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Committed to cultural diversity.
V olume XXVII. Number 29
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Music by Blue Lake
The festive world beat band Mumbo
Gumbo serves up a spicy stew of jubilant
dancing music, Thursday, July 17 at Blue
Lake Regional Park The seven piece band
is a Bay-area favorite and features sizzling
vocals, accordion, swamp guitar, boogie
piano and a solid rhythm section. The con
cert area opens at 4:30 p.m. with the two-
hour performance beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Admission is $3.50 per adult, $1 for teens
and $3 per vehicle for parking.
How’s your hair
Haircare experts will answ eryourques-
tions on hair color and style and give out
free sample products, during the Nice ‘n
Easy Shine On-Tour Thursday, July 24
through Sunday, July 27 from noon to 5
p.m. at the fountain court area near
Stanfords and Nordstrom at Lloyd Center.
Police sell seizures
Drug-seized and government surplus
property will be sold in a police auction
Saturday, July 19 at the Expo Center. The
sale starts with bicycles and personal prop
erties at 9:30 a.m. with boats and cars
going on the auction block at 1:30 p.m.
You can preview items Friday, July 18
from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Advocate for women
Clackamas Women ’s Services is recruit
ing new board members. The organization
provides emergency shelter, support and
advocacy for women and children escap
ing domestic and sexual abuse. Minority
residents and survivors of domestic and
sexual violence are encouraged to apply.
The board meets monthly. Call Kathy
Moore, executive director, at 722-2366
for an application packet.
Film festival at dam
The annual Bonneville Lock and Dam
Fish Film Festival, films about fish, will be
shown at the Brandford Island theater at
the Washington Shore Visitor Complex
between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Saturday, July
26 and Sunday, July 27.
Day camp choices
Youth day camps for children from post-
kindergarten through sixth grade are in ses
sion now through Aug. 22 at the Marshall
Community Center, l(X)9 E. McLoughlin
Blvd. in Vancouver. The parks and recre
ation department camps run Monday through
Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. They offer a
variety of activities, field trips and clinics.
Register at the Bagley C enter, 4100
Plomondon or call (360) 696-8065.
Talk on race
Metropolitan Human Rights invites you
to join people from various ethnic and racial
backgrounds for open and honest dialog on
race relations during a community dialog,
Thursday, July 24 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the
Red Cross building, 3131 N. Vancouver.
Pre-registration is requested by calling Linda
Hunter at 823-5284.
Hear the blues
Ellen Whytle and Reflex Blue play the
blues on July 21 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the
Sellwood Concerts series at Westmoreland
Park at the intersection of southeast 22nd
and Bybee. The public is cordially invited
to bring picnics and enjoy som e of
Portland’s best musicians performing in a
beautiful park setting
Fun jazz for all
Jungle Jim and the Swingset dish out
jazzforallagesT hursday, July 17 a t7 p.m.
at Wallace Park by the corner of northwest
26th and Raleigh
Whitewater fun
Mt. Hood Community College’s Wild
Side Tours will take a rafting trip down the
McKenzie Rivereast of Eugene on Friday,
Aug. 8. The group will float the whitewater
section near Blue River. The cost is only
$39, transporation included. For informa
tion call the College Center Information
Desk at 667-7277.
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Liquor license renewal shot down
by
N eil H eilpern
he Portland City Council last week
rubber stamped recommendations
from the police and licensing de
partments to deny King Food Mart a
liquor license renewal.
A parade o f opponents and supporters o f
Elaine R ho’s store at the com er o f M artin
Luther King Blvd. and Fremont St., N.E.,
sparked debate in council chambers Tues
day.
Impassioned pleas by several supporters
did not dissuade the 5-0 vote o f com m ission
ers, who said Rho’s request for more under
standing and cooperation from the city was
outweighed by the case presented by the
police department and bureau o f licensing.
The council’s recommendation will be
forwarded to the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission (OLCC), which has the final say
in the licensing matter.
Regulatory specialist Mike Sanderson pre
sented council members with a thick docu
ment, outlining concerns about sale o f alco
hol to minors, violence and people drinking
in the parking lot, the alleged sale o f so-
called crack pipes, and other incidents. Some
o f the public drinking involved alcohol pur
chased elsewhere.
Sanderson complained the store lacks ap
propriate security and often fails to call po
lice when there is a problem.
Perry Christensen, police investigator, said
Rho was “reluctant to cooperate with the
efforts o f different agencies to improve the
neighborhood,” accusing her o f not training
properly to resist sales to minors. He said
police bought crack pipes from employees.
One officer told o f driving into the parking
lot and noticing known drug dealers go into
the store, “as if it was a safe haven for them .”
Another said he had not seen prom ised
changes in behavior by the store’s owners,
Elaine Rho o f the King Food Mart and her
accusing them o f having a “blind eye to the
liquor
license renewal.
community, to make a profit.”
R ho’s attorney, Thomas P. Walsh, painted
states that persistent problems must be re
a picture o f the woman as a cooperative
lated to the sale o f alcohol.
person dedicated to improving her store,
“We could shut this place down under the
working for the betterment o f the community
county nuisance law,” said Mayor Vera Katz.
and having a lot o f support from neighbors.
Walsh said Rho admitted the few viola
He showed a petition with more than 600
tions o f sale to minors and that violating
supporting signatures.
employees had been fired. “ If the test is the
Walsh noted several steps Rho had taken
two violations, then 50 percent o f the stores
to alleviate problems, including speed bumps
in town should be closed.”
to slow cars in the lot, six new lights, m odify
“The murder (last year) was about a per
ing pay phones to eliminate incoming calls to
sonal grudge and had nothing to do with the
drug dealers, hiring security guards, closing
licensee,” he said, adding that police never
part o f the lot and increasing discussions with
said people arrested for dealing drugs in the
OLCC.
parking lot had been drinking any alcohol
He complained that “hearsay information
purchased at the store.
presented to the council is clearly an effort to
“I try to run a good businesses,” said Rho,
orchestrate a decision unfairly without due
noting that although she has been at the store
process.”
for 11 years, she recently took over manage
When Sanderson cited an Oregon law
ment following her di vorce. “I will be good at
allowing denial when a store’s owners are
it if you help me.”
“not willing or unable to control patrons in
Rho said she made numerous requests for
their vicinity,” Walsh argued the law clearly
advice from OLCC and the police. “I took it
T
attorney Thbmas P. Walsh appear before the Portland City Council to fight for her
Photo by Nett H eiipem
and it worked.” She then invited council
members to visit her store for a first hand
look.
“I’m not ignoring it; I am working on it,”
she added.
Although he voted against renewal, Coun
cil Member Jim Francesconi noted that “if we
uphold denial o f the license, two or three
years from now we would see the same com
plaints (at the com er).”
Rho argued that prior to this year “ I wasn ’ t
managing the store and w asn’t aware o f all
the problems.”
“One individual cannot be there 24 hours
a day; that’s why we have police,” said neigh
bor Thomas Mullen.
“This is a black neighborhood," noted
Jesse Hall. “ Hiese oriental people are not the
problem. The (OLCC) liquor (two stores
away) is the problem.”
Another neighbor, Craig Boehm, noted
the state liquor store has no parking lot o f its
McPherson team USA coach
M ichael L eighton
hen th e top w restlers in the
nation com pete for the World
Championships later this summer,
they will have received expert instruction
from Donnie McPherson, a long-time Portland
resident and wrestling coach.
McPherson has been selected as one o f two
assistant coaches for Team USA which begins two
weeks o f practices later this month at the Olympic
Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Arizona State University’s Larry Smith is the head
coach for the freestyle wresting team.
This is not the first time around the w orld’s best
athletes for McPherson, a Jefferson High School
wrestling coach who also serves as a student disci
pline counselor.
McPherson coached wrestlers for the 1996 Olym
pic Games in Atlanta, Ga. and he has traveled
extensively for international competitions, includ
ing coaching in January o f this year for interna Donnie McPherson
The world championships will take place Aug. 29
tional competition at Yasadogo, Turkey.
McPherson said this year’s group o f wrestlers
through Sept. 2 in Siberia, Russia.
McPherson is a former assistant coach at Portland
are a mixture o f old veterans and young, rising stars.
State University and was one o f 15 finalists for the
“W e’re a great team, but we still have to prove
head coaching position for last year’s Olympic team.
what we can do,” he told the Portland Observer.
He said some o f this year’s top contenders are Zig
He has high hopes o f becoming the head freestyle
Jones, a former world champion silver medalist;
wrestling coach for the 2000 Olympics in Sidney,
Melvin Douglas, a world champion; Terry Brands
Australia.
McPherson graduated from W ashington High
who competed at the ’ 96 Olympics; and Les Gutches,
a two-time NCAA champion from Oregc.i State
School in Portland in 1969. He w entontocontinuehis
education at Portland State University.
University.
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Continued to page A4
CmiiLPfifiH
Local coach named one of top wrestling assistants in the country
by
own and its customers purchase hard liquor
before congregating in the King Food Marl’s
lot He accused police of not going after
similar problems in places like Safeway as
aggressively as Rho’s store.
“I’ve never known Elaine to do anything
illegal.” said neighbor and tobacco vendor
Robert L. Shaw. “I’m behind the counter
often and have never seen pipes or screens."
“I’ve seen her walking the parking lot,
asking people to leave who don’t belong
there," he added. “It is a clean store."
"If police see it as a trouble spot, why don’t
they park there while doing paperwork," said
Shaw, urging a pro active police stance.
“See what she has done that is positive, not
just the negative."
Robert Barnes, who described himself as
a former night manager for King Food Mart,
said Rho ran a "light ship,” citing frequent
W
Premier music event of the summer begins
Saturday underneath the St. Johns Bridge
ome of the greatest jazz music on the planet takes place
this weekend underneath the St. Johns Bridge in north
Portland at the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival.
Red Holloway headlines the 17th annual event sponsored in large part this
year by Portland General Electric.
“This festival embodies all the best attributes o f Portland’s community
and neighborhood spirit and the very essence o f what makes north Portland
and St. Johns so special,” said John Dusea o f PG E’s Our Neighborhoods
First campaign.
Heralded as the prem ier jazz event o f the summer, performances start at
noon Saturday with the Marc Fendel Trio. Tall Jazz performs Saturday at 2
p.m.; Chris Parker with Gary Hobbs, Dave Captien and Renato Caranto hit
the stage at 4 p.m. and True Friends featuring Marilyn Keller performs at 6
p.m.
Sunday’s line-up starts at noon with the Paul Mazzio Quartet, followed by
Dan Faehnle at 2 p.m. and Kelly Broadway with Mike Wofford at 4 p.m.
Holloway will star with the great Leroy Vinnegar on bass, Mel Brown on
drums and G eoff Lee on piano, during the concluding 6 p.m. performance on
Sunday.
PG E’s Our Neighborhoods First team will be on hand with its neighbor
hood display, an electric vehicle and Bobby Brown, an accomplished bead
worker and long-time PGE employee Brown will demonstrate her bead
making, which features distinctive African-American designs.
S