Prescott
284-7418
King Food Mort, 3510 N.€. MLK ßlvd.
281-0357
285-8006
KC2 Food Market, 1301 N.€. Dekum
289-7430
Owner: Tom Choi
Sunny's Market, 5020 N. Interstate
Owners: Gil S. Kim St Jung Jo Kim
283-1240
UJe A pprcciatc Y our B usincss and S upport
T hank Y ou
A 7