Boogie at the
Waterfront
ICE Building
Reopens
July 4th kicks off
Blues Festival
Path cleared;
protest camp
continues
See Metro, page 9
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVII • Number 26
See Local News,
page 3
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • July 4, 2018
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Jason Washington
Vickie Naylor (from left), Bernadine Clay, and Donna Maxey look over the walking route as they take part in a unique program
blending the physical activity of neighborhood walks with social engagement and reminiscing, a way of slowing mental
decline and improving physical health.
Memory Walks for Healing
OHSU study finds benefits for aging brains
by D anny P eterson
t he P ortlanD o bserver
A unique program blending the phys-
ical activity of neighborhood walks
with social engagement and reminiscing
shows promise as a way of slowing men-
tal decline, improving physical health,
and even helping black residents and
others process the grief associated with
displacement from their homes, prelimi-
nary assessments and qualitative research
shows.
The designer of the program is an Af-
rican-American assistant professor of
neurology at Oregon Health and Sciences
University who spent some of her own
upbringing in north and northeast Port-
land neighborhoods which have become
much less diverse because of displace-
ment from gentrification.
“My interest was in memory and
how we remember our experiences, and
to communicate moral values, what’s
important in life, through our stories,”
Raina Croff, told the Portland Observer.
Her work involved 21 African Americans
55 or older who were long time residents.
Divided into groups of three, they would
walk three times a week over six months
to pre-designated, one mile routes, many
of which are now dramatically changed.
Guided by a smart tablet, a GPS-trig-
gered “memory marker” that would pop
up historic photos, news clippings or oth-
er artifacts from the past, the participants
would reminisce about their connection
to the place, until walking to another
“memory marker” which prompted more
discussion in 10 minute intervals.
Called Sharing History through Ac-
tive Reminiscence and Photo imagery, or
SHARP, the study focuses on brain health
while also serving as a way of preserving
the stories of community black elders —
the participants’ conversations were re-
corded and archived as oral histories.
Croff said that physical activity, social
engagement, and reminiscencing— have
all been proven individually to be good
for brain health, “but we wanted to see
what happens when we put these modes
of healthy brain behaviors together,” she
said.
The participants included people who
were cognitively healthy and those who
have experienced mild cognitive impair-
ment. The mild cognitive impairment
group showed the most improvement,
according to a post-study assessment,
which Croff said was “promising.”
For older African-Americans, brain
healthy activities are especially import-
ant, Croff said, because members of this
group are statistically twice as likely to
develop Alzheimer’s disease and other
mental health dementias as the general
white population.
Disproportionate rates of chronic con-
ditions like obesity, diabetes, and hyper-
tension probably contribute to the higher
impacts, she said, as well as cultural fac-
tors like unhealthy eating and inaccessi-
bility to quality health information.
C ontinueD on P age 5
Deadly
Force
Review
First shooting
by PSU campus
police kills man
D anny P eterson
t he P ortlanD o bserver
The death of a local black resident and
U.S. veteran killed Friday while trying
to break-up a fight outside a bar adjacent
to Portland State University and marking
PSU’s first officer-involved shooting has
drawn fierce protests, outcries from the
victim’s friends and family and a reignit-
ed a debate of whether PSU should have
armed officers in the first place.
The victim, Jason Washington, was a
45-year-old Navy veteran, father, grandfa-
ther, and postal worker. The campus police
officers involved have been identified as
Shawn McKenzie and James Dewey. Both
were placed on paid administrative leave
pending an investigation.
Multiple witnesses reported that Wash-
ington was trying to break up a fight out-
side the Cheerful Tortoise at 1939 S.W.
Sixth Ave. around 1:30 a.m. on Friday,
June 27 when he was shot. The PSU of-
ficers were responding to the disturbance.
Cell phone footage captured by a by-
stander showed a crowd of men physical-
ly pushing each other and falling to the
by