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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2018)
FEBRUARY 28, 2018 Seattle, Washington Volume XL No. 22 25 CENTS News ................................ 3,6,8 A & E ........................................5 Opinion ...................................2 Inequality Persists .........6 Calendar .................................4 Bids/Classifieds .....................7 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW IMAGE COURTESY OF FAIR HOUSING COUNCIL OF OREGON FIGURING HISTORY A restrictive covenant from a 1941 deed in Portland’s Hillsdale neighborhood, states that “No person of any race other those of the Caucasian or White race shall use or occupy any building on any lot” in the housing tract. By Christen McCurdy Of The Skanner News his week the Oregon legislature passed a bill that would make it easier to remove racist language from property deeds. House Bill 4134 passed out of the Senate Monday and heads toward the governor’s desk this spring. Under the new law property owners would be able to remove discriminatory re- strictions in their deeds by petitioning their county’s circuit court with no fee. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Julie Fahey (D-West Eugene and Junction City), drafted the bill after buying a house in Eugene and discovering the property deed said the house could only be sold to “members of the Caucasian race.” “I went back and forth with the re- altor and the title company to see if it could get that language taken out,” she said. She discovered the process was “time consuming and expensive” and not very accessible to someone who could not afford a lawyer, partly because the process requires that all owners of record be notified. “For me, part of the reason of bring- ing the bill is to continue the conver- sation in the legislature and the public and continue the conversation about our history of racist discrimination. People know about redlining, people know about discrimination by the fi- nancial system, but they may not know about this,” Fahey said. Richard Rothstein, a research asso- ciate of the Economic Policy Institute and a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense T See LAW on page 3 BOOK REVIEW: When They Call You a Terrorist page 5 Jordan Allen studies a painting by artist by Robert Colescott at the Seattle Art Museum. Mr. Colescott’s is one of three artists whose work is featured in the Seattle Art Museum’s exhibit Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas. The large paintings represent 3 generations of black artists whose work questions the narrative of American history. The exhibit will be on display through May 13. Could Portland Adopt Municipal Broadband? After net neutrality repeal, a local group is pushing for a public provider Christen McCurdy Of The Skanner News small group of Port- landers wants local government to of- fer Internet access as a public utility. They have the ear of a few gov- ernment officials, one city council candidate and the co-chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon — but the plan is still in the nascent stages. Municipal Broadband Portland held a rally in De- cember and one in January to voice support for a mu- nicipal Internet provider. Those rallies were small: the first attracted 40 and A the second attracted about 30, according to Michael Hanna, an organizer with the group. The Municipal Broadband PDX Facebook group currently has 1,800 members, though. But Portland residents are interested in the con- cept again in part because of the Federal Communi- cation Commission’s De- cember vote to repeal net neutrality, opening the door for private Internet providers to block com- peting applications, slow connection speeds or offer higher speeds only to cus- tomers who are willing to pay more. “The repeal of net neu- trality has sparked a wild- fire across the nation,” Hanna said. Earlier this week Ore- gon’s House of Represen- tatives passed a law requir- ing state agencies to sign Internet service contracts with providers that abide by net neutrality practices. While Municipal Broad- band organizers support net neutrality, they see net neutrality as a symptom of the bigger problem: that two private companies, Comcast and CenturyLink, hold a near-monopoly (and in some neighborhoods, a monopoly) on Internet ac- cess in the city. Advocates for making Internet access a public utility say access is critical for daily life activ- ities and for getting ahead in society, that building out and maintaining a fi- ber network would cre- ate jobs and that revenue could help pay for needed services. The idea isn’t unique to Portland, and the idea is not new, said Russell Se- nior, president of Person- al Telco, a Portland-based nonprofit wireless net- work and member of Mu- nicipal Broadband Port- land. Russell, along with Hanna and Roberta Phil- lip-Robbins, are working See BROADBAND on page 3 Parents Spooked By Abuse in Youth Sports Set More Limits By SALLY HO, Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — With Olympic prodigies having just dazzled audi- ences worldwide, parents in the U.S. are reconciling the thrill of the gold with their fears from recent sexual abuse scandals in elite youth sports. Shannon Stabbert said her 6-year- old daughter wants to be a gymnast, but the Seattle mother decided to put her in a martial-arts program in- stead. “I have no doubt she will be quite amazing at gymnastics,” Stabbert said. “I just don’t feel like it’s a men- tally, physically, emotionally healthy sport for girls.” High-profile cases of sexual abuse and other predatory behavior in gymnastics, swimming and other sports have jolted many parents who believe athletics can be an important part of their child’s development. See SPORTS on page 3 AP PHOTO/ELAINE THOMPSON HB 4134 passed out of the Senate Monday PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Law Makes It Easier to Remove Racist Restrictions From Deeds In this Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, photo, Lara Mae Chollette, a coach of youth soccer and basketball, runs a basketball drill with her daughter Linda, 10, as her son Jaylen, 7, looks on at a community gym in Seattle.