CONVENTIONS
Thursday, July 14, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
In this 2014 file photo, runners jog along the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk in
Philadelphia. Democrats are set to begin their convention at the end of July.
The Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, is prepared for the
upcoming Republican National Convention Wednesday.
Democrats to meet in Fractured Cleveland
city of great inequality an apt place for GOP
By KATHY MATHESON
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA
—
When the Democrats come to
the City of Brotherly Love to
nominate Hillary Clinton for
president and the talk turns
to income inequality and the
1 percent, Exhibit A will be
right outside their windows:
Philadelphia itself.
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some Philadelphians with
an unfamiliar sense of civic
pride. And yet it struggles
with the gap between rich
and poor that Sen. Bernie
Sanders decried during his
campaign against Clinton,
with 26 percent of residents
living in poverty, the highest
rate among the 10 biggest
cities in the U.S.
The July 25-28 conven-
tion creates an opportunity
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successes in urban revitaliza-
tion, but also “to look closely
at the real Philadelphia, which
is also the real America,”
said Randall Miller, a history
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University.
Philly has ridden a wave
of good publicity lately. Pope
Francis visited last fall, and
Lonely Planet named the city
its top travel destination in
2016. The opening of new
civic spaces, bike paths and
beer gardens has generated
major buzz.
And yet a report released
this year by Pew Charitable
Trusts found that for every
residential area that gentri-
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10 others where the median
income dropped. Overall,
annual median income
in Philadelphia is about
$39,000, compared with
more than $53,000 nationally.
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tracts ring Center City, the
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nightspots, businesses and
cultural attractions where
delegates will probably
spend a large amount of
time. Numerous construc-
tion cranes dot the skyline,
building high-end condos,
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skyscraper for Comcast
Corp.
“There have been in
recent years a lot of positive
“The high poverty rate and all that
comes with it has not gone away.”
— Larry Eichel, Pew’s Philadelphia Research Initiative
signs in the city,” said Larry
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Philadelphia Research Initia-
tive . “But the high poverty
rate and all that comes with it
has not gone away.”
New Mayor Jim Kenney
hopes to change that, starting
with better schooling. Last
month, City Council passed
a soda tax, with the revenue
going to expand prekinder-
garten and renovate badly
run-down libraries and recre-
ation centers.
“This is the beginning of
a process of changing the
narrative of poverty in our
city,” he said.
———
The last time Philadel-
phia hosted a Democratic
convention was 1948, a
couple of years before hitting
its peak population of nearly
2.1 million. The ensuing
decades saw manufacturing
jobs decline and middle-class
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By the time the Republicans
came here in 2000 to nomi-
nate George W. Bush, the
population had dropped to
1.52 million.
In 2006, the count hit
1.49 million — its lowest
point in a century — before
starting its slow rebound. The
restaurant industry started
hopping and a tech start-up
community began taking
shape. The Phillies even won
the World Series in 2008,
breaking a 25-year drought in
major sports championships.
Today, Philadelphia has
1.57 million residents, and
overall is younger and more
diverse, according to Pew.
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well-regarded universities
and stay after graduating.
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walkable place with a rich
arts scene.
“You can go to plays,
you can see music, you can
eat really good food and not
break the bank,” said Emma
Fried-Cassorla, creator of the
Philly Love Notes blog .
Still, many young adults
leave after starting families
because the school system
is in such poor condition.
The district has a graduation
rate of just 65 percent,
contributing to an unskilled
workforce that business
leaders say makes it hard to
attract jobs.
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millennials that is not faring
so well: Young black men
account for the majority of
homicide victims, most by
gunshot. Gun violence has
wreaked havoc in swaths of
the city, and the homicide
rate has begun ticking up
after historic lows in 2013
and 2014.
———
Norman Jefferson, who
lives in a North Philadelphia
neighborhood where the
annual income averages
$14,185 per year, recently
passed a hot afternoon on his
porch with his sister Shirley.
They
said
Democratic
delegates need to know how
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wages.
“It costs more to ride the
bus, to eat, to do everything,”
said
Shirley
Jefferson,
a retired school district
employee. “But how are you
going to do that without the
salary going up?”
Philadelphia has hosted
several “Fight For $15”
protests where fast-food
workers rallied for a $15
minimum wage. Democrats
appear to be listening, incor-
porating their support into the
party platform.
Convention CEO Leah
Daughtry said she knows
more must be done to ensure
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all neighborhoods equally.
She encouraged residents in
the heavily Democratic city
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public sessions and “be part
of the conversation about the
issues they feel affect their
lives.”
“I hope that local folks in
Philadelphia will not miss
the moment and will be part
of history during the conven-
tion,” Daughtry said.
Trump seeks $10M from former aide in disclosure case
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Republican
presidential
candidate Donald Trump
is seeking $10 million
in damages from former
senior campaign consultant
Sam Nunberg, alleging that
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information to reporters in
violation of a nondisclosure
agreement.
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by The Associated Press,
Nunberg accused Trump of
trying to silence him “in a
misguided attempt to cover
up media coverage of an
apparent affair” between two
senior campaign staffers.
Such a legal dispute
is highly unusual for a
presidential candidate. It
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aggressively protect the
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inner workings, as he has
for years fought to protect
the secrecy of his businesses
and family.
The AP reported last
month that Trump requires
nearly everyone in his
campaign and businesses
to sign legally binding
nondisclosure agreements
prohibiting them from
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or disparaging information
about the real estate mogul,
his family or his companies.
Trump has also said he
would consider requiring
such agreements in the
White House.
Bruce
Thoma
s
Smith
s
Original Texa
ck
Roadhouse Ro
July 16 @ 8PM
Pendleton Red Lion Inn • 304 SE Nye Ave
Pendleton, Or 541.276.6111
Presented by www.glcproductions.com
By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
—
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unite a splintered Republican
Party around his candidacy
is about to take center stage
in a city that is itself deeply
fractured.
Once
an
industrial
powerhouse,
Cleveland
is one of the poorest and
most segregated big cities
in America. Two out of
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poverty line, second only
to Detroit. Infant mortality
rates in its bleakest neigh-
borhoods are worse than in
some Third World countries.
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east side is almost entirely
black, the slightly more
prosperous west side more
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distrust between the black
community and police, in
part because of police shoot-
ings such as the killing of
12-year-old Tamir Rice and
a U.S. Justice Department
report that found a pattern
of excessive force and civil
rights violations by the
department.
Yet there are also islands
of prosperity, created in part
by a wave of college-ed-
ucated
young
people
moving into downtown
neighborhoods, a trend
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image and helped attract
the Republican National
Convention, which will be
held July 18-21.
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neighborhoods and a city
full of divides,” said John
Grabowski, a local historian.
———
This is the place that in
the 1970s — when the city
was in default and a quarter
of its population was moving
out — embraced the slogan
“Cleveland: You Gotta Be
Tough.”
Tough is a good way to
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side, where blacks from
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jobs and settled during and
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marked by high crime and
abandoned factories. Over
half the children live in
poverty.
Chris
Brown,
a
41-year-old black man and
lifelong Clevelander, admits
he was part of the problem
in his younger days. “I was a
thug, almost. On a highway
going nowhere fast,” he said.
Caught selling drugs,
he went to prison for three
years. Afterward, getting by
was a struggle until he started
“It’s a city full of neighborhoods
and a city full of divides.”
— John Grabowski, local historian
working at a commercial
laundry four years ago.
Funded by civic leaders,
foundations and local insti-
tutions, the laundry is part of
a wider mission to stabilize
east side neighborhoods by
creating jobs. Built inside
a former torpedo factory, it
employs about 40 people,
most of whom have done
time in prison, and operates
as a worker-owned coopera-
tive. The employees can use
their wages to buy a piece of
the company and get a split
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Brown took advantage
of its loan program to buy
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side, where 1 in 5 homes is
vacant. “Where we come
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like that,” Brown said.
Those
behind
the
cooperative, which also
operates a greenhouse and a
renewable-energy business,
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to pervasive unemployment.
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area desperately needing
something positive, said
plant manager Claudia
Oates. “It shows we work,
we believe in work,” she
said.
The convention will
mean more hotel sheets for
the laundry to wash, but
apart from that, Brown said,
the money the event will
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show up where he lives.
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to do with convention,” he
said. “Nobody else I know is
getting a job or money from
the convention.”
———
Downtown is where
delegates will spend their
money at souvenir shops and
sidewalk cafes.
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are moving into renovated
warehouse apartments and
new condominiums. Once a
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home to 14,000 people.
In the two years since the
GOP awarded the conven-
tion, vacant downtown
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with new businesses, and
the Public Square underwent
a $50 million renovation.
Health care and high-tech
jobs are drawing young
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population at about 388,000
after a peak of over 900,000
in the 1950s.
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to sugarcoat it,” said Bill
Mangano, a white man
who bought a downtown
apartment after growing up
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New York or Chicago, but
we can carve out our own
place.”
Peter
Karman,
a
27-year-old white man, left
behind a two-hour commute
in San Diego for a job within
walking distance.
“All of my family and
friends asked, why Cleve-
land?” he said. Here, he said,
he can afford a lifestyle not
possible in California, living
in a downtown warehouse
overlooking the Cuyahoga
River.
———
The crooked river that
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and ‘60s from industrial
pollution sparked an environ-
mental movement resulting
in the federal Clean Water
Act. But in Cleveland it was
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many generations.
Blacks stayed east of the
river and out of the white
neighborhoods to the west,
fearing unwelcome stares
and police harassment.
Kevin Conwell, a black
city councilman, remembers
his parents warning him 40
years ago not to cross certain
streets or risk having the
police haul him back home.
“People my age still tell
kids not to go over there,”
he said. “How do break you
down that gap?”
To this day, many of the
east side neighborhoods are
at least 90 percent black,
according to census data. But
over the past 15 years, more
blacks are moving to areas
once off-limits, creating
neighborhoods that are more
racially diverse yet still poor.
Overall, blacks make up
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residents, whites 37 percent,
Hispanics 10 percent.
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the neighborhoods now,
Conwell said, are companies
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minorities and lenders that
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loans.
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neighborhood apart,” she
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divide.”