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Hispanic Arts
Free admission
fo r seniors
Festival brings 22
shows over 16 days
See A &E, page 11
See El Observador, page 7
Established in 1970
Volume XXXX, Number 36
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • September 15, 2010
Steering TriMet
.. . .
,
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane sets a high bar for making improvements to the transit agency even during a period of fiscal uncertainly brought on by the recession.
GM looks to voters
for improving system
by J ake
T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
A pager on the hip o f TriM et’s new gen
eral manager steadily chums out a feed o f
A Breathless
Touchdown
Football player
scores, then suffers
heart attack
A Central Catholic football player sur
vived a heart attack during a game in Canby
Friday night thanks to a nurse who was in
the grandstands and came down to apply
information concerning any trouble spots
for the transit agency’s buses and MAX
trains. Neil McFarlane knows when a pas
senger is having a medical emergency. He
knows if a bus is having mechanical prob
lems.
But beyond the daily in-and-outs o f
TriM et’s operating system, which served
over 324,000 people each weekday last year, reduce service.
McFarlane has had more on his mind. Much *
McFarlane, who took over as general
more.
manager this summer, sat down with the
Every since the economy tanked in 2008, Portland Observer to talk about his priorities
TriMet has seen its budget hammered by at TriMet, including plans to upgrade its
high diesel prices along with a devastating facilities, its fiscal outlook, and the Columbia
drop in payroll taxes that fund the mass-
continued
on page 6
transit agency, causing it to raise fares and
life-saving chest com
diagnosis from a previ
pressions.
ous episode in which he
Hayward Demison, a
stru g g le d to b rea th e
17-year old junior at the
while playing basketball
southeast Portland high
and the in h aler after
school, collapsed in the
F rid a y ’s h eart attack
fourth quarter o f the game
seemed to make things
against Canby just mo
worse.
ments after he ran a 45-
Luckily, cardiac nurse
yard touchdown, ulti
Lisa Lyver was watching
mately winning the game
the contest as Demison’s
for his team.
heart stopped beating on
Demison struggled to Hayward Demison (KGW photo)
the sidelines.
breathe and asked his coach to get his in
Lyver prayed for a miracle as she began
haler, a device used to treat asthma.
chest compressions on the pulse-less foot
But asthma turned out to be an incorrect ball star. Two minutes later, Demison was
breathing again.
The teenager will miss the rest o f the
football season. Doctors discovered he
suffers from a defective left coronary ar
tery, but his heart didn’t sustain damage
after the cardiac arrest and the prognosis is
for a full recovery after surgery in the
coming weeks.
Demison, who wears No. 21 for the Cen
tral Catholic Rams, says he’s truly blessed
and thankful to the nurse who saved his
life.
“I’m just going to keep my head high
and support my team no matter what,” he
continues, “If it’s G od’s w ill...next year,
#21 will be back”.