August 9, 2017 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
ganization — a local fac-
tion of the national BMA
— advocates for changes
in policy and programs,
highlights
disparities,
and works to create
awareness to improve
the realities for vulner-
able African American
men and boys.
This summer 50 young
Black males had a chance
to participate in BMA’s
“
more mentors,” said C.J.
Robbins, head of BMA
Portland. “The young
men chose the title, ‘No
Role Models,’ to inten-
tionally be provocative
to really get folks think-
ing, and also challenge
them to question them-
selves. Are they doing
enough as individuals?”
According to Tony
Hopson, CEO of Self En-
We have a number of Black
men in professional roles
across this city and county,
but they’re not being asked
to be role models
Summer Youth Expe-
rience, a collaboration
with Worksystems and
the Immigrant and Refu-
gee Community Organi-
zation.
The program took
participants inside pro-
fessional environments
across multiple indus-
tries, including city hall,
the advertising agency
Wieden + Kennedy, Nike,
and ZGF Architects.
For six weeks, the
young men participat-
ed in culturally-spe-
cific exercises focused
on building social and
emotional intelligence,
and engaged in discus-
sions with professionals
on how to navigate the
workplace as Black men.
Saturday’s youth-led
summit at Unthank Park
is a culmination of their
efforts.
The capstone event,
called ‘No Role Models,’
was organized by the
program’s young partic-
ipants and will welcome
professionals and com-
munity members for an
afternoon of panels and
entertainment centered
on brotherhood.
“The goal is to highlight
what mentorship looks
like for Black men and
boys, and how do we get
Hardesty
hancement Inc., commu-
nity members could be
doing more. “People just
don’t show up,” he said.
“We need more outreach
to places where we think
mentors are. I don’t think
enough of them are go-
ing to knock on your
door and say, I want to
be a mentor. You need to
knock on their door.”
“We have a number of
Black men in profession-
al roles across this city
and county, but they’re
not being asked to be role
models,” continued Hop-
son. “You got to have a
strategy or a vehicle for
those things to happen.”
Robbins agrees. He said
it’s not mentors that are
at a lack, but rather con-
nectivity.
“There’s enough hu-
man capital, when it
comes to mentors, so our
goal needs to be in bring-
ing the systems together,
aligning them, and really
highlighting best prac-
tices when working with
young Black men and
boys.”
‘No Role Models,’ as
part of BMA’s Summer
Youth Experience, takes
place on Aug. 12, from 11
a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Un-
thank Park, 510 N. Shaver
St. It is open to the public.
Mayor Ted Wheeler Names
Danielle Outlaw to Lead
Portland Police Bureau
Mayor Ted Wheeler on Monday announced that he has selected Danielle
Outlaw to become the next Chief of the Portland Police Bureau. Outlaw
is a 19-year veteran of the Oakland Police Department, where she
served as a Deputy Chief since 2013. Outlaw worked for the Oakland
Police Department since 1997, beginning her career as an Oakland
Police Explorer while she was a student at Holy Names High School. She
rose through the ranks, with assignments including Patrol, Community
Services, the Office of Chief of Police, the Criminal Investigation
Division, Public Information, Internal Affairs and the Office of Inspector
General, and the Bureau of Risk Management. Outlaw holds a bachelor
of arts in sociology from the University of San Francisco and a Master
of Business Administration from Pepperdine University.
Outlaw is scheduled to step into her new role Oct. 1, pending completion
of a background check. She will be Portland’s first African American
female police chief.
Legacy
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF PORTLAND
Mentors
cont’d from pg 1
ed” in North Portland’s Albina
neighborhood – the heart of the
African American business dis-
trict.
By the early 1970s, the PDC’s
surge of urban renewal projects
peaked with the proposed Em-
manuel Hospital expansion in
the Eliot neighborhood. While it
never made it to fruition, the con-
struction plans displaced over 170
predominantly Black families.
By then, over half of Eliot’s Af-
rican American population was
pushed out.
A half a century later the devel-
opment agency — now known as
Prosper Portland, and sporting a
new equity-building image – has
teamed up with Legacy Health
and the City of Portland to make
good in the neighborhood it once
demolished.
The collaborative project is the
development of a long-vacant 1.7-
acre site currently owned by Leg-
acy Health and sitting adjacent to
Legacy Emanuel Medical Center
at North Russell Street and North
Williams Avenue.
“This development will bene-
fit the community by helping to
expand Legacy Emanuel’s mis-
sion of healing in this communi-
ty,” says George J. Brown, Legacy
Health president and CEO, in an
official statement. “It will also
provide a new location for the
spiritual center for what was
once the center of Portland’s Af-
rican American community.”
Plans for the development’s
use are far from finalized, yet
partners are promising a neigh-
“
Whatever ulti-
mately is built
on those proper-
ties will be done
in collaboration
with the com-
munity –Mayor
Ted Wheeler
borhood addition that will both
honor and serve Portland’s Black
community.
To date, they’ve confirmed the
center will include medical care
services — including a surgery
center and patient and family
housing — as well as affordable
homes, community space, and a
business hub for those most im-
pacted by gentrification.
By fall of this year the partners
will be forming a Project Work-
ing Group to help guide the vi-
sion. They’ll also be seeking input
from community leaders and the
public. Construction is slotted for
2019.
Stakeholders are adamant about
not looking at the development as
a means to atone for the damage
that’s been done.
Rather, said Mayor Ted Wheel-
er at a press conference last week,
“It is to make clear that whatever
ultimately is built on those prop-
erties will be done in collabora-
tion with the community and will
include projects that serve and
support the community.”
As the construction of luxu-
ry apartments in place of older
properties in North and North-
east Portland shows no signs of
stopping, the Legacy project fol-
lows another initiative aimed at
correcting rapid gentrification.
The 80-unit affordable housing
project, called the Beatrice Mar-
row building, is currently under
construction on NE Martin Lu-
ther King Jr Boulevard, between
Cook and Ivy Streets.
The city-funded development
makes use of the Portland Hous-
ing Bureau’s “preference policy,”
which prioritizes rental homes
for African Americans and fam-
ily members who are from the
neighborhood.
“We cannot make up for what
was done in the past,” said Pros-
per Portland board commission-
er Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia
of the Legacy site’s tumultuous
history.
cont’d from pg 1
men — in its history. Journalist Richard
Bogle served from 1984 to 1992. Charles
Jordan, the city’s first Black commis-
sioner, served from 1974 to 1984. Com-
missioner Chloe Eudaly, who was elect-
ed last fall, is the eighth woman ever to
serve on the council.
Hardesty stepped into her current
role with the NAACP in early 2015.
In that role, she’s created a Just En-
ergy Campaign for policy to ensure
low-income people and people of color
benefit from changes to environmental
regulations and submitted a bid to have
Portland host the national NAACP con-
ference in 2020.
She also made waves in January an-
nouncing the NAACP Portland Branch
had withdrawn its support from the an-
ti-Trump Women’s March.
Hardesty served in the Oregon legis-
lature between 1997 and 2001 and ran
for Multnomah County Chair in 2001.
Since Friday, Hardesty said she has
received an “overwhelming” outpour-
ing of support.
“I’ve had people from all walks of life
say, ‘How can I help? I haven’t been in-
terested in city council, haven’t been
interested in electoral politics but I
want to help you get elected,’” Hardes-
“
I’ve had people
from all walks of
life say, ‘How can I
help?
ty told The Skanner. “And so I think I’ve
just been pretty overwhelmed by just
the generosity of Portlanders. They’re
just ready to do the work.”
Hardesty has said she will need to
raise $250,000 for the campaign. That
number comes from “knowing there’s
an incumbent in office who has the abil-
ity to raise significant resources,” she
said.
There’s also the fact that 2018 is an
“off ” election year.
“It’s not a presidential election year,
which means that the turnout will be
significantly less than it would be if it
was a presidential year. And so it is my
job to make the case to voters as to why
they should participate in this election,
and then why they should vote for me,”
she said. “And unfortunately, you can’t
do that without money.”
Her campaign website includes a
platform that emphasizes four areas of
policy: access, jobs, housing and polic-
ing. Here’s what she told The Skanner
about each plank.
Policing
“I want only one police force. I don’t
want a different police force to show up
when people of color are protesting, as
compared to the police force that shows
up when White women are protesting.
I want the same police force. I want
them to show up as Officer Friendly. I
want them to show up being helpful.
I do not want them to show up in riot
Jo Ann Hardesty
gea,r because people of color are exer-
cising their right to assembly and [to]
seek redress from their elected offi-
cials,” Hardesty said.
Read the full story at TheSkanner.com
