CAREERS Special Edition
August 15, 2018
The
INSIDE
Week in Review
C AREERS
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Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortland o bserver
Eddie Kirk Jones, 58, worries that without new zoning protections, the property where he and his wife have
lived in the Cully Neighborhood for the past 17 years, will be redeveloped and land them on the street.
R ELIGION
Fighting Displacement
Zoning plan to protect affordable Mobile Home Parks
page 8
d anny P eterson
t he P ortland o bserver
A proposed re-zoning of mobile
home parks in Portland is meant
to protect over 3,000 low-income
families from being displaced or
put out on the streets due to real
estate market forces that have seen
properties across the city trans-
formed into future lots for higher
priced homes and condominiums.
The city’s 56 mobile home
parks are some the most afford-
able residential areas left in Port-
land and many of the residents of
these parks cannot financially af-
ford to move. Many of the mobile
homes themselves are also too old
to transport elsewhere.
The zoning proposal before the
City Council would give some
protections to the parks and is a
less expensive way of securing
affordable housing than construct-
ing new affordable units, propo-
nents say. Mayor Ted Wheeler
backed the proposal when it went
before the Planning and Sustain-
ability Commission in July and
by
S PORTS
pages 8-10
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
was passed. A public comment
period is now open ahead of the
council taking up the matter next
week.
In the Cully Neighborhood of
northeast Portland, in which 10
percent of residents live in one of
the six mobile home parks located
there, redevelopment of the parks
into apartments or something
more lucrative could displace a
population that in many cases has
already exhausted all other hous-
ing options.
Cully is one of the most di-
verse neighborhoods in Oregon,
according to Cameron Herrington,
anti-displacement coordinator for
Living Cully, a non-profit neigh-
borhood group that is pushing for
the rezoning effort.
According to the last Census,
16 percent of Cully residents are
black, Herrington said. There’s
also a high immigrant and refugee
population. Many of these resi-
dents moved there after being dis-
placed from other neighborhoods
in north and northeast Portland or
from their home country.
“It’s sort of been a landing place
but other than that also a place
where people have created really
strong community ties, identity,
and pride,” Herrington said.
Back in 2016 Herrington was
the major backer of another initia-
tive to save a mobile home park,
Oak Leaf, also in the Cully neigh-
borhood, by facilitating its pur-
chase by the charity St. Vincent de
Paul of Lane County. It was spared
from being redeveloped and resi-
dents were able to continue living
there, although four other mobile
home parks closed in Portland due
to redevelopment that same year.
At Cedar Shade Mobile Home
Park, near Northeast Killing-
sworth Street and 72nd Avenue
and adjacent to Living Cully Pla-
za, many of the residents are wor-
ried that redevelopment of their
land could lead to them hopeless-
ly fending for themselves on the
street.
C ontinued on P age 6
Fabricator’s Death Goes Unsolved
page 9
M ETRO
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
pages 12-13
pages 11, 14
Portland police are asking help
from the public in solving the ho-
micide of Eugene Gora, a much
beloved neighbor, legacy fabri-
cator, and welder whose red shop
was a landmark at the corner of
Northeast Martin Luther King Jr.
Blvd and Skidmore Street.
A cash reward of up to $2,500
is being offered for any informa-
tion about the case, for which ho-
micide detectives have not deter-
mined any suspects.
Eugene Gora
Gora’s Welding and Fabrica-
tion at 4232 N.E. Martin Luther
King Jr. Blvd was the 85-year-
old’s place of business, residence,
and the location where he was dis-
covered, deceased, by a friend on
May 10.
Medical and emergency per-
sonnel, who responded at 6:30
p.m. that evening, confirmed that
he was deceased upon arrival. The
C ontinued on P age 5