Artists Open Studios
’ r years,
37
'■Zzl
I
See art being made
during annual tours
Student
Ambassador
Scholar represents
Portland State University
See A&E section, inside
inuK acr
•'community
service
e jl c
fu
See Metro section, inside
‘City of Roses’
Established In 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVII, Number 38
Wednesday • October 3. 2007
T,W eek in
The Review
Health Coali­
tion Funds
Superintendent Hired
Dry Up
OT
¿gJH
W
1
in t r o d u c e d
school district
insider Carole
Free exercise
program on hold
next sllperll,_
tendent M on­
d a y . S m ith
m ost recently w orked as ch ief
o f sta ff to form er superintendent
V icki P h illip s. S he fo rm e rly
w as executive director o f O pen
M eadow, an alternative school.
See story, p ag e A3.
Exclusion Zones End
New data finds a racial disparity
in how the city excludes people
from drug free zones, sig n a l­
ing an end to a constitutionally
questionable m eans for barring
hundreds o f citizens from their
hom es and neighborhoods. See
sto r y , napp A 2 .
Guilty but No
Fine
A ju ry decid ed
T u e sd a y th a t
New York Knicks
coach
Is ia h
T hom as sexually
harassed a former
team executive, subjecting her to
unw anted advances and a barrage
o f verbal insults, but also said
he does not have to pay punitive
dam ages. See sto ry in S p o rts,
p ag e B6.
Probe of ‘Jena 6’ Wanted
The Congressional Black Caucus
is asking the Justice D epartm ent
to investigate possible civil rights
violations in the “Jena 6” case.
The caucus also w ants Louisiana
Gov. Kathleen Blanco to pardon
1 7 -year-old M ychal B ell, the
black teen convicted in adult court
o f aggravated second-degree bat­
tery after the charge w as reduced
from attem pted murder. See story,
p ag e A3.
OJ. Must Forfeit Rolex
O J . Sim pson m ust hand over a
Rolex w atch and other assets to
satisfy acivil judgm ent that found
him liable for the deaths o f his
ex-w ife N icole Brow n Sim pson
and her friend Ron G oldm an, a
ju d g e ruled Tuesday.
Flu Shots Encouraged
Oregon health officials are encour­
aging people to get a flu shot as the
cool, wet winter m onths approach.
The state has more than 400,000
doses available this year. Last
year at this tim e, it had 91,000,
and vaccine shortages appeared
in som e places.
Rose-Tu Pregnant
The O regon Z o o ’s 13-year-old
A sian elephant R ose-Tu is 10
m onths pregnant, zoo officials an­
nounced Monday. With a gestation
period o f 20 to 22 m onths, Rose-
Tu will likely give birth in Sep­
tem ber or O ctober 2008. Tusko, a
13,500-pound, 36-year-old Asian
photo by
A ntonio H arris /F or
thf .
P ortland O bserver
Regence Boys & Girls Club Opens
A ribbon-cOTting ceremony Friday for the Regence Boys & Girls Club at New Columbia in north Portlancrdraws Rosa
Parks Elementary students, Principal Tamala Newsome and other dignitaries. The club features a game room, literacy
center, media room and ‘teen nitescape' facility. The club and adjacent Rosa Parks School will share a full kitchen,
cafeteria, a rt room, computer lab, music room and outdoor covered play area.
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
W hen the A frican A m erican
Health C oalition received notice
seven years ago that its proposed
program s w ere “ap p ro v ed ” yet
would go “ unfunded.” the grass­
roots organization took it as a good
sign for larger sources o f m onies.
But now that it’s receiving the
same m essage from C enters for
D isease Control, the sign isn ’t so
good. The federal source o f h alf
its funding is com ing to an end,
w hich m eans the elim ination o f
free exercise classes and access to
facilities that have been credited
by county health officials for sig­
nificantly reducing heart-disease
rates in the local African-A m erican
population.
T he loss o f $880,000 m eant
that public facilities like the M att
D ishm an C om m unity C enter in
northeast Portland las, weekend
started charging African Americans
for their use.
Exercise program s had played
a m ajor part to “change the com ­
m unity norm ,” according to CorJ-
cnullnuviJ yjr
Landfill Site Becomes Park Dream
Despite risks,
the Cully
neighborhood
forges plan
by R aymond R endlf . man
T he P ortland O bserver
In w hat parks adm ini strators cal I
a “once in a lifetim e opportunity,”
Cully neighborhood residents will
help forge a plan to build a park over
a now sealed-off landfill.
T he large, elev a ted field at
N ortheast 75th betw een C olum bia
Boulevard and Killingsworth Street
boasts view s o f Rocky Butte, and
on clear days one can see Mt. Hood
and m uch o f the C olum bia River
floodplain.
N evertheless, the only project
o f its kind ever form ally discussed
in Portland presents a unique set o f
serious safety considerations that
the design team will have to tackle.
With a device on the south that
bum s o ff pressurized m ethane gas
and railroad lines bordering the east
and north, the 25-acre site has m ore
than its fair share o f hassles.
Citing successful former-landfill
tran sfo rm atio n s in W ashington
and C alifornia, Portland Parks and
Recreation D epartm ent officials,
and th eir co n tracted landscape
architects, assure that solutions can
be found for alm ost any vision the
com m unity can com e up with.
The solutions will require sig­
nificant financial resources, but
the city is hopeful the costs would
be softened by securing som e fed­
eral m onies set aside for so-called
“ b r o w n fie ld s ,” E n v iro n m e n ta l
Protection A gency-regulated prop­
erties that have been so polluted that
they need a cleanup to m ake them
safe and econom ically viable.
The local officials’ m essage to
the com m unity stresses im agina­
tion as the m ost m ajor lim itation
to a b ea u tifu l an d w e ll-lo v e d
future park resting above a land­
fill that’s isolated by a protected
m em brane.
The park ’s m aster planner can
already envision a m ajor transfor-
photo by
R aymond R endi
eman /T he
P ortland O bserver
On a clear day, the proposed Thomas Cully Park boasts views o f Rocky Butte, the Columbia River floodplain and Mt. Hood.
Portland Parks and Recreation Department administrators Seve Ghose (from left) and Peggy Glascock and city planner David
Yamashita are overseeing the construction and maintenance of the site north of Killingsworth Street at northeast 75th Avenue.
It doesn Y look like much now, but
once its finished, it'll be one o f the
city's gems. We just have to make
sure that we don't do anything to
cause the membrane to be a problem.
- David Yamashita. Parks Department planner
m ation to the spot, since D avid
Yamashita rem em bers negotiating
his car through it to em pty his y ard ’s
laurel clippings w hen it w as a pi,
littered with construction debris in
>
the early ‘80s.
“ It d o esn ’t look like much now,
bu, once it’s finished, it’ll be one o f
the city ’s gem s," says Yamashita,
who has orchestrated park devel-
opm ents in Portland for over two
decades. "We ju st have to make sure
that we d o n ’t do anything to cause
the m em brane to be a problem ."
W hen co m m u n ity m em b ers
recently got a sneak preview o f the
site, they becam e m ore skeptical
w ith each new barrier and downside
they saw.
The landscape architect w ork­
ing on the p ro jec t sen sed the
lack o f enthusiasm and sim ilarly
encouraged com m unity m em bers
to “dream big."
"You look at it now, and you
may no, think m uch o f it," said
Paul Agrim is, a landscape architect
on a contract w ith the city, "but it’s
easy to visualize people kicking
balls and doing all kinds o f things
with this site.”
A grim is p roceeded to spend
most o f,h e tim e, how ever, walking
around the site addressing serious
logistical issues.
Safety topped the list o f con­
cerns as the group discussed how
to prevent children from entering
the chutes needed to release m eth­
ane-gas pressure during cm ergen-
continued
on page/ 1 6