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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1997)
* • * ’ A *» * JK ?- 2* • . • ■ Volume XXVII, Number I 7 Committed to cultural diversity. (Lltr ^ n rtía n b (l!)bseruer April 23, 1997 SECTION B it mm u n ity -a I c n ò a r Portland Board of Education meeting Joan Li pis from NOVEA ministries (left) talks with the founder of “Women of Purpose,” Dr. O. Virginia Phillips (right) during a recent buffet. The gathering celebrated the message of the “Women of Purpose" organization. The Portland Public Schools Board of Education is scheduled to meet in Execu tive session under provisions of ORS 192.660 (l)(i), on Thursday, April 24, 1997, at 5:30 pm, in the JDB Conference Room at the Robert Blanchard Education Service Center, 501 N. Dixon Street. If you have a disability or are hearing im paired and need assistance for this meet ing, please make arrangements in ad vance by calling the board office at 916- 3741. This notice is provided in accor dance with provisions of the Oregon Open Meeting Law. See related article on Religion, page. All Aboard SamTrack! Beginning May 3 - Weekends - I 1:00 am to 4:(X) pm, SamTrak, the open-air train pulled by “big Red,” SamTrak’s new 45 ton diesel electric engine, that takes you on a scenic ride along the Willamette River between Oaks Park and OMSI through the Oaks Bottom Wildlife- Refuge corridor. The six-mile round-trip takes one hour. Stop off and enjoy the sights at either end and take a later train back or just enjoy the train ride. Afford able family fun for only $4.00, ages 5 and | over, $ 1.50 ages 1-4, and infants 0 -1 ride free. Cupola seats $1.00 extra. Boarding stations at Spokane Street, Oaks Park and OMSI. For schedule information call 653- 2380. PSU Panel Discussion Of the Death Penalty Portland State University students against the death penalty present a panel discussing the issues. Tuesday, April 29, from 7 to 8:30p.m. in Room 292 of Smith I Center (1825 SW Broadway) panelists | discuss "The Case Against the Death Penalty." Admission is free and the pub lic is invited. For information call 234- | 0118. Renaissance Market T by Oregon Housing 97 Conference Experts at Harnessing Tax Credits, Bonds and Other Creative Funding Mechanisms To Finance Affordable Hous ing in Oregon to Highlight Oregon Hous ing 97 Conference. In the wake of dimin ishing public resources and escalating construction costs, finding innovative and workable solutions is a must to house Oregonians in need. National and local affordable housing experts will congre- | gate in Portland Thursday and Friday, April 24 and 25 at the Portland Hilton Hotel to share their wealth of knowledge with Oregon’s housing community. Fund-Raiser Set For Women’s Shelters A benefit baby shower acknowledging Roisin McAliskey, a 25-year-old Irish prisoner in London will help provide gifts to mothers in area women’s shelters. Sunday, April 27, 1997, from 4 to 6 p.m Duffy's 8203 North Ivanhoe St. John's District, Portland, Oregon S U B M IS S IO N S : (O m n iu n ity ( a le n d a r in fo i in a lim i w ill be g ix e ii p rio rity d ila te d tw o weeks before the event date. r l m a n ________________ is, and is not. he Renaissance Market is do At issue is a decision the market’s manag ing well in Its first six months of ers made early on not to stock any alcohol or operation. Now its sponsors tobacco products. This may have led to a want it to do a lot better, in part by perception that Renaissance is a "church spreading the word of what they have to store” rather than a true supermarket. Wells . offer. said, and that it is "trying to tell people how I he market at 909 N. Killingsworth St., now run by Emanuel Temple, is attracting about 600 customers a week, the temple’s Bishop Wells told the Northeast Jobs Com mittee last week. Io meet its goals, he said, the market hoped to increase its customers and income by 50 percent. To do so, he said, he hoped to do a better job o f spreading the word of w hat the market to run their lives. It’s not that way at all. We decided not to stock these items not for religious reasons, but because they are haz ardous to health.” I he decision has had positive effects, he said. “ Ihe area has changed drastically. Drug selling is down We've gotten some outstanding letters from parents and stu dents who say they feel safer there.” A big element of what the Renaissance- hopes to offer is good customer service. l or their staff, they want people who have the temperament to provide customer service,’ Wells said. "We need people who have the ability to be friendly and informa tive, and to do that while being efficient and moving people through the line.” At the moment the market has six full-time and seven part-time employees with no immedi ate job openings. However, Wells added. As they say, ‘ There are a lot of barbers in town, but there’s always more room for a good one ” Bonnie M cknight of the Northeast Workforce Center suggested that the market seek new employees "from the point of view of offering not just a job, but a chance to do community service. That will help you get the kind of people you want. You can’t very well offer them a dollar an hour more than your competitors." She agreed on the need to get the word out. "Marketing is what people think of last, but if you don’t do it you won ’t be in business long." Some customers have complained that the market's prices are above those of other nearby food stores. However, customer ser vices manager Mary Warren said the Re naissance recently compared its prices for 50 popular food items with those of its competitors, and found them "comparable.” Youth Jam “97” CoHousing: Neighborhoods for people A screening of the video “CoHousing: Neighborhoods for People” will be held Monday May 5th, at 7:30 pm at the Reedwood Friends Church/Ong Chapel, 2901 SE Steele, Portland. An introduc tory presentation about cohousing and Cascadia Commons' plans to create a cohousing ecovillage in Portland will fol low the screening. The event is sponsored by Cascadia Commons. Admission is free. In cohousing communities, individual residences are clustered around a Com mon House which provides amenities such as shared meals and children's play spaces. Pioneered in Denmark, more that 100 cohousing communities are now be ing planned in the U.S. For more infor mation contact Cascadia Commons at 650-7169. L ee P e the word Debra Young coordinator of the Youth Jam "97" presents keynote speaker Kermit Washington with a Youth Jam Tee Shirt. This was the second annual Youth Jam to be held at the Bagley Community Center in Vancouver Washington. The Community Mentorship and Youth Program was founded by Debra Young and the Community A.M.E. Zion Church in April of 1993. The purpose of the program is connect youths with mentors in the Clark County area. For more information call 1-360-695-5577. City allocates urban development funds by L ee P erlman ________________ for the commercial portion of mixed-use he $10 million federal Housing projects in the north-Northeast Enterprise and Urban Development funds Zone, and cited three possible examples: once slated for the Wieden and • Franciscan Enterprise’s renovation of Kennedy project in northwest Portland the form er Texas Lounge Annex on North may go to a mixed-use project in north east Alberta Street at 17th Avenue. The or northeast. project calls for nine units of low-income T Howard Cutler o f the Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development, and Mark Cleamons o f the Portland De velopment Commission, made the an nouncement last week at a meeting o f the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Action Committee. They said the funds could be used to pay housing above a restaurant and other retail outlets. •H o u sin g Our F am ilies' A lberta Simmons project, a four to five story build ing on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard at Dekum Street with 74 low- income housing units above ground floor retail Director Gretchen Dursch said her agency already has funding for the residen tial portion of the project, but that "most banks aren’t interested in commercial de velopment as part of mixed-use.” • Rill Reed’s Standard Dairy project, which would include 64 market rate rental housing units, 6,000 square feet of retail and 6,000 square feet ofstorage on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard at Graham Street The project received city design and land use approval in 1995, but has languished be cause of a lack of funding. Ihe city originally sought the $2.5 mil lion gran, and $7.5 million low-cost loan package to help the Wieden and Kennedy advertising agency renovate and relocate to a vacant building at 1227 N.W. Davis St. in northwest Portland's Pearl District. The city received widespread criticism for using funds meant to combat urban decay to help an established business build new office space in wha, is already one of the city's hottest development areas. Wieden and Kennedy later decided to pursue the project without federal funding Cutler later told the Observer that HUD had already approved the grant portion of the funding package. He says the city can expect a decision on the new application in six to eight weeks.
