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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.
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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.”
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