NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Portland and Seattle Volume XLV No. 4
News ..........................3,8-10,12 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 U.S. Rep. Jayapal..............9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY MULTNOMAH COUNTY LIBRARY
SOCIAL JUSTICE
LIBRARY OPENS
O
nly 31% of Black Oregonians
are homeowners, and nearly as
many -- 27% -- live below the pov-
erty line. This week, the Urban
League announced it would partner
with five local credit unions to pro-
mote Black home ownership rates and
overall equity in financial access for
the local Black community.
The Urban League and Advantis
Credit Union, Consolidated Commu-
nity Credit Union, Point West Credit
Union, Rivermark Community Credit
Union, and Unitus Community Credit
Union formed the Financial Empower-
ment Collaborative (FEC) this month.
The program will offer financial train-
ing, one-on-one coaching, and case
management for Urban League clients
with a variety of economic goals.
Participating institutions are quick
to point out the advantage of cred-
it unions, which are nonprofit, over
banks.
“We are very community-focused,”
Neah Jackson, communications and
community engagement manager at
Advantis Credit Union, told The Skan-
ner. “As a nonprofit, we don’t rely on
profit keeping us alive, we don’t an-
swer to shareholders. Our sharehold-
See URBAN LEAGUE on page 3
Young Worker Safety
Creative Contest Opens
to HS Students page 7
Estelita Library founders, educator Edwin Lindo, and his partner, physician and educator Estell Williams thanked the crowd for attending the grand
opening of Estelita’s new location on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in the Central District on Saturday November 13th. The social justice library was a
beloved community gathering place at its old location on Beacon Hill and it hopes to continue that tradition in the Central District. The new library is
housed in a 225 square foot space with a 330 square foot deck. The new space received funding through the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture
pilot project called Tiny Cultural Spaces and was designed by an all-womxn crew of youth at Sawhorse Revolution, a nonprofit that teaches high school
students carpentry and architecture by building projects that make a difference in their local communities.
With COVID Vaccines Approved for Grade
Schoolers, Public Health Officials Target Equity
Schools and pop-up community
clinics aim to close vaccine disparities
By Saundra Sorenson
Of The Skanner News
R
ecent coverage of the
aging Lloyd Center
describes the mall
as near-empty and
facing foreclosure. But in
the next few months, the
old Sears will serve as a
welcoming hub for fami-
lies who want to get their
young children vaccinat-
ed.
Last week, the Feder-
al Drug Administration
issued emergency use
approval of the Pfizer-Bi-
oNTech COVID-19 vaccine
in children aged five to 11.
The modified vaccine has
shown nearly identical
success rates to the version
teens and adults have re-
ceived, with a reported 90%
success rate in preventing
symptomatic infections in
children. The two-shot vac-
cine is spaced three weeks
apart and is a third of the
dosage given to adults.
With that approval, all
grade school children are
eligible to receive the vac-
cine.
While 180,000 doses of
the pediatric vaccine were
made available to Oregon
in the last week, fears per-
sist that the vaccine will
not reach enough Black
children. The rate of vacci-
nation among Black adults
has lagged behind that of
their White counterparts,
and public health officials
are concerned vaccine
rates among Black grade
schoolers will follow that
trend.
“We recognize that for a
See VACCINES on page 3
Portland Among US Cities Looking to ‘Refund’ Police
City Council is considering around $5.2 million in
police investments
By SARA CLINE Associated Press/
Report for America
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Night after
night, hundreds of people marched
the streets of Oregon’s largest city,
demanding racial justice following
the murder of George Floyd by a
white officer.
Among the rallying cries were “de-
fund the police” — a call for elected
officials to reallocate some law en-
forcement funding elsewhere. In
June 2020, Portland City Council and
the mayor answered by cutting mil-
lions from the police budget.
Now, a year and a half later, offi-
cials are poised to partially restore
those cuts. Portland City Council is
considering around $5.2 million in
police investments — adding to the
approximately $230 million budget
— amid a record number of homi-
cides, the city’s greatest police staff-
AP PHOTO/GILLIAN FLACCUS, FILE
By Saundra Sorenson
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Otto Rutherford (right) and his daughter Charlotte
Rutherford, next to him, stand with members
of the NAACP Credit Union, which was initially
managed from the Rutherford’s home on Shaver
Street in the Albina Neighborhood.
Urban
League
Joins with
Local CUs to
Empower
‘Financial
Well-Being’
25
CENTS
In this July 13, 2020, file photo, a pedestrian
walks past a boarded-up Apple store that’s been
covered in street art in downtown Portland, Ore.
ing shortage in decades and reform
recommendations made by the U.S.
See POLICE on page 3