December 12, 2018
Page 5
Providing Insurance and Financial Services
Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois 61710
Ernest J. Hill, Jr. Agent
311 NE Killingsworth St,
Portland, OR 97211
503 286 1103
Fax 503 286 1146
ernie.hill.h5mb@statefarm.com
24 Hour Good Neighbor Service R
State Farm R
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Cully resident Annette Pronk takes a sledge hammer to the former Sugar Shack on Monday, joining
other women in the community during a ceremony to mark its deconstruction and the end to a
blighted piece of property known for prostitution and other criminal activity.
Sugar Shack Comes Down
C ontinueD from p age 3
to housing, it will include a large
community space and a central
plaza to welcome families and
individuals, amenities decided on
through community input.
“We want to continue to have a
place to convene, to organize, to
build political power,” said Cully
resident Annette Pronk, who had
a leading role in the early stages
of the Sugar Shack deconstruction
and re-envisioning process years
prior.
In addition to Hacienda, locat-
ed just across the street, Habitat
for Humanity, The Native Ameri-
can Youth and Family Center and
Verde also played vital roles in
developing the project. The City’s
urban development department,
Prosper Portland, provided a por-
tion of its funding.
Hacienda formally purchased
the site in 2017, after it had been
transformed in 2015 to the Liv-
ing Cully Plaza by community
coalition Living Cully (of which
Hacienda is a member). Living
Cully had purchased the site from
the former strip club owners, who
were both sent to prison in 2017
for prostitution and federal tax
evasion.
“Las Adelitas” is named after a
Mexican revolutionary and former
nurse, Adela Velarde.
The name pays tribute the wom-
en who were physically exploited
and abused in the Sugar Shack’s
two-decade-long prostitution ring,
which at one point brought the
highest calls for police service of
any site in the Cully neighborhood,
Hacienda Chief Executive Officer
Ernesto Fonseca said in a letter to
the community.
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