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A UGUST 1, 2012
P ORTLAND , O REGON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 31
25
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Bail Out
Regular
People?
BIG FLOAT
Merkley launches
new idea to help
homeowners in crisis
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY LISA LOVING
W
hen Rev. Fredi Jackson bought her
home in the East Portland, in
2009, she could easily afford the
mortgage. But after her renters moved out,
paying became more difficult. She tried to
refinance and was approved for a short-term
modification. Since then, she’s been trying
to get a permanent loan modification. Now,
more than a year later, she says, her bank
–Bank of America— just keeps stalling.
More than 1,400 people climbed into the Willamette River last Sunday for the Big Float 2, a local event designed
to encourage Portlanders to “take back” their river. After completion of the Big Pipe sewer project last winter, city
officials say the water quality is better than it’s been in more than a hundred years. Participants agreed; a
Guinness World Record for longest floating human chain failed for technical reasons, but the number of people
who formed the chain – more than 850 – whipped the current record of just 580. Organizers say they’ll try again
next year.
Felesia Otis on Mental Illness
Rev. Fredi Jackson
and Sen Jeff Merkley
Sen. Jeff Merkley held a press conference
outside Jackson’s house, Friday, to highlight
the continuing struggles of millions of U.S.
homeowners stuck in high interest mort-
gages, and to offer his solution.
“We moved so boldly as a nation to help
out large Wall Street institutions,” Sen.
Merkley said. “We should move equally
boldly to help out families across America.”
Merkley’s proposal calls on Congress to
take aggressive action to reduce the impact
of the housing crisis, by creating a trust, the
Rebuilding American Homeownership
Trust, that would refinance mortgages at
Keaton’s mother spreads the word on recovery from psychosis
Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
F
elesia Otis says it’s hard to
pinpoint the moment
when her son Keaton
became mentally ill. As a Ben-
son High School student he had
lots of friends and loved life.
Keaton was artistic, interested
in photography, graphic design
and poetry. After leaving school,
he designed and produced tee-
shirts and jackets. He also lived
with cousins in Canada, for a
couple of years.
See MERKLEY on page 3
INDEX
News ...........2,3,6,7,12
Opinion ..................4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Interview....................8
Bids/Classifieds ...10,11
Eventually, he planned to go
college and get a degree. But
gradually, in his early 20s he
slipped into psychosis.
“He could do all the normal
things – he could go to the store.
By the time we realized he was
starting to lose touch with reali-
ty, and he was going to need
some help, he’d been struggling
for some time.”
Keaton had always had a sus-
picious streak, Otis says. The
family would even tease him
about it. But from an endearing
character trait, Keaton’s suspi-
cion morphed into paranoia. He
began to spend more and more
time alone in his room, even
avoiding friends and family.
He would worry if a strange
car parked across the street, or if
anyone came to the door.
“It was subtle little things.
We’d dismiss it as just Keaton
being a little paranoid,” Otis
says.
Because Keaton was talking
less and less, it took a long time
before his family realized he
believed people were tunneling
under the family home and spy-
ing on them.
“The more unsafe he felt and
the more anxious he was, the
worse his delusions got,” Otis
says. “As a family member,
you’re just in shock because it’s
not rational for your child to
believe that.
“He wouldn’t see his aunts
and uncles; he wouldn’t see
anybody. He had really
changed,” Otis says. “He
stopped talking. He wouldn’t
say much more than a sentence.
It’s like you don’t recognize
See OTIS on page 3
‘Intersection Mural’ for North Portland
The painted art would complement shooting victim shrine
I
nspired by the City Repair project, artist
Kymberly Jeka wanted to create a com-
munity mural on her street. The
intersection of North Haight and Emerson
streets, she thought, would be an ideal spot
to paint a street mural. The idea behind
intersection murals is to bring community
members together to reclaim urban streets
as gathering places.
The shooting of DeAndre Clark, on Octo-
ber 21, 2011, just steps away from the inter-
section, simply strengthened Jeka’s
determination to move the project forward.
“There’s a shrine there, where people light
candles for DeAndre,” she says. “What an
opportunity to make some beauty here,
instead of just that loss.”
Jeka took her idea and a picture of the pro-
posed design to every neighbor within two
blocks of the intersection. Everyone signed.
She also visited business owners, the Salva-
tion Army, the Chapel Pub, and received
encouragement from everyone she spoke to.
Jeka hopes that the Jefferson High School
students who cross the intersection every
day will want to help paint the mural. So she
took her design and petition to Jefferson
too.
See MURAL on page 3