local news
Festival
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and other community groups, such as
the ‘Restore the Village’ campaign,
will meet up at the PROPER festival
and form relationships that connect ’s
efforts to help youth.
Kyna Harris, who leads Oregon
Action’s healthy kids initiative, will
speak at the
festival.
Harris, who
earned
an
MBA from ,
has
also
worked for the
Black Parent
Initiative.
Children,
teenagers and
adults all will find something to enjoy
at the festival, including games, a bas-
ketball shootout with prizes, a skate-
board ramp and activities, also with
prizes. A stage will showcase spoken
word poets, dancers Bobby Fouther
and GNC Ministries, rappers Concrete
Evangelists, comedian David Little,
the 25th Hour Band, Blue Reign, Chris
Mondaine, and festival co-founder
E.D. Mondaine, who performs with
‘Belief.’ E.D. Mondaine and Belief
recently released their new album, fea-
turing ‘Cry Loud’ a tribute to the resi-
dents of
Another draw at the festival is the
annual transportation and awards
Free health screenings will be on offer
through the afternoon. Don’t eat or
drink for three hours in advance, if you
would like to have your blood sugar
checked – a test for diabetes.
E.D. Mondaine, senior pastor at ,
created PROPER along with Pastor
T y r o n e
Sampson, who
passed away,
last
year.
P R O P E R
stands
for:
P e o p l e
Reaching
Other People
Expecting
Restoration.
Sampson’s widow, Deborah Sampson,
worked with Michael Hunter, Niani
Norman and Robin Gordon to create
this year’s festival.
PROPER is also known for its annu-
al Thanksgiving dinner, a collabora-
tion with Po’Shines Café at 8139. The
group usually holds two summer
events, but because of tight finances,
this year has focused on the festival.
K E N TO N PA R K
show which brings classic cars and
unusual and interesting vehicles. If
you want to bring a show car, or any
vehicle, simply register – for free
–with Pastor Gordon at 503-890-5393.
Youth nonprofits, churches, schools,
recovery organizations, mentor organ-
izations and support groups will have
booths at the festival, offering infor-
mation about resources and networks.
OPENStrEEtMaP cONtrIButOrS, cc-By-Sa
Find Good Food, Great Music and Networking
for Youth at the PROPER Festival.
PROPER will host the multicultural, everyone
welcome, festival Saturday Aug. 27
delta
continued from page 1
accomplished by a racially diverse group
with about $800,000 to spend.
“It’s history making because we took a
brownfield, which was a toxic site, and
made it into a green building,” she said.
“We had basically chosen to take the high-
est level of green building and take it high-
er to the Living Building
Challenge.”
The June Key Center is named for
the Delta soror who first came up
with the idea in the early 1990s and
pushed for it among the local com-
munity as well as city and regional
government bureaus and nonprofits.
Key, who donated the property to
the Deltas, died several years ago
before seeing how far her vision
would come.
Watch a before-and-after slideshow of the
project, set to a Stevie Wonder instrumental
from “The Secret Life of Plants,” on their
website, http://www.key-delta-living-build-
ing.com/ .
June Key Center has been consistently por-
trayed by observers as being in competition
with the Portland State University Oregon
Sustainability Center, a high-rise, multi-use
building in downtown Portland which has
yet to break ground.
The two projects were juxtaposed last
year at the Seattle Living Future semi-
nar which featured Poole-Jones and a
team for the community center along-
side representatives from the
Sustainability Center, a mammoth $80
million project now slated to begin
construction in early 2012, according
to its website.
So far only three buildings in the
world
have been certified as “Living
—Chris Poole-Jones
Buildings,” and they’re located in
Missouri, Hawaii, and New York; a
most advanced measure of sustainability in fourth has achieved partial recognition. A
the built environment possible today and building must operate within the Living
acts to diminish the gap between current Buildings guidelines for one year before
limits and ideal solutions,” Living Future achievement official certification.
“If they can achieve ‘Living Building’
says on its website. “Whether your project
is a single building, a park, a college cam- after a year that will be truly significant,”
pus or even a complete neighborhood com- said PDC spokeswoman Anne Mangan.
munity, Living Building Challenge provides “The place it has in the neighborhood is
a framework for design, construction and really important.”
the symbiotic relationship between people
and all aspects of the built environment.”
Historic Milestone
In the Living Building Challenge, the
Marcelo Bonta, a member of the Verde
Created by the International Living Future
Institute, the challenge offers an array of
standards touching on seven areas of build-
ing consideration: “Site, Water, Energy,
Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty.”
“The purpose of the Living Building
Challenge is straightforward – it defines the
‘We had basically chosen to
take the highest level of green
building and take it higher to
the Living Building Challenge’
living Building challenge
A cutting-edge environmental standard in
building construction and redevelopment,
the Living Building Challenge is an interna-
tional movement to promote green building
practices in local communities.
outreach board as well as the founder and
executive director of the Center for
Diversity & the Environment, says the June
Key Center could be a boost for similar
projects on the future.
“My organization works on diversity,
inclusion and equity in the environmental
and sustainable energy movements, and
what’s wonderful about this project is – it’s
by and for people of color and a perfect
resource in the North Portland community,”
he said.
“Communities of color have been
engaged in sustainability and the environ-
ment for a long time, and it’s great to have
a project such as this to gain the attention of
a city like Portland as well as getting the
attention of mainstream environmentalists.”
Bonta says the crucial issue is access to
the funds and resources to make similar
ideas into reality.
“I see projects like this coming more and
more in the future, and communities of
color have the commitment and skills and
interest to do this work but they may not
have adequate resources to do them,” he
said. “Access to the funds and resources are
important, but when it comes to engaging a
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
Equity
continued from page 1
Center; third, at Gilbert Heights Middle
School; and finally at Zenger Farm. At each
stop on the Equity Ride, speakers from
sponsoring groups will explain how their
work impacts equity and diversity issues,
and what’s possible for future projects.
Among the sponsors are: the Portland
Opportunities Industrialization Center, the
Latino Network, the Immigrant and
Refugee Council of Oregon, the Asian and
Pacific American Network of Oregon, the
Audubon Society, the Center for Diversity
and Environment, and The Skanner
Foundation.
Enjoy a tamale, courtesy of Hacienda
CDC and find out more about transit in East
Portland, as you discover the joy of biking
on the new path along I-205. That project
includes the planting of 10,000 trees and
bushes along the edge of the freeway, help-
ing to shield surrounding neighborhoods
from air and noise pollution and creating a
greener
environment. Through
it,
METRO’s ‘Nature in Neighborhoods’ capi-
tal program, working through the nonprofit
Friends of Trees, created 31 temporary tree-
planting jobs for youth through the
Rosemary Anderson High School POIC
program.
“They get paid training as Friends of
Trees crew leaders,” Romero said. “And the
nonprofit Verde will help with establishing
these trees, watering them and making sure
they survive the first three years.
“I think the users of this path are enjoying
them.”
“This event encourages people to network, so
there may be some partnerships that come out
of that. And we want to show that there is a way
for equity to be an integral part of
development.”
-- Shelley Romero of ODOT
LINKS
http://eastportland.org/Eastneighborhoodsgatewaypagehttp://www.portlandon-
line.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=214221faststatsaboutEPO
http://zengerfarm.org/
The Portland Skanner august 17, 2011 Page 3