September 21, 2022 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
News
“
Who lives
in proxim-
ity to dis-
amenities
is not an
accident
are consistently located
near communities of col-
or.
Miller-Travis
now
serves as executive vice
president of the Port-
land-based Metropolitan
Group, a social change
agency that offers strat-
egy and engagement ser-
vices to clients.
Prior to a visit to her
organization’s Portland
headquarters, she sat
down with The Skanner
to discuss the hard fight
to bring environmental
justice into mainstream
awareness, and to give
her thoughts on the cur-
rent presidential admin-
istration’s handling of
the climate crisis.
The Skanner News:
How do we see environ-
mental racism in Port-
land?
Vernice Miller-Travis:
The geographic distri-
bution of the Black com-
munity in Portland – in
Oregon generally, but in
Portland specifically –
to places that have more
challenges than other
parts of the city. So lack of
tree canopy, near traffic
corridors, don’t have the
basic natural resource
amenities – amenities
Preschool
that most people move
to Portland for, that bal-
ance between the natu-
ral environment and the
built environment. It’s so
evident in Portland you
can reach out and touch
it, right? But not every-
where in Portland.
And that is not an ac-
cident: who lives where,
who has access to what
resources, are not an
accident. Who lives in
proximity to disameni-
ties is not an accident.
There are real tangible
ways that you can see
discrimination in the
practice of the built en-
vironment, transporta-
tion corridors, the port
itself – everything that
you need to live in a mod-
ern society, most people
have no idea what those
infrastructure
needs
are because they don’t
live next to them. Except
some people live next to
a convergence of all the
things nobody wants to
live next to. And those
people tend to be Black
and brown and indige-
nous.
People like to think that
in Portland everyone has
an ecological perspec-
tive, everyone thinks
highly of the natural
environment and looks
and works and wants to
protect it, and that’s all
true. But there’s still lots
of evidence of environ-
mental injustice. And
it’s everywhere, and it’s
kind of baked into the de-
sign and growth patterns
of the city.
TSN: How did you get
started in this work?
VMT: I started out as a
researcher working for
the civil rights division
of a small Protestant
Church known as United
Church of Christ – the
remnants of the church
established by the pil-
grims. It’s a very small
Protestant
denomina-
Tracee Wells Assists Students, Community
Members Connect to Opportunities
With her recent transition into a new role as a training and education specialist, Tracee Wells supports a variety of programs and
services at the Portland Metro Workforce Training Center (PMWTC) in Northeast Portland. The facility is part of PCC’s Opportunity
Centers, which work to close opportunity gaps to give people the tools they need to develop their skill sets and the confidence to
be competitive for high-demand careers. The new PMWTC, which will be the future Metro Opportunity Center, is currently under
construction in Cully as part of the 2017 voter-passed bond measure. The facility will include 84 affordable housing units and other
supportive services to be accessed by surrounding communities.
Guns
cont’d from pg 1
obtain guns before completing
background checks. This has led
to thousands of guns being re-
leased to people who ultimately
failed such checks.
To kick off the campaign, lead-
ers from a range of spiritual
communities and gun control
activists and organizations gath-
ered with gun violence victims to
share both data and trauma.
“In the state of Oregon, when
you’re hunting large game like
elk, you’re limited to five rounds
in a magazine and one in the
chamber,” Penny Okamoto, execu-
tive director of Ceasefire Oregon,
told those gathered at Augusta-
na Lutheran Church last week to
announce the measure. “But the
Bend shooter had four magazines
that held 30 rounds, and there’s
no limit. He could have had 50
rounds. There’s no limit. So what
we do in Oregon is we have more
compassion, we protect a herd of
elk from gun violence, more than
we do a classroom of kids. And
that’s going to stop when we pass
Measure 114.”
The event was hosted by Lift Ev-
ery Voice Oregon, which worked
with volunteers to gather more
than 161,000 signatures to get
Measure 114 on the ballot.
Rev. Mark Knutson announced
a newly formed coalition to sup-
port the Measure 114 campaign,
“
It asks that you
become more
caring
with Ceasefire Oregon, the Ore-
gon Alliance for Gun Safety, the
Washington Alliance for Gun
Safety, the Albina Ministerial
Alliance, Ecumenical Ministries
of Oregon, the Oregon Education
Association, the Oregon Nurses
Association joining the effort.
“We want to do this with respect,
the most high-road campaign you
can imagine,” Knutson said.
Testimonies
Speakers testified about how
gun violence had made indeli-
ble impacts on their lives. Teal, a
24-year-old single mother and ac-
tivist, described how she no lon-
ger feels safe even at work.
cont’d from pg 1
pay for, because she expected Preschool
Promise to begin in September.
“Besides the program not starting, my
frustration is the lack of communica-
tion to help parents figure out the situ-
ation and to plan accordingly,” she said.
Day said her team has received hun-
dreds of calls and emails in recent
weeks from anxious parents seeking
an update.
While the burden falls on regional
hubs to field parents’ questions and
complaints, hub coordinators hardly
have a better idea than parents do of
when the Early Learning Division will
complete the contracting process.
The state has directed preschools new
to the program not to begin serving
children until their contracts are firm-
ly in place. It also has told programs
that are continuing or expanding in the
program that they don’t have to serve
children without the contractual guar-
antee of funding.
“We need a way to figure out how to
communicate these delays to families,”
Day said.
“
My frustration is
the lack of commu-
nication to help
parents figure out
the situation and to
plan accordingly
Marion Suitor-Barnes, director of
communications and outreach for the
Early Learning Division, wrote in an
email that the agency has employed an
“all hands on deck approach” to pro-
cessing the contracts. The agency has
only hired two of nine planned employ-
ees for its new procurement office, she
said.
“We recognize this delay is affecting
families, and we sincerely apologize.
We are committed to ensuring families
have access to the early learning and
child care supports they need,” Suit-
or-Barnes wrote.
Day said her team is still waiting to
hear back from returning providers
whether they will serve children ahead
of getting a contract extension. While
larger schools may choose to take of
children before receiving funding,
home-based providers with less re-
sources may not be able to take the risk,
she said.
“Every provider is going to have to
make that choice if they want to be
matched with families without a guar-
antee to be paid,” Day said.
Preschools that don’t start until late
October will likely have to extend the
school day or school year to meet the
requirement that children receive the
900 hours of instruction that Preschool
Promise guarantees, Suitor-Barnes
said.
PHOTO BY ALLISON SHELLEY/THE VERBATIM AGENCY FOR EDUIMAGES
tation corridors, health
facilities, supermarkets
– everything that’s im-
portant to a community
is happening at the local
planning board or zon-
ing board level,” Mill-
er-Travis said.
That’s important, be-
cause as Miller-Travis
has shown in her re-
search, the most hazard-
ous sites in the country
cont’d from pg 1
PHOTO COURTESY PCC
Miller-Travis
“I witnessed a coworker right
next to me get shot in the thigh,”
Teal said. “The bullet was just a
few inches away from my head.
The smell of gunpowder stayed
with me, and I will never forget
the smell or the sight of so much
blood. Nor can you ever truly
dismiss the feeling that your life
almost ended, and that you are
in danger in public places where
you should feel safe.”
Melay Ramos, 20, described
the trauma of seeing her brother
shot in the heart and having to
shoot the fighter off herself in a
Portland hotel room. Her brother
later died in her arms as she was
trying to get him help.
Linda, a Portland resident,
spoke of her anguish as the moth-
er of a woman who was able to
purchase a gun and complete sui-
cide, despite a long history of psy-
chiatric hospitalizations.
“Gun violence is destroying our
country,” Rabbi Michael Cahana,
a chief petitioner on the measure,
said. “Too many people have been
convinced that there’s nothing
See GUNS on page 11