CommissionerSam.com - Equality

Will You Be My Valentine? The New Oregon Domestic Partnership Law

The Office — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:12:07 -0800

Portland State University, SMSU 298, 1825 SW Broadway
Thursday, February 14, 2008, Free and open to the public

Student Legal and Mediation Services (SLMS) at Portland State University, in partnership with the Queer Resource Center (QRC), proudly presents "Will You Be My Valentine? The New Oregon Domestic Partnership Law" workshop featuring Attorney Beth A. Allen of Allen2 Law. This event will take place in the SMSU 298 at 1825 SW Broadway, on Thursday, February 14, 2008 from 12:00-1:00pm. This workshop is free of charge and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

Beth A. Allen attended Willamette University College of Law, where she graduated Cum Laude in 1996. She clerked for Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals Mary Deits. She is a partner at Allen² Law, a firm she opened with her sister in January 2006. Beth has been a vocal advocate for gay and lesbian rights for decades, and has won several awards for her involvement in protecting this community. She focuses her practice on adoptions, donor and surrogacy agreements, partnership agreements, and other family law matters of particular importance to the GLBT community. She also represents employees and employers in employment matters.

About SLMS & QRC

SLMS provides confidential and professional assistance to students on a wide range of legal issues. Funded by student fees, these services are available to PSU students who are currently enrolled for 4 or more undergraduate credits or 3 or more graduate credits at PSU. In addition to providing legal advice and mediating disputes for students, it is SLMS's objective to provide legal education of preventive nature. SLMS offers students a large supply of free literature on various legal issues. SLMS also presents workshops on legal issues for student groups or PSU classes.

QRC strives to provide a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning students, staff, faculty and their allies to be, to learn, and to work together. Located in SMSU 401, QRC has a resource hub where individuals can gather information on topics ranging from personal health and safety to local agencies serving the GLBTQ community in the greater Portland Metro area, a lounge where students can hang out, study, and get to know one another, and a library with books on a wide variety of GLBTQ related topics available for checkout.

For more information about "Will You Be My Valentine? The New Oregon Domestic Partnership Law" workshop, please contact JR Tarabocchia at 503-725-4556.

BLOG: Portland can help fight to implement Oregon's domestic partnership law

Sam Adams — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:56:46 -0800

Based on an Idaho federal court decision regarding the rights of initiative petition signers, an out-of-state conservative advocacy group has convinced a federal judge to grant at least a temporary delay Oregon's domestic partners law HB 2007 from going into effect January 2, 2008. The judge scheduled a hearing on February 1, 2008 to consider a permanent injunction of HB 2007.

As reported in Willamette Week, Basic Rights Oregon's Executive Director, Jeana Frazzini, expressed optimism in the face of the judge's ruling: "We know it's going to be an ongoing fight - it's not just one battle or one decision... I feel confident in our community and in our organization that we will prevail. We're going to move forward and we're going to succeed."

We can help.

Oregon's domestic partnership law is a matter of basic fairness to all Portlanders and Oregonians.

I will ask the Portland City Council to authorize the Office of the City Attorney to provide legal help as needed to fight off this out-of-state effort to block implementation of Oregon's domestic partnership law.

Equal Benefits in the Marketplace

Jesse Beason — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:18:51 -0800

It has been a year since City Council approved Sam's proposal to enact an Equal Benefits Ordinance (EBO). The EBO requires that contractors doing work on behalf of the City do all they can to offer equal benefits to their employees with domestic partners and employees with spouses.

How is it working? Well, out of 197 contracts covered by the EBO, 98% were in compliance with only 4 contractors being granted waivers. Moreover, 24 were in "delayed compliance," meaning that 24 employers would be amending their benefits to cover for domestic partners in the coming year.

The success of the first year of the EBO means expanded health coverage, family leave and retirement benefits for many employees' domestic partners, with little to no additional cost to employers.

Related Documents

Purchasing Bureau - Equal Benefits Program

Our blog

Cesar Chavez Boulevard Deserves a Process to Unite Portland

Sam Adams — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:38:15 -0700

Cesar Chavez was an American hero whose life's work yielded important gains for all Americans.

Symbols, such as street names, send important signals about the community's values. And there is no question in my mind that Portland will be a better community when Cesar Chavez is duly honored with a major street renaming.

I support the renaming of a major arterial street for Cesar Chavez in Portland. But I cannot support renaming Interstate Avenue under the current circumstances.

I find the intentions of the committee seeking the name change to be entirely honorable. And I do not fault the advocates for the process that has been used. They have proceeded based on the early advice they got from City Hall. When they asked for my support I initially told them I would offer it. My inital support was based on their presumption of neighborhood support, which turned out to be incorrect.

Tragically, the lack of good Portland process in considering this matter has created a community conversation that has too often devolved into a screaming match. Often punctuated with comments wholly irrelevant to the proposed street renaming, the conversation has occasionally yielded racist epithets that are absolutely inexcusable.

As I said earlier, symbols do matter and very recently we renamed North Portland's Portland Boulevard to honor Rosa Parks. I believe it is unfair to ask North Portland to endure two significant street name changes in less than a year. City leaders need to be sensitive to how much change any one neighborhood can absorb at once.

I reiterate my unequivocal support for renaming a street of community significance, a major arterial, after Cesar Chavez. My fellow city commissioner Randy Leonard and I propose to do just that with a street naming process that will look citywide for the street most appropriate to rename for Cesar Chavez. With a better process, I have every confidence that more Portlanders will rise to the occasion and unite in support of this important opportunity.

See the resolution attached below.

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Cesar E Chavez Street Renaming Resolution Final 10 18 07.txt	3.66 KB

Come to the Come Back Fair!

Daniel Ronan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:15:11 -0700

Portland Public Schools, in collaboration with the Portland Schools Foundation and the alternative educational options are sponsoring a Come Back Fair.

The Come Back Fair is an opportunity for youth that are no longer in school to get back on track and find an educational program that fits their needs.

It's a one-day event (Saturday, September 8), held at Holladay Park, and youth can stop by anytime between 12 pm - 5 pm. The 20+ alternative educational options that PPS provides will be represented, and other service providers will be there as well.

It's like one-stop shopping for youth thinking about dropping back in; they can investigate the different options that are available to them and connect with the programs that best fit their needs.

It'll be a fun event, and the whole family is welcome. Lots of free food will be available.

Jammin' 95.5 will be present along with local youth bands. There will be also be a raffle, with chances to win i-pods, a bike, Nike gear, a $100 Adidas gift certificate, and many other great prizes.

Everything is free and open to the public.

Come to the Come Back Fair and get back on track!

READ ON

Jane Ames — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:39:17 -0700

Schools are starting up, and student energy will begin to focus in from the expansiveness of summer life lessons to the intentional lessons that make up formal education. Many of those lessons involve reading: either learning to read, or learning from reading.

Chalk It Up for Oregon LiteracyA few weeks ago Sam addressed those gathered for the Oregon Literacy event in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Chalk It Up is an event where artists created beautiful works that depicted covers, characters or events of many popular books. The art pieces were sold and the proceeds benefited Oregon Literacy programs. The Chalk It Up website links to the pictures and identifies the artists.

Here are Sam's prepared remarks discussing the importance of reading and the literacy concerns facing many people in Oregon. Right now, 2 in 5 Oregonians struggle to read in their daily lives. No one is too young or too old to start learning to read. For an infant, the lessons begin by watching how a book is held and listening to the rhythm of written words. For adults beginning to read, the encouragement and respect of those around one as they step up to the challenge is very important.

Enjoy your last days of summer and cozy into fall with some good reading. Celebrate your ability to read and remember to reach out and encourage those who still need to learn this set of valuable skills.

Oregon Literacy exists because: knowledge empowers, and literacy should be a right for all.

An Organization in Need

Daniel Ronan — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:27:45 -0700

Community Warehouse is a non-profit organization that gives donated household items and furniture, for free, to low-income individuals and families recovering from crisis. Over 3,000 households are served each year in the Portland area.

The items received by Community Warehouse are direct donations given by individuals from the Portland area community... like yourselves!

Silverware is always in need.Among the household items currently needed by Community Warehouse include: pots and pans, silverware, cooking utensils, casserole and baking dishes, toasters, coffee makers, mixers, alarm clocks, blankets, twin size bed sheets and full size bed sheets.

Twin sheets and washcloths are especially needed at this point in time. Your continued support for families in need is important to our region's livability and economic future and is highly valued.

Community Warehouse is open Monday through Friday 9-5, and on Saturday 10-4 to receive donations at 2267 N. Interstate. It is possible to schedule a pick up with Community Warehouse for larger household items and furniture. You can reach them at 503-235-8786 to schedule a time for pickup.

CASH Oregon has a Successful Tax Season

Jane Ames — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:30:26 -0700

With support from the City of Portland, CASH Oregon (Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope) completed a successful tax season, assisting over 1500 taxpayers at its free Tax Aide site in the Lloyd Center Mall. This year, CASH connected working families in Portland to over $440,000 in Earned Income Tax Credits and over $1 million in federal tax refunds. And, with the help of dedicated volunteer tax preparers, CASH saved working families over $330,000 in tax preparation fees.

Yet, CASH connected taxpayers to more than just tax credits and refunds; it also connected taxpayers to the Portland Clean River Rewards program. All taxpayers coming to CASH Oregon's Lloyd Center office received information about the program and were able to talk a representative from the Clean River Rewards, who signed up eligible customers for the program as they waited to have their taxes prepared. Taxpayers who did not qualify for assistance were encouraged to spread the word about the discount. The CASH Oregon tax office provides a convenient and comfortable platform for working families in Portland to access the City discount program.

As a result of the City's partnership with CASH Oregon, many Portland taxpayers left the Lloyd Center Mall tax site with extra money to spend on their families or save for the future. In some households, refunds and water bill savings provided the resources necessary to satisfy immediate financial needs, such as paying bills or purchasing children's clothing. In other households, however, the returns provided the resources necessary to plan a solid financial future. As the relationship between the City of Portland and CASH Oregon continues to grow, the future financial stability of working families in Portland looks bright.

Put your non-perishables in the mail this Saturday

Michael Oakes — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:35:03 -0700

Send your food Saturday!This Saturday presents one of the easiest and most effective ways to help combat hunger: Simply put your non-perishable food items in a bag out with the mail and let your letter carrier take care of the rest.

Participate in the 15th annual National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive, the largest one-day food donation in the country. Carriers and volunteers will collect food in more than 10,000 communities in all 50 states and deliver to food banks, pantries and shelters in the communities where the donations are collected. All food donated in Oregon benefits the Oregon Food Bank Network.

Last year carriers netted 70.5 million pounds of food, the third consecutive year they've collected more than 70 million pounds. Since 1993, the drive has collected more than 765.5 million pounds of food to help hungry families.

Non-perishable foods might include canned meat, fish and soup, and boxed cereal, pasta and rice, among other items.

Noise ...Mosh Pit Return to City Hall

Greg Leiher — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:25:10 -0700

Wednesday night April 18th Commissioner Sam ramped up the decibel level at City Hall when he hosted the Metro area Gay Straight Alliances for their Night of Noise in the south atrium. ... And the event lived up to its name! .... Fueled by the spirited "Monster-Sized Monsters," the assembled youth reached a high-octane level shortly after Sam's welcome and maintained its energy for the rest of the evening. "Hurrah Hurrah" added to the momentum with intermittent (but supervised) mosh pit action. ....

The Night followed the national Day of Silence which aims to bring attention to anti-gay bullying, harassment and discrmination in schools. Participating students and their allies are quiet all day to protest their being silenced by an atmosphere of discrimination that does not allow them to be who they are. .... A project of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), the Day of Silence is in its 11th year and is one of the largest student-led actions in the country.

Some things we know from GLSEN's National School Climate Survey in 2005 should not surprise us, but should be highlighted:

75% of students in public schools report regularly hearing homophobic remarks in their schools.
only 16.5% reported that teachers or staff intervened when they heard this language.
furthermore, 18.6% of students report hearing homophobic remarks from teachers or staff themselves.
74.2% of students felt unsafe at school (29% actually reported missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety).
and 37.8% reported being physically harassed.

The good news is that .... the Portland Metro GSA Network estimates that there are about 40 GSA's in the Metro area .... and that many of these choose to participate in the Day of Silence, even when they encounter resistance or protest. .... There is also a Statewide GSA Network that helps bring youth together who are working toward change in their schools. .... Youth has taken on new leadership roles including helping make the Night of Noise happen. .... We have also seen the reviving of GSA groups throughout the area, such as Jefferson High School and soon Mollala High School. .... GSA youth have sold over 1,000 bracelets from the Matthew Shepard Foundation as part of a campaign called "Erase Hate."

So, what this says is that, while progress is being made, we should not rest until all students feel safe at school from anti-LGBTQ harassment and discrimination ... and until teachers and staff support this effort overwhelmingly. .... While this past Monday's shooting massacre at Virginia Tech underlines how difficult it is to guarantee school security in an open society, we can at least strive to eliminate anti-gay bias and discrimination from our school communities.

Updated: Commissioner Adams & Eddie v. The State of Oregon

Jesse Beason — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:04:05 -0800

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Oregonian Editorial: Gay Breaking up is harder to do.	17.22 KB
Portland Mercury: Adams v. Oregon City Commish Sues for Equality	288.06 KB
Willamette Week: Splitting Headache	82.75 KB

OREGONIAN: Jettisoning justice for janitors

Warren Jimenez — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:03:36 -0800

Jettisoning justice for janitors
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Oregonian

By Steve Duin

E lvira Munoz is, I'm afraid, all too typical of the men and women who clean up after you at the Rose Garden and Memorial Coliseum.

She's paid Oregon's minimum wage of $7.80 an hour, although she is rarely told how many hours she'll be working until she arrives at the Rose Quarter aboard MAX after the ride in from her basement "apartment" in Gresham.

Because she is only a part-time worker, Munoz, 32, receives no health insurance through her employer, ServiceMaster of Swan Island. She receives no sick pay -- when she suffered a severe ankle sprain in the Coliseum two weeks ago, she says, there wasn't even a first-aid kit on the premises -- no holiday pay, and four exhilarating hours of vacation time for each year of service.

What's wrong with this picture? At least three things, off the top of my head:

Memorial Coliseum is still a city-owned property, and I was under the illusion that Portland's City Council resolved in 2001 that seasonal workers who labor at PGE Park, or on other city turf, deserve a "living wage."

ServiceMaster claims on its Web site, "We are accountable to honor God in all we do." The Web site continues, "Faithful adherence to a strong moral and ethical ideal should guide all aspects of a company's operation," an ideal that serves as "a constant reminder for us to do the right thing in the right way."

And the salary and benefits of Elvira Munoz qualify?

Last summer, ServiceMaster of Swan Island agreed to pay $84,125 to settle a class-action lawsuit that argued the company violated state overtime and minimum wage issues.

Yet Portland Arena Management, which owns the Rose Garden, still recontracted with ServiceMaster for janitorial services, despite pleas by Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner and city Commissioner Sam Adams to select a company that offered a living wage and affordable benefits.

Adams is still hammering on Global Spectrum, which manages the complex for PAM (and which didn't return phone calls). "There aren't that many (janitors) and they're not asking for a lot," Adams said. "Global Spectrum is part of this huge business empire. Last time I checked, they were very profitable. They have the money. They just don't have the moral backbone to do it."

When the operators at PGE Park were similarly disposed, the city stepped in to make up the difference between the "market rate" for these services and the hourly fair-wage (now $10.57) amount. That wage supplement cost the city $112,000 in 2006, said David Logsdon, the city's spectator facilities manager.

However, Logsdon said, PAM's contract at the Rose Quarter "predates Council's initiation of the fair-wages program." As a result, he added, "We don't have the ability to intervene in the marketplace and say we want higher wages because we're not paying for them."

Both Adams and Commissioner Erik Sten are eager to change that. "It's against city policy to win the contract when the savings are on the back of the workers," Sten said.

Adams has been involved for 18 months in "Justice for Janitor" issues because justice is so slow in coming, not only at the Rose Quarter but in major office buildings downtown.

On Tuesday, SEIU Local 49 will file an unfair labor practices complaint against ServiceMaster Swan Island for dismantling the janitors' pension, benefits and negotiated wage scale at the Union Bank of California in Portland. Out of sympathy for that complaint, janitors at the Rose Quarter are considering a walk-out and strike, said SEIU's Maggie Long.

Should that walk-out occur, Elvira Munoz, suspended between crutches, will limp along, proceeding with a sense of moral purpose that should -- but won't -- embarrass her employer.

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 steveduin@news.oregonian.com http://steveduin.blogs.oregonlive.com

New City Law: City Contractors Must Equalize Benefits for Greater Family Equality

Jesse Beason — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:48:39 -0800

As stated in our city laws, "The City of Portland has a compelling governmental interest in prohibiting discrimination in programs, activities, services, benefits and employment whether carried out by the City itself or through a contractor with whom the City arranges to carry out its programs and activities."

In April, City Council approved Sam's proposal to add a level of accountability to this policy by enacting an Equal Benefits Ordinance (EBO). The EBO requires that contractors doing work on behalf of the City do all they can to offer equal benefits to their employees with domestic partners and employees with spouses.

What does this mean? If a contractor chooses to do business on behalf of the city and they choose to offer benefits to their employees with spouses, they must extend that offer equally to employees with domestic partners.

Adding domestic partner coverage to benefit policies is relatively simple. However, when we began talking to small businesses about the proposal, many of them responded that while they would love to offer equal benefits, health coverage for domestic partners wasn't widely available for companies their size.

So, in a larger win for equal treatment throughout Oregon, we received commitments from each of the eight largest health insurers in Oregon to add or continue domestic partner coverage for small businesses.

Related Documents

City Code - Non-Discrimination in Contracting (EBO)
City Contracting Requirements (including EEO Certification)
City Code - Equal Opportunity
City Code - Civil Rights
Purchasing Bureau - Equal Benefits Program

Media Mentions

"Friends with Benefits," Portland Mercury, March 23
"Town Hall Debates Equal Benefits," Just Out, April 7
"City should extend its equal benefits law," The Oregonian Opinion, April 10
"Benefits measure up for review by council," The Oregonian, April11
"Extended benefits get tentative pass," The Oregonian, April 13
"Power of purse buys equality for families," The Oregonian Editorial, April 17
"The Little Ordinance that Could," The Portland Mercury, April 20

Our blog

Portland Observer: A Decade of Change on Alberta

Jesse Beason — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:17:30 -0800

By Bobby Burk/For The Portland Observer

Political power comes with King, but displacement comes with gentrification

Looking less like the "Soul of the City" and more like the suburbs, it's easy to see that northeast Portland is undergoing a radical transformation. The changes come with a population that is less black and with more money. And nowhere is all of this more evident than in the Alberta Arts District.

The cozy streets of Alberta show a vibrancy and vigor that comes with people wanting to live, commune and flourish, not just reside. A variety of local coffee shops, art galleries, restaurants and other unique businesses have blossomed and multiplied, causing one to realize that Alberta is a destination for the city at large.The neighborhood has shed its "bullet zone" image from years of gang problems with the "rat-a-tat-tat" of drive-by shootings.

Beka Amblin, mother and small business owner, was lured to Alberta in 1992 by real estate prices she could afford while working as a bar maid. She faced a tough decision; either purchase a tiny house in the already trendy and expensive area of Laurelhurst or have a choice of a larger home in an economically-challenged neighborhood. Her northeast Portland castle turned out to be four stories and five bedrooms worth of cheapness.

"When we first moved here they wouldn't deliver pizza to our house," said Amblin, "we had to meet them at the Safeway because the pizza guy said we were a liability issue to come the extra 14 blocks."

Thirteen years later, Amblin owns a second home as well as a business in the heart of Northeast, her journey to prosperity paralleling that of the area.

For many though, and especially for the black community, the story of progress has not come without disruptions. Many people of color are left scratching their heads, troubled that a black community with deep roots in the Northeast is shrinking.

"We are witnessing what is essentially the deconstruction of what used to be Portland's black community," said Darrell Millner, Professor of Black History at Portland State University, who believes that a generational backlog of economic and racial factors have caused many to relocate to areas like Gresham, Hillsboro and Washington County.

To understand how Alberta lost its distinction as a mostly black community, one has to look back to a time when the true soul of the northeast was established amidst turmoil and strife.

As America moved into World War II, a wartime manufacturing industry blossomed in Portland and fell almost entirely into the hands of whites-only labor unions. These wartime laborers left many manual labor jobs vacant, and so black people were welcomed into Oregon from areas like Louisiana, Georgia and other areas in the South to fill these gaps in the labor market. The jobs were physically debilitating and paid very little, making it difficult to achieve economic prosperity.

A prime example of the challenges people of color were facing at the time can be seen in arenas like housing, where, according to Millner, decisions about where blacks could buy homes, what kind of homes they could live in and how they could pay for and finance those homes were made by politicians and financial institutions.

Local African Americans were often turned down for mortgages simply because they were black. Landless and near penniless, many of these hearty black pioneers were forced into segregated neighborhoods that were less expensive.

Political power to mostly black communities rose with Dr. Martin Luther King and the modern Civil Rights movement. But the task went far beyond simply telling the white world that black people were equal, King had to convince his own people that they were equal. In areas of the country that had been embroiled in centuries of racism, it was a difficult message.

Cal Henry is president of the Oregon Assembly of Black Affairs, a group committed to improving the status of African Americans in Oregon.

"Blacks have to recognize they are citizens and demand that their citizens rights are recognized," said Henry. "When black people don't see other black people get up and address these issues (lack of education, racism and poverty), they are reluctant to step up and address these concerns themselves."

The dawn of the 1990s added another factor to the mix as a generation of bold, suburbanite Americans began to infiltrate areas of north and northeast Portland despite the violence and gangs. As one of few places close to the city that remained affordable, the influx of people included many former California residents.

Although racism contributed to and still clouds issues of economic justice, the attitude of most non-black people buying homes in the northeast seemed to be simply about money and affordability. Few said they wanted to live in multicultural neighborhoods.

Once outsiders decided Alberta was a hip place to live, property values began to climb and the crime rate went down. At the same time, a black population that had accumulated little or no generational wealth saw the rising property values and decided to sell out for what they believed was a substantial amount of money. Others were forced out when landlords sold properties or rents exploded.

Reggie Brown, 40, was born and raised in northeast Portland. He owns property and a small business, and while the area has definitely improved while he's been here, he's sorry it's coming at the expense of his brothers and sisters who have not achieved prosperity in the ways of the financial world.

"The community is definitely getting better, rebuilding, new lights and roads and bicycle paths all through here," said Brown. "But the only reason that is, is because property values dropped down so far that many of the blacks sold out for a chunk of change, only to realize later they were sitting on a gold mine."

It seems that many people in the black community, in the 90's as well as today, are being left behind, unable to keep up in a changing economic climate and unable to make the changes that would allow the community as a whole to thrive.

Robert Williams, 60, moved from Beaverton to the northeast in 1973; he is a last man standing of sorts. He guessed that when he moved here the area was 95 percent black and that now there are only five black people left within two city blocks of where he lives, which he doesn't mind at all.

The neighborhood kids call him Uncle Ed, he and his neighbors take care of each other when need be, sharing meaningful things like eggs, milk, sugar and gardening tips. As a lone black man surrounded by a largely white community, he has found his home amidst friendship and caring, something that has not always been there for him.

"Please understand what I'm saying," said Williams, "I feel safer with a bunch of white people living around me than a bunch of black people living around me for the simple fact that black people would say "it's none of my damn business." So if someone's kicking in my front door, and they can see it happening, they're saying "well I don't give a damn. Hell, it ain't me. It ain't mine.""

It's a mindset produced of the roots of racism and isolation from community.

Brown, 40, born and raised in the northeast, echoes Williams in what he sees is a failure, from one generation of black Americans to the next, to take an interest in the lives of the people around them.

He said the youth in the community today are struggling and looking for guidance, for someone to take notice.

"We need some of the older folks to reach down and help some of these young black folks to come up," said Brown. "Folks who know how to buy their homes need to show kids how to get started. Kids that are having children at an early age need to get together with a grandparent to figure out how to raise their kid. It used to be yes ma'm, no ma'm, you know? But that was the old days. The respect just isn't there like it used to be and we're cut-throating our own, like crabs in bucket."

Cal Henry and the OABA see a serious falling short of education standards at schools with heavy minority concentrations in the northeast compared to schools that are less diversified. Poor education in turn leads to not having jobs, which results in lack of money and a need to survive instead of thrive.

Fortunately, there are groups stepping in to make a difference. Self Enhancement, Inc. is a bright light in the northeast. SEI is dedicated to changing the future of the youth of north and northeast Portland by providing educational mentoring for ages 8-25, a charter school, after school activities and tutoring.

SEI targets schools and neighborhoods that are underserved and provides kids with options for the future. 95 percent of kids in the program graduate from high school and 83 percent go on to college.

When Beka Amblin bought her house in the early 90s, she did it as a poor person and believes that despite race, anyone who had the vision could have done the same at that time.

Rosalyn Hill, who could not be contacted for this article, is a black woman and a fixture in the Alberta and northeast community who owns several properties, a successful woman by any means who began with a coffee shop and a vision of what the "bullet zone" would one day become.

Today, nobody denies that changes in the northeast community have brought an exodus of black residents. Future economic prosperity and economic justice issues will determine if that trend continues and if the northeast can go on calling itself the "Soul of the City."

Read the full story here.

Magazine: What happened to black San Francisco?

Jesse Beason — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 08:37:02 -0700

From San Francsco Magazine:

Once home to the famous Fillmore and a thriving black middle class, San Francisco has suffered the steepest drop in African American population of any major U.S. city-and no longer has enough black residents to fill the seats in Monster Park. As their progeny disperses, the matriarchs and patriarchs of prominent families fight on in a traumatized Bayview, the last black community in what's supposed to be one of the greatest cities on earth...[Read the full article]

Also, recently in The Washington Post:

In Parts of U.S. Northwest, a Changing Face:
Economics Drive White Gentrification of Core Black Neighborhoods of Seattle and Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Already the whitest major city in America, Portland is rapidly becoming even whiter at its core.

"The heart of the black community is gone," said Charles Ford, 76, a black activist whose neighborhood in Portland has flipped in recent years from majority black to majority white. "There ain't no center anymore."

Charles Ford, a longtime resident of Portland, Ore., talks with new neighbor Tara Heiggelke. Gentrification is altering neighborhood demographics.

About 150 miles north in Seattle, the nation's second-whitest major city, the same process of downtown demographic bleaching is accelerating for the same reasons...[Read the full article]

Thoughts?