Volume XXXX, Number 4 Established in 1970 www.portlandobserver.com z Wednesday • January 27, 2010 bserlier Jazz, F unkand Fusion Versatile Mike Phillips makes Portland debut years # Arts & Entertainment, page 11 ‘City of Roses’ community service Committed to Cultural Diversity ■ • - Portland s 82nd Avenue ■ J ake T homas The Portland Observer The unm arked Ford C row n V ictoria police cruiser takes a sharp turn from Stark Street onto \r\i i i Hl I (JK I I I b the windshield of a Portland police officer on patrol for illegal drugs and prostitution. Vice Patrol by ni Fighting drugs, prostitution on 82nd Avenue 82nd Avenue in southeast Port It’s a damp, frigid Friday night. land. A pattern o f cheap hotels, But the police are still present in a strip clubs, and Asian food res part o f the city that has grown taurants that mark the landscape notorio u s for p ro stitu tio n and blur by as the car speeds up. meth use. The officer I’m with, who asked not to have his name in the paper for safety reasons, has been on this beat for about a year and half. He has a friendly and chipper de m ean o r, not u n lik e a sch o o l teacher who w ants to be on good term s with his students, but isn ’t continued yf on page 18 Families Tackle Weighty Issues Obesity takes a toll on young and old ' J ake T homas T he P ortland O bserver by Biagioli, who has been practic ing since 1998, tries to encourage Frances Biagio 1 i, a family doctor her patients to take better care o f at Oregon Health Science Univer themselves, but often finds herself sity, has seen people come to her achievirig limited success. with joint aches, leg pain, high blood She has also become so accus pressure, insomnia, and shortness tomed to treating overweight pa photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserve o f breath. tients that she almost considers it University Park recreation leader Amourie Downing and mentor Christopher Bradley supervise local All the ailments o f her patients normal. kids. Curtis Hooks IV (from left), Makalia Brooks, Taviana Tolbert, Jaya Stone, Kayla Pierce, and have something in common: they’re Jericho Sly-Davis, as they participate in Portland Play, a new program that aims to keep young continued y f on page 15 all either overweight or obese. people active and prevent them from putting on pounds. 5