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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2002)
October 09. 2002 _ _______ Il’eJJnrtlanb ©bseruer MED W eek______ Page B4 Having Coffee and Dessert the o /îe ¿W a B y W ynde D yer T he P or i land O bserver A nita Sm ith w as born and raised in northeast Portland. She w atched the neighborhood change from the African- A m erican cultural hubub it w as in her chi Idhood to what it i s now . One day she decided to stop w atching and take part in the change. It was tim e to represent her roots. “ I got sick o f going into these coffee Anita Smith, the owner and president of Hannah Bea's Poundcake and More. She was tired of seeing the same old bagels and scones in northeast Portland coffee shops and commented, “Can'ta sister get some cobbler or pound cake with her coffee." shops and seeing the sam e old bagels PHOTO BY and scones,” Smith said, “I m ean, c a n ’t W ynde D yer / T he P ortland O bserver a sister get som e peach cobbler or poundcake anyw here these days?” Smith said she wanted to give back to the neighborhood - and to herself. H er We would like to celebrate M inority Enterprise Development Week LEADERSHIP SUCCESS by acknowledging the and of the many agencies and companies, that include Tri Met, Multnomah County, The Housing Authority of Portland, Providence Health System, Legacy Health Systems, Stacy and Witbeck, Inc, Hoffman Construction and Baugh Construction for entrusting us w ith their goals to develop opportunities and provide superior capability, building services to M inority and Women busi nesses in the Portland Metropolitan area. You have raised the bar for others to follow and meet your leadership standard. We thank both our clients and the DMWESB businesses for their hard work, and for being "Good Business" partners and We make a commitment to continue to work with you and the many leading edge business organizations like OAME, and the m inority chambers to achieve greater success, and to con tinue providing superior quality services in the coming year. FM B urch A ssociates F aye B urch -W ilson G roup AGB LLC A ndre B auch parents cam e to Portland from Texas in tom ers started to ask about the good way. her 20s and told all their friends back But getting her w ay w as n ever easy looking desserts behind the cosm etics hom e tocom e out west. Portland was a and all good things take time, Smith said. counter. H er poundcake clientele p ro vided additional incom e for the single good place to m ake a good living. Hard and M ore. The espresso, sandw ich and I wanted to have a place of my own. I wanted a place with my music, my culture, dessert shop located at 3969 N E M L K my food and my way. w ork paid o ff in Portland, they said. Smith w antedtofollow theirexam ple, so she opened up Hannah Bea’s Poundcake Jr. BI vd was the realiz ation o f a lifelong dream for Smith. tim e to refocus her career goals. She started to sell her desserts at contracts w ith M arsee B akeries and — Anita Smith, the owner and president of Hannah Bea’s E m bassy Suites. B ut things w e ren ’t working out the way Smith planned. She Sm ith said. “ I w anted a place w ith my At first, she sold hom em ade pound cake m usic, m y culture, my food and my to her cow orkers at N ordstrom s. C u s Why not add a Hank o f America Equity Maximizer' As you pay down the balance, that money becomes Line o f C redit to your list o f “ Things To Do Around available to use again, with no additional application. The House” ? It lets you use the equity in your home to You can save money too, because the interest is usually pay for whatever you need, like home improvements, tax deductible. Consult your tax advisor about the education expenses, even a new car. deductibility o f interest. You can also use it to pay o ff other debt. Or simply, have For more information about our Equity Maximizer Line it available for expenses that may come up unexpectedly. o f Credit, stop by Bank o f America today, visit us at And now, you can take advantage of: www.bankofamerica.com or call us at 1.800.900.9000. continued ' y f on page B6 by S ean P. N elson , T he P ortland O bserver What kind of advice can Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs Board of Directors M em ber and Ampere Electric Co. founder Ed Wilson give African-American contractors about suc cess in the construction and electrical trades in today’s tough economic climate? He would like to see more African-Americans enter the construction and electrician trades. Many think minorities like them just can’t do it. “They can do it if they think they can. It’s do able,” he said. Wilson, 53, founded Ampere Electric, a subsid iary of Soledad Electric, located at 7500 SE. Division, in 1992 and has built it from a shoestring subcontracting operation to taking on such projects as the lighting for PGE Park and the Interstate Max line. Other projects his company has done include the lighting in front of the NIKE building in North east Portland; street lighting from Northeast Fre mont to Shaver on MLK Jr. Blvd. and on Killingsworth, inside Emmanuel Temple Church; the Fourth Floor of the Portland Building in south west Portland; the lobby lights in the Edith Green Federal Building downtown; and lighting at 23 parks around Portland. Wilson started out working for the Mainte nance Division of the Oregon Highway Depart ment and attending night school at Portland Com munity College. He earned his Bachelor of Sci ence Degree in Electrical Technology in 1982. He then left the highway department and used his 4 0 IK to start Ampere Electric. After working as a journeyman electrician for 4 years, he took and passed his examination to obtain his Supervisor’s • No points, no closing costs, no fees to apply • No first year annual fee • A special Fixed Rate Loan Option Bank o f America. N .A .* M ember EDIC f 2000 Bank o f America Corporation On February I 2000. the APR on the I Equity M aaim .zer variable One o f credit w a . 9 844%. the APR may vary m onthly and i i based on an Index plus a w anted to be m ore hands on w ith her The Rise of Ampere Electric Before you begin any home improvements, start by improving how you pay for them. the n orm al APR on a Used Rate Loan <>p-,on -O p tio n ” wa, 9 25% w ith aoiomatic payment from a Bank o , Am erica cbecktn, m = deserved raise, S m ith d ecided it was S aturday M arket and she established “I wanted to have a place o f my own,” fc T r-r m other but w hen she d id n ’t get a m uch 4 . ^ « . b l S ,.ccoutK the rate for this O ption would be 9 75% in Oregon and 9 5% in Washington and Idaho I f automatic payment is se Wasbinamn and Idaho The annual fee Oregon and I 4% in Washington and Idaho An Index plus a margin determine the interest rate The m axim um APR is 1 8 /. ,n Oregon, and 24/» in Washington ano m ot charged the first yean is 565 The loan fee (waived for the prom otional O ption) is $50 per O ption taken. Adequate properly insurance is required. License in 1993. His sister Jacqueline Cook. 54, shuttles three weeks on and three weeks off from Berkeley, Calif, to Portland to serve as his accountant. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in continued on page B8
