When Dreams Come True
'City of
Roses’
Latino theater group’s
world premiere
See El Observador, page 8
Read back issues of the Portland Observer at W W W .portlandobserver.com
Volume XXXXI. Number 12
Wednesday • March 23. 2011
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wily Coyote Moves In
We’ve created
the problem by
feeding them
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
M ore coyote sightings in P o rtlan d ’s ur­
ban landscape lead researchers to believe
that the w elcom ing behavior o f hum ans has
encouraged the resilient w ild anim als to do
w hat is natural for them ; adapt, in this case,
too close for com fort.
“W e ’ve created the habitat for coyotes,
so they are ju s t taking advantage to live in it,”
says B arbara B row er, a geography professor
at Portland State U niversity and co-origina-
tor o f the U rban C oyote Project.
Several residents have increasingly sp o t­
ted up to tw o and three opportunistic scav ­
engers strolling on sidew alks, napping in
streets, and playing near parks in several
n o rth an d n o rth e a st P o rtla n d n e ig h b o r­
h o o d s, in c lu d in g A la m e d a , C o n c o rd ia ,
H um boldt, G rant, Irvington and B eaum ont-
W ilshire.
by
continued
yf
on page 5
photo by
S arah C hung
Sarah Chung took this photo of a coyote napping in her driveway on Northeast Alameda Terrace in November.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■HMMHMMi
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ H I
Helping Kids Resolve Differences
Choking case was
at school with
anti-bullying coach
C liff P fenning
T he P ortland O bserver
W hen a case o f bullying that involved a
second grader being choked during recess at
W oodlaw n Elem entary in northeast Port­
land reached the local new s this m onth. M att
Ferro said he w as surprised that he h ad n ’t
heard about it.
Ferro helps m onitor the W oodlaw n play­
by
ground during lunch breaks as a coach for
Playw orks, a non-profit that teaches kids
how to play together and resolve their d iffer­
ences w ithout resorting to fighting.
“ I’m out there every day and kids find me
w ith the littlest o f problem s, so it w as un­
usual that I d id n ’t learn o f it until then,” Ferro,
w h o ’s been at the school for the past 14
m onths, said last w eek. “ I ’ve seen a big
difference in the w ay kids settle their d iffer­
ences on the playground in the tim e I ’ve
been at the school, so w hat happened did
seem a little unusual w hen I heard about it.
“ But this is a tough area w ith a lot o f
poverty, and bullying does go on. T h e re ’s
plenty o f kids here w ho know that if som eone
says som ething bad about their nam e o r their
fam ily, th e y ’ve got their p a re n ts’ perm ission
to hit them .”
T he alleged incident at W oodlaw n in­
volved an eight-year-old getting held dow n
by one student and choked by another w ith
a rope. T he incident left scars on his neck that
w ere captured by a local television new s
p h o to g rap h er and then b ro ad cast to the
world.
P ortland Public Schools is investigating
and has not offered any com m ent.
T he incident also took place during a w eek
in w hich President Barack O bam a was ad ­
dressing the problem o f bullying.
A survey co nducted by the U.S. H ealth
and H um an Services D epartm ent in 2009
found that m ore than one third o f teens
reported being bullied and that tw o thirds o f
those incidents happened at school.
Playw orks, based in O akland, C alif., has
found a niche in prom oting positive solu­
tions through sim ple gam es, such as Four
Square, to help teach kids how to play to ­
g eth er and resolve their differences p eace­
fully.
In ju st three years, the program has ex-
continued
y^
on page 4