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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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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