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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 2001)
< «miinitted to C ultural Diversity w w w .portlandobserver.com September 26. 2001 “diiidgdny ¡jPaittand ô Com m unities” Z íT o inni u n i t n I e u h a r Free Museum Event At this time of terrible loss and uncer tainty, the Portland Art Museum re mains a place of peace and beauty. Every day this week., through Satur day, Sept. 29, the Museum will be open to all free of charge, from 10a.m. to 5 p.m. Portland Art Museum is located at 1219 Park Ave. in down town. Call 503-226-2811 or visit mvwjQrtlandaitmuseum.org. Come and Get Your Ice Cream W ednesday m arks “Free W edge Day.” Cold Stone Creamery, located at 14614 S.E. Sunnyside Rd. in Clackamas introduces its latest prod uct, the Wedge, by hosting “Free Wedge Day” on Wednesday, Oct. 3, from 4 - 7 p.m. Cold Stone Creamery will indulge in samples o f this deli cious dessert, while supplies last. Call 503-558-1407. A Community Retreat All are welcome to attend a communi ties retreat on Oct. 13 and 14 at the Jackson Bottoms Wetlands. The goal of the gathering is to provide oppor tunities for various members o f com munities to dialogue about what ac tions are effective in our communi ties; to give value to actions by in cluding them in the agenda and re specting diversity. To register, call Jill Severson at 503-753-3520. National Bowl-AThon AMF and its employees are uniting to sponsor a national bowl-a-thon on Oct. 7 to raise money for the benefit of New York City Firefighters, Police and Rescue Workers. A M F’s goal is to raise more than $3 million for the relief fund established by New York Mayor Giuliani’soffice. Far additional info., goonline to www.nvc.gov. Sign up at your local bowling center. Weatherization Workshop Don’t let your heating bills take you hostage. Come to a workshop and learn how to save energy through m aterial installatio n , behavioral changes and simple maintenance around your home. Qualified partici pants receive a free kit o f materials worth $ 150. The next workshop will be at the Dishman Community Cen ter, located at 77 NE. Knott on Tues day, Oct. 2, from 6 - 8 p.m. Call 503- 284-6827. 1» Women of Achievement The Annual Women o f Achievement Award is a semi-formal gala attended by politicians, corporate principals and citizens who support women’s rights. Their dinner reception and si lent auction will be held on Saturday, Oct. 13, starting at 5:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel Lloyd Center in the Lloyd Center Ballroom, located at 1000 N.E. Multnomah. Call 503-725-5889. Memory Walk The Oregon-Greater Idaho Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association will be h av in g th e ir T en th A nnual Memory W alk - a 5K pledge-driven walk and run starting at the World Trade Center, located at S. W. Salmon and First on Oct. 7. The Competitive Run starts at 8:25 a.m. and the walk at 8:30a.m. Call503-413-6471. Halloween Carnival It’s a carnival of Halloween holiday fun - games, crafts, tattoos, and face painting! Admission is one can of food per person for Sunshine Divi sion. For age 3 & up with adult. The carnival will be held at the Peninsula Park Community Center, located at 700 N. Portland Blvd. For more info., call 503-823-3620. A People Rally Locally for Affordable Homes Citizens, community leaders, clergy and government officials are protesting against “forced displacement” of tenants and homeowners in north and northeast Portland. A rally in front of Reflections Coffee and Book Store, 446 N.E. Killingsworth, provided a platform for families and indi viduals to testify about how a lack of affordable housing affects their lives. Neighbors talked about how high rents are crowding multiple families into single family homes in order to forestall being displaced. They shared stories about los ing their homes in foreclosures due to unfair equity loans and about their rental homes being sold. The stories were poi gnant and moving. “We are very pleased with the over whelming response and support from our neighbors in North and Northeast Port land, who have joined us today to publicly denounce forced-displacement activity in ourownbackyards,’’statedtheRev. Renee' Ward, public relations director for Missis sippi Historic District Target Area Project and coordinator for the Sept. 10 rally. Displacement occurs when people are forced to move out or away from their neighborhoods because of the rising cost of housing. It commonly forces the poor, working class residents, most often people o f color, immigrants and elderly to move People wanting to keep th e ir neighborhoods affordable rally in northeast Portland. out of their homes, while wealthier, often white, residents move in. Over the past several months, door-to- door surveys were conducted through- out the north and northeast community to gather information on just how deeply displacement has affected renters and homeowners. McDonald’s Moving Back to Northeast Golden Arches to Rise Again Over Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Near Fremont These surveys are currently being re viewed and the information gathered will assist civic leaders with housing devel opment policies. Dixon Serves as ‘Peace Scholar’ B y L ee P erlman T he P ortland O bserver M cDonald’s is returning to Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard after nearly two decades. The corporation has executed a real estate contract to purchase the former Raven Creamery property at 3303 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., one block south of Fremont, according to George Kyler, a real estate representative for the company. The restaurant expects to have a site plan and begin meetings with community groups in the next several weeks. M cDonald’s has been looking for a new location on the boulevard for some time, Kyler said. He said the former McDonald’s site, the now closed King Food Mart property at the intersection of Martin Luther King and Fremont, was eliminated from consid eration because it had once been a gas station and had potential soil contamina tion issues. Company officials said they liked the creamery site because access is not im peded by a median; it doesn’t have an alley behind it, meets zoning laws mixed- use development and is within walking distance of the One Stop Center, an em ployment agency. M cDonald’s LaDonna Cortez told the North-Northeast Economic Development Alliance last week that the corporation presents an opportunity for economic advancement. “Many people think that work at M cD onald’s is a dead-end job," she said. “T hat’s not it. W e've trained more people than the U.S. Army. W e're al ways looking for people to promote. W e grow people, we d o n 't turn them over.” Hourly workers at M cDonald’s earn from $6.50 per hour - the minimum wage - to $ 13, Cortez said. Salaried management people, who constitute 2.5 percent of their work force, earn $25,000to $55,000a year. They offer health and dental ben efits, profit sharing and paid vacations, among other benefits. t i. r Daryl Dixon The site of the former Raven Creamer, slated to become site for a new McDonalds restaurant. Community activist Richard Brown told Cortez. “1 was involved in one of your programs and I heard about all this - but the workers I talked to hadn’t heard about any of it. They may not want to go any where with their job, but they' re not aware of the opportunities.” Regional director of operations James Tims conceded, “We could do a much better job of making people aware of the benefits when they come in.” To some extent. McDonald’s repre sentatives said the benefits offered are determined by the store manager. Most M cDonald's outlets are fran chises. In the northwest, the corporation has six franchisees who are members of racial minorities, each of whom owns one to four restaurants, Tims said. “W hoever the operator is has a social obligation to the community," he added. The North-Northeast Alliance voted to lend their support to the venture sub ject to “a lot of caveats," board member ‘ v Sheila Holden says. These include a commitment to seek both an operator and employees from the community, to provide on-the-job train ing. a full range of benefits, a store that “blends in” with its surroundings, oppor tunities for minority sub-contractors in the store's construction, and a mix of new and experienced workers. “We don't want this just to be used as a training store," Holden says. “We want to be sure that we get things for the community, that this isn't just a fast food store.” With regard to the construction work Brown said, “A lot o f times you work with people you're comfortable with, who work with people they're comfortable with, and none o f them look like us." Tims said that the company tends to use the same general contractors for each job. He added, however, with regard to sub-contractors, “T hat's something we can deal with.” î ) Dary l Dixon, the founding pastor of a Portland-area church who gives back to the community by serving on diver sity, affirmative action and radical rec onciliation com m ittees, has been named Peace Scholar at George Fox University. Since 1996, the university has annu ally appointed a Peace Scholar, with the intent to allow a faculty or staff member to spend the equivalent o f one course load working on a project deal ing with the issue of peace. Dixon is director of multicultural af fairs at George Fox. As Peace Scholar, he plans to devel opment a biblically based daily devo tional book on the issue o f race and reconciliation. The topics will look at race, religion, gender, and relational issues. The target readership for this book will include Christians, anyone who has a broken relationship or who sim ply has a heart for reconciliation. Don Mock, the director o f the Cen ter for Peace Studies, said Dixon’s project will reach an important reader- ship with a timely message. Dixon lives in Milwaukie and holds a master of divinity degree from George Fox Evangelical Seminary. He hopes the book will equip indi viduals with biblical tools for reconcili ation. He also desires that the hearts and minds of those who read it will become a bit more loving, com pas sionate, and understanding. “Reconciliation is a personal inter est. a passion o f mine,” said Dixon. “God had given us the ministry o f reconciliation to anyone who claims to be a Christian.” I
