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A prii 2, 1997 • T he P o r u
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T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
A
week ago, Rev. Jackson
gave a major address to
the National Association
of Minorities in Cable.
In his speech, Jackson went back
through the history of segregation
and exclusion in the telecommuni
cations industry, showing the path
to the neglect of equal opportunity in
the industry we see today. Some
excerpts:
Cable television began in the foot
hills of rural Pennsylvania in 1949.
Originally designed to bring urban
TV signals to rural small towns,
cable’s culture until the early 1970s
was all-White. In the early 1970s,
the cable industry “discovered” Black
and Brown A m erica-in the same
sense that Colum bus supposedly
“discovered" America.
The cable industry realized that
Black and Brown Americans living
in cities are a huge market, their
money is green, they watch lots of
television, and they are exception
ally brand-loyal consumers. But by
then, the ownership structure o f the
cable industry had already been
locked in. Those with a 20-year head
start in ownership—none of whom
w as B lack o r B r o w n - h a d a
hammerlock on the industry.
Today, District Cablevision in
Washington, D.C., Percy Sutton’s
e
r
C O A L IT IO N
token Cable
com pany in Queens, NY, Frank
W ashington’s 3 small cable systems
in CA, and perhaps 2 or 3 other
systems, are all that’s left.
There has never been a limit on the
number ol cable systems one com
pany can own. Thus, a handful of
huge "multiple system operators " with
extraordinary economies of scale con
trol the industry today. Indeed, two
com panies control a majority f
America’s cable households. Compa
nies like these can outbid any small
company for the handful of cable
systems which come onto the market.
Whose interests do these com pa
nies serve? For years, cable opera
tors wired the wealthy and White
neighborhoods first, and today they
continue to scramble for the so-called
“high end” market.
It's happening again with the
s
P e
forthcoming Video-on-Demand and
specialized Internet services. As tele
phone companies provide video ser
vices in competition with traditional
cable operators, we must watch very
closely to ensure that they do not
redline poor and minority neighbor
hoods—just as they redlined new and
enhanced telephone service 20 years
ago.
Unfortunately, the FCC did not
consider segregationists and race
discriminators to lack the requisite
character to serve as public trustees.
Over the course of six decades, the
FCC deliberately gave away billions
of dollars worth of broadcast spec
trum -and, I might add, billions of
dollars worth of microwave spec
trum in the cable antenna relay ser
vice—to licensees it knew would
never hire a Black man or woman in
I
/
any capacity except that of janitor,
would never put a Black man or
woman on the air except in news
stories focusing on crim e, and
wouldn’t even allow a Black church
to sponsor the devotional messages
which concluded the broadcast day.
Generations o f White men re
ceived a vast head start in obtaining
the skills, experience, and network
of contacts required to become me
dia owners. Those denied these op
portunities in the 1950s—due to rac
ism -lost their chance to be broad
cast station and cable system middle
managers in the 1960s, entrepre
neurs in the 1980s, and broadcast
group or multiple cable system ow n
ers in the 1900s.
In 1978, the FCC realized at last
that because the airwaves belonged
to the people, and we were part of
“the people," it had to do something
to ensure that we would attain own
ership of our fair share of the spec
trum resource. This wasn’t going to
be easy, because 99% of the spec
trum had already been given away to
Whites.
But the FCC tried anyway, adopt
ing the “tax certificate policy,” which
meant that com panies selling a
broadcast station or a cable system
to minorities could defer the capital
gains tax.
r e s
Can Small (Lending) Also Be beautiful?
ast w eek's column—
Small Is Beautiful, Or
Is It ? ”— described a
down-scaling of the development
efforts by Western nations in the
poorer nations of the ‘Third
World’.
It was seen that successful eco
nomic systems must take into ac
count the customs and traditions of
the people.
And the "In focus” section of the
April issue ot the highly regarded
“Scientific American” magazine fea
tures a related article (P-16) on an
innovative way to finance individu
ally-owned enterprise in the same
countries: "M icro-finance is prov
ing that the poor are creditworthy,
but will the movement try to grow
too last"? At a recent summit meet
ing in Washington DC. representa
tives
oves from
irom I 13
I j countries endorsed a
Northeast Portland and Ligni K an -
Urban Renewal or Removal?
ubllc mass transit has
cerns. My biggest issue is that no
(commercial on the ground floor
always seemed like a
one I know (o f the general public,
with apartments upstairs) will have
Kl
good public service to
that is) had seen these maps. I be
even greater impacts.
me; affordable transit is a ne
lieve that the Affected public-those
I am not leading an anti-light rail
cessity for people who don’t have
whose homes and businesses will be
campaign, and I am not trying to
cars, and everybody wishes there
directly impacted by a public project-
“save anyone. I was asked to write
were fewer cars on our city
-should have first place in any de
this article after the light rail meet
streets.
bate and decision about projects like
ing was shown on local cable TV.
What about light rail? Like most
this.
My point is that peoples’ homes and
people, I hadn’t paid too much at
So, why do I care, and why should
businesses should not be clinically
tention to the dozens o f meetings on
you care? Last month I was asked to
examined as "under-developed real
light rail and the huge costs o f build
do a presentation on Urban Renewal
estate"; these are places where people
ing the South/North light rail line—
program s and their im pacts on
live and work, not just "through
until recently.
Portland s African American neigh
routes” for travelers in North/North-
All o f the light rail route maps we
borhoods, for a history symposium
east Portland. I believe that we all
have seen in the newspapers and at
at Portland Community College. In
have a civic duty, that is sometimes
meetings are "conceptual", like most
preparing my presentation, I spent
an unpleasant one, to speak up and
planning maps. They show light rail
several weeks re-visiting those pro
participate in the many public plans
route alternatives running along city
grams from the 1950s-1970s and
that affect our future. To their credit.
streets, and look like they are in the
their devastating “removal” o f hun
City o f Portland and Metro staff
street right-of-way. But a short time
d re d s o f h o u se s, b u sin e sse s,
have contacted me, gone through
ago, a public agency planner called
churches, and other buildings in the
the Cornerstones book, and are ex
me and asked: "A ren’t you doing
African American neighborhoods
pecting to get information about
building research in North/North-
that stood in the way o f Memorial
other buildings we are identifying
east Portland, and have you seen
Coliseum, Interstate 5, the Fremont
for the African American Buildings
these maps that show buildings that
Bridge, and hospital expansion. I
History program. All known im
will be removed along the different
comforted myselfsomewhat with the
pacts must be included in a Draft
routes?” I told him that yes, we are
belief that things are different now,
Environmental Impact Statement for
continuing to identify buildings as
and that this could never happen
any
project with federal funding.
sociated with Portland's African
again, not today. Well, today Page,
So what should you do? Remem
American history, and n o - l haven’t
I illamook, Wheeler, Flint, and Van
ber that just like you, I am only one
seen these maps. He brought me a set
couver A venue are what remain from
person,
but that together we make
and one Saturday I went over to
the vibrant neighborhood centered
up
"the
public”. We, “the public”,
North Flint, Vancouver, Page, and
around Williams Avenue that was
are
invited
to attend and speak at
Tillamook Streets, near Williams
destroyed for construction o f Me
public meetings on light rail. The
and Russell Strcets-and I got angry.
morial Coliseum.
next one is scheduled for Wednes
I saw some o f the houses included in
In 1957, 456 housing units and
day April 9th, at
the 1995 publication “Cornerstones
many, many businesses, along with
6:00 PM, at the Oregon Conven
o f Community: The Buildings o f
Bethel AME Church were “dis
tion Center. It’s being billed as the
Portland's African American His
placed", with inadequate notice and
South/North Light Rail Cost-Cut
tory ’, and I pictured them gone, if
inadequate compensation Today,
ting Measures meeting. You can
the Wheeler/Russell Light Rail al
anything like that really should not
call M etro's transportation hotline
ternative is built as “conceptually”
and must not happen again. The
at 797-1900 to get any public infor
planned (I confess, I have not had
affected public needs to be heard
mation
you want about light rail.
the time to search out the impacts on
from, and that includes people who
Most importantly, we must show up
North Kerby or North Interstate.)
live and work within the 1000 foot
and participate, if we want light rail
Last month, I joined some 300
areas along both sides o f light rail
to be built the way we want it, if it’s
people who turned out at a Saturday
routes; that s where the city’s adopted
going to be built
morning light rail meeting at Kaiser
policies o f encouraging high-den
This article was written by Cathy
Town Hall, and I took my three
sity residential (that means apart
Galbraith, Director o f the Bosco-
allotted minutes to state my con-
ments) and mixed-use developments
M illigan Foundation
J ÍJ
N A T IO N A L
goal of extending loans to l(K) m il
lion of the world’s poorest families
by the year 2005.
So what does it all mean? In last
w eek’s article we sought a correla
tion with the accelerated growth of
small business in America that was
principally initiated by workers dis
placed by mergers
and other dow n
sizing. We would
note that a great
num ber
w ere
highly skilled, in
c o n tra st to the
Third World en
trepreneurs described in the Scien
tific American magazine as follows.
"Seamstresses, carpenters, street
vendors and the proprietors of other
small businesses in Bolivia would
typically be shunned by banks. For
these people, the only possible
sources for loans have traditionally
been family members or money
lenders charging up to 10 percent
interest daily.”
"Yet 72,(XX) of them have been
welcomed at BancoSol, turning that
institution into the bank with the
largest customer base in the country.
The banks decision is neither lunacy
nor charity but rather a new finan-
cial experiment...demonstrates that
borrowers without collateral can of
ten be very good credit risks, faith
fully paying back loans of a little as
even $100.”
You may have last weeks' article
before you or you may just reflect
that the typical approach of western
nations to e c o
nom ic d e v e lo p
ment in poorer
By
countries has too
Professor
olten been a "top-
Mckinley
down' imposition
Burt '
o f c la ssic e c o
nomic systems of
mass production and economies-of-
scale. We pointed out in “Small Is
Beautiful...” that “successful eco
nomic systems must take into ac
count the customs and traditions of
the people.”
Certainly, we already see that
Small Lending" can accomplish
this "social fit in the microeconomics
and surprisingly or not so surpris
ingly we have the following from
Scientific American.
"M icro finance is not confined to
the Third World. It was not happen
stance that a sprawling convention
hotel in Washington, D C. was cho
sen as a summit meeting place rather
better ‘Co Che CLihter
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
than quarters in La P a/ or Dhaka. In
tact, BancoSol and Grameen have
served as models for legions of U.S.
copycats, most ot which are run by
small nonprofit groups. The idea of
pulling onesell out of poverty by
building a food stand in La Paz-or a
hair styling salon in Chicago-has a
universal attraction.”
And we have this, “The notion
holds an appeal to a federal govern
ment pledged to ease people off wel
fare. In a .survey, the Aspen Institute
in W ashington, D.C., found that
250 "micro enterprise' programs in
the U.S. last year represented more
that a doubling from four years ear
lier.”
However, we do not find complete
satisfaction with these alternative eco
nomics in either the Third world or
America-Overseas there is concern
that Small Lending (micro finance)
could become an all encompassing
approach rather that a tool within a
larger antipoverty strategy.”
And here in America, there is not
only that concern, but a premonition
that the mini-economics could lead
to return ol the demeaning “cottage
industry of the 19th century. Hun- jg
dreds of thousands of the poor eked
out a bare living performing “piece 4
work at home by manufacturing
articles from raw materials deliv
ered by corporate agents who picked
up finished goods tor a mere pit
tance.