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.