January 25, 2017 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
all of which have larger
populations of racial mi-
norities than Portland.
“There is a lot that we
do well in Portland and
I want to highlight that,
but we continue to also
suffer from our legacy
as an unwelcoming place
for Blacks, immigrants
and Native populations,”
Hardesty said in the re-
lease. “While I will sell
“
sanctions against racial-
ly segregated South Af-
rica, affirmative action
and unfair treatment of
African Americans in
the local job market.
NAACP
conventions
attract
high-profile
speakers, particularly in
election years. Though
President Donald Trump
declined to address this
year’s event, in 2012 Re-
While I will sell all the pos-
itives I will also seek assis-
tance in addressing the sys-
temic inequality built into
the fiber of our state
all the positives I will
also seek assistance in
addressing the systemic
inequality built into the
fiber of our state.”
James Jessie, the senior
vice president of sales
for Travel Portland, who
helped put together the
Portland team’s bid, said
historically, NAACP con-
ferences have been held
in cities that may have
problems or issues orga-
nizers want to highlight.
“Our platform will be
built on how welcoming
this community would
be but also recognizing
there are problems -- and
certain tags of Portland
being the whitest city in
America, of having a rac-
ist past. There are certain
things that you recognize
are out there,” Jessie told
The Skanner. “We look
at it from a standpoint
for opportunity and use
that platform to address
those issues.”
This also wouldn’t be
the first national NAACP
convention Portland has
hosted. In 1978, more
than 8,000 people attend-
ed the NAACP’s 69th na-
tional convention, which
was held at Portland’s
Memorial
Coliseum.
Topics discussed that
year included economic
Chief
publican
Presidential
candidate spoke, as did
then-vice president Mitt
Romney.
Then-President George
W. Bush declined to
speak in 2004 but did ad-
dress the convention in
2006.
The organization’s na-
tional conferences also
bring in large numbers
of delegates -- about
6,000 -- Jessie said. Trav-
el Portland estimates the
conference would bring
about $6.7 million to
Portland’s economy.
It would come on the
heels of two other large
conventions scheduled
for the same time peri-
od: the Church of God in
Christ will hold a Port-
land conference May of
2020, which 9,000 people
are expected to attend;
the National Conference
on Race and Ethnicity,
facilitated by the Univer-
sity of Oklahoma, will
bring about 1,800 people
to Portland in May of
2019.
Jessie said the bidding
team expects to find
out within two to three
weeks whether the bid
made it to the next stage,
but doesn’t expect a de-
finitive answer for sever-
al more months.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DE LA SALLE NORTH CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL
NAACP
De La Salle North Students Take Flight
During the last week of June, two De La Salle North Catholic High School sophomores attended the Introduction to Aviation camp at
Pearson Airfield in Vancouver. The students, Deovia Morales and Jacobi Lacey, were selected by the science department faculty. The
camp uses projects and field trips to help students learn about different aspects of aviation and the basics of flight. Activities included
flying a radio-controlled airplane, practice flying with a flight simulator, and a behind the scenes look at the Portland International
Airport control tower. On the last day, each student went up in the air in a small plane with a flight instructor, and were able to take
the controls of the plane once up in the air.
TriMet
cont’d from pg 1
established,” said Roberta Alt-
stadt, manager of communica-
tions at TriMet.
The low-income fare program is
the work for TriMet’s task force,
along with community stake-
holders and advocacy groups like
Bus Riders Unite, which together
have pooled data on the costs and
feasibility of such a program.
Once implemented, the low-in-
come fare will cut the regularly
priced ticket in half, from $2.50 to
$1.25. Individuals that make less
than double the federal poverty
level, or $24,120, could be eligible
for the reduced fare. Likewise, a
family of four with earnings up
to $49,200 would also qualify.
BRU, a project of Environmen-
tal Justice Oregon that represents
transit-dependent people, has
been advocating for a fare reduc-
tion for years, launching an offi-
cial campaign in March 2016. Last
September, the group met with
TriMet’s board to share its ideas.
“We know that the cost of living
here in Portland has been increas-
ing dramatically, so we decided to
push for a low-income fare,” BRU
organizer Orlando Lopez told The
Skanner. “With that, we did an
extensive amount of outreach to
our community members to get
“
The low-income
fare will cut the
regularly priced
ticket in half
the experience of folks on how
transit is unaffordable.”
BRU’s advisory committee
looked at the low-income pro-
grams of other transit agencies,
such as Seattle’s ORCA LIFT,
which allows up to a 50 percent
discount on fare for income-qual-
ified riders.
Riders’ incomes could be veri-
fied a number of ways, said Lopez,
suggesting proof through sub-
mitted tax returns or automati-
cally qualifying those who collect
food stamps or are on the Oregon
Health Plan.
TriMet already offers reduced
ticket prices through fare assis-
tance and fare relief programs
for organizations that serve
low-income clients. Seniors and
people with disabilities can also
qualify for reduced fares through
TriMet’s honored citizens pro-
gram.
Even so, said Lopez, those assis-
tance programs are “not enough
to cover the demand we currently
see in our communities.”
The bus-riding group is also
proposing that the low-fare pro-
gram offer a monthly pass at a
maximum of $28. The standard
monthly pass currently goes for
$100.
The transit agency asserted
that its program is not based on
BRU’s proposal, but rather it will
be working with community part-
ners to build off the work of its
task force.
TriMet also noted that it will
look to Seattle to better under-
stand the implementation of a
low-income program.
Read more at TheSkanner.com
cont’d from pg 1
tent calls” (emergency calls that turn
out to be non-urgent, such as reports
of controlled burns or people sleep-
ing), which made up 16 percent of calls;
service calls (such as assisting seniors
who have fallen or responding to ani-
mal problems or rescues), which made
up 8.7 percent of calls; false alarms (7.9
percent) or reports of hazardous condi-
tions such as gas leaks or downed pow-
er lines (2.6 percent). Just 3 percent of
incidents involved fighting fire.
Since fire department personnel are
often the first to respond to 911 calls of
all kinds, they get a firsthand glimpse of
major social problems – many of which
paramedics and firefighters aren’t well
suited to address.
“I can do everything for the cardi-
ac arrest patient,” Myers said, or for
a family whose kitchen has caught on
fire. But for residents whose needs may
be more complex, it’s necessary to go
upstream and look at the underlying
causes of public health issues.
Myers also noted that each fire sta-
tion is staffed, equipped and trained the
same way, though the neighborhoods
they serve may have different needs.
“
“This will help us tailor our mission
directly to the neighborhoods and treat
the neighborhoods the way they want
to be treated,” Myers told The Skanner.
This will help us tailor our mission directly
to the neighborhoods and treat the neighbor-
hoods the way they want to be treated
With both of those problems in mind,
he’s proposed the creation of “fire man-
agement areas,” which would overlay
several neighborhoods. According to
Aaron Johnson, communication di-
rector for Portland Fire & Rescue, the
agency currently has a three-person
team working on data collection for
each fire station’s response area. And
the team is working with Multnomah
County Public Health, and local and
regional nonprofit and neighborhood
organizations to create prevention and
response plans specific to each neigh-
borhood.
While data are being gathered for
all districts, the agency has designated
two stations — Station 22, which serves
St. Johns, and Station 25, which serves
several neighborhoods in Southeast
Portland including Foster-Powell, Cres-
ton-Kenilworth and Woodstock – to pi-
lot the fire management area concept.
St. Johns was chosen because it has a
well-organized neighborhood emer-
gency team. Station 25 was chosen be-
cause it has one of the highest fire death
rates in the city, Myers said. Since the
program is being built from scratch,
he said there’s value in working with
well-established groups on emergency
response — and while Portland Fire &
Rescue is concerned with many public
health issues, reducing fire deaths is
still a top priority.
It’s new — Myers said no other fire
department in the country has tried it
— but not without precedent. The fire
management area concept is in fact de-
rived from a model in the United King-
dom. The agency is planning a work
session for Sept. 26 which will include
personnel from Harvard’s School of
Public Health, Multnomah County Pub-
lic Health and the Gloucestershire Fire
and Rescue Service.
Myers expects the program won’t in-
crease costs — and should lead to sav-
ings down the road: “The intent is that
this project over time will not increase
costs and is intended to reduce long-
term spending projections. It is less ex-
pensive to prevent a call from happen-
ing than it is to continuously add more
reaction-based capital.”