February 13, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
talk about it, you’re not
part of the political con-
versation.”
Democrats are in-
creasingly emboldened
to embrace gun control
as the anniversary of
America’s deadliest mass
shooting at a high school
approaches on Thursday.
The shooting at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland, Flor-
ida, killed 17 students
and staff members and
roused a group of young
activists who sought
to make gun violence a
generational issue for
younger voters.
Since then, Demo-
crats say they’re buoyed
by their success in last
year’s midterms. The
party won back the
House of Representa-
tives, fueled by victories
in several competitive,
suburban swing districts
where candidates high-
lighted gun control.
Lucy McBath, who be-
came a gun control activ-
ist after her 17-year-old
son was shot to death
at a gas station in 2012,
won a suburban Atlanta
congressional
district
that had long been held
by the GOP. Jason Crow,
a former Army Ranger,
ousted the Republican
congressman and gun
rights supporter who
represented the district
where the Aurora the-
ater shooting happened
outside Denver in 2012.
Even in Republican-dom-
inated Texas, backing
gun control didn’t stop
Democrats from flipping
a suburban Houston seat
to their column.
AP VoteCast, a nation-
wide survey of the Amer-
OSU
Read the rest of this story at
TheSkanner.com
Trail Blazers Honor Trail Blazers
On Feb. 5, in honor of Black History Month, the Portland Trail Blazers recognized six leaders representing a new era of ground-breaking
firsts for the city of Portland and state of Oregon. Each honoree was the first African American to hold the leadership position for the
institution they now represent. Pictured here with a special game day poster are Dr. Miles Davis, the first African American President
of Linfield College (left), Michelle J. DePass, first African American President and CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust; Jo Ann Hardesty, first
African American woman elected to the Portland City Council; Dr. Danny Jacobs, first African American president of Oregon Health
& Sciences University; Justice Adrienne Nelson, first African American Supreme Court Justice; Chief Danielle Outlaw, Portland’s First
African American woman chief of police.
City Club
cont’d from pg 1
one selected by the mayor and
approved by the city council –
with relevant training and ex-
perience;
• Stop electing city council mem-
bers in at-large elections and
switch to district-based elec-
tions, ideally with multiple
commissioners per district;
• Increase the size of the city
council to at least eight commis-
sioners, plus the mayor;
• Explore alternative systems of
voting.
“I sometimes hear people say
that Portland is weird, so it’s gov-
ernment should be weird,” said
Amanda Manjarrez, vice-chair of
the research committee, in a City
Club press release. “But it’s not
‘weird.’ It’s deeply inequitable.”
The report argues that Port-
land’s current form of govern-
ment is outdated for two reasons.
First, the city was much smaller
when it adopted the commission
form of government in 1913 –
200,000 versus 639,000 – mean-
ing the five commissioners each
serve a larger number of constit-
uents. It notes that with fewer
exceptions, cities with similar
populations have larger councils
than Portland.
The other reason Portland’s city
commission system is out of date,
the report argues, is that it’s root-
ed in racism.
“While not generally discussed
in public, there was another moti-
vation for some cities preferring
the commission system with its
at-large voting system. As federal
courts later found, in some juris-
dictions racism was a motivating
factor: electing commissioners
citywide prevented individual
wards or districts with majority
African American populations
“
The report ar-
gues that Port-
land’s current
form of govern-
ment is outdated
from electing their own favored
candidate and greatly decreased
the likelihood that minority can-
didates could be successful in any
campaign,” the report notes. In
one landmark case, the Supreme
Court found that at-large voting
systems ‘tend to minimize the vot-
ing strength of minority groups
by permitting the political major-
ity to elect all representatives of
the district.’”
Researchers also found that
the passage of the Voting Rights
Act of 1965 led to a “precipitous
decline” in the number of cities
using the commission system, as
federal courts ruled that at-large
voting meant ethnic minorities
were systematically underrepre-
sented on commissions.
The report begins by noting the
uniqueness of Portland’s com-
mission system among American
cities of comparable or larger
size. Citing the National League
of Cities, it says a large majority
of cities in the United States, are
governed either by a strong may-
or/city council form of govern-
ment, or a city council/city man-
ager form. “Among cities with a
population over 100,000, roughly
55 percent have selected the city
council/manager system, and
roughly 34 percent use a strong
mayor/city council system. The
National League of Cities also
notes that strong mayor/city
council form is ‘found mostly, but
not exclusively, in older, larger
cities or in very small cities.’”
“Most cities that once had the
commission form of government
differed from Portland’s system
in that commissioners ran for of-
fice and were elected to oversee
specific parts or bureaus of the
city government. Someone would
run, for example, to become Com-
missioner of Public Works, and
then serve in that position, run-
ning the water and sewer agen-
cies while in office,” the report
reads. Portland’s system is dif-
ferent because the mayor assigns
bureaus to commissioners – and
often, cities with a commission
form of government don’t have
an elected mayor. Instead, one
commissioner is appointed chair-
man or mayor, with the principal
role of chairing meetings. Port-
land is among a small number of
commission-government cities
to have an elected mayor with the
authority to assign or withdraw
executive responsibilities from
other commissioners.
cont’d from pg 1
from students in the communities rep-
resented. “We still have so many prob-
lems it’s unbelievable, but it helps if
students know there’s a place for them
that’s special,” Ray told The Skanner.
• All cultural centers include a large
gathering room for events. The Lon-
nie B. Harris Cultural Center hosts a
monthly Soul Food Sunday, Alexander
said, and she typically cooks.
• Between 2014 and 2018, the number
of African American faculty and staff
has increased by 15 percent, Alexander
said.
• More than 25 percent of students at
OSU are students of color, Ray said in
his address.
The six-year graduation rate for all
students is 68 percent. For students
from underrepresented groups, that
number is 58 percent. The university
has set a goal of closing that gap, and
has set a target of 70 percent six-year
graduation rate and a 90 percent one-
year retention rate for all students.
“The work around retention is both ac-
ademic and social,” said OSU president
Steve Clark.
“Together we are working really
hard to have an impact and change – to
change the narrative about OSU, what
OSU offers and the kind of commu-
nity that we’re trying to build at OSU
for our students. We’re spending a lot
more time in our schools. We’re having
students coming to our campus to kind
of learn about the OSU experience and
I’m really excited about where we’re
heading.”
PHOTO BY BERNIE FOSTER
“
The prima-
ry thing
that’s shift-
ed in the
politics of
this issue
is voter
intensity
was on
their side.
It’s now on
ours
ican electorate, found 8
percent of midterm vot-
ers across the country
called gun policy the top
issue facing the nation.
They broke for Demo-
crats over Republicans
by more than 4 to 1.
“The primary thing
that’s shifted in the poli-
tics of this issue is voter
intensity was on their
side. It’s now on ours,”
said Peter Ambler, exec-
utive director of the gun
control group founded
by former Rep. Gabby
Giffords after she was
injured in a 2011 mass
shooting.
Giffords’
husband,
Mark Kelly, said Tuesday
that he would run as a
Democrat for Arizona’s
Senate seat next year,
suggesting that gun con-
trol won’t soon fade from
the campaign trail.
Democratic
bullish-
ness on guns is reflected
by the unanimity in its
sprawling presidential
field on the issue. Pres-
idential aspirants who
once took a more moder-
ate stance and opposed
elements of gun control,
such as Sens. Kirsten
Gillibrand of New York
and Bernie Sanders of
Vermont, have now em-
braced the cause. And
the most prominent po-
tential moderates in the
Democratic field, former
New York Mayor Mi-
chael Bloomberg and for-
mer Vice President Joe
Biden, are longtime gun
control advocates.
But there’s no guaran-
tee the Democrats’ left-
ward turn on guns will
help them recreate their
2018 victory during the
2020 presidential elec-
tion, which will take
place on different terrain
than the diverse, educat-
ed suburbs where Dem-
ocrats performed best in
in November. Democrats
will have to win more
rural, whiter states to de-
feat Republican Donald
Trump in the Electoral
College in 2020. Florida
will again play a crucial
role, and Democrats lost
major races there last
year despite being the
location of the Parkland
shooting.
PHOTO BY ANTONIO HARRIS
Parkland
OSU president Ed Ray, vice president of diversity and
inclusion Charlene Alexander and spokesperson
Steve Clark visited The Skanner News last week
following Ray’s State of the University address.