APRIL 11, 2018
25
CENTS
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 28
News ...............................3,9,10 Dr. Samuel B. McKinney ..5
Opinion ...................................2 A & E .....................................6-7
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
RISE AND ORGANIZE
Portland State University graduate student Greta
Smith stands at the corner of N. Williams and
Skidmore, a historically Black neighborhood
undergoing rapid gentrification, to talk about the
legacy of Portland’s racist housing policies.
PSU grad students
collecting, mapping
restrictive covenants
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
P
ortland State University and the
city of Portland are collaborating
this spring to research the histo-
ry of racist housing policies in
Portland, and they’re looking for help
from the public.
Greta Smith, a graduate student in
PSU’s public history program, has col-
lected about 30 restrictive covenants
from housing deeds around Portland
and created an interactive map of the
addresses where covenants were cre-
AP PHOTO/NATI HARNIK, FILE
See MAPPING on page 3
In this Nov. 9, 2016, file photo, Brad Ashford speaks
at a news conference in Omaha, Neb. declaring his
opposition to banning assault weapons, Ashford
has since changed his mind. He’s being challenged
aggressively in the primary by Kara Eastman, an
ardent gun-control advocate. Democrats believe
that they cannot win in this supercharged
environment without embracing gun control.
Dems in GOP
Country page 9
Kam Reviews
‘Chappaquiddick’
page 7
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Mapping
Segregation
in Portland
Deputy DNC Chair Keith Ellison joined Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, and Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, April 6 Kane Hall on the
University of Washington campus to help organize Democrats in Washington State for the midterm elections in November.
Solar Tiny Houses Erected at Dignity Village
New homes generate enough electricity for the entire shelter community
By Melanie Sevcenko
For The Skanner News
T
he
community-run
Dignity Village shel-
ter
in
Northeast
Portland celebrated
a collaborative milestone
April 4, when four new
tiny houses were unveiled
on site.
A collaborative project
between the ReBuilding
Center, DPI Solar and the
Portland Trail Blazers, as
well as a handful of trades
training organizations, the
tiny homes are the newest
addition to a long-term
plan to improve and inno-
vate the older structures at
Dignity Village.
Established in 2000, the
houseless community is
one of Portland’s oldest
camps and is currently
home to 53 residents. As
a self-governing entity, it
seeks to “create a green,
sustainable urban village
for those who are seeking
shelter but are unable to
find it,” according to its on-
line mission.
Now, village residents
have the opportunity to
participate in a project
at the forefront of sus-
tainable “tiny house” con-
struction. The 8-by-14-foot
structures are fully insu-
lated, solar-power gener-
ating, and use weather-re-
sistant cedar and salvaged
materials — one-third of
which was donated by
the ReBuilding Center, a
nonprofit store that offers
used and salvaged build-
ing materials. The center
has also worked with other
homeless communities in
the Portland area, includ-
ing Hazelnut Grove, Right
to Dream Too and the Ken-
ton Women’s Village.
Funded primarily by the
Portland Trail Blazers, the
budget for the tiny houses
reached roughly $20,000.
John Goodwin, premium
services manager with the
Blazers, ultimately got the
project off the ground.
Over the years, his team
has been volunteering for
a number of social service
organizations, including
New Avenues for Youth
and the Blanchet House.
For the Dignity Village
See DIGNITY on page 3
Portland Police Shoot and Kill Man at Shelter
John A. Elifritz died Saturday after an apparent mental health crisis
The Skanner News
S
e v e n
Portland
Police
B u re a u
officers and
one sheriff ’s
deputy were
involved in
a
shooting
Saturday that
John A. Elifritz
left one man
dead after he entered a southeast
Portland homeless shelter.
On Tuesday Portland police re-
leased the names of officers who
were involved in the shooting and
their years of service with their re-
spective agencies, but did not release
information about who fired lethal
rounds or how many. The Portland
police officers involved are:
Richard Bailey, two years;
Justin Damerville, seven years;
Kameron Fender, eight years;
Alexandru Martiniuc, six years;
Bradley Nutting, 11 years;
Chad Phifer, 10 years;
Andrew Polas, 14 years.
Aaron Sieczkowski, a six-year
member of the Multnomah County
Sheriff ’s Office, was also involved in
the shooting.
Several of the officers involved
have use-of-force incidents in their
past: Polas was involved in the 2010
shooting of Keaton Otis, a 25-year-
old Black man who was shot 23 times
after being stopped for unsignaled
lane changes and shooting an officer
in the groin. Phifer was cited in the
Department of Justice’s investiga-
tion of Portland police as an exam-
ple of PPB’s use of excessive force
against people with mental illness,
after an incident where he fired a
Taser repeatedly and punched a man
with mental illness multiple times. In
2014 Nutting used a stun gun in 2014
against Portland bicyclist Matthew
Klug.
See SHOOTING on page 3