June 24, 2020
The
Page 3
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
Week in Review
M ETRO
page 2
A photo of the
late Burdine
Rutherford,
courtesy
Portland State
University
Special
Collections and
Portland Parks
& Recreation.
page 6
Arts &
page 8
ENTERTAINMENT
Introducing Rutherford Park
First Portland
park named for
black woman
O PINION
C LASSIFIED /B IDS
A newly redeveloped park in
outer northeast Portland has been
renamed to honor a late female
leader from Portland’s historic Af-
rican American community, and
removes a previous moniker for
the park that drew racist connota-
Civil Rights Bill, which in 1953
outlawed discrimination in public
places on the basis of “race, reli-
gion, color or national origin.”
The park was recently renovat-
ed with a new playground, picnic
shelter, paved pathways, public art
and a soccer field.
Renaming the park was a proj-
ect kick-started by former City
Commissioner Nick Fish, who di-
c ontinued on p age 3
See inside
pages 10
Established 1970
USPS 959 680
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.,
Portland, OR 97211
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member of the National Newspaper Association--Founded
in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amal-
gamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast
Black Publishers Association
tions.
The green space and play-
ground formerly known as Lynch-
view Park at 167th and Market
Street will be called Verdell Bur-
dine Rutherford Park. It honors
Rutherford, a civil rights leader
and historian who lived in Oregon
from 1913 to 2001.
As president of the Portland
chapter of the NAACP she helped
pass the Public Accommodations
Bill, also known as the Oregon
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Police Defunding Proposals Pass
Vote eliminates former gang task force, school police
The Portland City Council followed through on
a pledge from the Mayor and City Commissioner
Jo Ann Hardesty by voting to cut nearly $16 mil-
lion from the police budget in response to concerns
about excessive use of force and racial injustice.
The money will be saved by eliminating a gun
reduction violence team, formerly called the gang
enforcement task force; school police resource of-
ficers; and the bureau’s transit division. It redirects
the revenue from police to social service programs.
Chloe Eudaly was the lone commissioner to vote
no on the cuts made during a budget session on June
17, saying they weren’t deep enough. The police
budget had stood at about $245 million before the
council action.
Some protesters have demanded cuts of $50
million for police, but City Commissioner Jo Ann
Hardesty defended the smaller amount, saying the
$50 million was not based on a specific analysis.
Hardesty worked for years to transform the Port-
land Police Bureau from the outside as an activist
and was the first black woman on the City Commis-
sion when she was elected in 2019.
“What I know is that there are a lot of people tak-
ing to the street every night who have not before this
month actually understood all the work that commu-
nity and government has done,” said Hardesty, who
proposed smaller cuts to police in last year’s budget
that failed.
Thousands of protesters have filled the streets of
Portland every night for three weeks following the
death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who
died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed
his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.