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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2017)
August 23, 2017 The Skanner Page 3 News motion didn’t appear to cause much increase in business, but in 2016 list- ed businesses did see an increase in sales during the event. “The second year was incredible,” Travis told The Skanner. Travis, who has helped coordinate and acted as a spokesperson for the event this year and last “ cont’d from pg 1 ed cooking for events, starting his own cater- ing company in 2009 and eventually expanding to restaurants. ‘It takes money to start a business’ Travis told The Skanner he’s never taken out a bank loan, and that think- ing outside the box is the primary thing that’s kept him in business. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make my busi- ness work without capital year, said organizers also hope the event will in- crease lasting awareness of Black-owned restau- rants and Black cuisines in the city. The event’s website currently lists 69 restau- rants. Website admin- istrator Devra Beth told The Skanner that since the list was created in 2015, 19 Black-owned restaurants have closed — but 12 new restaurants have opened. Travis has served fried chicken, brisket and ribs — along with clas- sic soul-food sides like collards, candied yams and baked beans — at his current location, inside the Ranger Tavern in St. Johns since 2013. Previ- ously, he owned Mack & Dub’s Excellent Chick- en & Waffles and Mack & Dub’s Breakfast Club. Both were located on Northeast MLK, Jr. Blvd.; Mack & Dub’s Chicken & Waffles burned down in 2012. (Portland Fire and Res- cue described the fire as an arson in its investiga- tion report, which does not identify a suspect or motive.) Travis grew up in Portland, in a large fam- ily that gardened and cooked. A musician and music promoter — he’s one-half of the marijuana-themed hip-hop duo Mack and Dub and the Smoking Section — Travis start- Eclipse “I wanted to prove to myself that I could make my business work with- out capital,” he said. “To this date, I haven’t had to seek help from a finan- cial institution.” He added, though, that for many minority busi- ness owners, access to capital is a major barrier to getting into business and staying in business. “It takes money to start a business, money to make that initial in- vestment. Plus, in most situations, it takes time — often months to years — to ramp up sales until profits can be obtained. And so, often times, up- front money is needed to bridge that time gap un- til if/when the business becomes profitable,” said Robin Wang, executive director of Ascent Fund- ing. In addition, Wang said, most new businesses are financed with household wealth, and statistics show staggering racial disparities in household wealth in the U.S.: ac- cording to 2013 figures released by the Economic Policy Institute, a White family with at least one college-educated parent averaged $180,500 in household wealth, ver- sus $23,400 in household wealth for Black families with the same amount of education. Read the full story at TheSkanner.com Albina Jazz Festival Saxophone player Devin Phillips plays with Chris Brown on drums at the Albina Jazz Festival Aug. 13. Phillips and Brown were part of a 12-band roster that played all day Aug. 12 and 13 at the Stingray Café in Portland. The Stingray is situated in the Left Bank Building, which in 1945 housed the Dude Ranch, one of Portland’s first jazz clubs. The Dude Ranch was open less than a year but quickly became the stuff of legends during a period when Portland’s Albina neighborhood was known as “Jump Town” or Black Broadway. Nationally known musicians including Louie Armstrong and Count Basie to play in clubs that mostly lined North Williams Avenue. The scene also cultivated dozens of local jazz musicians, many of whose talents were on display at the two-day festival. Festival organizer Stephen Hanks, who also runs the Portland Pioneers of Color Walking Tours, said he created the festival to pay tribute to the history of jazz in Northeast Portland. Attack PHOTO COURTESY OF STEPHEN HANKS Restaurants cont’d from pg 1 brutally stab to death two men on MAX, and injure a third. All three were attempting to protect two young African American women from his racist threats. Following the recent hate-fu- eled violence in Charlottesville, Va., Hester — whose story was shared anonymously in May — was prompted to come forward to the press Friday to share her personal story about what she witnessed as a lack of police pro- tection against neo-Nazi attacks. The recounting of her story was supported by a coalition of interfaith and community lead- ers at the Billy Webb Elks Lodge in North Portland. Rabbi Ariel Stone of Portland Interfaith Cler- gy Resistance and activist Teressa Raiford were both on the panel. Pastor E.D. Mondainé, of North Portland’s Celebration Taberna- cle Church, opened by remarking that the intent of the conference was “not to demonize Portland Police, but simply to ask the cen- tral question as to why this was allowed to happen to any citizen, but especially this woman of col- or.” “Portland has been crowned the Queen of White Cities. The Whitest city in America,” contin- ued Mondainé, who added that Portland has a unique opportu- nity to turn the scales of injustice around. Hester’s disturbing account was an attempt to prove that the fatal MAX stabbings on May 26 “were not only preventable, but were the direct result of ineffec- tual, racially biased policing by Portland Police,” reads the coali- tion’s statement to the press. Defending herself against Christian’s racist taunts on the MAX, Hester told him to lower his voice. He responded with more hateful threats: “You don’t have a right to speak, you’re Black. You don’t have a right to be here. All you Muslims, Blacks, Jews, I will “ I should feel safe in Portland. I don’t kill all of you,” she recounted. She knocked on the door of the MAX operator for help, but re- ceived no response. Hester recalled how the ranting went on for three stops, while not one of the 25 or so people on the train spoke up. When Hester was preparing to get off the train, “he told me, ‘Bitch, you’re about to get it now.’” Christian then hit her in the head with a Gatorade bottle. Fighting back, she pepper spayed him and kicked him in the groin. After leaving the train at the Rose Quarter stop, Hester sat on a bench to catch the Green Line. She explained how two TriMet work- ers, who apparently witnessed the entire incident, did nothing. Meanwhile, Christian stopped at a nearby drinking fountain to wash the mace from his eyes. When two police officers ar- rived, Hester said she relayed the encounter to the police and point- ed to her assailant. (According to Portland police, in their summary account of the May 25 events, Hester did not identify Christian as the assailant immediately, but another witness did point him out.) Hester claims that one of the officers said, “No, I asked him (Christian). He said he had noth- ing to do with it.” Only when the MAX operator backed her story, did the police believe her, she said. Officer Nelson Glaske then asked Hester – who was bleeding from her eye – for her I.D., but not for Christian’s. Glaske told Hester they were waiting for another officer to ar- rive; during that time, however, Christian left the scene. Hester claimed one of the offi- cers made a small effort to catch up with the suspect in his patrol car. When the officer returned to the TriMet stop, he told Hester he did the best he could. Hester replied by saying, “Catch him, because he’s going to harm or kill someone.” The next day he did. Read the full story at TheSkanner.com cont’d from pg 1 reported in any of the other states, though some had the misfortune of having rain or clouds during the celes- tial event. Officials had warned that up to 1 mil- lion visitors could come to Oregon, which has only 4 million residents. They don’t have estimates yet of how many actually showed up. “I think that we didn’t have any of the issues or major public safety concerns that we kind of whiteboarded and what-iffed throughout the planning process: what if a major fire erupts, what if there’s some kind of transpor- tation disaster ... what if there’s a sup- ply chain issue and we can’t get fuel into central or rural parts of Oregon,” Phelps said. “None of those things played out.” There were some traffic jams as many eclipse watchers, who had come to “ U.S. Interstate 5. Some towns were bracing for huge numbers of visitors, but fewer came. I’m still basking in the glow of really what was an incredible experience in terms of being able to see the eclipse and a positive and safe experience throughout Oregon for everybody the 70-mile (112-kilometer) wide band of total eclipse over many hours and several days, headed home at the same time. At the traffic peak, it took over four hours Monday afternoon to get from Salem, the state capital that was in the total eclipse band, to Portland, just 50 miles (80 kilometers) away on Up to 50,000 people had been expect- ed to overwhelm Mitchell, one of Ore- gon’s tiniest towns with 150 souls. Lo- cal residents worried they wouldn’t be able to service them all. But only 2,000 showed up, The Bulletin newspaper re- ported. “Thank God,” Karen Osborn, co-own- er of Wheeler County Trading, told the Bend newspaper. Mayor Vernita Jordan said the eco- nomic boost for Mitchell, which sits be- tween the John Day fossil beds and the mountainous Ochoco National Forest, was welcome. “Winter is very slim for them. If they can get a boost now, that’s going to mean they can survive through the winter, maybe,” she told The Bulletin. It is too early to tell how many visi- tors came and how much they spent. Tourism is a big revenue generator in this Pacific Northwest state, bringing $11.3 billion in direct travel spending in 2016, according to a re- port published by the Oregon Tourism Commission.