Tubman School Could Move for I-5 Black-led Vision for Russell-Williams School district and governor eye solution Team settles on affordable housing plan See Local News, page 3 See story, page 2 PO QR code Volume XLVV • Number 14 ‘City of Roses’ www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • August 4, 2021 Committed to Cultural Diversity Community effort confronts gun violence Group formed to renew ties to local youth b y b everly C orbell t he P ortland o bserver Law enforcement hasn’t solved the problem of gun violence, but Joe McFer- rin believes a community can. McFerrin is spearheading a new coor- dinated community effort called The Vil- lage to bring gun violence way down, just like a coalition of local nonprofits did in the late ‘80s and ‘90s. McFerrin was deeply involved in co- ordinating efforts back then, when many nonprofits sprung up to serve the African American community as well as the com- munity at large, to reduce gun violence. But many of those social service agen- cies weren’t structured for the long haul, and when gun violence decreased, they closed up shop, because they weren’t built to last. “This is what I lived through,” McFer- rin said. “I was working with all these community partners, but they disap- peared when the guns and bullets slowed down.” They didn’t have the ability to “piv- ot to provide services that were greatly P hoto by M ark W ashington /t he P ortland o bserver Joe McFerrin II (center), the adminsitrator for two long time educational programs serving the Black community, is getting help from at least 11 Portland Black leaders who have pledged to help bring down gun violence, including Lisa Saunders of FaithBridge (left), former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith and Jamal Dar of The African Youth and Community Organization (AYCO). needed,” he said. “Just because the bul- lets stop doesn’t mean services should stop.” Organizations that made a difference decades ago included the Albina Youth Opportunity School, the Youth Employ- ment Institute, House of Umoja, Port- land Youth Redirections and Minority Youth Concerns Action, he said. The House of Umoja even provided housing C ontinued on P age 5 Biles Wins Bronze on Beam Gynnast recovers to excel in Olympics final Simone Biles of the United States performs on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP photo) (AP) — Simone Biles isn’t going home with a fistful of gold medals. A mental block — one brought on by exhaustion or stress or something the American gymnastics star still can’t quite grasp — that forced her to pull out of four earlier Olympic finals saw to that. Yet standing on the podium Tuesday, a bronze medal hanging around her neck and tears in her eyes, the 24-year-old Biles may have claimed something far more valuable: a piece of herself back. From the “twisties” that have haunted her for a week. From the endless spec- ulation about her state of mind. From the hype machine — one, admittedly, she fed into at times — that set expecta- tions so high coming to Tokyo nothing short of the impossible would have been enough. It all became too much. A week ago, her internal wires got crossed when she hopped on uneven bars during practice. Suddenly, she couldn’t spin. She could barely move. She still doesn’t quite know why. And if she’s being honest, the wires still aren’t reconnected. She’s not sure when they will be. “It was something that was so out of my control,” Biles said. “But the out- C ontinued on P age 12