Volume XXVII, Number 21
Committed to cultural diversity.
Max 21. 1997
CETÍ jl ' ^dnrtlanh (©bserber
SECTION
a
t i m m u n i tuw*.
a 1 e n ù a r
Portland Women
named Matrons o f
Motivation
Fair celebrated
Family and friends are invited to attend
the Boise-Eliot Elem entary School
“M ulticultural Fair C elebration o f
People,” Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The fair show cases the sc h o o l’s
multicultural curriculum and share ’ s the
methods used to teach culture and
h eritage to kids. The fair is the
cu lm in atin g
ev ent
involving
participation of Boise-Eliot students,
family members, staff and a host of
com m unity vo lu n teers. For m ore
information contact Betty Campbell or
Eileen Isham at 916-6171.
Bike Commute Day
Over 200 cyclists will be arriving at
Pioneer Courthouse Square Friday at 8
a m. for the Portland Bike Commute
Day Festival. Delegations from 39
companies in the Bicycle Business
Challenge will join the participants,
along with city commissioners Charlie
Hales and Eric Sten, Tri-Met Director
Tom Walsh and Columnist Jonathan
Nicholes. The Bicycle Transportation
Alliance will be releasing a new report
documenting the beneficial impact of
federally-funded bicycle safety projects
on traffic fatalities in Oregon.
Heart health talk
The Hollywood Senior Center offers a
talk about how to manage daily activities,
conserve energy and pace yourself if
you are living with a congestive heart.
Janet
H an sen -T racy,
cardiac
rehabilitation specialist for Legacy
Health System, will show a short video
which is used in the hospital to explain
heart failure in a non-technical way. She
will also talk about sym ptom s of
congestive heart failure and simple
exercises to help the health o f the heart.
Kenya film featured
♦
An Evening Safari to Kenya, a special
benefit to raise money for the Chwele
Public Health Clinic in Western Kenya,
will take place May 31 from 7 p.m. to 9
p.m. at the Portland State University
M u lticu ltu re C en ter, 1825 S.W .
Broadway. Peace Corps worker and
filmmaker Dennis Burkhart will show
and discuss his film “Kenya: The African
Dream. For information call Grace Juto
of the Harambee Project at 245-3812.
Improve your driving
Seniors are invited to improve your
driving skills during a 55 Alive driving
class Friday, June 6 at the Hollywood
Senior Center. The class consists of two
4 hour sessions and costs $8 paid at the
first class. A $1 donation to the senior
center also is appreciated.
Struggle documented
Gay Resistance: the Hidden History, A
new book about gay pride will be
celebrated for a book singing event.
June 11 at 7 p.m. at It's My Pleasure.
4258 S.E. Hawthorne. Tamara Turner,
co-author, librarian and theater artists,
will be present to sign books and discuss
how knowing the proud legacy of
organizing will help the sexual minority
movement determine their goals and
tactics in the fight for liberation.
The first annual “ M atrons o f M otiva
tio n ” Awards D inner was held on Sun
day at JJ N orth’s G rand Buffet on N orth
east Halsey, honoring Mrs. Fannie Lee
Sm ith and Mrs Jean W ashington.
There were 152 recipients, among
them in the category o f M atrons o f Com
m unity was the past Publisher o f the
P ortland O bserver N ew spaper, Joyce
< ------Ä-------------
Fannie Lee Smith
St BXIISSIONS: Community
( 'alendar information " ill he given
priority if dated tun weeks
betöre the esent date.
Jean Washington
Church offers HIV care
NE neighbors concerned
about influx of drug users
B y L ee P erlman
The Ainsworth United Church of Christ
may host a day center for people infected
with the HIV virus. The church views this as
a Christian service to people in need.
That’s fine, say some neighbors, and the
sexual orientation o f those to be served is no
concern, but the presence among them of
drug users is.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon plans
to sell its building at 3835 S.W. Kelly Ave.,
and thus needs a new home for its HIV Day
Center.
Ainsworth Church, 2941 N.E. Ainsworth
St., a member of the inter-demoninational
Christian service organization, has proposed
to provide a new home for the service.
The center provides a social gathering
place, a free lunch, counseling, placement in
transitional housing and other services to
people suffering from the AIDS virus. Ac
cording to director John Pitch, it serves up to
40 people a day.
The church congregation was scheduled
to vote on whether to offer space to the
center in April, but the decision was post
poned until late May in the face of commu
nity concerns.
Pitch, Ainsworth Church pastor Rev.
Lynne Smouse Lopez and elder Edward
Johns attended the May meeting o f the
Concordia Neighborhood Association, at
the urging of president Pat Messinger, to
respond to such concerns.
Chief among these is the presence o f drug
users among the center’s clients.
“If the church wants to do social service,
fine, and we have no problem with people
who have HIV (the AIDS virus), one resi
dent at the Concordia meeting said. “But
drug users support their addiction through
criminal activity.”
Others said that the neighborhood al-
ready has a severe problem with drug selling
and use.
Some critics have quoted Pitch as saying
hat up to 50 percent of the center’s clientele
re “challenged by drugs.” Pitch says he
ay have used the figure, but that any esti-
ate is a guess since the center doesn’t
creen its clients for drug use. He says that
he estimate included recovering addicts and
lcoholics.
He adds that the center has rules against
ringing drugs or paraphernalia to the pre-
ises, selling them in the vicinity, showing
p under the influence of drugs or alcohol,
r even talking about them, with penalties
or violations up to permanent expulsion,
e adds that to his knowledge there have
een no problems in the surrounding neigh-
orhood as a result o f the center’s activity.
Ironically, this last point is supported by
ne of the center’s critics. William Scott,
ho helped distribute a petition opposing
he center’s relocation to Ainsworth, says he
isited its current location in the Corbett
eighborhood and talked to some neigh-
ors. None reported any problems, he said,
nd most weren’t even aware that it was
here.
Johns and others see this as a “tremen-
ous” endorsement of the program. Scott
oes not.
The Southwest Kelly area is more mixed-
se and less residential than Ainsworth, he
ays. He is also unhappy with the church’s
ttitude.
When he attended a meeting to find out
ore about the proposal, he was told that it
as the church’s decision, and that only if he
ecame a member would he have a vote. He
elped circulate the petition, he says, be-
ause he was “trying to find some informa-
lion, and to let the pastor know that people
anted information.
The United Church of Christ has offered this northeast Ainsworth street site for a
day center for people infected with the HIV virus.
(Photo by Mark Washington)
Other concerns raised were that the cen
ter might create parking congestion from its
visitors, and that it might attract homeless
people to the area who would camp there.
Pitch says that some center clients are in
deed homeless, but that they are in transi
tional housing, in shelters or friends’ homes
rather than on the street. Most don’t have
cars and will come by bus.
Pitch agrees that the center might be bet
ter located closer to downtown, but that so
far they have not found a better space.
Lopez says she thinks the current drug
problem in Concordia is over-rated, and that
the concern may be a mask for anti-gay
biggotry among the center’s critics.
At least some of those at the Concordia
meeting were satisfied with the explainations
given
“I would like to commend the church,”
One resident said. “I suppose there’s risk
involved, when you try to do something
meaningful there usually is.”
Messinger says that he is satisfied that
most of the concerns raised are “non-is
sues.”
Scott is not convinced. “I haven't heard
anything from John Pitch, pastor Lopez or
anyone else that makes me less concerned
than I was two weeks ago,” he says.
Alberta to show art monthly
torchante; draw nlans for Walk on Alberta' appeal
B y L ee P eri . man
Hands work Vinyard
Come and have fun in the sun and help
kick off this year’s Art & The Vineyard,
the annual benefit for the Maude Kerns
Art C enter in Eugene. Energetic
volunteers are need for three days of the
Vineyard '97 celebration. July 4-6, as
well as setup on July 3 and takedown on
July 7. The festival features art, people,
live entertainment, tasty crusine and the
best of Oregon’s wines.
W ashington.
The late M attie A. C allier-Spears, the
past religion editor o f the Portland Ob
server, was also honored in the category
o f M atrons o f M usic.
There were over one hundred people
in attendance.
Evangelist M ary Green was the guest
speaker.
McKinley Burt
Honored
citizen
Friends gathered at Reflections Books &
Coffee Saturday to celebrate the 75th birth
day of Professor McKinley Burt. Professor
♦
Most people don’t think o f Northeast
Alberta Street as the next Pearl District,
but it is planning its own version of the
Northwest Portland nelghborhood’ s First
Thursday art tour.
Art Walk on Alberta will occur on the
last Thursday of each month, beginning 6
to 9 p.m. May 29th. It will feature art
exhibits at at least 12 locations along the
street.
There will also be free entertain
ment, with Flamenco guitar by Tomate
at G uardino Studio and the bluegrass
group G reat N orthern Plains at Rexall
Rose Cafe.
The intent is to showcase the area, with
the hope that art lovers and the curious
will come back during the remainder of
the month.
“So much has changed here in the last
few years that many people don’t realize
what this area has to offer, or that it’s
safe,” organizer Donna Guardino says.
Emphasizing this last, she says that she,
and other shop owners, live above their
shops.
The street “had gone so far down that it
had to come back up," Guardino says.
Why as a haven for struggling artists?
Mostly because rents and land costs are
cheap.
“To succeed on Hawthorne Boulevard
you’d have to start out knowing exactly
what you were doing,” she says. By con
trast, some Alberta merchants are first
time shop owners creating a business out
of a “pretty raw space.”
Follow ing are the street num bers
o f p articipating storefronts, follow ed
by the business and the art being ex
hibited:
1438 - Roslyn’s Garden Cafe and
Shades o f C o lo r G allery - C indy
DeCecco’s stone and metal sculpture,
William Rutherford’s and Leslie White’s
mixed media.
1807 - Earth Concerns Thrift Store
and Resource Center - recycled art.
1627 - Ken Wright - concrete and
metal sculpture.
2403 - Rexall Rose Cafe - group show
of painting, sculpture, collages and
sketches.
2809 - Isaka Shamsud-Din - mixed
media by the renowned mural painter.
2924 - One Stop Immigration - group
show o f photography.
2929 - Judee Moonbeam - wearable
fibre art.
2939 - Guardino Studio and Gallery -
Handmade paper and prints.
2940 - Video-rama - Erin Proctor’s oil
paintings.
Maps are available at any participat
ing storefront.
Continue to page B6
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