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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
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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