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A UGUST 15, 2012
P ORTLAND , O REGON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 33
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
From
Green to
Grime:
HEALTHY KIDS
Activists will hold a
“No Coal” rally in St.
Johns on Aug. 18
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
A
sia’s developing economies want
coal: the United States has coal. And
if coal exporters get their way, more
than 150 million tons of it will travel
through Portland every year.
Residents of North Portland and St Johns
will see the biggest impact. More than 5,300
barges and 11,000 coal trains could be trav-
eling through North Portland, and 700 of
those trains would even pass underneath the
homes of New Columbia.
“A lot of people will be interested to know
that if this happens, their houses are going to
shake rattle and roll,” said Bonnie Meltzer a
Portsmouth neighborhood resident who is
organizing opposition to the plan. “One of
the rail tracks goes into a tunnel that goes
directly under new Columbia and comes out
at Willamette Boulevard and Swan Island.”
Activists are holding a “No Coal” rally
from noon to 3p.m., Saturday, Aug. 18, at
the railroad cut on N. Lombard Street at N.
Gilbert, to draw attention to the potential
impact on health, transportation, jobs and
the environment.
They plan to wear black clothes to sym-
bolize coal, and hand out black balloons and
information.
Two full coal trains would travel under
New Columbia every day, if plans to export
through Coos Bay go forward. That’s
according to projections from the Sightline
Institute, a sustainability research nonprofit.
Sightline projects that 20 trains a day would
travel along the north side of the Columbia
River, heading to ports in Washington. Six
more trains would cross the Columbia at St
Johns and travel through the Northwest
industrial area. Each coal train will have an
average of 125 cars and would be more than
a mile long. Fifteen barges loaded with 1500
tons of coal would travel down the Colum-
bia. Empty trains and barges would return
by the same routes.
The Multnomah County Healthy Birth Initiative held a celebration with awards and acknowledgements for families
that have participated in their program to improve the health of babies, moms and dads, Wednesday afternoon at
Peninsula Park. The program is free and includes services, educational opportunities and more. For more information
contact Tameka Brazile at tameka.brazile@multco.us or 503-988-3387 ext. 22242.
Painting Party for Masonic Lodge
With skinhead groups fading, some doubt Nazis damaged building
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
T
amping down an outcry
over gentrification, the
Sons of Haiti Masonic
Lodge is looking for donations
of all sorts of painting supplies
— from brushes to scaffolding
— to bring the North Mississip-
pi Avenue community together
with a painting party
“Within the coming week we
are going to bring the communi-
ty together by repainting the
whole building,” said Raina
See COAL on page 3
INDEX
News ......................2,3
Opinion .....................4
Obituaries..................5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ..........7
Casey, whose husband is John
Bryant, the Grand Master of the
Sons of Haiti Masonic Temple.
She said her husband’s organ-
ization was not included in the
organizing of a solidarity event
last Saturday night.
“We prefer if people are going
to do something in relation to
this building that they contact
the Grand Master,” she said.
“We don’t even want to focus on
that at all.”
Casey said the Portland
Police, the FBI, and “all the city
leadership has been supportive
above and beyond,” she said.
“We’ve decided to take this
act of ignorance and make our
community stronger.”
Casey is asking for no mone-
tary donations, but rather gift
cards from Home Depot or
Lowe’s; painting supplies, scaf-
folding and ladders.
Casey says the plan is to
repaint in a rust-colored orange
hue, and that paint donations in
that shade are welcomed.
“It is an ongoing criminal
investigation,” Portland Police
bias crime detective Kevin War-
ren said Monday. “We recov-
ered some evidence we’re fol-
lowing up on, and hopefully
we’ll have a good resolution to
the case.”
The graffiti, which appeared
early Friday morning on the
venerable white clapboard
building at North Mississippi
and Fremont, included death
threats, n-bombs and swastikas
– some of which were back-
ward.
Portland State University
sociology professor Randy
See LODGE on page 3
CPR Program Keeps Youth Out of Prison
Part two: A mentor and a graduate tell their stories
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
C
PR stands for Community Partner-
ships Reinvestment, but it’s tempting
to think of it more in the medical
sense, as CPR for young offenders.
Because, while it doesn’t actually kickstart
hearts that have stopped beating, it does
seem to prevent young men from throwing
their lives away.
Run by Volunteers of America, with fund-
ing from Multnomah County’s corrections
service, the CPR program works with 18-25
year old men leaving prison. DeAndre Fri-
son and DeAngelo Augustus told us how the
program has helped them.
The Mentor
DeAndre Frison is Portland through and
through. He attended Boise Eliot Elemen-
tary school, Harriet Tubman Middle School,
and Grant High school. But with no father
in his home, a stressed mom, and a neigh-
borhood where gang involvement was a fact
of life, Frison took several wrong turns
before finding his path to success.
“I went to juvie at 13 for assault and rob-
See YOUTH on page 3