February is
50(¿
Black History Month
‘City of Roses’
■JjJartlanh (©bsertœr
www.portlandobserver.com
Established In 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXV, Number 7
Wednesday • February 23, 2005
Pauline Bradford:
Albina Pioneer
Assisted Suicide Challenge
The Supreme Court said Tues­
day it will hear a challenge to
Oregon’s assisted suicide law,
ta k in g
up
the
B ush
adm inistration’s appeal to stop
doctors from helping terminally
ill patients die more quickly. Jus­
tices will review a lower court
ruling that said the U.S. govern­
ment cannot sanction or hold
doctors criminally liable for pre­
sc rib in g o v e rd o se s u n d er
Oregon’s voter-approved Death
with Dignity Act.
\ Cornel West
Scholar
Draws Crowd
California Storms Kill Six
A deadly series of storms across
California spawned everything
from tornadoes to avalanches,
flooding freeways with steady
rain and sending rivers of mud
crashing through homes. At
least six d eaths have been
blamed on the storm, including a
woman buried by an avalanche
north of Lake Tahoe and others
who were victims o f landslides,
traffic accidents, falling trees and
flooding.
Urges trade of old
ideas for new
by K atherine K ovacich
T he P ortland O bserver
Freed Prisoners Welcomed
Palestinians gave ajubilant wel­
come to 500 prisoners freed
Monday by Israel as part of a
truce, but many complained that
uprising leaders were not among
those released. A Hamas leader
said that there can be no peace
“as long as there is a single pris­
oner in Israeli jails.”
Bush Urges European Unity
P resid en t Bush and French
President Jacques Chirac said
Monday they had patched up
their differences over Iraq as
Bush appealed for European
unity in helping to spread de­
mocracy across the Middle East.
At the same time, Bush prodded
Russia to reverse a crackdown
on political dissent, suggesting
M oscow’s efforts to join the
World Trade Organization could
hinge on it.
AIDS Research Tightens
U.S. funding for AIDS vaccine
re se a rc h is tig h te n in g , the
government’s top HIV expert
warned Monday, even as he said
scientists still must overcome a
big hurdle in the hunt: how to
harness the body’s first defend­
ers to repel infection.
West Africa Fights Polio
Squeezing drops of vaccine into
the mouths of wailing babies,
the presidents of Nigeria and
Benin launched a redoubled
polio immunization drive Sun­
day after a vaccine-boycott led
by Muslim clerics set back eradi­
cation efforts. Some hard-line
Islamic clerics claimed the vac­
cine was partofaU .S.-ledplotto
render N igeria’s Muslims infer­
tile or infect them with AIDS.
I
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Pauline Bradford from her home in the Eliot neighborhood is living Portland's black history.
Keeps sense o f past
with look to future
B y L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bserver
x
Pauline Bradford is a walking, breathing
history of Albina and the Eliot neighbor­
hood. You name it and in the last 50 years
Bradford has been there and done that.
She was bom in Greenville, Miss., where
her grandfather hauled trash in a horse-
drawn wagon and her mother took in laundry
for a living. Like many African Americans
from across the country, she was lured to
Portland in the 1940s by the promise of a
high-paying wartime job in the Kaiser ship­
yards.
A sa teenager, she worked as a “sweeper,”
cleaning up after welding operations, under
the protective eye of her aunt.
She did miss out on one historic experi­
ence. She did not live in the fabled Vanport
housing complex in north Portland, but in
Vancouver’s Bagley Downs. She did have a
wartime romance, becoming engaged to John
Bradford, a soldier stationed at Vancouver
Barracks, before he was shipped over seas.
They married when he returned after the war.
At first, the newlyweds moved in with her
aunt and her house on Northeast First Av­
enue. After looking for a home of their own,
including the now-fashionable Thurman and
Vaughn streets corridor of northwest Port­
land, they were “steered” to a house on
Northeast Stanton Street between Union
and Seventh avenues.
The couple was one of the first African-
American families on the block, but by no
continued
on page A 1 2
Respected African-American scholar
and author Cornel W est visited Reed Col­
lege on Friday to speak to a crowd of more
than 750 people.
A professor o f religion at Princeton Uni­
versity and author of “Race Matters” and
“Democracy Matters,” West spoke about
philosophy, love and justice, and asking
self-aware questions such as “Who am I?”
“He or she who learns how to die un­
learns slavery,” West said, because with­
out a rebirth and emergence from anti­
quated ways, a person will not truly be free.
His talk also touched on subjects of
slavery as an American form o f terrorism,
notable figures in black history, and using
energy derived from anger to make a posi­
tive change.
W est noted that if everyone, not just
minorities, in America had “the blues,”
people would look at each other in a much
different light because they would all come
from the same background of being hated.
He urged everyone to “look through a
different lens" and trade old ideas for the
new through education.
When asked if West were to write an­
other book, using an idea that people have
not yet taken heed to, he might call it "Love
M atters.”
W est was given a standing ovation and
promised to visit Portland again soon.
Minority Parking Firm Earns Success
Takeover brings
positive changes
to SmartPark
K atherine K ovacich
T he P ortland O bserver
When a minority-owned group took over
downtown Portland’s major parking garage
contract, parkers weren’t the only ones who
saw a change. The city’s management and
operating expenses went down 32 percent and
revenue went up 6.1 percent, saving taxpayers
$1.6 million.
The parking attendants at the SmartPark
garages were given new uniforms and improved
training, with more security and an upgraded
“concierge” service. At parking rates o f only
$0.95 an hour, how is it that the business is
booming so?
“The city is saving money on expenses and
seeing increases in revenues as well,” said Roy
Jay, president of the African American Cham ­
ber of Commerce and a member o f Contract
Management Group, the minority consortium
that now runs the garages.
“We want to work with the city to identify
further improvements in the area of cleanliness,
safety, customer relations and value," Jay said.
“The SmartPark system is a key support system
for retail and visitor trade downtown.”
The CMG is made up of the African Ameri­
can Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Met-
Virgil Ovall o f StarPark, Gale Castillo o f the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber
and Paul McCoy o f StarPark stand in front o f the SmartPark garage on
Southwest Fourth Avenue and Yamhill Street.
k
ropolitan Chamber, the Philippine American
Chamber of Commerce and Star Park.
Ron Bergman, general services director of
the City o f Portland said CM G brings a new
perspective to the way the garages are operated
and managed.
“I think the wider the viewpoint, the more
opportunity to meeting the very interests of the
people that come downtown,” he said “The city
and CMG are working really hard to support
downtown.”
Bergman said the new uniforms offer a
“fresher, newer look. The training in customer
service is something that everyone appreciates
- having knowledgeable and courteous service
and that’s what we try to do.”
Gale Castillo, executive director o f the His­
panic Metropolitan Chamber, said that this is
CM G ’s first endeavor.
“The common goal was to create opportuni­
ties for the broader community. We wanted an
opportunity to become part of that system,"
Castillo said. “The staff is pretty diverse al­
ready, but w e've employed more diverse sub­
contractors and on the management side it’s
been more diverse.”
There are seven locations downtown with
nearly 4, (XX) public spaces. Compared to $ 1 an
hour at meters and $3 to $4 an hour at pri vate lots
and garages. SmartPark’s rates are the lowest.
“It’s affordable, it’s friendly, it's clean and
it’ssafe,” Castillo said. “People willcome down­
town more if they feel safe and secure. W e’ve
been making a concentrated effort in making the
garages friendly, safe and clean."
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