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April 10, 2019
Rib Pit Finds
Way to Survive
C ontinued froM f ront
It’s been an addition that’s re-
ally sparked up our dessert sales,”
Cannon said.
The southern dish rounds out
the classic barbecue staples like
ribs, chopped pork, chicken, and
beef brisket that Cannon offers,
many of which are covered in his
own family’s barbecue sauce rec-
ipe.
Cannon jokes that even behind
the kitchen the recipes are still
tightly guarded, even amongst the
chefs. “I won’t give [Darnell] the
recipe for my barbecue sauce, he
won’t give me the recipe for his
sweet potato cake,” he said with a
chuckle.
Cannon originally bought his
rib pit business in 1995 from
Chuck Hinton, who ran it as
“Chuck Hinton’s Rib Express” for
10 years prior. Hailing from Cal-
ifornia, Cannon has since estab-
lished himself as an active mem-
ber of the community. During
hardships, he’s provided food, like
feeding the homeless, or preparing
meals for families who are griev-
ing, he said.
“I learned a long time ago when
there’s a death in someone’s fami-
ly, what they need more than any-
thing is for someone to provide
food because they don’t have time
to cook,” he said.
Cannon has also been a mentor
to many young people in the com-
munity, providing them with their
first high school jobs, including
André Lightsey-Walker, a Grant
High School and University of
Oregon graduate—where he was
a track star—who now works at
Metro; Charles Taylor-Love, who
is now a footwear designer at Co-
lumbia Sportswear; and Honoré
Arias, a Lewis and Clark Law
School graduate.
“The lessons I learned working
for Wayne back then still inform
my decisions today, and I am very
thankful for his friendship and the
formative experiences I had work-
ing for him,” Arias said in a writ-
ten thank you letter to Cannon,
one of several he’s received over
the years.
Cannon over the years has hosted
weekly summer concerts with sax-
ophonist Reggie Huston and, now
that he’s more centrally located and
also next to the annual Beech Street
Block Party, a popular event in the
African American community ,he
expects to be a part of community
celebrations for years to come. He
also hopes to be in a position to
throw concerts or events on his own
again in the future.
“We’re community-orientated
and trying to stay that way and
maintain that philosophy,” he
said.
Does I-5 Fix Fail on Equity?
C ontinued froM p age 3
merging lanes, capping the free-
way in a small portion of the 1.7
mile area, and adding two new
pedestrian and bike bridges span-
ning the freeway.
It has gained criticism in part
due to the proposed auxiliary
lanes cutting even closer to the
hillside near Harriet Tubman
Middle School which serves a
large African American com-
munity and already experiences
pollutants outside due to traffic
congestion. ODOT has claimed
that the project would improve
air quality because it would keep
traffic moving.
“Although it would be nice to
fix the bottleneck on I-5 and the
project includes $250 million for
surface street improvements fo-
cused on better pedestrian, bike,
and transit infrastructure, as it
stands the added auxiliary lanes
on I-5 will not deliver meaningful
safety, environmental, or equity
benefits to Portland,” Eudaly said.
In a letter addressed to ODOT
Commision Chair Tammy Baney,
and co-signed by Mayor Ted
Wheeler, Metro Council Pres-
ident Lynn Peterson called for
ODOT to adopt a racially sensi-
tive approach to proceeding with
the project, citing the hundreds
of families and businesses that
were displaced in the 1950s in
the predominately black Albina
neighborhood during I-5’s origi-
nal construction.
Peterson also backs Albina
Vision Trust, a volunteer group
seeking to re-develop the com-
munity of lower Albina with the
construction of affordable hous-
ing and new public plazas, and
other measures.
“[The highway project] is a
once-in-generation opportunity to
build over the divisive, trenched
highway and reconnect inner east
Portland neighborhoods to the
Willamette River. Let’s take the
opportunity to fix the problem
that was created when I-5 was
originally construct,” Albina Vi-
sion chair Rukaiyah Adams said
in her own letter, in which she
also called for an environmental
impact statement from ODOT.