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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2009)
50tf Legendary Al Green Hot Jazz Weekend Famed singer brings his soul magic to the lawn at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale Vancouver s Wine and Jazz Festival offers a diverse lineup o f hot jazz, fabulous wines and delicious cuisine See Arts & Entertainment, page A 10 See page A7, inside [)! R o ses ^^1 i.. i m o TLWeek ¡n The Review ......... ........ ..........i_i____________ Established in 1970 www.portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXVIV. Num ber 33 J Wednesday • August 19. 2009 Cutting Edge Displacement? Jobless Barely Budges The recession may finally be hitting bottom in Oregon with another month of unemploy ment figures hovering around 12 percent. The good news was that things have not gotten worse, economists said. Free Bus Rides to End Cash- strapped TriM et has decided to end free service in the Fareless Square area of downtown and Lloyd Center beginning Jan. 3. Transit offi cials will continue to offer free Fareless Square service on the Max light rail and the Portland streetcar. Lottery Revenues Decline With overall lottery revenues declining, Oregon lottery offi cials are opening debate on whether to cut more deeply into the video gambling commis sions paid to bars and taverns that host the machines. Cur rently, a tavern or bar gets to keep about 23 cents of every dollar a patron leaves behind in the machines. Yang Bests Tiger Woods Y o n g - E u n Yang on Sun- day became v ’^ e **rsl Asian player to win one of golfs majors — the PGA Championship — when the 37-year-old from South Korea took down none other than Tiger Woods, the sport's No. 1 player. Clunkers Cash Boosts GM H ig h e r sales from the government's Cash forClunkers program have prompted Gen eral Motors Co. to boost pro duction at several of its facto ries, according to company and union officials. Journalist Dead at 78 R o b e rt Novak, one of Washington’s most influen tial political journalists of the past half- century, died Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 78. Streetcars may speed area gentrification by J ake T homas T he P ortland O bserver When Portland was awarded $45 million in federal funds for a streetcar expansion earlier this year, the city’s political class hailed the project as a major contributor to the city’s world- class public transportation sys tem, a driver for new industrial jobs in Oregon, and proof that Portland was on the cutting edge of all things sustainable. H ow ever, streetcar cheer leaders have been largely mute on how it is going to drastically alter any neighborhood and community it is extended into. Businesses could be displaced as property values soar; locals might find themselves priced out o f their neighborhoods; and the city has few plans to deal w ith these unintended consequences. Streetcars are such a power ful force in reshaping urban landscapes in large part because of how they are perceived. Christopher B. Leinberger, a v isitin g fello w w ith the Brookings Institution’s Metro politan Policy Program , ex plained that in the minds of moneyed people, streetcars are different from bus or light rail. It’s as if bus transit put signs on their doors saying, “only ye w ho are p oor shall e n te r,” Leinberger said. He said streetcars are consid photo by M ark W ashdmgton /T he P ortland O bserver ered an innovative m ode of The Portland streetcar follows its route downtown to Portland State University. transportation and are associ ated with livable neighborhoods. But as a consequence, when ever a new streetcar line is planned, interest in the area spikes as does real estate prices. The 3.3-mile streetcar exten sion now coming to the central eastside will snake across the Broadway Bridge and then ex tend south along the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Grand Avenue corridor. If you want to see what this area will look like when it’s fin ished in 2011, you may want to look no further than the Pearl District in northwest Portland. The Pearl was once a lifeless area that consisted o f w are houses and aging industrial fa cilities before the four-mile streetcar line was installed in 2001. Since then the area has boomed with high-rise condo miniums, up-scale businesses, and posh art galleries. According to a study con ducted by the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation, $3.5 billion in new development has been invested within two blocks of the streetcar since plans wire finalized in 1997, which ac counts for nearly two-thirds of all development in the westside central city. The economic development created over 3,(MX) residential continued on page A2 Carter Moves on; Successor Unclear Historic leader takes new job by J ake T homas T he P ortland O bserver M argaret C arter, the first A fric a n A m e ric a n w om an elected to the Oregon L egis lature, is stepping down after serving nearly a quarter o f a century. C arter will take a position next month as state Deputy D irector for Human Services Program s, leaving only one African American in the L eg islature, Sen. Jackie W inters, R-Salem. “I am fortunate, though, to carry forward into my new ca reer my passion for ensuring that our most vulnerable citi zens receive the services they need to thrive and prosper,” she said in a statement. Social services and protect ing the most vulnerable have long been issues deeply im portant to Carter, 73, a Demo crat whose Senate district rep resents all o f north Portland and a big part of inner north east Portland. She co -c h a ired the Joint Ways and Means Committee during the last L egislative session, which played a criti cal role in writing the state's Margaret Carter budget after being hit with a drastic loss o f revenue due to the recession. Before first being elected to the Oregon House of Repre se n ta tiv e s in 1984, C a rte r worked as a counselor at Port land C om m unity C o lle g e ’s north Portland Cascade Cam pus. A few y e a rs ago she served as president and chief continued on page A3 Shooting at McCoy Park A 19-year-old w as tak en into custody Tuesday af ter north Port land re s i d en ts re ported hearing gunshots fired in McCoy Park. Jeffery An thony Ali was charged with unlawful use and possession of a firearm after officers recov ered a rifle near the location where he was found hiding. Gas Price Tick Up For the third consecutive week, Oregon gas prices are the sev enth highest in the nation. The statewide average for regular unleaded is $2.79, up about a half-cent com pared to last week, according to AAA of Oregon/Idaho. The national average is down a penny this week to $2.63. photo by J ake T homas /T he P ortland Oust r \ i k Saturday Market will celebrate the grand opening of its new digs at Waterfront Park this weekend. The new public plaza with its covered ele ments sits ju st south o f the Burnside Bridge, directly across the street from the former market location. Saturday M arket Celebrates Relocation new beau tifu l park setting along with the new Bill Naito Legacy Fountain, part of a $10 million W aterfront Park Im provement project funded by its time to join in the celebra the P o rtlan d D evelopm ent tion with a Grand Opening on Com m ission. Portland Parks Saturday, Aug. 22 and Sunday, and Recreation and Portland Aug. 23. Parks Foundation. The market is celebrating its The facility includes an 8,000- New digs come with waterfront redevelopment You’ve undoubtedly heard that the Portland Saturday Market has moved into their new digs in Waterfront Park and Ankeny Plaza. Well now I square-foot open-sided pavil ion, a cantilevered deck over looking the river and a circular plaza. As part o f the c ity ’s sustainability program, there is a bioswale to capture the rain runoff. The site was designed to en courage interaction between the fountain element and the market, and will have the ef fect of creating a vibrant, cus tom designed space in which the market will operate for years to come. The im provem ents were first proposed with a Water front Park Master Plan, dratted continued on page A 2