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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2018)
Page 4 May 16, 2018 2018 SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION PACKETS Are available to: High School Grads, College Students And Adults Cont. Educ. PACKETS CAN BE REQUESTED ON-LINE @ Patriciaanntrice@gmail.com Or by phone ~ 503 283-6312 For more information contact Elizabeth F. Richard or Patricia A. Trice at 503 284-0535 THE APPLICATION DEADLINE IS JUNE 3RD MIDNIGHT The Della Mae Johnson Scholarship Foundation 2216 NE Killingsworth Portland, OR 97211 (503) 284-0535 Providing Insurance and Financial Services Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois 61710 Ernest J. Hill, Jr. Agent 4946 N. Vancouver Avenue, Portland, OR 97217 503 286 1103 Fax 503 286 1146 ernie.hill.h5mb@statefarm.com 24 Hour Good Neighbor Service R State Farm R Chicago-Style Steppin Fun, Healthy Social Dance for Couples and Singles. Weekly Classes www.groovinhighsteppers.com Denise Johnson 503-819-4576 Hernandez Williams 206-683-4101 Co-Founders and Instructers Legacy Fabricator Killed C ontinueD from p age 3 edge on to lots of people,” Julia Colson, the co-owner of the au- to-shop who sometimes trimmed Gora’s rose bushes, added. The Colsons noted they’d sometimes seen his door ajar, too. A makeshift memorial appar- ently put together by neighbors and friends with flowers, messag- es of love like “we miss you,” a candle, and a slice of apple pie were left on his doorstop Tuesday morning. The property had three open complaint cases with the city of Portland Neighborhood Inspec- tions Program, two related to the upkeep of his yard and one com- plaint of illegal residency of the owner. Two complaints, both from Dec. 11, had not yet resulted in citations—a nuisance complaint of debris and hazardous material in Gora’s yard, and a complaint of exterior storage of some of his possessions, including vehicles. A third complaint of illegal- ly residing in the garage, which was marked for commercial use, did result in a citation on Jan. 31, Housing Inspection Supervisor Megan Greenauer told the Port- land Observer. Gora told a housing inspector he had been living on his property for the past 45 years, Greenauer added, but was actively working with the city to correct the com- plaints. “He was moving towards sell- ing the property. We were work- ing with him to make the occupa- tion of the space more safe in the meantime,” she said. Gora even held an estate sale just two weeks ago, in the last weekend of April, where he sold some of his vehicles and other property in an apparent attempt to get clear his property, the Colsons said. Police have said the circum- stances of Gora’s death make them suspect homicide, and the cause of death was confirmed to be homicide-related, but It re- mains confidential as to how ex- actly police suspect the killing was implemented. “In order to preserve the integ- rity of this ongoing investigation, the Police Bureau is not releasing the specific cause of death,” Ser- geant Chris Burley, the bureau’s Public Information Officer, told the Portland Observer via email Monday. Portland Police Detective Divi- sion’s Homicide Detail and crimi- nalists with the Forensic Evidence Division were dispatched to in- vestigate the killing, officials said. Anyone with information about the death should contact Detective Todd Gradwahl at 503-823-09991, Todd.Gradwahl@portlandoregon. gov or Detective Brad Clifton at 503-823-0696, Brad.Clifton@ portlandoregon.gov. ‘Left Hook’ to Displacement C ontinueD from f ront nity who once lived in or remem- bered Vanport to curate and record their stories. As Lo Forti was collecting these oral histories, she had got- ten word that Webb was working on a play about Vanport, Cot- tonwood in the Flood, through a mutual friend. They got in touch with each other and have been running Vanport Mosaic together, ever since. The community of Vanport was home to many groups including African-Americans, whites, Jap- anese-Americans returning from internment during World War II, and Native Americans. It was one of the first integrated communi- ties of its time in the state. By 1947 the town that once boasted 40,000 dwindled to half that, but 4,000 residents of col- or stayed. That changed when the 1948 flood wiped out the community, even as the Port- land Housing Authority was vy- ing to dismantle it. The former residents were forced to move somewhere else, which for many blacks would end up being the Albina District. Due to a discriminatory lend- ing practice that limited African American presence elsewhere in the city, known as redlining, many Portland blacks who sought rentals or buying a house were also sequestered to the Albina district. Urban renewal efforts by the city, such as the construction of the Memorial Coliseum and the Interstate 5 freeway cut through north Portland neighborhoods in the 1960s, and the 1970s expan- sion of Emanuel Hospital, created economic blight in the area and displaced hundreds. The hospital expansion permanently altered some of the district’s signature features and, in some areas, razed sections of neighborhood without developing anything on it. Left Hook compresses the timeline of these events from a dozen years or more into a few months. It focuses on the return of African-American soldiers from Vietnam trying to find their place amid a transformed neighborhood; the Black Panther Movement; and a boxing club once integral to the community struggling to find a home. The Left Hook Boxing Club is based on an amalgamation of many of the actual gyms in Port- land at the time; in particular the Knott Street gym that still exists today from its current home out of the Matt Dishman Community Center in northeast Portland.
