News
Park
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Joe Nunn, a longtime community resident whose words
contribute to the story etched into the boulders, said the
park always was a popular gathering place after church.
“I especially like the playground because parks are about
children and the playground is excellent,” he said. “You
don’t have to worry about them falling in the playground
because you have artificial turf and it’s real soft. I also like
the fact that they have kept the tables for the older men who
have come here for years and years to pay checkers and
other board games.”
A grand re-opening celebration Wednesday will include a
concert by the R&B band Ocean 503, part of the city’s sum-
mer Concerts in the Park series. Dawson Park will also host
concerts on July 23 and 30. Starting at 5:30 p.m., the cele-
bration will feature: free health checks and CPR training; a
bicycle helmet sale, with $6 helmets; and speeches from
Portland Parks Commissioner Nick Fish; Legacy Emanuel
Medical Center’s chief administrative officer, Lori Morgan;
Parks director Mike Abbate; Portland Development Com-
mission director, Patrick Quinton; and Urban League of
Portland president Mike Alexander.
The City of Portland, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center,
the Regional Arts and Culture Council collaborated with
community members to create the project. Quinton said the
renovation used one of the most diverse crews in the com-
mission’s history.
“We were able to achieve an 89 percent utilization rate of
minority women and small contractors — almost unprece-
dented in terms of public construction projects,” he said.
“This is a model that we believe we can use in other com-
munity projects and it’s a model that we are committed to
continuing to use.”
Creating the circular walkway was one of the biggest
challenges. Workers had to dig trenches around tree roots
by hand, to safeguard the park’s 40-plus trees.
Before the renovation bushes and dark corners made
pedestrians think twice before entering after sunset. Now
the open vista and bright energy-efficient lighting means
parents can see their children from across the park. That’s a
big safety improvement, Taylor said.
“It wasn’t very kid friendly. One thing I worried about
when they opened this park back up is if we were going to
see people hanging out drinking or doing negative things.
But I haven’t seen it at all.”
The history of Portland’s African American community is
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
‘What we’re looking at here is a
major renovation of an
incredibly historic park’
After a $2.7 million makeover, Dawson Park on North Williams Avenue between Stanton and Morris in
Northeast Portland has reopened with a new playground, a fountain, signs that tell the history of the park
and a new open plan vista.
integral to the park’s story. This part of Northeast Portland,
the Albina neighborhood, was in the heart of that communi-
ty. The neighborhood was also called Jumptown because of
its jazz clubs and vibrant nightlife. And because of a bank-
ing practice known as redlining, Black Portlanders could
buy a home here although they could not get loans to buy
anywhere else in the city.
But in the 1950s more than 400 homes on the East bank
of the Willamette River were demolished to make way for
Memorial Coliseum. And in the 1960s more than 1000
homes and businesses went away to make way for the I5
freeway and the expansion of Emanuel Medical Center.
The impact on Portland’s small and vulnerable African
American community is hard to overstate.
Displacement, research suggests, creates a characteristic
pattern of family and economic breakdown similar to that
seen in refugee groups across the world. When crack was
introduced to this community in the 1980s the problems
grew. Tragically more displacement was to follow in the
next decades as the neighborhood gentrified and communi-
ties of color were pushed east.
Today the city has adopted different development poli-
cies, designed to support small businesses and help
low-income communities thrive in place. Dawson Park is
designed to honor the past as well as continue to be a center
for cultural exchange.
“It’s a much different park than the park I grew up in,”
Nunn says. “There are so many people of all colors in this
neighborhood now. It’s fantastic to see this neighborhood
revitalized.”
Donny Adair, another longtime resident who worked on
the project says the parks new design will help in healing
the neighborhood.
“It means a lot to me have this park reconditioned,” Adair
says. “We grew up in it and it was a great place to come to
have a great time, stay off the streets stay out of trouble and
develop a lot of skills, camaraderie, communication skills,
those kinds of things...It’s a great neighborhood park. I had
a great time growing up here and I just want many more
kids to have that experience.”
Corrections
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put out for a competitive interviewing
process.”
Taylor, as well as Seattle community
organizer Eddie Rye Jr., underscored Wash-
ington’s Initiative 200 – passed in 1998, it
prohibited use of racial quotas in hiring – as
the culprit in the bad job numbers.
“Since I-200 passed in 1998, a lot of peo-
ple in government are taking to state law to
be law of the land,” Rye said Wednesday.
“I’ve heard public officials say we don’t
have to hire blacks any longer because of I-
200. We don’t have to promote blacks
because of I-200. We don’t have to contract
with blacks — and if you look at the state’s
contracts from 2013 less than 1 percent
went to white women and all minorities.”
Rye went further in criticizing Washing-
ton State Corrections Secretary Bernard
Warner as well as Gov. Jay Inslee, who he
said have been unresponsive to community
meetings for the past several years.
“With the department of corrections, out
of 40 people, you have one minority in the
top administrators, and people are going
and getting positions without any competi-
tion, no job announcement and the secretary
is doing as he damn well pleases.
“And he’s doing it in violation of title VII
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
“Folks in this state have to understand that
I-200 does not supersede the 1964 Civil
Rights Act,” Rye said.
“One of the things to that is evident is that
Initiative 200 inspires these types of deci-
sions, explicitly or implicitly -- it’s the
notion that you don’t have to create oppor-
state, and federal governments,” Taylor
says.
“And to use those dollars – I can tell you
that 75-80 percent of our budget in the City
of Renton goes to wages and benefits – to
use those dollars to exclude people of color
is wrong.”
The group gathered this week to call for a
federal investigation of corrections hiring
Renton City Councilor Greg Taylor told The
Skanner News that the issue is about improving
employment trends for communities of color
and holding top state officials accountable for
fairer hiring practices
tunities for African Americans or Latinos in
the hiring process,” Taylor said.
“People of color, they all pay sales tax,
gratuity tax, real estate tax, in some form or
fashion whether they’re buying or not, and
those dollars are utilized by local, county,
reads like a who’s who of civil rights
activism in Washington, including Seattle
NAACP president Gerald Hankerson; A
Philip Randolph Institute President Verlene
Jones; Renton City Councilor Greg Taylor;
Tacoma Black Collective co-chair Lyle
Quasim, Seattle Black Firefighter Associa-
tion President Roberto Jourdan, Black
Dollar Days Task Force Executive Director
Robert L. Jeffrey, Sr.; Tacoma NAACP
President Rev. Gregory Christopher; North-
west NAACP Vice President Sheley
Secrest; Seattle University School of Law
Professor Henry McGee; Washington State
Black Christian Clergy President Rev.
Lawrence R. Willis; and Rye of the Com-
munity Coalition for Contracts and Jobs.
“That’s why we went directly to the attor-
ney general — we’ve talked to the governor
for the last couple of years, we’ve been in
meetings with the secretary, but obviously
the meetings mean nothing to the governor
or the secretary because there’s been no
changes,” Rye said.
“The thing about it is that you have a lot
of people that have come together behind
this very important issue, and this is just the
tip of the iceberg.
“This discrimination is happening all
across the state, and that’s why we went to
the US attorney because it’s a violation of
federal law.”
July 16, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3