Local News
Dental
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an enormous number, one in three or one in
four emergency room visits are precipitated
by dental care issues. And it’s really the
case that if you let your dental issues go
untended, it results in all kinds of serious
physical health problems.”
Dr. Beverly Cutler will direct the dental
care. Cogen said Dr. Cutler happens also to
be his dentist. But, her other clinic isn’t
quite as good, he joked.
Odegaard was in the audience, alongside
county staff, health board members and
donors who helped finance the clinic.
See more photos of the clinic and the
opening ceremony on The Skanner News
Facebook page.
HELEN SILVIS PHOTO
Odegaard won a federal grant to create the
first safety-net health clinic in the county,
he said. Today the county serves 75,000
people a year in eight neighborhood clinics.
And students can access healthcare at 13
school-based health centers.
“For many of these children, if they didn’t
have these clinics in their schools they
wouldn’t have access to any healthcare,” he
said.
Lillian Shirley, the current health depart-
ment director, said the project spoke to the
power of partnerships.
Cogen said there is a tremendous need for
dental services, but their importance is not
always obvious.
“Lillian Shirley told me earlier today that
Gangs
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ball coach, attend the games with the aim of
preventing fights and trouble.
But some students and parents have com-
plained that it sends a negative message that
students of color are all potential criminals.
Several made that point at a meeting on
Portland Community College’s Cascade
campus, Thursday evening. About 100 peo-
ple came together to discuss policing, race
and the ideas in Michelle Alexander’s book
The New Jim Crow.
A senior at Jefferson High
School said the heavy police
presence was creating, “fear and
resentment toward the police.
“You walk by and they flash
their lights at all the students.
You feel singled out and ostra-
cized and like you’re doing
something wrong by being in
that area.”
The parent of a Jefferson foot-
ball player said he and his wife were
surprised to see such a strong police pres-
ence at the games, especially since the Gang
enforcement team, (until recently) were all
White officers.
“When we went out to Milwaukie there
was no officers to be seen, anywhere. What
if there was all-Black officers at a White
school’s game.
“It’s extreme to have this, when you are
just trying to have a good night out,
because, it’s almost like anticipating some-
thing will happen.”
Similar complaints were made at the
meeting about the recent efforts to end graf-
fiti and other nuisance crimes on N.
Killingsworth Street. The Multnomah
Police say they made 6,100
positive contacts with youth,
but a dozen youth and adults
said that police stops are
racially biased
County District Attorney’s office recently
won a $600,000 grant to put a Deputy Dis-
trict Attorney in the North precinct to work
with the street crimes unit.
So while police say they made 6,100 pos-
itive contacts with youth, at the Cascade
campus meeting a dozen youth and adults
Dental assistants, Ari Puente, left, and Liz Hughes said they are excited to work
with clients in the state-of-the-art clinic.
complained that police stops are racially
biased.
Jo Ann Hardesty, a member of the Albina
Ministerial Alliance and a former state leg-
islator, said she had asked police for a
breakdown of the 300 arrests made over the
summer. In the month of June, she said the
racial breakdown of arrests was:
Black: 180
Asian: 7
Hispanic: 7
Native American: 3
White: 31
Almost 50 percent of the arrests were for
alcohol-related misdemeanors, such as
drinking in public, Hardesty said.
“What difference would it have made if
they had taken these people to alcohol and
drug treatment instead of arresting them?
“I want a police department that treats
kids in Northeast the same as kids in the
Southwest hills.”
Police Chief Mike Reese was rushing off
to a graduation event, so couldn’t comment
extensively, but he said Community College
staff and the business owners on
Killingsworth Street are pleased that nui-
sance crimes are down.
PPB spokesman Pete Simpson said the
extra police presence was needed to keep
gang violence in check, pointing to several
shootings in the neighborhood, including an
incident that injured students directly after a
football game.
“Unfortunately, what we know is that
when a young African American male is
shot, it’s almost 100 percent certain that
another young African American male did
the shooting,” Simpson said. “We are out
there on behalf of those Young African
American men who are 3.5 times more like-
ly to be the victims of gun violence. We’re
out there for them.”
Overall, during 2012 gang-related shoot-
ings are up at 109, on Nov. 9, compared to
103 for the whole of 2011. The gun task
force has seized 40 handguns, 31 rifles and
brought 111 felony charges. U.S. Attorney
Amanda Marshall said her office prosecuted
21 gang-related cases over the summer,
including 17 weapons charges and four drug
cases. All those cases carry minimum penal-
ties of five years.
ty cameras abound and there are rules in
place that say patrons can’t wear gang col-
ors or leave three times and be allowed back
in.
Van says that these restrictions, specifical-
ly the early last call for drinks, didn’t just
hurt his business, but gave Maui’s a clear
advantage.
“My clientele here wants to party until
A History of Neighborhood Problems
Kay Newell has been a member of the
Boise Neighborhood Association for 20
years and has been on the board for 18.
Although she isn’t a fan of bars, she sup-
ports LV’s and thinks its closing will hurt
the community and its sense of inclusive-
ness. Newell remembers when LV’s was
The Texan and attests that the drug prob-
lems have been there long
before Van took over.
She says that the loca-
tion and the lack of other
businesses being open at
the same hours also con-
tributed to the amount of
attention the bar received
from police.
“It’s really hard to run a
business in isolation,” says
Newell. “They (drug dealers stopped by the
police) aren’t going to say, ‘I’m going to
make a drug deal.’ They’re going to say,
‘I’m going to LVs.’”
“Unfortunately, LV is taking the brunt of
it but the problems are still going to be in
our community. We’re still going to have
the same negative activities going on that
have been happening forever.”
License
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LV’s last day was Halloween. Formerly
known as The Royal Esquire, and before
that The Texan, the bar has been a Black
gathering spot for half a century.
“My great grandmother used to come
here,” says Van. “My grandma use to come
here. I used to see this club as a kid.”
Everyone acknowledges that the neigh-
borhood has a history of drug issues. As it
has gotten whiter over the years, these prob-
lems have remained but new businesses
have been able to set up shop and attain
liquor licenses relatively easily.
Perhaps the biggest symbol of this trans-
formation is the New Seasons being built
across the street from LV’s. Sylvester points
out that the vacant lot is where Wonder
Bread Bakery used to stand. Looking at the
bigger picture, he says the phasing out of
Black businesses hurts unity in the Black
community.
“Back in the day I would know everyone
on the block,” says Sylvester. “That’s
what’s missing with the gentrification of our
community. It takes away the cohesiveness
of the African American community. You
see everybody at church on Sunday but as
far as having relatives come in from, say
Louisiana, what African American business
would you take them to that’s big enough
and thriving enough?”
OLCC Restrictions
Van finds it curious that another bar,
Maui’s, moved in across the street from him
around the same time the OLCC started
placing restrictions on LV’s in 2009.
According to the OLCC, these restrictions
were:
1. Licensee shall prohibit the
sale, service, or consumption of
alcoholic beverages between
1:30am and 2:30am.
2. Licensee shall limit each
patron to possessing no more than
one container of alcohol at a time.
3. Licensee shall limit the
amount of alcohol in a container to
no more than 16 ounces of malt
beverage, 6 ounces of wine, or 2
ounces of distilled spirits.
4. Licensee shall have at least two
DPSST-certified security staff on duty on
the premises between 8 p.m. and closing on
Friday and Saturday nights to monitor
patrons inside the premises and in
the immediate vicinity adjacent to the prem-
ises.
Before walking into LV’s customers are
wanded and patted down (This reporter was
asked to empty his pockets as well). Securi-
Looking at the bigger picture, Sylvester
says the phasing out of Black
businesses hurts unity in the Black
community
2:30 in the morning like everybody else,”
he says. “If you make me stop selling liquor
at 1:30 that means I have to stop serving at
1:10 so all the drinks will be up. All my
clientele left.”
“From my heart I really did feel that when
they moved Maui’s over there they were
anticipating getting the Black crowd. How
are they going to get me when my same
clientele goes over to Maui’s?”
See LV’S on page 5
November 14, 2012
The Portland Skanner Page 3