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‘City of Roses’
Volume XXXVIII, Number 22
.Week in
The Review
Housing Slump Deepens
U.S. home prices dropped at the
sharpest rate in two decades dur­
ing the first quarter, a somber eco­
nomic indicator revealed Tuesday.
The national home price index fell
14.1 percent, while Portland homes
lost on average more than 4 per­
cent of value. •
Falling Consumer Confidence
Soaring gas prices and weaken­
ing job prospects left shoppers
gloomier about the economy in
May, sending another key ba­
rometer of consumer sentiment
to its lowest level in almost 16
years. The Conference Board
said Tuesday that its Consumer
Confidence Index dropped to
57.2, down from a revised 62.8 in
April.
Energy Price Standoff
French President Nicolas Sarkozy
on Tuesday called for a cut in
European oil taxes to help con­
sumers as fishermen and truck driv­
ers across the continent staged
protests against soaring prices.
Riot police in Britain, Spain and
southern France were called out in
response to the strikes.
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • May 28. 2008
Vanport
after 60 years
Future flood
catastrophe likely
R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
by
On the 60th anniversary of breaching levees
destroying the second-largest city in Oregon, one
question looms above all others. Could a similar
disaster strike a vast area of Portland’s northern
reaches and wipe out the ever-increasing develop­
ments on the Columbia River’s historic floodplain?
For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose
inspections of the flood protection surrounding
Vanport city preceded the loss of at least 15 lives, the
question is not an “i f ’ but a “when.”
Vanport showed the top flood-control authority
that nature will eventually present situations with the
capability of overcoming any level of human technol­
ogy o f the time. .
“W e’re not God,” says Amy Echols, public affairs
liaison for the corps’ Portland district. “W e’re not in
the position where we think we can control all
Oregon Cross Burning
A map cemented into the sidewalk at the Interstate Max transit station for the Expo Center shows the
placement of streets and buildings in the former city o f Vanport, destroyed by floodwaters on a Memorial Day
weekend 60 years ago. Flood risks from the nearby Columbia River continue to this day.
Medford Police are investigating
the burning of a cross into the lawn
of a couple with Jamaican heritage,
saying that the letters ‘KKK’' were
burned into the lawn just before
midnight on Monday. Sol White
says she and her husband have
never before ericountered such
racist behavior.
FEMA Toxic Trailer Fears
Doctors fear tens of thousands
of youngsters may face lifelong
health problem s because the
temporary trailer housing sup­
plied to Hurricane Katina vic­
tims by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency contained
formaldehyde fumes up to five
times the safe level.
A levee designed to prevent a repeat of the Vanport Flood disaster o f May 30,1948, keeps the Columbia
River Slough from flooding Hayden Meadows, a mostly commercial district that also includes Delta Park in
north Portland.
photos by R aymond R endleman /T he P ortland O bserver
(floods), but we can help reduce their impact and
reduce the risks associated with high water.”
Echols also points out that “Vanport had huge impact
regionally” in encouraging coordination among dams
throughout the Northwest. A computerized system
extends along the Columbia i nto Canada to hold back as
much water as possible for crises down the river, as
with the rare combination of snowmelt and heavy
rainfall that hit Portland in February of 1996'
No one knows when flooding like Vanport will
happen again, but the official weather forecaster on
the subject can be reasonably sure it won’t happen
continued
'y f
on page A2
Waterfront
Village
Opens
Thursday
Clinton Comment Uproar
Sen. Hillary Clinton triggered a
firestorm on Friday after bringing
up the 1968 assassination of Sen.
Robert Kennedy to justify her de­
cision to prolong her long-shot
White House campaign, arguing
that history showed that some past
nominating contests had gone on
into June.
Slick Rick’ Pardoned
Pioneering rapper Ricky "Slick
Rick" Walters, who spent more
than five years in prison on a 1991
attempted murder conviction and
faced threats of deportation years
after rehabilitating his life, was
granted a full and unconditional
pardon Friday by New York Gov.
David Paterson.
“Romancing the Rose" is the
theme o f the 2008 Portland's
Rose Festival, which opens
with the popular WaMu Water­
front Village on Thursday at
Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
Fireworks will light up the
waterfront Friday night, and the
Starlight Parade is on Saturday
night, downtown. The Grand
Floral Parade is held Saturday,
June 8 beginning with the
Queen's Coronation at Memo­
rial Cbliseum.
Harlem Teens Shot
A string of shootings near Harlem’s
Marcus Garvey Park sent eight
people, including half a dozen teen­
agers, to nearby hospitals with gun­
shot wounds on Tuesday. All of the
victims, found on several blocks
along Lenox Avenue, from 125th
Street to 128th Street, were expected
to recover from their injuries.
Fighting for Children’s Health
Initiative racks up
30,000 signatures
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
A proposed ordinance to guaran­
tee health insurance for all children
attending Portland Public Schools has
succeeded in amassing the m omen­
tum o f endorsem ents and signatures
needed to appear on the November
ballot.
With more than 30,(X)0 signatures
turned in on Tuesday to the city
auditor’s office, the Why Not Port-
land cam paign is confident that the
measure will gain citywide support.
“The progressive nature of this initia­
tive is plain,” says Matthew Deschaine,
the campaign’s field director. “This is a
problem that there’s been no viable
solution for at the state and federal level,
and so what we wanted to do was
create a grassroots campaign to ad­
dress the crisis locally.”
Responding to the suggestion that
everyone should have health insur­
ance, campaign backers argue that
universal health care has to start some­
where, so “why not start with those
who need coverage most?”
“W e’re focusing in on a small popu­
lation o f very vulnerable people,"
Deschaine says.
Why Not Portland not only seeks
to improve the situation for the ap­
proxim ately 9,000 children attending
public school in Portland without health
insurance, but also hopes to create a
powerful incentive for families to live
within city limits. Cam paigners see
the prospect of coverage as a good
mechanism for slowing down or even
reversing the effects of gentrification.
Increased PPS enrollm ent would
increase the district’s funding based
on the more than $6,000 allocated per
student from the state, in turn helping
to pay for the health insurance.
Organizers also point to health cov­
erage as prevention against ca ta ­
strophic illnesses that end up costing
more in the long run.
“This initiative makes good eco­
nomic sense because, by ignoring the
problem and letting these kids go un­
treated. the extra cost of emergency
rooms taking care of youth is passed
on through health-insurance prem i­
ums and taxes,” Deschaine says.
Some comm unity members recog-
continued
on page A2