Page 2
u 1,1 jJortlanh (Dbseruer
«
September 15, 2010
Advocates Want Benefits if Rose Quarter Developed
J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
by
When the Portland Development
Commission and the City o f Port­
land hatched plans last year to ex­
pand urban renewal in the north and
northeast parts o f the city, possibly
including the Rose Quarter, one
Portlander saw an opportunity to
bring in some much-needed cash
for community organizations oper­
ating in the area.
While serving on a PDC commu­
nity advisory committee on the ex­
pansion o f urban renewal in the
area, Roy Jay, president o f the Afri­
can American chamber o f com-
ment o f the Rose Quarter.
Jay’s idea would provide a steady
stream o f revenue for over 50 com­
munity organizations in north and
northeast Portland, and has strong
support behind it. However, it might
collide with existing agreements the
city has to renovate PGE Park into a
major league soccer stadium.
Community benefits agreements
have become a common feature o f
many PDC projects. They are le­
RoyJay
gally-binding agreements, typically
merce, began advocating for an in­ concerned with things like local hir­
novative community benefits agree­ ing for the project, living wages, and
ment to be written into any develop­ making sure minority contractors
ment agreement for the re-develop­ aren’t excluded.
S tro n g su p p o rt for a CBA
emerged in the PDC community
advisory committee. Before it dis­
banded last spring, it passed reso­
lutions supporting the expansion o f
urban renewal in north and north­
east Portland. It passed another
asking for a strong CBA for the
Rose Quarter re-development, which
at that point had been taken up by
another citizen committee appointed
by the mayor.
Jay’s idea for a CBA is much more
ambitious than others implemented
elsewhere.
Under his proposal, if the Rose
Quarter is re-developed, 1 percent
o f all gross revenue generated in it
would go into a special fund that
would be used to bolster over 50
different community organizations,
many o f which operate in north and
northeast Portland. A $ 1.99 charge
would also be tacked on to every
ticket sold for any event in Rose
Quarter that would also go into the
fund.
A hefty sum o f money could be at
stake. According to Jay, about $300
million was generated in the Rose
Quarter last year. One percent o f
that would mean $3 million.
continued
on page 6
LWeek in
The Review
Bush Forfeits Heisman
New Orleans Saints' running back
Reggie Bush said Tuesday that he
would give back the Heisman Tro­
phy that he won in 2005 while he was
at Southern California. USC was hit
with heavy sanctions this summer
after the NCAA determined Bush
had received improper benefits and
should have been ineligible.
Allen Cancer Test ‘Clean'
Trailblazers’ owner Paul Allen says
his latest test for Non-Hodgkins
lymphoma "was clean." "It brought
a smile to my face as you can imag­
ine," he said, in an interview broad­
cast by the Blazers on Monday.
Jobless Rate Unchanged
The unemployment rate in Oregon
still has not budged after nearly a
year. The latest jobless figures show
the seasonally adjusted unemploy­
ment rate was 10.6 percent in Au­
gust, unchanged from 10.6 percent
in July.
Crime Rates Down
New statistics from the FBI show
crime rates in Oregon are down to
their lowest levels since the 1960s.
Factors for the decline include the
state's tough laws on the sale o f
ingredients used in making meth­
amphetamine and the fact that the
population is getting older.
^September
S atu rd ay, I l a m - 3p m
Genesis C o m m u n ity F e llo w s h ip
5 4 2 5 NE 27 th & K illin g s w o r t h , 9 7 2 1 1
Free Food, Face P ain tin g, P rize R affle & More!
CONTACT Kynä L. H arris, Oregon A ction Organizer. 971-634-0005
Iran Releases American
American hiker Sarah Shourd was
released by Iran Tuesday after more
than 13 months in prison. Her re­
lease, delayed by apparent political
wrangling behind the scenes, is the
latest twist o f an internal power
struggle inside Iran that comes just
days before President Ahmadinejad
travels to the U.S.
Aging Gas Lines at Risk
The tragic explosion o f a gas pipe­
line in a San Francisco suburb has
shed light on a problem usually kept
underground: Communities have
expanded over gas supply pipes
built decades earlier when no one
lived there.