PagpAIO
www.portlandobserver.com
Decem ber 21. 2005
Committed to
Cultural Diversity
/community
C a le n d a r
Winter Solstice Blood Drive
The 3"* annual W inter Solstice
Blood Drive at the American Red
Cross on North Vancouver, Dec.
21-23, features free gift-wrapping
for participants. To make a blood
donation call l-800-GIVE-LIFE.
Women in NAACP
Women in NAACP meets from
10:30a.m. to 1 p.m. the first Satur­
day of each month at the Ameri­
can Red Cross Building, 3131 N.
Vancouver. For questions, call
503-249-6263.
Birth Ready
W hether you need childbirth
preparation classes, or just a re­
fresher, Providence Health Sys­
tems has a workshop for you.
Prepare for pain, take a weekend
semi nar or prepare big si sters and
brothers-to-be throughout the
sum m er
by
v isitin g
www.providence.org/classes or
call 503-574-6595.
Parenting Classes
Newborns don’t come with in­
struction manuals but parents
and parents-to-be can attend
classes through P ro v id en ce
Health Systems to learn about a
variety of topics from pain and
childbirth to breastfeeding to in­
fant CPR and much more. For a
schedule of events, call 503-574-
6595
or
v isit
www.providence.org./clas ses.
Free College Outreach
The first Saturday of each month,
from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. high school
students will be helped to pre­
pare for college at the Matt
Dishman Community Center, 77
N.E. Knott St., through the ef­
forts of Oregon State University.
Red Cross Teaches Safety
The American Red Cross offers a
range of safety classes for crisis
situations, from learning how to
baby sit to performing CPR. The
courses are intended for children
aged 8 through adult. For more
information visit www.redcross-
pdx.org.
Dirty Air Hits Neighborhoods
Pollution brings
health dangers
even within this so-called ecotopia, there are
hot spots of pollution problems," Podobnik
says. “Unfortunately, these pollution prob­
lems coincide with our African American
communities.”
In Oregon, blacks were more than four
times as likely as whites to live in neighbor­
hoods where air pollution likely poses the
greatest health dangers, the AP analysis
showed.
Nearly five out of every 10 blacks in
Oregon live in high-risk neighborhoods,
according to the analysis, which is based on
industrial pollution and doesn’t include risks
from other types o f air pollution, such as
vehicle exhaust.
Some environmental officials and com ­
munity activists in north Portland say that
diesel exhaust from buses and trucks actu­
ally plays a larger role than industries in
l AP) — Coffee shop ow ner Eleza Faison
grew up in northeast Portland and can't
imagine ever wanting to leave what she
considers one o f the most livable, ethnically
diverse neighborhoods in the state.
But Faison, who is black, says she and her
6-year-old daughter Ada are paying a price
for staying in an area that, according toa new
Associated Press analysis, has some of the
worst air in Oregon.
"Ada suffers from asthma, and she didn’t
go to school on her birthday because she
couldn't breathe," Faison, 33, says. "I think
a lot o f it has to do with the air quality in our
neighborhood. W e’re surrounded by pollu­
tion.”
The AP analysis shows O regon’s high­
est levels of air pollution occur in north and
northeast Portland, where most of the state’s
blacks reside, meaning they disproportion­
ately are forced to breathe air that could
cause asthma and other serious health prob­
lems.
One expert calls it a "crescent o f pollu­
tion” that surrounds north Portland, a
traditionally industrialized area w here
dozens o f industries and businesses pum p
thousands o f pounds o f toxins into the air Sylvia Evans lives in an apartment complex one block from Interstate 5 and thinks
each year.
diesel exhaust pollution is adding to the large amount o f industrial pollution and
That might come as a surprise to people construction-related air problems in north and northeast Portland. (AP photo)
who think of Oregon in general and Portland
in particular as clean, environm entally
friendly places, says Bruce Podobnik, assis­
tant professor of environmental studies at
Lewis & Clark College.
- Bruce Podobnik, assistant professor of environmental studies at Lewis & Clark College
"W e are a c lean state for the most part, but
Unfortunately, these pollution problems coincide
with our African American communities.
Police Dogs Search Tri-Met Max Trains
Terrorism
security hits home
Portland is joining transportation sys­
tems around the world by increasing
security against terrorism.
The recent Madrid and London tran­
sit bom bings have sparked T riM et’s
first K-9 patrol unit. Pearl, a two-
year-old black Labrador retriever and
O fficer John Blair are responsible for
searching for explosives on both MAX
trains and buses.
The unit is assigned to T riM et’s
Transit Police Division and will regu­
larly participate in random security
checks.
Officials said the patrols are part of
ongoing safety and security enhance­
ments since the overseas blasts.
The North Star Ballroom, 635 N.
Killingsworth Ct., hosts begin­
ning drumming and Ghanaian
rhythm classes on Tuesdays at 6
p.m. On Wednesdays, intermedi­
ate drumming is offered in addi­
tion to an African aerobics and
dance. Chata Addy teaches all
classes. For more information call
503-632-0411.
Renewable fuel
safer for
environment
Al-Anon Meetings
Al-Anon meetings are held Mon­
day evenings from 7:15 to 8:30
p.m. at Miracles Club on the cor­
ner of Northeast Martin Luther
King Jr. Boulevard and. Mason
Street. Al-Anon is for friends and
loved ones of alcoholics and
addicts.
Bradley-Angle House
Work For Change
Community Advocates invites
those interested in protecting
children from abuse to become
an event volunteer, event out­
reach, technology expert, graphic
artists or office support team
member. For more information,
call 503-280-1388.
years«
Blair, an 8-year veteran of the Port­
land Police Bureau, has worked in the
transit division for two years. He and his
55-pound Labrador, graduated from a
10-week training course at the Auburn
University Canine Detection Training
Center in Alabama.
TriMet First to Use Biodiesel
African Drumming, Dance
The Bradley-Angle House needs
volunteers to help its outreach
a g a in st d o m e stic v io le n c e .
Women of color and bilingual
women are encouraged to call.
For more information, call 503-
282-9940.
polluting the air, especially in northeast
Portland, which is bordered by heavily trav­
eled freeways.
Sylvia Evans, a north Portland resident
who lives in an apartment complex one block
from Interstate 5, said she thinks diesel ex­
haust pollution is adding to the large amount
of industrial pollution and construction-re­
lated air problems in the area.
“It’s bad,” Evans says. “When I moved
to this complex back in 1990, my oldest
daughter was 3 years old, and she never had
asthma before.
“Six months after living here, she came
down with a really bad asthma attack that
landed her in the hospital,” she says.
North Portland became home to large
numbers of blacks who moved to Oregon
during World War II to work in shipbuilding
and other defense-related industries, then
decided to stay after the war ended.
In recent years, though, north Portland has
been undergoing “gentrification,” with large
numbers of young, white families moving in to
take advantage of lower housing prices.
That trend seems a little ironic to Jeri
Sundvall, head of the Environmental Justice
Action Group, which fights pollution in north
Portland.
In the 1950s, Sundvall said, there were
many who did what they could to keep
blacks in north Portland from moving to
other areas o f the city.
Sundvall said the white migration to north
Portland “shows it’s a very desirable neigh­
borhood now,” and that she hopes the new­
comers will lend their voices to the battle
against pollution in the area.
"The reality is, no matter what color you
are, w e’re all breathing the same air,” she
said.
TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen (from left), Rep. Jackie Dingfelder and TriMet Board of
Directors member Sue Van Brocklin adhere a "powered by biodiesel" bumpers ticker to the back
o f a TriMet LIFT vehicle.
H oliday
E xpress
Trail Blazer Charles Smith and other volun­
teers from the annual Blazers Community
Builders Holiday Express deliver free
Christmas trees to the McCormick-
Matthews Albina Headstart next to the
Rosemont neighborhood o f north Portland.
Team personnel and other community
partners distributed over1,000 trees
donated by Visions Unlimited Tree Farm to
agencies serving Portland families.
•^community service
I
TriMet is beginning to test
biodiesel in 75 buses that pro­
vide door-to-door service for
elderly and people with disabili­
ties. This move makes TriMet
the first transit district in Or­
egon and one of a handful of
transit districts nationally to use
biodiesel in its bus fleet.
Biodiesel is a renewable
diesel replacem ent fuel that
can be m anufactured from do­
mestically produced vegetable
oils and used cooking oils. The
fuel consists of a blend o f 5
percent vegetable oil and used
cooking oil based fuel and 95
percent petroleum diesel, a
blend known as B5 biodiesel.
“T riM et has been in ter­
ested in using biodiesel for
some tim e, and now that high
quality biodiesel is available
locally and the price o f B5 is
sim ilar to regular diesel, w e’re
able to move forward on this
environmentally friendly fuel,”
said TriM et General M anager
Fred Hansen.
Biodiesel reduces reliance
on oil, reduces air pollution
and em issions and increases
dem and for biodiesel in region
and will help expand supply.
If all goes well, TriM et plans
to have the entire door-to-door
LIFT fleet o f 210 buses using
B5 biodiesel within the year.