April 10, 2019
Page 3
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
The
Week in Review
C ALENDAR
page 2
page 6
Named First Citizen
Ron Herndon,
education
advocate
honored
Ron Herndon, a leader in Port-
land’s African American com-
munity who is well known for
successfully advocating for chil-
dren by promoting equity in the
Portland School District, has been
named Portland First Citizen, a
prestigious award to honor civic
achievements and business lead-
ership within the community.
Presented annually by the Port-
land Metropolitan Association of
Realtors, the individuals named
Portland First Citizens form an
honor roll of the city’s most prom-
inent leaders.
Herndon has been the Director
page 9
M ETRO
Ron Herndon
of Albina Head Start in Portland
for more than 40 years, providing
comprehensive early childhood
education, health, nutrition, and
parent involvement services to
low-income children and their
families. He has taken the or-
ganization from 126 children
in 1975 to more than 1,000
children today and expanded
the number of Head Start sites
from 1 to 25. He is a former
teacher, counselor, college in-
structor and VISTA volunteer.
Herndon also served as
president and board chair of
the National Head Start As-
sociation from 1991 to 2013.
As chair he provided leader-
ship and support to Head Start
programs across the nation
including advocating for over
900,000 low-income children
and families.
Herndon will be recognized
at the 91st annual Portland First
Citizen Banquet on Friday, April
19 at The Nines, downtown, from
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
pages 7-11
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
photo by d anny p eterson /t he p ortland o bserver
The impacts past and future to Portland’s African American community were addressed last week in
final comments on plans by the Oregon Department of Transportation to upgrade a 1.7 mile segment
of I-5 at the Rose Quarter.
Does I-5 Fix Fail on Equity?
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
In final comments,
impacts on black
community cited
pages 12-13
pages 14
Governmental leaders from
Portland and Metro have thrown
shade to a plan to expand a seg-
ment of I-5 to fix a bottle neck at
the Rose Quarter saying the Ore-
gon Department of Transportation
failed to address equity issues
when studying the project, includ-
ing the impact to a black popula-
tion which was displaced from the
area and would return under a new
vision for the neighborhood.
As the public comment period
on the highway construction proj-
ect came to a close last week, Port-
land City Commissioner Chloe
Eudaly called for a more extensive
review of the impacts of the pro-
posed $500 million renovation,
joining a large number of voices
critical of the project, including
the Portland School Board, and
environmental and community
groups.
The project involves adding
C ontinued on p age 4