November 23, 2016
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INSIDE
The
Week in Review
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O PINION
photo by M ark W ashington /t he p ortland o bserver
Colas Construction, an African-American and family-owned business, starts construction on the long
vacant corner of Northeast Alberta Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the future home
of a Natural Grocers market and a second building to provide retail space for local, minority-owned
businesses.
Alberta Commons
M ETRO
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Construction begins on PDC-backed project
Construction has begun on Al-
berta Commons, a Portland De-
velopment Commission backed
project to bring economic benefits
to the heart of the historic black
community at Northeast Martin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Al-
berta Street.
Rising up from the long vacant
site will be a Natural Grocers mar-
ket, a quality, affordable and or-
ganic grocery retail chain which
is the primary business anchor,
along with additional retail space
for local, minority-owned busi-
nesses that complements the local
businesses to the south at Vanport
Square, providing needed goods
and services to the community.
PDC will be owner for 50 per-
cent of the non-anchor space to
provide discounted commercial
space to local, minority-owned
businesses. Colas Construction,
an African-American, fami-
ly-owned business, is the gener-
al contractor for the project, and
Majestic Realty of Los Angeles is
the developer.
According to PDC officials,
Colas Construction is now final-
izing contracts with subcontrac-
tors, and anticipates achieving 55
percent participation by minority,
women and emerging small busi-
ness firms, with 41 percent of that
workforce employed by minority
business enterprises.
The project also carries a pub-
lic art element. Local artists Meh-
ran Heard and Arvie Smith have
been selected for the installation
of public art along the east and
south walls of the Natural Grocers
building.
Call to End Death Penalty Cases
Justice group
makes plea to
governor
Arts &
pages
8-13
ENTERTAINMENT
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
O BITUARIES
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A Portland-based justice and
civil rights group has called on
Gov. Kate Brown to commute the
sentences of the 35 people on Ore-
gon’s death row to life without the
possibility of parole after a study
showing the extreme high price of
prosecuting death penalty cases .
The Oregon Justice Resource
Center issued the call last week
after doing a study with academ-
ics from Lewis & Clark Law
School and Seattle University that
revealed that aggravated murder
cases with death sentences in Ore-
gon cost as much as a million dol-
lars more or four times as much
as comparable cases with life sen-
tences.
In October, Gov. Brown reaf-
firmed a moratorium on execu-
tions that began in 2011 under her
predecessor, Gov. John Kitzhaber,
and was continued by her when
she took office in 2015. At that
time, she was reported as having
“serious concerns about the con-
stitutionality and workability of
Oregon’s death penalty law.”
While a moratorium does pre-
vent someone from being execut-
ed in Oregon, cases are still mak-
ing their way through the appeals
process and new death sentences
can be issued, so it does not ad-
dress the financial costs associated
with the death penalty.
“The revelation this week
about the huge sums being wasted
on a death penalty we are not us-
ing should give every Oregonian
pause for thought,” said Alice
Lundell, director of communica-
tions for OJRC. “Even before the
moratorium, Oregon had had only
two executions in 50 years, mean-
ing that we’re spending millions
of dollars on a system that is not
fit for purpose.”
c ontinued on p age 4