April 19, 2017 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
“
OPAL states on its web-
site. “When we need to
get home, to a doctor, or
to the store, sometimes
$2.50 is out of reach.
Sometimes our fares ex-
pire before we arrive at
our destinations.”
The
organization
claims that TriMet has
dropped the project to
pursue police expansion
‘We don’t need another tran-
sit police station’
leged connections to the
Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement.
The updated precinct
— to be located at the
parking garage of the
new Hyatt Regency Port-
land, adjacent to the Or-
egon Convention Center
— will accommodate of-
ficers, staff and vehicles.
Similar to the downtown
division, the new pre-
cinct will contain only a
few holding cells.
Unlike a jail, none of
those cells will detain
people overnight, Rober-
ta Altstadt, communica-
tions manager at TriMet,
told The Skanner.
At 9,000 square feet,
the original precinct at
Northwest First Avenue
has struggled with grow-
ing pains, a leaking ceil-
ing and limited parking
space.
“We’ve really out-
grown that location. The
building is also very old,”
said Altstadt, adding that
the location’s lease with
the City of Portland is
coming to end.
The new precinct will
provide double the space
and parking, and is ex-
pected for completion in
2019.
In addition to the new
location, TriMet oper-
ates three other divi-
sions – in the south, the
west, and the east.
That’s enough to suf-
fice operations, said
BRU’s organizer Orlando
Lopez. “We don’t need
another transit police
station.”
Low-Income Fare
Program
OPAL and Bus Riders
Unite are calling for
spending on improved
services, additional bus-
es to increase frequency,
shelter and lighting at
bus stops, and BRU’s pro-
posed low-income fare
plan for bus riders.
The program would of-
fer more accessible and
affordable transporta-
tion, while curbing run-
ins with police officers,
according to its support-
ers.
“Fare evasion is a vic-
timless crime, one that
riders almost always
commit out of despera-
tion or unknowingness,”
and racist profiling on
the transit system.
“Where you put your
funding is where your
priorities are,” Lopez told
The Skanner. “TriMet is
prioritizing criminaliz-
ing low-income folks.”
In defense, Trimet has
explained that it is not
abandoning a low-in-
come fare program for
the new police division.
As bond proceeds, the $11
million can only legally
be spent on tangible in-
vestments, such as a pre-
cinct, and cannot be fun-
neled into fare programs
or operations.
Altstadt said the transit
agency continues to meet
with regional partners to
devise a funding base to
decrease fairs for riders
with less means.
“We would love to see
a low-income fare,” she
said. “But TriMet can’t
float the bill alone.” The
agency is hoping such
funds will be made avail-
able through the state’s
upcoming
transporta-
tion bill.
The agency is also ask-
ing the legislature for
jurisdiction over pro-
cessing fare evasion ci-
tations. Doing so would
allow riders with cita-
tions to pay a fine or do
community service, in-
stead of attending a court
hearing.
Furthermore, said Alt-
stadt, the new police pre-
cinct would not be used
for fare violations.
Citations Up, Ridership
Down
Recent numbers show
that crimes reported by
TriMet riders fell more
than 40 percent, totaling
366 incidents.
Yet dropping along
with TriMet crime is
its ridership, which has
decreased by over 1.3
million trips in recent
years. The latest stats on
the 2016 fiscal year show
100,429,710 trips, down
from 101,754,048 in 2015.
Meanwhile, fare en-
forcement actions –
which are doled out by
TriMet inspectors and
supervisors, not transit
police – have risen slight-
ly.
Read the full story at
TheSkanner.com
PCC Students Seek Gentrification Stories
Portland Community College students Olivia Siulagi (left), Jovann Ray and Anna Girdner, as part of Sandy Sampson’s experimental
media class, are seeking interview subjects to talk about gentrification in Portland. Their project focuses on changes in North and
Northeast Portland and the experience of being Black in a predominantly White city, and the group is particularly interested in talking
to longtime residents of the community. The finished project will be exhibited at Portland City Hall later this spring. Anyone interested
in participating in the project should contact Siulagi at (503) 939-9207 or email oliviasiulagi@gmail.com.
Unthank
cont’d from pg 1
Thayer said the lecture series
was the brain child of two local
physicians: Dr. Nathalie Johnson,
the medical director of Legacy
Cancer Institute, and her hus-
band, Dr. William Johnson, the
President of Moda Health, both of
whom are African American.
“They wanted to create a lec-
tureship that would help bring
to light the health inequities that
exist in the Portland area. They
decided to name it after Dr. Nor-
val Unthank to give it broader
community reach, especially in
the African American communi-
ty,” Thayer told The Skanner. One
of the goals of the lecture series is
to bring the community together;
another is to “move the needle”
politically for communities of col-
or in Oregon.
Thayer said organizers are
assembling an advisory com-
mittee, composed of facul-
ty and community members,
to help plan future lectures.
DeNorval Unthank, Sr. was born
in Allentown, Pennsylvania in
1899, raised in Kansas City and ed-
ucated at the University of Michi-
Violence
“
the city’s Black population grew,
Dr. Unthank turned his attention
to improving race relations in
Portland. He cofounded the city’s
chapter of the Urban League and
served as president of the NAACP
Portland branch, served on the
state Committee for Equal Rights
and the Council of Social Agen-
They wanted to create a lectureship that
would help bring to light the health in-
equities that exist in the Portland area
in Portland. When he arrived, in
1929, Oregon voters had just three
years previously voted to repeal
a provision in the state constitu-
tion preventing non-White peo-
ple from permanently settling
in the state. He also arrived to a
city where the Ku Klux Klan was
entrenched in the city and state
power structure, and his family
were harassed mercilessly, relo-
cating four times before settling
in southeast Portland.
As his career progressed and
cies and helped lobby for the pas-
sage of the state’s 1953 Civil Rights
Bill. In 1958 he was named Doctor
of the Year by the Oregon Medi-
cal Society; he received a distin-
guished service award from the
University of Oregon in 1971; and
received awards from the B’nai
B’rith Lodge $65, Concordia Col-
lege and the National Conference
of Christians and Jews. In 1969,
the city dedicated a park in North
Portland to honor Dr. Unthank.
He died in 1977.
cont’d from pg 1
work very hard to get them – and
may lash out.
That doesn’t excuse violent
behavior, she said. Rather, un-
derstanding how trauma and
compounding social factors, in-
cluding poverty and racism, can
lead to violence can point to a way
“
gan and the University of Kansas,
and attended medical school at
Howard University, graduating in
1926.
After performing his intern-
ship and residency in Kansas
City, he was hired by the Union
Pacific Railroad to provide medi-
cal services for minority workers
Survival is driv-
en by this emo-
tion called fear
forward. In her own practice, she
said patients who’ve survived se-
vere trauma can have very good
outcomes when their trauma and
pain are properly addressed.
“Survival is driven by this
emotion called fear,” Moreland
said. “My talk will focus on the
intersection of fear, trauma and
violence
and
also
the path to
healing.”
The con-
ference
is open to
eve r yo ne ,
including
family and
community
members
affected by
v i o l e n c e , Psychiatrist Dr. Alisha
will
as well as Moreland-Capuia
speak
at
this
Saturday’s
leaders and
health care all-day forum on gun
p rov i d e rs violence as a public
looking to health issue.
learn more
about the issue. But Moreland
also said she hopes OHSU and PSU
can become more of a resource
for people in the community look-
PHOTO COURTESY OF OHSU
In response, TriMet
has attempted to set
straight the public con-
fusion.
“No, We’re Not Build-
ing a Jail”, reads the tran-
sit agency’s recent Face-
book post. It’s an effort to
dispel rumors of TriMet
foregoing a plan to im-
plement a low-income
fare and the agency’s al-
PHOTO BY BOBBIE DORE FOSTER
TriMet
ing to address social problems.
According to the event an-
nouncement page on OHSU’s
website, last summer OHSU
President Joe Robertson called
for a series of institutional con-
versations “to help us ensure that
our community can bring togeth-
er diverse perspectives to address
violence as a public health issue –
and that OHSU can act as a conve-
ner to bring together others in the
communities we serve.”
“Healing doesn’t happen in iso-
lation. Healing happens when we
come to come together as a com-
munity,” Moreland said.
The conference runs from 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Highland
Christian Center, 7600 NE Glisan
Street. For more information, vis-
it www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/news_
events/events/Gun-violence-pub-
lic-health.cfm.
