September8, 2010
iiu Portiani» öDhserner
IN S ID E
The Week m Review
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Fred Meyer
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page 2
Black Woes Growing Worse
S ustainability
H ealth
page 8-9
F ood
pages 4-5
New Urban
League report
evaluates
conditions
An updated report by the Urban
League o f Portland shows that the
economic and social conditions o f
African Americans in Oregon have
deteriorated since the civil rights
group released a comprehensive
report on the topic a year ago.
The original investigation, titled
“The State o f Black Oregon,” re­
vealed that members o f the state’s
African American population was
at the bottom o f nearly every mean­
ingful social category, facing higher
unemployment and more problems
a c c e ssin g
q u a lity h o u sin g ,
healthcare, and education than their
white counterparts. Additionally, it
also showed that blacks were over­
represented in the adult prison, ju ­
venile justice and child welfare sys­
tems.
The updated report shows that
the recession has taken a particu­
larly high toll on African Americans
in Oregon. Between 2008 and 2009,
unemployment for white Orego­
nians rose from 6.2 percent to 11.1
percent. But for the state’s African
Americans, that number shot up
from 11.1 percent to 15.2 percent
Marcus Mundy
during the same period.
African A m ericans in the state
also suffered the highest percent­
age o f foreclosures, closely fol­
lowed by Latinos, due to sub­
prime lending practices. The new
figures also showed that the drop­
out rate has improved for every
dem ographic student group ex­
cept for blacks in Oregon, whose
dropout rate rem ains stuck at 7
percent.
Marcus Mundy, the president o f
the Urban League o f Portland,
called on local governments to col­
lect more racial and demographic
data and set solid disparity reduc­
tion targets. He said that the most
recent report for his organization
shows that the response to his ini­
tial report ha$ been inadequate.
“The current economy contin­
ues to fuel widening socioeconomic
disparities amongst black
Oregonians,” Mundy said. “Our
opportunity now lies in ensuring
that emerging jobs, health, educa­
tion and related policy is equitable
for all Oregonians. Our data shows
that without setting targeted goals,
disparities will persist and in many
cases, worsen.”
The Urban League is proposing
that the C ity o f Portland, M etro, and
the Oregon Department o f Trans­
portation, and other government
entities overseeing new economic
development initiatives, particularly
projects funded by the federal stimu­
lus, to devote a percentage o f each
project’s workforce to lifting up
groups disproportionately affected
by unemployment.
The league is also calling for the
creation o f a city-wide task force to
look into the social and economic
woes, and for Portland Public
Schools and health facilities to de­
vote more resources toward improv­
ing the condition o f African Ameri­
cans.
' On the legislative side, the league
is calling for lawmakers to preserve
and expand the eamed-income tax
credit and Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families, in addition to
enacting legislation that will require
an analysis o f the racial impacts o f
any change in sentencing policy.
Program Saves Cost on Textbooks
Cascade Library
to place books
on reserve
O pinion
pages 16-17
A test program to use college
textbooks could save Portland
Community College students a
lot o f money and help the envi­
ronment.
Beginning fall term, the PCC
Cascade Campus Library will
have on reserve at least one
copy o f every required text be­
ing used on the campus, located
at 705 N. Killingsworth St.
Thanks to this trial project,
textbooks will be on a two-hour
checkout for all students. The
p ro jec t w as m ade p o ssib le
thanks to $25,000 from the cam­
pus Green Initiative Fund, which
is an effort to make PCC more
environmentally sustainable, and
a total o f $5,000 more by Cas­
cade Campus President Algie
Gatewood and Dean o f Instruc­
tion Scott Huff.
"The idea is that, by having a
copy o f all required books on
reserve, som e students may
choose to not purchase a text­
book, and instead rely on the
library copy to do their home­
work," said Tony Greiner, refer-
ence librarian at Cascade who is
spearheading the trial program.
"A textbook normally has a life
o f about three years before a
new edition comes out, and we
teach four terms a year. So even
if only one student per term de­
cides to use the library copy
instead o f purchasing one, at the
end o f three years we will have
reduced the amount o f books
printed, shipped and then re­
cycled in a landfill by a factor o f
12."
Greiner said that another ben­
efit of this initiative is having these
continued 'W ' on page 19