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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2015)
www . theskanner . com a ugust 26, 2015 P ortland and s eattle V olume XXXVII, n o . 47 For The Skanner website scan this QR code cents Pacific NW The Skanner News presents our new regional edition, featuring more news and local information. C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow New Projects on MLK 25 SPEAKING OUT Mayor, PDC announce grocery store, housing in NE By Arashi Young Of The Skanner News See DEVELOPMENT on page 3 INDEX PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER L ast week Portland Mayor Charlie Hales held a press conference in an empty lot between Cook and Ivy Streets on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Once the site of a chemical stor- age building, now the weedy lot represents the future of development in Northeast Port- land. The Mayor, along with city commissioner Dan Saltzman, announced plans to develop two properties along MLK Boulevard they say will enhance the neighborhood without displacing residents. As Hales addressed the crowd, he spoke about preserving community in the develop- ment boom. “Will we become the place where people can no longer afford to live? Will we become the San Francisco of the Northwest? How do we keep Portland a place of opportunity for everyone even while we deal with the chal- lenges of growth and change?” Hales asked. A mixed-use building is planned for the grounds of the former chemical storage fa- cility named the Grant Warehouse. There will be businesses lining the ground floor and up to 70 units of affordable housing on the floors above. Saltzman told The Skanner News the housing prices are still being worked out, but said it will be “substantially affordable,” with many units going to those who make 30 to 60 percent below the median income. The city of Portland has partnered with the Portland Development Commission, Port- land Community Reinvestment Initiatives, developers Gerding Edlen, Carleton Hart Architects for the Grant Warehouse devel- opment. The building will use $4.5 million in urban renewal money from the Interstate Urban Renewal Area. Down the street, on the corner of NE Al- berta and MLK, will be a shopping plaza Evelyn Murray was one of about 300 people in attendance at a Black Lives Matter rally at Dawson Park in Portland Monday. Singers Janelle Monae and Jidenna later appeared at the rally, performing their protest song, “Hell You Talmbout.” Monae, Jidenna Sing at Protest Singers will continue to perform at Black Lives Matter rallies By Donovan M. Smith Of The Skanner News T wo of the hottest acts in music today — sing- ers Janelle Monae and Jidenna — lent their star pow- er to a rally in Dawson Park Monday afternoon, calling at- tention to ongoing police bru- tality and violence across the country. Though the two were greeted with cheers and applause upon stepping onto the famed gaze- bo, they let the crowd of about 300 know their attendance was solely a show of solidarity with those working to stop violence across the country. “We come here not as ce- lebrities, not as artists, but as human beings,” Jidenna said to the crowd. “One of the things that we believe is that silence is our enemy and sound is our weap- on,” Monae said. “I look at these beautiful babies this di- verse crowd, we are all one. Let’s get rid of this race thing that we’re dealing with right now, we are human beings, let’s look out for each other.” Monae then helped lead the crowd in singing a song she says she crafted specifically for “the people out there fighting in the streets” titled “Hell You Talmbout.” The song is a bois- terous protest track fashioned in the vein of Negro spirituals, calling out the names of those who’ve died at the hands of law enforcement. Teressa Raiford, a lead organizer from the anti-vi- olence group Don’t Shoot PDX, helped bring Monae and Jidenna, who are touring the country performing free shows, to Dawson Park. Raiford said she was happy to see the community come out and support one another. “I’m happy that they came out. I’m happy that Janelle wrote that song,” Raiford told The Skanner. “I’m happy that she dedicated it to every breath and every step that has been taken in honor of this move- ment, and I’m happy that she’s moving around the country with these free shows to help uplift our work because as they let us know, they know that we have it hard. So they’re saying, ‘We’ll make it cool for you, See RALLY on page 3 ACLU Posts Guide for Police Complaints News ..............1,3,10,12 The online guide aims to centralize an often-confusing process Opinion .......................2 By Christen McCurdy Of The Skanner News Calendars ................4,5 A & E ........................6-9 Bids/Classifieds ..........11 E arlier this month the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon announced it had created an online guide for re- porting police misconduct-- one the organi- zation hopes will streamline the often con- fusing process of filing a complaint. The guide, which can be found online at ww.aclu-or.org/how-file-police-com- plaint-oregon, includes a list of jurisdictions throughout the state, along with links and contact information for departments and agencies that take complaints. The guide can also be downloaded in printable format. The page for Multnomah County, for in- stance, includes downloadable complaint forms and contact information for the Mult- nomah County Sheriff, the Gresham and Troutdale Police, and several ways to con- tact the Independent Police Review Divi- sion to file a complaint about the Portland Police Bureau. According to the ACLU, while most law enforcement agencies have some complaint procedures in place, there is no one stan- See ACLU on page 3
