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Sellwood Riverfront Concerts
Celebrate the last summer of the 20*
century with friends and neighbors in local
parks around the city. The Sellwood
Riverfront Concert on the W illamette River
(just north of the Sellwood Bridge) will be
on July 12. Concerts begin on Monday from
6:30 PM until 8:30 PM. Call 823-2223.
World Walk for Breastfeeding
La Leche League international’s World
Walk for Breastfeeding will be held on
Saturday, August 7 from noon to 4 PM in
1 air Hill park in downtown Portland. The
one-mile symbolic walk will begin at 1:30
PM on the running track adjacent to Lair
Hill Park. La Leche League International
(LLLI) is a nonprofit organization that
provides information and support to
200,000breastfeeding mothers in 66 coun­
tries every month. Call 503/524-9616.
Woman, Thou Art Loosed!
Women throughout the country and
around the world anticipate their largest
Christian gathering to date, as they prepare
to converge in Atlanta for Bishop T.D.
Jakes’ fourth annual Woman. Thou Art
Loosed! Conference at the Georgia Dome
July 29-31.“WailingWomen Win” is theme
for the 1999 conference - billed by the
Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the
top five meetings (ranked in attendance)
Atlantahosts. On-site registration will open
at 10 AM on Thursday. The event is free and
open to the public, however, preferred seat­
ing has been reserved for pre-registrants.
Call Pamela Gadsen at 214/333-6447.
Explore Africa This Summer
The Homowa African Arts and Cul­
tures is presenting a four-week series of
African arts day camps for children ages
6-12. The day camps begin July 19 and
run through August 13. Each week-long
camp occurs Monday through Friday
from 9 AM until 3 PM. The series begins
July 19-23 at the East Portland Commu­
nity Center, 740 SE 106* Ave. The sec­
ond camp follows July 26-30 at Whitaker
Middle School, 5700 NE 39*. For addi­
tional information, call 503/288-3025.
Hip Chicks and Activists
Hip Chicks and Activists is looking for
women of color and men ot color, espe­
cially African-Americans living inNE Port­
land to join our social activist theater group.
Open house and informational fun gather­
ing on Saturday, July 10*. Call 306-9000.
Remembering Hiroshima
& Nagasaki
An event coordinated by Physicians for
Social Responsibility and W omen’s Inter­
national League for Peace and Freedom
will be holding an annual event memorial­
izing the victims o f the Hiroshima and
Nagasaki bombings and will call for the
elimination o f nuclear weapons. The event
will be on August 6 from 6-7 PM at the
Japanese American Historical Plaza (NW
Naito Parkway and Couch St.). Call Jenni­
fer Aldrich at 503/274-2720.
Help Needy Children
The L.I.F.E. (Low-Income Families
Emergency) Center is having its 16* annual
back-to-school drive forneedy children(K-
12). The drive will start July 1 through
August 10,1999. TheCenterneeds new and
good usable clothing to ensure needy chil­
dren are properly prepared for the upcom­
ing school year. If you need more informa­
tion or would like to volunteer for the
giveaway, call Leslie Garth at 503/284-
6878. All donations maybe dropped off at
the L.I.F.E. Center at 2746 NE MLK Jr.
Blvd. Or, call the Center for a pick-up.
Free Meditation Workshop
There will be a free workshop for
National Meditation Month. The work­
shop is based on a book entitled "The
Wings o f Joy” by Sri Chinmoy. It is
being held at the downtown library (801
SW 10*) from 1.30 - 3 PM on Sunday,
July 18*. Call 503/471-1588 to register
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OMSI Celebrates 3 0 *
Anniversary Of Man’s First
Walk On The Moon
People Across the Country Can Add Their Memories to New OMSI D isp la y
O
o f fun activities.
V isitors can learn w hat other people
th ro ughout the U .S. w ere doing 30 years
ago at the tim e o f m an ’s first w alk on the
m oon on July 2 0 ,1 9 6 9 at O M S I’s “ W here
W ere Y ou W hen A pollo 11 L anded?
d isplay, w hich is m aking its debut at the
event. A nyone can share th eir m em ories
now through July 18, either by filling out
an entry form at the m useum or through
O M SI’s w eb site at w w w .om si.edu. OM SI
is hoping to collect entries from people
across the country, to add to the display.
To date, entries have been received from
all over O regon, parts o f W ashington and
even as far aw ay as L ouisiana, F lorida
and H aw aii.
The top ten m ost m em orable entries
w ill be recognized on OM SI s w eb site,
and their authors w ill receive a free space
T -shirt from O M S I’s Science Store and
two free general adm ission passes to the
m useum . W inners w ill be selected Sun­
day, July 18 as part o f O M S I’s annual
Space C elebration event.
A t the 30* anniversary event, kids and
adults can eat a free piece o f festive
m oon cake (l-2 p .m .) and view footage
from the A pollo 11 m oon landing through­
out the day. A t a special show ing, people
can relive this histo ric m om ent by w atch ­
ing the actual telev isio n coverage o f the
m oon landing led by veteran reporter
W alter C ro n k ite, w hich w ill be show n in
O M S I’s planetarium theater at 2:17 P.M .,
the sam e tim e as the actual landing on the
m oon by astronauts N eil A rm strong and
B uzz A ldrin on this day 30 years ago.
T he 30,h A nniversary o f M an’s first
W alk on the M oon event is free w ith
O M SI general adm ission, w hich includes
entrance to O M SI’s sum m er exhibit Im ag­
ine Space! F eaturing the broadest c o lle c ­
tion o f space artifacts and exhibits ever
assem bled in the Pacific N orthw est.
»he «econd man to walk on the moon on July 2 0 , 1 9 6 9
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin - the second
jn g Gemin| space
explains to students from King Elementary
0M SI-s summer exhibit Imagine
through September 6.
Hope for Conference to Bring
Non-Profit Organizations and
Neighbors Together: continued
Continued from Front Page
“Few er people have been displaced than
w ould have been otherw ise.
PCRI faces a different problem. The
guardian o f the ill-started Dominian C api­
tal housing portfolio, it inherited more than
200 dilapidated houses. It turned its atten­
tion first to those currently occupied. O th­
ers were left as is for long periods, to the
chagrin o f neighbors who considered them
eyesores or even dangerous buildings.
NECDC, too, at tim es received com plaints
about the upkeep o f properties before sale.
“ For the m ost part, our relations w ith
our neighbors have been really good,”
F itzpatrick says. “O ur biggest problem is
new residents who a re n ’t very tolerant.
Brow n says CD Cs “need to be aw are of
being good neighbors to the people around
their properties, to allow for oversight. If
a CDC is w ell run, you shouldn’t be able
to tell its property from its neighbors.
Franciscan, despite its m ission, recently
built a m ixed ow ner-occupied and rental
project on N ortheast Fargo Street, and is
planning another on N ortheast R odney
A venue, because it had com m itted to do
COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
UPDATE
so to m eet neighborhood concerns. “We
try to approach neighborhoods in the b e­
ginning, and work w ith them in partner­
ship,” V oiss says.
B oise president J.C. K izak says this
was the root o f a conflict betw een Sabin
CDC and neighbors o f their new project at
N ortheast 27th Avenue and K illingw orth
Street - a failure to com m unicate w ell and
early. The issues facing the CDCs a re n 't
lim ited to conflicts w ith neighborhoods.
An increasing scarcity o f land, the rising
cost o f what is available and the loss ot
subsidies such as the N ehem iah program
have m ade it harder to provide affordable
housing. M ultnom ah C o u n ty 's affordable
housing program , w hich gives tax fore­
closed properties to CD Cs, and which
once provided as many as 50 lots in a year,
this year has only 12 to give aw ay. H.C.
T upper, the program ’s director, is encour­
aging the agencies to decide am ong them ­
selves which program should get w hich
lot, rather than w aste resources in com ­
peting for them. Likew ise, som e agencies
are considering jo in t projects and shared
use o f resources.
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B y L ee P erlem an
Here are some of the principal Community
Development Corporations working In Inner
Northeast Portland, and the projects they
are engaged In.
FRANCISCAN ENTERPRISE
This corporation specializes in be-
low -m arket rental housing. It recently
com pleted a four-unit developm ent on
N ortheast Fargo Street east o f M artin
Luther King B oulevard, and is set to
begin another at N ortheast Rodney A v­
enue at San Rafael Street, that will have
a m ixture o f ow ner-occupied and rental
housing based on agreem ents w ith the
neighborhood. It is also getting ready
to develop vacant lots at N ortheast
A lberta Street and 20th A venue, and at
N orth W illiam s A venue and Roselaw n
Street. Y et another project is redevel­
oping the form er Texas A nnex b u ild­
ing on N ortheast A lberta Street at 17th
Avenue for rentals above ground floor
com m ercial space on the lower level.
MSI celebrates the 30th anniversary
o f m an’s first walk on the moon on
W ednesday, July 20 w ith the de­
but o f O M S I’s new “W here W ere You
W hen A pollo 11 L anded?” display, a
show ing o f actual footage from the Apollo
11 m oon landing, free cake and a variety
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HOUSING OUR FAMILIES
This agency was founded by a group
o f professional w om en to provide af­
fordable rental housing for fam ilies
and single parents. It abandoned a 10-
unit tow nhouse project on N orth Fargo
Street at C om m ercial Avenue when the
B oise N eighborhood A ssociation ob­
jected to m ore below -m arket rental
h o u sin g in the n e ig h b o rh o o d ; the
project is being pursued by partner
Thom as D. W alsh as a m arket-rate for-
sale venture. H OF is ju st com pleting
the A lberta Sim m ons Plaza, a four-
story, 74-unit structure w ith ground
floor com m ercial space for low -incom e
seniors on N ortheast M artin L uther
King Jr. B oulevard at Dekum Street.
NORTHEAST COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
The largest CDC operating in north­
east Portland, NECDC specialized in
the building o f single family homes for
low-income hom ebuyers, w ith prices
reduced by the federal Nehem iah pro­
gram. It also built the 55-unit McCoy
V illage com plex at 4430 N.E. M artin
Luther King Jr. Blvd. in cooperation
with the ONE Company o f Los A nge­
les. C urrently it has a home for sale at
North Com m ercial Avenue and M ason
Street, is w orking on renovating a house
at 1024 N. Skidmore Street, and plans
to build on vacant lots at N ortheast 59th
Avenue and Sacram ento Street, N orth­
east Grand Avenue and Skidmore Street,
and N ortheast 27th Avenue and A lberta
Street, the last a three-story rental.
K
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ECD
C, tkid»
the laroe^t
largest and m ost produc­
tive o f the northeast program s, may face
budget cuts and even sta ff layoffs this
year due to overall loss o f income, ac­
cording to board president Jess M cKinley.
It is continuing its original m ission - the
rehab and building o f single fam ily homes
for sale to low -incom e people - but it is
experim enting w ith projects outside the
target area, and high-end for-profit hous­
ing developm ents as an incom e producer.
Some o f these activities have earned it
some criticism , such as an investm ent o f
non-targeted funds in an U gandan saw ­
mill and the sale o f hom es to some o f its
own highest-paid staffers. A gency offi­
cials say there was nothing unethical in­
volved, but both operations were curtailed.
M cKinley says the U gandan operation had
becom e “too m uch o f a distraction,” and
adds, “If we go so far beyond our m ission,
it must be clear it is doable for us.” A cting
co-directors Sondra Price and Denise Roy
say that one o f the houses considered for
sale to their personnel was not technically
reserved for low -incom e ow nership, but
decided to nix the sale anyw ay.
PORTLAND COMMUNITY
REINVESTMENT INITIATIVES
This corporation was created to m an­
age the single-fam ily house em pire as­
sembled by the scandal plagued Dom in­
ion Capital Corporation. Its original m is­
sion was to help existing occupants ac­
quire the structures and rent the rest at
below -m arket rates. H ow ever, director
M axine Fitzpatrick says that “ five or
six” houses are too deteriorated to save;
they will be dem olished and new houses
will be built to replace them. PCRI is
seeking no new property.
SABIN COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
This group was created by members
o f the Sabin Community Association spe­
cifically to combat gentrification and
displacement. M ost o f the housing it has
produced has been below-market rent­
als, including a six-plex on Northeast
Killingsworth Street and 27th Avenue
that will open later this month. H ow ever,
it also has rent-to-own and land trust
programs; the former allow tenants to
acquire their homes gradually, the latter
gives the CDC right of first refusal to re­
purchase the house, at an agreed rate, if
it is sold. The CDC has nine new land
trust houses in development.
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