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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 1997)
Volume XXVII, Number 36 C om m itted to Cultural diversity. Smart Guy goes from fifth grade to high school Tahj Moury stars as whiz kid in new television comedy. S IT I. 3, 1997 Positive role models for kids Cooper is first MVP of WNBA championship Increase the Peace again wins community support. Houston celebrates victory in the inaugural WNBA championship. See Entertainment, page A 6. See Metro, inside (Llie ortlanò Hillary to attend funeral The White House says U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend the funeral of Britain’s Princess Diana on Saturday White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters the only other U.S. official to be invited was Adm. Wil liam Crowe, the U.S. ambassador to Brit ain. Inannouncingthe decision, the White House said that it is not appropriate for President Clinton to attend the service because it is not a state funeral, and there will be no official U.S. delegation. Britons mourn Diana Buckingham Palace called on Britons to observe a minute of silence during Saturday’s funeral for Princess Diana. Banks, shops and sports organizations already have made plans to close in trib ute to the 36-year-old “people’s prin cess” who in death is fast achieving the status of a saint in the eyes o f a mourning public. Thousands of mourners gathered to pay their respects to Princess Diana at her former Kensington Palace home and at St. James’s Palace, where her body is lying until Saturday’s ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey. Army may fire laser The U.S. Defense Department said to day it was considering an Army request to test fire the military’s most powerful laser weapon at a satellite circling Earth. The New York Times reported that the Army’s Space and Defense Command had asked to test for the first time in September the ability o f the big laser to possibly destroy satellites or other space vehicles in time of war. New smoking warning There’s a fresh warning out about the dangers of smoking. Columbia Univer sity researchers say more than 40 per cent of the cases of stomach and esoph ageal cancer can be blamed on smoking, and quitting does not cut the risk for 30 years. Bounty hunters sought An intense manhunt was under way for two bounty hunters who allegedly broke into the wrong house in a commando- style raid looking for a bail-jumper and shot and killed a young couple in Arizona. Police said two men were in custody and another was under police guard in a hos pital after the ski-masked group broke down the front door o f the house, held youngchildren at gunpoint and exchanged fire with the couple early Sunday. Max forges ahead Photographer at crash admits taking pulse of dying princess while snapping pictures S tanding as pioneers in lh<¿ creation o f one of the m ost m odern trans portation system s in the U nited States is P ort land M ayor V era Katz and T ri-M e t G en eral M anager Tom W alsh. The governm ent leaders celebrated the opening o f the M ax light rail lines to C ivic Stadium and Southw est 18,h and Salm on during a Friday cerem o n y . ne o f the photographers at the cra sh scen e w h ere P rin cess Diana lay dying took her pulse as he snapped pictures o f the wreckage, his lawyer said Tuesday. A judge barred him from tire paparazzi business, and pushed ahead with the case against him and six other photographers. Judge Herve Steplian placet! all seven photog raphers under formal investigation for involun tary homicide and failing to come to the aid o f tire princess and three others as they lay trapped in the wreckage after the car crash early Sunday. Police accuse photographer Romuald Rat of obstructing the work o f the first officers on the scene. Rat’s lawyer, Philippe Benamou, argued that his client merely checked Diana’s pulse when he was taking pictures o f the wreckage. “He took Diana’s pulse. He wanted to see if she was dead or alive,” the law yer said. “He saw that she was alive, and police were arriv ing at the sam e tim e. It happened so quickly.” O Rentals in single-family homes wins support City planners move forward on plan despite objections from 20 neighborhood groups B y L ee P erlman throughout the city opposed the change in letters to the com m ission. he Portland Planning C om m ission last w eek approved the creation of H ow ever, sta ff planner Jim C laypool ar "granny flat" rental units as part of, gued that the restriction was im possible to or next to, any single family house in enforce, P ort and was the only place in the zoning land. code where ow ner-occupancy is required for a particular housing type. T h e c o n tro v e rs ia l A c c e sso ry R e n ta l U n it p ro p o s a l is an e x te n s io n o f the In a com prom ise, the com m ission said A lb in a C o m m u n ity P la n s A o v e rla y that existing hom es that add an accessory rental must be ow ner occupied at the time z o n e . A m o n g o th e r th in g s , it a llo w e d sm a ll re n ta l s tr u c tu re s to be b u ilt n ex t o f conversion to, o r as p a rts o f, la rg e h o u se s in s e Com m ission president Rick M ichaelson said he feared that w ithout an ow ner-occu le c te d p a rts o f in n e r n o rth an d n o r th e a s t P o rtla n d . pied provision, speculators would buy up The new proposal would allow this in any large blocks o f houses in som e neighbor hoods to convert them. single fam ily zone in the city. U nder the proposal, the accessory unit The current proposal also does aw ay with m ost o f an A overlay requirem ent that when may not be more than 800 square feet, or accessory units are created, at least one of one third of the floor area o f the house, the units be perm anently ow ner-occupied. w hichever is less. U nder the A O verlay pro Som e 20 neighborhood associations from vision, there had to be a main unit o f at least T 1.400 square teet after the conversion, lim- ¡ted us to this provision on very large hom es. Housing strategies for North/ Northeast considered T he lack o f affordable housing for ren t ers and hom e buyers has becom e a critical issue for residents o f N orth and N ortheast Portland. R esidents can learn m ore about strate gies to deal with the housing crisis at a C om m unity dialogue on Tuesday, Sept. X from 3 - 4 p.m. at the U rban League, 10 N. Russell St. The dialogue is being presented by the Urban League o f Portland and the C oalition for a L ivable Future. Tw o speakers w orking on affordable hous ing in N orth/N ortheast Portland will present inform ation about the current housing situ ation and tools and p olicies that the C o ali tion for a L ivable Future is proposing to deal with the problem . R esidents will learn how they can m ake their voices heard and im pact im portant housing policy decisions being m ade by Portland and our M etro regional governm ent “C itizen input is critical as we urge our policy m akers to dev elo p m ore affordable housing for our young fam ilies, senior and low in co m e re s id e n ts ,” said C la u d ie tte LaV ert, an outreach w orker for the Urban League. Church plans called too suburban A man opened fire at a Miami Beach post office Tuesday, wounding at least three people before shooting himself, Miami television station WPLG said. Police could not confirm witness reports that the gunman was a U.S. Postal Service employee. Witnesses said there were 15 to 20 people in line at the post office when the shooting started. Two of the injured were women and were reported to be in serious condition. Irvington Covenant building design runs into roadblock B y L ee P erlman he Portland Planning Bureau and King N eighborhood A ssociation are opposing Irvington C ovenant C hurch's plans for a new building on N o rth east Martin Luther King Jr Bouelvard. Staff planner Ruth Selid has recom m ended denial for a conditional use perm it for a new church on a T-shaped vacant property near Northeast S haver Street, and o f the design o f the proposed building. The city held a hearing on the issue Aug 5, but the church has asked for a delay in a decision until S eptem ber I6 to a llo w them to submit additional w ritten testim ony. Sclid, and King A ssociation land use chair T US deplores attack « wr Charges sought in deaths Shooting at post office The United States called on Israel to ensure security for workers on a U.S.- funded road project in the West Bank town of Hebron after they were stoned by Jewish settlers. The State Department deplored the attack by the settlers, who threw stones at Palestinian laborers and lay down in the street to disrupt work on the project sponsored by the USAID agency. Some 400 Jews live and study in Hebron, home to more than 100,000 Pal estinians. See Sports, page A6. Assignments accepted Portland School Board Chair Sue Hagmeier and Superintendent Jack B/erwirth announce a blue ribbon panel o f area residents who have accepted a challenge to look for solutions to the district's money problems. Stephen Foust say the c h u rc h 's design is “too suburban,” spread out and oriented to w ard cars rather than foot traffic. A nother problem is that the land is zoned for high-density housing, and the church plans no housing. Not only that. Selid says, but because proposed facilities are spread out over the entire site, there w ould be no chance to build housing in the future Foust says that w hile the church could be a positive addition to the neighborhood, its plans depend on housing there to, am ong other things, fuel econom ic developm ent. Foust says he hopes for a new proposal that would concentrate church facilities in the center o f the site and allow housing developm ent on the fringes in the future. H ow ever, church sp< ikesperson Fred Neth says there are no plans at this tim e to m odify the proposal, and no plans lor housing d ev el opm ent except perhaps an “assisted living" facility for the elderly.