Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 2003)
Committed to Cultural Diversity www.portlandobserver.com A p ril 09. 2003 (Tin' ^îortlanh (©bseruer C o in in u n i t y a le n d a r SECTION Schools Charged with Serial Neglect Alberta Art Hop Participants Wanted 5b Cc Ud te The Alberta Art Hop is a one-day I festival to celebrate the arts and culture scene in the vibrant Alberta Street Community. On Saturday, May 10 the street will open up and spread around the glory o f music, dancing, theater, art and great food. Therewillbeart exhibitions, a shrine contest, live music, a parade and hands-on art projects for adults and children. Art on Alberta is currently seeking volunteers, artists and performers [ for the Art Hop. Formore informa tion, call 503-493-7246 F T i — X« Ug Tib II H I 2 U J •2.'?2, 23* '3‘ a ? Economic bias cited against minority neighborhoods , 6 7 8 282?, 36 ; 29 B y J. aymef . R. C l t i T he P ortland O bserver I ;••• - '5 - biA ti «¡TOWr Online Adopt-a-Pet The Oregon Humane Society has | put a new twist on on-line person als. With just two clicks, those I looking for a loving pet can find it with the dog, cat, rabbit or rodent of their choice by logging on to www.oregonhumane.org. Those interested in pet adoption can scrol 1 through photos ofall the pets avail able for adoption at the northeast photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver Portland shelter and read pet pro-1 Portland School Superintendent Jim Scherzinger (left) and school district spokes files that are expanded daily. man Lew Frederick urge support for a new income tax levy on Monday during a news conference at Chief Joseph Elementary School in north Portland. Scherzinger said voter rejection of the May 20 ballot measure would result in the Portland Community College will J loss o f 600 teaching positions and school sports. Alternative Medicine Classes feature a non-credit lecture series | that explains how natural medi cine can help you rely on whole-1 some cures that prevent illnesses as well as heal them. Naturopathic physician Dr. Suzanne Lawton will lead a series o f six lectures during which students can discover prac tical, safe and natural approaches I that can be immediately be incor porated into the home. Each lec ture will be held from 5:30p.m. to 7:30 p.m. W ednesdays through May 7 at Tigard High School, 9000 S.W. Durham Rd. Cost is $ 14 for individual lectures or $66 for the series. For more information, | call 503-538-9774. Ladybug Nature Walks Parents can discover the natural I world with their pre-schoolers every Friday morning. A natural ist will hand out m agnifying glasses, bug boxes and other tools to explore the soil, water, bark, flowers and animals in Portland's parks. Join the group each Friday at 10 a.m. in Hoyt Arboretum. T hereisa$2chargeforeachchild, | but adults are free. Radical Women Meeting New School Tax Urged Sports and 600 teaching positions hinge on May 20 ballot Portland Public School’s Superintendent Jim Scherzinger told a tale o f two cities on Monday night one where schools are well funded under a new ballot measure and another ofacitythatw ill loose more than 600 teaching positions and all athletic programs ifthe measure fails. On May 20, voters will decide if schools will operate on a budget that contains new revenue from a county income tax. Passage will keep one in five teachers on the job, continue all school sports, Outdoor School and funding for foreign language immersion programs. Unlike property tax measures, which re quire a majority o f registered voters to par ticipate in the election. Measure 26-48 will only need a majority o f those who voting to win approval. Ifthe measure passes, Multnomah County residents with a taxable income o f $30,000 after deductions would pay an additional $21 a month for three years to restore school funding, school officials said. Ifthe measure fails, Scherzinger said class sizes would increase as much as 30 percent and all athletic programs will be eliminated. Race and poverty issues have lead to serial neglect o f som e neighborhood schools, according to a Portland School District official. African A m erican School Board M em ber Lolenzo Poe said there is clearly an econom ic bias when it com es to the sup port given to schools that serve m inority and low -incom e fam ilies in north and northeast Portland. O ne northeast Portland neighborhood has seen no less than five school clo sures in the last 30 years, with the most recent being M eek Elem entary School at 4039 N.F.. A lberta Ct. W hile the Portland Public School D is trict claim s the closures are solely related to population, Poe and others attribute the declining enrollm ent to the d istric t’s lack o f com m itm ent to keep schools in poor neighborhoods thriving. Poe voted against M eek’s closure and w ants to know why there is such a dispro portionate impact to poor neighborhoods? “T h ere’s clearly an econom ic bias,” he said. A long-tim e resident and com m unity leader, Poe said there has been an ab sence o f strong advocacy in poor neig h borhoods that contribute to this trend o f abandoning schools. He fears that local school closures and low achieving schools directly lead to gentrification, the phenom enon w here one class o f people displace an existing population. In this case, A frican A m eri cans are forced to the outskirts o f the city. “You continue to disperse students out to more inviting academ ic environ m ents with the pretext that you will in crease their academ ic success, but you d o n ’t give them a true neighborhood school," Poe said. “T h ere's a sense o f loss in neighborhoods. It m anifests itself in so m any w ays as students are assim i lated to other areas o f town and younger kids m ove aw ay from the northeast core.” Lolenzo Poe says chronic neglect o f some local schools has pushed kids away from the northeast core and dispalaced black families. j Poe identifies another negative side effect resulting from the closure o f local schools: The loss o f tw o school p rin ci pals who are A frican A m erican. He said two A frican-A m erican princi pals and role m odels are being removed from the p u b lic’s view and the view o f stu d en ts. Portland Public Schools spokesm an Lew Frederick, also an African American, said declining enrollm ent and low achiev ing schools w ere not exclusively a north east Portland problem . Frederick said the district has closed m ore than 25 schools in 25 years in all parts o f the city. "It h asn ’t been tied to econom ic level or ethnicity," he said. Frederick says the school closures can be chalked up to an over-estim ation o f the c ity ’s grow th and housing areas being re zoned for industrial use. “ It really is a population issue,” he said. “We used to have 80,000 students in Portland. We now have 54,000.” D istrict officials said it would take a bond m easure to reopen W hitaker Middle School, ju st blocks aw ay from Meek, w hich closed tw o years ago because o f the b u ild in g ’s dilapidated condition. In that sam e building, declining enrollm ent caused John A dam s High School to close in the 1980s. The sam e com m unity also w atched as continued y^ on page B^ Villa in Race to Get New Library Commission pursues site over North Lombard location Emiko Omori, a Japanese Ameri can filmmaker who spent part o f I her childhood in a ‘relocation’ j ' cam p, w ill ex p o se the U .S. G overnm ent's targeting o f Japa by L ee P erlman nese Americans during World T he P ortland O bserver War II and their resistance to this | A divided Multnomah County Com mis stereotyping in the video screen- sion is pursuing plans fo ra new library in a ingofherfilm 'Rabbitinthe Moon’ refurbished Columbia Villa in north Portland. at the Bread and Roses Center, Commissioners Lisa Naito and Maria Rojo 819N Killingsworth. The film will de Steffey dissented on the vote after testi begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, mony against the proposal by members of April 9 after a Radical Women Advocates fora Lombard Library. However, Meeting. A buffet with vegan and | the group was given credit from Com m is vegetarian options will be served sioner Serena Cruz for initiating a push fora for a donation o f $6. For more new library in the area. information, call 503-240-4462. Cruz wants a new library in the Villa, a major low-income housing project that be Parkinson’s Disease ing refurbished into new homes for people of Movement Class all income levels. The Housing Authority o f A 10-week exercise program for I Portland runs the development and is also people in northeast Portland with proposing to provide space for the new Parkinson's disease will begin on library. Thursday, April 10 from 2 p.m. to Cruz and commission chair Diane Linn 3:30p.m. at Irv ington Village,420 argued that being part o f the New Columbia N.E. Mason St. The class incor Villa would allow a library to be built at porates techiniques from theater, P hoto by M ark W ashington /T h i P o r u and O rnerà er reduced cost. It would also contribute to the dance, yoga and tai chi to in success o f the re-development by placing a crease flexibility, strength, bal majorpublic resource w ithin it. It was crucial ance and coordination and to im both said, for the county to grasp the "w in prove com m unication, voice dow ofopportunity" provided by the project. The walls from a long-forgotten theater on North Albina Avenue, ju st north of Killingsworth are giving way for the expansion power and speech clarity. The | “It’s a opportunity to capture resources of the Portland Community College Cascade campus. The building, which served as a home to the Albina Christian Life I ‘ Historic Walls Fall for College Expansion continued y^ on page B 7 continued yf Center for 30 years, is being demolished. The African American church sold the property after a long struggle over the purchase with the college and moved to another church building on North Willamette Boulevard. on page B 7 J 1 t
