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lune 24, 2009
Page A3
Tepid Reception for Racial Impacts Proposal
Sponsor finds
unease when
‘race’ enters fray
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
When Oregon voters jumped
on the “get tough on crim e”
bandwagon in the 1990s by ap­
proving Measure 11, they might
not h av e fu lly u n d e rsto o d
where it was headed.
Measure 11, which removes
the sentencing leeway a judge
can give a defendant and im­
poses m andatory m inim um
prison terms for certain crimes,
has caused O reg o n ’s prison
population to swell.
The Department of Correc-
Chip Shields
tions estimated that inmates in
Oregon prisons will grow by 41
percent because of the m ea­
sure. This has been particularly
hard for O reg o n ’s m inority
population. African Americans
make up nearly 10 percent of
the state's prison population,
even though they are about 2
percent of the population. His­
panics make up over 12 percent
of inmates, while making up only
about 10 percent of the general
population.
Rep. Chip Shields, D-Port-
land, hoped to shine light on
the issue this year by introduc­
ing House Bill 2352, which re­
quires the state to issue a racial
and ethnic impact statement any
time voters or legislators con­
sider a change to sentencing
policy, like Measure 11.
Such a statement would be
similar to an environmental or
fiscal impact statement, which
use existing data to predict how
pending legislation will affect
the natural world or the state’s
coffers.
Shields hopes that the bill will
make lawmakers and the public
aware of the potential for unin­
tended consequences from a
change in sentencing policy.
The bill has received a tepid
reception so far, which is sur­
prising for a state that prides
itself for its tolerance and pro­
gressiveness, and recently gave
the Democratic Party super ma­
jorities in both houses last elec­
tion.
It passed the House Rules
Committee without a recom­
mendation as to passage, with
an amendment from the Oregon
District Attorneys Association,
which would require an addi­
tional statement detailing how
minorities might be dispropor­
tionately affected by a certain
type of crime.
“I’ve got to do some more
educating of the body on the
bill,” said Shields.
One of the issues he says he
has encountered has been his
fellow legislators’ unease with
the phrase “racial impact state­
ment.”
“You throw the word ‘race’
around and it freaks people
out,” he said.
With the legislature set to
adjourn later this month it’s
dubious that Oregon will join
four other states that require
racial impact statements.
Iow a, a state even m ore
lilywhite than Oregon, passed
sim ilar legislation last year,
which was championed by the
state’s only black legislator,
Rep. W ayne F ord (D -D es
Moines.).
Ford said that Oregon is in a
similar situation with Iowa hav­
ing most of its minority popula­
tions in its urban centers. This
arrangement might make rural
legislators less sensitive to the
issue.
But Ford overcame this by
calling enough attention to the
fact that people of color make
up 37 percent o f the prison
population, although they are
less than 8 percent of the gen­
eral population.
“I think many politicians on
both sides of the aisle got sick
of this,” he said.
Lents Outrage Kills Proposed Stadium
continued ¿ ^ f r o m Front
structure w ith the aim o f at­
tracting private investm ents.
In 2008 alone, over $5 million
generated from the Lents urban
renewal area has gone toward
bolstering businesses in the
area, and hundreds of thou­
sands of dollars have gone to­
w ard lo an s to first-tim e
hom ebuyers, landlords who
wanted to fix up their proper­
ties, and affordable housing
providers.
Had the stadium deal gone
through there would have been
$42.3 million less money in the
urban renew al pot for these
projects.
Last week, during a public
hearing before the Lents Urban
Renewal Advisory Committee -
- whose input on the plan was
considered critical by City Hall
-public outrage over the pro­
posal boiled over.
Before the meeting protest­
ors shouted “ 1-2-3-4, Paulson
wants to rob the poor,” in refer­
ence to Merritt Paulson, the son
of former Bush Treasury Secre­
tary Henry Paulson and Beavers
owner who has been negotiat­
ing with the city to bring a ma-
PHOTO by J ake T homas ZT he P ortland O bserver
S/a Sellu was one o f hundreds o f voices who attended a rally and public meeting last week to kill a proposal to use
southeast Portland’s Lents Park for construction o f a new home for the Portland Beavers.
jo r league soccer franchise to 1990s, couldn’t make it through
his pitch before the crowd with­
Portland.
At the beginning of the meet­ out being viciously heckled,
ing Paulson was booed before w ith ep ith ets like “tra ito r”
speaking to a crowd of about hurled at him.
Leonard attempted to direct
250 people.
C o m m issio n e r
R andy his pitch at the image problem
L e o n a rd , w ho re p re se n te d Lents has grappled with over
Lents in the Legislature in the the years. He mentioned nega­
tive portrayals of the neighbor­
hood in the media, and how a
new stadium would cem ent
L en ts’ status as an up-and-
coming part of town.
Bu, Leonard was also booed,
causing him to storm out with a
scowl on his face and his fists
clenched.
Afterwards, the crowd was
polled on their support for the
stadium. Seventy percent op­
posed it.
Then came 45 minutes of tes­
timony, where residents bashed
the proposal on grounds that it
would flood the neighborhood
with noise and people, encroach
on a cherished park in a part of
tow n already lacking open
spaces, and rested on shaky
financials.
The next morning Paulson
withdrew his offer to put the
baseball stadium in Lents, cit­
ing the lack of community sup­
port.
Tuesday, Lents Park was for­
mally out of the running and the
city said it would take the next
month to find a third site to
build a minor league baseball
stadium.
The list includes vacant land
along the Willamette River that
was Terminal One for the Port
of Portland, Delta Park, the Port­
land Expo Center, Portland
Meadows Gateway and prop­
erty currently used as adminis­
tration offices for Portland Pub­
lic Schools next to the Rose
Quarter.
Adams has announced that
the city would vote on the pro­
posal to bring MLS to Portland
as a separate issue Wednesday,
meaning that the Beavers will
need to find a home if city coun-
cil ap p roved the deal that
would put the soccer team in
PGE Park, the Beavers’ current
home.
LOTTERY FUNDS HELPED AN OREGON BUSINESS RECLAIM OIL FROM DISCARDED AGRICULTURAL PLASTICS. GROWING THINKING. GROWING JOBS.
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ig ideas often s ta r t in unexpected ways. Like in a recycling
• facility right here in Oregon, in the little town of Brooks, where
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a recycling company called A griPlas Inc. came up with a breakthrough. They devel­
back into the stu ff th a t it cam e from. Oil. J l Finding new life for things that
would have otherwise been thrown away.
T heir growth and expansion,
and th e addition of sustainable, productive jobs to th e a rea is due in p art
oped a way to convert w aste plastic into fuel. While much plastic can be recycled.
to funding from the Oregon Izittery* W here every
a large percentage of it cannot and is destined for landfills. But through
year, a large portion of o u r profits go directly to
a brilliant but relatively simple process, they’re able to convert plastic
helping businesses like th is prosper and grow
To le a rn m o re vis it w w w . ItD o e s G o o d T h in g s org. L o tte r y g a m e s a re b a s e d on c h a n c e a n d should be p la y e d fo r e n te rta in m e n t only
OREGON
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