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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2011)
www . ThESkANNER . COM A uGuST 17, 2011 P ORTlANd , O REGON V OluME XXXIII, N O . 42 25 CENTS I NSIDE Eric Benét page 8 Jobs page 7 Calendar C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow Second Equity Ride 25 th page 2 Seeking SolutionS Bike tour of East Portland promotes diversity in planning, Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News PHOtO By SuSaN FrIED E ast Portland, or ‘The Numbers,’ is home to one-quarter of the city’s res- idents. But this fast-growing area is also poorer and has fewer resources than other parts of the city. So what’s being done to level the playing field for this multicul- tural area? Find out Aug. 25 at the Second Annual Equity Ride. The East Portland Plan, adopted in 2009 aims to bring more resources and support to residents living east of 82nd Avenue. Check out some of the efforts underway at the sec- ond annual Equity Bike Ride, gathering from 5:30 pm, Aug. 25 in Lents Park, SE 92nd Avenue at Steele. The bike ride will set off at 6 p.m. and travel six and a half miles through the Lents neighborhood. “It is open to anybody who wants to join in and participate,” said Shelley Romero, public policy and communications manager for Oregon Department of Transportation, who started the Equity Ride last year. “We’ve doubled the number of sponsors and we expect a lot of people to come so we encourage people to get there early.” Last year’s Equity Ride went through the Montavilla Neighborhood; this year’s ride will look at Lents, with the goal of raising awareness and bringing diverse communi- ties together to learn about the geographic, racial, economic and environmental equity efforts underway in East Portland. Romero said she wants to bring attention to ODOT’s multi-use path project at I-205, as well as to the work of other agencies and nonprofits. “This event encourages people to net- work, so there may be some partnerships that come out of that,” she said. “And we want to show that there is a way for equity to be an integral part of development.” The ride will stop four times to check out new development: first, on the new I-205 path at SE Liebe; second, at Holgate Transit SEI hosted a meeting for Boise Elliot neighbors Thursday Aug. 11. Concerned about the recent increase in criminal activities and violence, neighbors heard from Mayor Adams, police, youth violence prevention specialists, a former gang member, and ministers working to support youth. Great Food, Music and Youth Network PROPER will host the multicultural festival Saturday Aug. 27 Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News R appers, dancers, African drummers, jazz, soul and Gospel music are just a few of the reasons to visit this year’s PROPER Festival, from noon to 4 pm, Aug. 27, at North Portland’s Kenton Park. In its 20th year, the festival brings people together, to share deli- cious food, fun, entertainment and live, face-to-face social networking, across social and cultural lines. See EquIty on page 3 INDEX News ......................2,3 Opinion .....................4 A & E ......................6,8 Bids/Classifieds ..........7 “We offer very good, free food and we feed about 1000 people,” said Pastor Robin Gordon, an organizer with the group for the last two years. “We’re simply about creating a fun community event that makes the community feel a lit- tle smaller, and a little more united.” The theme of this year’s festi- val is “Uniting the Youth Today to Create a Better Tomorrow.” Niani Norman said organizers chose the theme after the tragic death of 14-year-old student Yashanee Vaughn. “That hit home for a lot of people,” Norman said. A youth advocate who has worked with the arts nonprofit Caldera, the program and church youth groups, Norman said she sees a disconnect between young peo- ple, parents and children’s organizations. “We’re seeing a rise of vio- lence among teens and to me, as a person witnessing it- it’s get- ting out of control. We know ‘It Takes a Village’, and we are that village. This theme fits perfect- ly with our mission at PROPER, which is to bring everyone together, and really help people know what’s available from the organizations working in our community –but also to get the community involved so those organizations are more effec- tive.” Norman said she had not heard of the 11:45 effort that recently signed up 400 volun- teers to work on projects that support youth and families. But she hopes that 11:45 volunteers See FEStIval on page 3 Community Center Sets Environmental June Key Delta project offers ‘net zero’ facility for North Portland By lisa loving Of The Skanner News Y ou may not know about it, but there’s a race on in Oregon to see who will build the first ‘Living Building’ – a structure that generates no waste, uses no energy to function, and is constructed without toxic materials, among other things. The race is technically not over yet but we seem to have a winner: The June Key Delta Community Center, which celebrated its grand opening last week at the corner of North Albina and Ainsworth Streets. Once the Portland Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and its nonprofit foundation the Piedmont Rose Connection, raise enough funds to pay for solar panels, the building will reach “net zero” energy use status and can be certified by the Living Building Challenge – the first in Oregon. Project manager Chris Poole-Jones says the sorority wove together a tapestry of local nonprofit groups, businesses and vol- unteers to set a statewide standard in green building – which just happens to have been See DElta on page 3
