50¿
36
years
Affordable Housing Injustice
Protesters say 'Enough is enough ’
See inside, page AS
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‘City of Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVI, Number 22
Wednesday • May 31, 2006
The Fred Meyer Junior Parade in northeast Portland's Hollywood District is an annual
Rose Festival favorite. This year's edition takes o ff at 1 p.m. on June 7 from Northeast
photo by M ark W ashington /
T he P ortland O bserver
52nd and Sandy.
Interim Police Chief Rosie Sizer
Rose Festival Time!
Striving
for Impact
Waterfront Village kicks off the fun
Acting chief in public glare
by S arah B lount
T he P ortland O bserver
Portland’s Rose Festival kicks o ff its 9 9 h year with the opening o f the Pepsi Waterfront
Village, downtown on Thursday with activities continuing through June 11. For the first
time, the Queen's Coronation takes place immediately prior to the Southwest Airlines
Grand Floral Parade on Saturday, June 10 at 8 :3 0 a.m.
Fireworks over the downtown waterfront will again
dazzle eyes when the Star ATM/Debit Fireworks
Spectacular explodes in a sky o f color on Friday at
9:45 p.m.
NM N
Race Called Issue in Local Schools, Politics
Outgoing leader
speaks out
S arah B i . ount
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Vanessa Gaston, hired as president
of the Urban League of Portland in 2003,
will leave her organization this summer
well prepared to continue its recovery
and growth.
Gaston heads to Las Vegas to pur­
sue personal goals, but her brief tenure
here has helped the organization oper­
ate more efficiently, with more impact,
and in better shape than she found it.
“I feel good because we were able to
accomplish some big tasks, and lay the
foundation,” she said. "Now the board
just needs to take it to the next level.”
When Gaston moved to Portland in
2003 she wasted no time becoming a
vocal advocate for Portland Public
Schools, serving on the Jefferson De­
sign Team and the district’s Central
Office Review for Results and Equity
Committee.
H er e d u c a tio n a l inv o lv em en t
showed her how troubling the African
American achievement gap is in schools
across the Portland.
“What has frustrated me most is the
unwillingness to talk about race,” she
said. “These issues impact every part
of the city.”
As long as there are few resources
and low expectations, Gaston said, our
schools will continue to have the same
outcomes.
T, Week in
Thc Review
Oregon Soldier Killed
Jerem y L oveless w as shot and
killed in Iraq on M em orial Day.
T he 25-year-old soldier w orked
as a volunteer firefighter for the
E stacada Fire D epartm ent be­
fo re jo in in g the m ilitary about a
year ago. He w as m arried with
one young daughter.
Vanessa Gaston
On a positive note, she commended
re co m m en d atio n s m ade by the
Annenberg Institute for School Reform,
which conducted a review of the dis­
trict central office in 2004. The findings
addressed some obvious yet somewhat
ignored issues and emphasized the
African American achievement gap,
something she wishes the city would
do as well.
“They did a phenomenal job be­
cause the issue of institutional racism
came out loud and well,” she said. “The
gap needs to be eliminated, and we
need political and business leaders to
actually say this.”
It’s that lack of recognition that has
partially shaped her perception of Port­
land, a city she finds tough for people
of color.
“It’s very interesting for me,” she
said, “although I’ve had a lot of sup­
port. I’ve never been in a city with that
kind of attention. You can't make any
mistakes in this community.”
Bonds Homers Past Ruth
Barry B onds belted his 715th
h o m e r S un d ay , m oving past
Babe R uth to No. 2 on the all-
tim e list. The San Francisco slug­
ger needs 40 hom e runs to tie
H ank A aro n ’s record o f 755.
Marines Join Quake Aide
on page AS
foreigners w ho are healthier than
A m ericans. H arvard m edical
School researches found that
A m ericans are 42 percent m ore
likely than C anadians to have
diabetes, 32 percent m ore likely
to have high blood pressure, and
12 percent m ore likely to have
U .S. M arines jo in e d an interna­
arthritis.
tional effort T u esday to deliver
aid and m edical equipm ent to GOP Booster Nominated
som e 200,000 Indonesians left T re a su ry S ecretary John S now
hom eless by a devastating e a rth ­ re sig n e d T u e sd a y and P re si­
quake, as hopes faded o f finding dent B ush nom in ated G oldm an
m o re s u r v iv o r s . S a tu r d a y 's S a c h s c h ie f e x e c u tiv e o ffic e r
m a g n itu d e -6 .3 q u a k e k ille d H enry M. P a u lso n Jr. as his
r e p la c e m e n t. P a u ls o n is a
nearly 5,700 people.
m a jo r R e p u b lic a n d o n o r and
Canadians are Healthier
fu n d ra ise r.
A dd C an ad ian s to the list o f
No Trace of Hoffa
Iraq Bomb Hits TV Crew
I
continued
fo r th e fo rm e rT e a m s te rs boss.
T he tw o -w eek search in volved
d o z e n s o f FBI a g e n ts, alo n g
w ith a n th ro p o lo g ists, a rc h a e ­
o lo g ists, and c a d a v e r-s n iffin g
dogs.
c ritic a lly in ju re d in a M o n d ay
b la st th a t k ille d tw o o f h e r
c o lle a g u e s d u rin g a new w ave
o f v io le n c e in Iraq.
T h e FBI said T u e sd a y it found
A C B S c o rre sp o n d e n t, K im ­ no tra c e o f Jim m y H offa a fte r
b erly D o z ie r, w as flo w n to a d ig g in g up a su b u rb a n D etro it
U. S. m ilita ry h o sp ita l in G e r­ h o rse farm in one o f the m ost
m a n y T u e s d a y a f te r b e in g in te n siv e se a rc h e s in d e c a d e s
For better or worse. Interim Chief of Police Rosie
Sizer is in charge of the Portland Bureau, and any
decisions during her non-tenured term are inde­
pendent of the fate of Chief Derrick Foxworth’s job.
Sizer’s hasty promotion came on April 11, after
Foxworth was placed on leave while the city inves­
tigates his relationship in 2000 with a bureau civil­
ian desk clerk. Mayor Potter’s appointment cata­
pulted Sizer, the former Southeast Precinct Com­
mander, straight into the public glare - at a press
conference that afternoon she stood at the podium
still dressed in fatigues and looking shell-shocked.
Sizer’s job hasn’t become any easier in the past
couple months, having to make decisions that will
best suit her leadership, yet never knowing how
long her job will last.
“I’m not interested in this job as a placeholder,”
said Sizer, who is 47 and a 20-year veteran with the
Portland Police. “I’ve been behaving as chief of
police because during my tenure, the less uncer­
tainty the better.”
Sizer has been particularly active interim chief,
and within days had demoted Assistant Chiefs
Stan Grubbs and James Ferraris. Shortly after.
Assistant Chief Dorothy Elmore, the first African
American woman to hold the position, announced
her retirement June 30, saying Sizer had asked her
to step down. Sizer said she’d only indicated what
was likely to happen within the bureau, and that
Elmore had acted on that.
She said she won’t make any more high ranking
appointments or promotions until Foxworth’s in­
vestigation is complete, but plans to make the most
impact in her position.
The fact that Sizer is a woman has often meant
she’s been held to a higher standard, sometimes
getting pushed beyond a comfortable level, but
she feels her minority status shows the city’s
commitment to diversity.
Barry Bonds
»
♦