Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2013)
Opinion Special Election 2013 “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher The Skanner News Endorsements B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor ———— CANDIDATES ———— T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager seems to lurch from one crisis to the next. Gonzalez has voted against school closures – against a majority of his fellow board members – and bro- ken ranks with the district on more than one occasion. He is independent and so principled that even his oppo- nents respect his opinion. His deep roots in the communities served by Portland Public Schools put him in a unique position to educate administra- tors as well as everyday people about inequities in the system. J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor B RUCE P OINSETTE Reporter D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator Portland Community Director, Zone 2 J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers Martin Gonzalez Portland School District 1J, Direc- tor, Zone 4 The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., The Skanner News endorses Martin Gonzalez, the incumbent chair of the Portland Public Schools Board. We may not always agree with what the school board does, but Gonzalez has for years stood out as a beacon of social justice on the panel, which often College The Skanner News endorses Kali Thorne Ladd, the incumbent who was nominated for this seat after the death of Harold Williams last year. We appreciate her opponent, Michael Durrow, who has consistently stepped up to run for the PCC board. But there may not be a better quali- fied candidate to serve on any kind of educational panel than Ladd, who served as former Mayor Sam Adams’ education policy point-person. In his term, Adams forced state education officials to be more open about the way they calculate the school drop-out rate and fought for student access to Kali Thorne Ladd free school transportation, among other things. Quietly in the back- ground, Ladd wove together many strands of education policy. She knows the players, she knows the communities, and we are hoping that Ladd will take her PCC experience and launch a wider political career in the future. P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. ———— MEASURES ———— E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2013 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. Measure 26-151 Fluoridation focus on combating child hunger is the city. Over the past 10 years of Portland’s Drinking Water so crucial. The Oregon Food bank they’ve leveraged $6 million in private estimates about 14,000 Portland- dollars to grow their financial Supply-YES The Skanner News endorses Measure 26-151, because it will improve oral health for at-risk com- munities. We haven’t seen any photos or reports, even after decades, of deaths due to water fluoridation. However we would like to make one more note: Pro-fluoride claims that this measure is the “solution to our dental crisis” are off-base. In Wash- ington State, which has long had fluoridated water, the Legislature is debating creation of two new classes of dental practitioners because the other piece of this puzzle is lack of access to actual dental care. Adding fluoridation to the water is not a magic wand – it needs to be part of an across-the-board policy including education, preventive care and den- tal services for all families. Measure 26-150 Renew Five- Year Levy to Prevent Child Abuse, Child Hunger-YES • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds We endorse the Portland Children’s Levy extension this year in part because it won’t make any change in your existing tax bill – and the new Page 4 The Portland Skanner May 8, 2013 area children eat from food boxes every month. Importantly, the Children’s Levy organization’s staff has a track record of fiscal responsibility, investing the levy dollars in proven programs and operating with a five percent adminis- trative cap so that 95 cents of every dollar goes back into services across resources and put more cash into kids programs. Because the amount of the levy is not increasing – at 40 cents per $1,000 assessed home value — a vote for Measure 26-150 means your tax bill stays the same as it has for the previous years. METRO Measure 26-152 Local Option Levy to Improve Natural Areas, Water Quality for Fish-NO We appreciate Metro’s mission of preserving natural areas and we sup- port their goal in this proposed measure. However we cannot endorse Measure 26-152, a local option levy to improve natural areas and water quality for fish, at this time because there are just too many peo- ple who can’t afford even $20 more per year added to their taxes (the rate is about nine cents per $1,000 assessed value). Measure 26-152 would bolster past Metro watershed protection efforts by adding funds for maintenance and restoration. Please bring this back another time; it is a great idea but not right now.
