DECEMBER 7, 2016
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX No. 10
25
CENTS
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Dr. Jasmine ......................9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
MULTNOMAH COUNTY
WHEN THE MUSIC PLAYS
Kory Murphy of the Department of County Assets
talks with Laura Cohen, project manager of LEAD at
a program outreach dinner.
LEAD Offers
Help, Not
Jail Time
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
T
o lower the number of people en-
tering the criminal justice system,
a program called Law Enforcement
Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, puts
treatment ahead of arrests.
In the coming months Portland will
be introducing the still largely experi-
mental program that offers social ser-
vices to individuals possessing small
amounts of cocaine, meth or heroin.
Originally launched in Seattle in 2011,
the LEAD model is a suitable fit for Port-
land, says Rod Underhill, Multnomah
County District Attorney.
“We think our downtown core area is
See LEAD on page 3
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Program gives drug
offenders the chance to
seek treatment
Trumpet player Owuor Arunga accompanied Kibibi Monie during her performance at “When the Music Plays,” a day of healing, inspiration and safe place
discussions Dec. 4 at the Royal Esquire Club. The event which was sponsored by Lady A Productions, was designed to inspire people to come together
and continue to fight for change and against injustice. It featured inspirational speeches by Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell and Imam
Shabbaz, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations; spoken word by Miz Floes and Kyana Wheeler and music by an incredible line up that included
Lady “A”, Josephine Howell, Bernadette Bascom, Polly O’Keary and Rhythm Method, the Stacy Jones Band, Stanetta Koeber and many more.
Should Delta Park be Renamed Vanport?
Community members speak in favor of reverting to the name of lost city
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
SONJA THOMPKINS/SINCERELYSONJA.COM
T
Sonja Thompkins, a brick and mortar business
strategist and founder of SincerelySonja.com, said
#BuyBlack is a trend for consumers of color to
spend their money within their own communities.
#BuyBlack
Movement
is Real page 10
hrough the work of
survivors, historians
and advocates, more
people have become
aware of Vanport, the one-
time second largest city in
Oregon that was destroyed
by a flood in 1948.
Community
members
are now calling for a per-
manent way to remember
the lost city — by renaming
Delta Park Vanport.
Lee Moore, who was a
child living in Vanport at
page 7
40,000 people at its peak
and had schools, a post of-
fice, a movie theater, a li-
brary and a hospital.
Joe Kregal remembered
seeing the houses of Van-
port after the flood, but
said he didn’t understand
the significance of the city
until he was older.
His father worked in
the shipyards, and Kregal
worked on some of the Kai-
ser Liberty ships when he
was a longshoreman.
Kregal spoke to The Skan-
ner News, advocating for
the name to be returned to
the area. He said the name
was erased due to the po-
litical correctness of the
time, but it should be rein-
stated to honor the heroes
of the era.
“It’s an insult, it’s an in-
sult to the people that were
involved, it’s an insult to
Kaiser, it’s an insult to ev-
eryone that they named it
Delta Park,” Kregal said.
Both Moore and Kregal
point to Vanport as a pivot-
al point in history, both na-
tionally and locally. Kregal
See DELTA PARK on page 3
Ghant Heads Up Work-Study Program
Program helps place De La Salle North students
in corporate jobs where they earn and learn
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
W
Local Holiday
Performances
the time of the flood, said
the significance of the for-
mer city is too great to go
unnoticed and unnamed.
“There should be some-
thing more meaningful to
commemorate what went
on there through the 40s
and the impact that Van-
port had on the city of Port-
land,” Moore said.
Vanport was a quickly
constructed
workforce
housing town built for the
workers at Kaiser Ship-
yards during World War
II.
The town housed over
alter Ghant grew up in
north Portland, near the in-
tersection of Williams and
Killingsworth.
After graduating from Madison
High School, Ghant attended War-
ner Pacific College, and took what he
describes as “a 20-year hiatus” away
from Portland to pursue graduate
school and a career in education.
Ghant holds master’s degrees from
James Madison University (history)
and George Mason University (pub-
lic administration) and a doctorate in
divinity from Howard University, all
located in Washington D. C.
Ghant worked in a variety of ad-
ministrative positions in higher edu-
cation in the Washington, D. C. area,
but told The Skanner he and his wife
See GHANT on page 3
Walter Ghant
