Setting new sights on the city: Steve Novick returns to the campaign trail

By Stacy Brownhill, Staff Writer

Steve Novick, the currenlty uncontested candidate for Randy Leonard’s spot on Portland City Council, has plenty of novel ideas for a City Council facing more change than it’s seen in decades. With Mayor Sam Adams and Leonard leaving, and Commissioner Amanda Fritz facing a tough contest, as many as three of the five Council seats could change next year.

New Jersey-born and Oregon-raised, Novick graduated from University of Oregon at 18 and Harvard Law School at age 21 before launching prolific careers as an environmental lawyer, nonprofit director and community advocate. In 1998, Novick was chief of staff for the Oregon Senate Democrats, and has since eyed positions at city, county, state and federal levels, most notably running a close race for the Senate in 2008. The “fighter with the hard left hook,” a pun addressing his left hand hook prosthesis, currently works for the Oregon Health Authority.

Novick received the endorsement of Gov. John Kitzhaber last week, and has raised more than $100,000 in the mere 52 days since his campaign announcement (in contrast, state Rep. Mary Nolan, Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s opponent, has reported less than half of that amount). Street Roots grabbed coffee and kebabs with Novick this week, and picked his brain on everything from his ideas for health care and public safety to his distaste for gentrification.

Stacy Brownhill: The Portland Housing Bureau Director, Margaret Van Vliet, is moving to lead the state housing agency. In her interview with Street Roots, she talked about the need for housing to be “front and center,” so that when we’re talking about jobs or health or community issues, we’re talking about housing problems that underlie those other things. What are your ideas for creating affordable housing in Portland?

Steve Novick: Creating affordable housing is hard. Rent control and inclusionary zoning are ways to create affordable housing but are against state law, as I understand it. We have the low-income housing tax credit program, which ensures some affordable housing.

Urban renewal is a problematic tool for affordable housing because only 15 percent of the city can be an urban renewal district at any given time, and the districts tend to last awhile. So most people will never live in an urban renewal district.

One question the council has to consider going forward is: Have we done urban renewal in a way that’s made previously affordable housing unaffordable through gentrification? We have to be really careful that we’re not just creating more neighborhoods for rich white people to live in.

I was not aware until recently that we spend $106 million per year of property taxes on urban renewal — that’s like 24 cents of every tax dollar.

To some extent, the city of Portland over the past 20 years has been blinded by cuteness. We keep thinking if we build more cute neighborhoods then that’s an economic development strategy. But we’ve got cute neighborhoods coming out of our ears and we’re still lagging behind comparable cities, like Seattle and Denver, in terms of income and jobs. So I would be very hesitant about where we put more urban renewal money.

Also, offering better jobs is a way of making housing more affordable. If we had a stronger economy, more people would be able to afford housing because they would be making more money.

SR vendor Leo Rhodes: Understanding the question ‘why’ without an answer

Years ago, an organizer came to me. He told me he would like to send me to Western States Center, Community Strategic Training Initiative (CSTI). CSTI is where they train you on different strategies of organizing.

Michael Woo, the organizer that was working with Labor, Employment, and Law, said he would pay for everything, the workshops, the meals, the transportation. “I know you’ll benefit from this.”

I told him I was too busy. I was fighting for indoor shelters, tent cities, Chief Seattle Club, health care for the homeless, homeless people’s rights, and the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, just to name a few.

A month later, he came back with the same proposal. I was tired and needed a break so I went. I signed up for Fundraising and Power Analysis.

When I got to Reed College where they have the workshops, the energy, the enthusiasm was like, “wow!” It was what I needed.

The vets came to town: An immersion into the anti-war movement at the Veterans for Peace National Conference

By Martha Gies, Contributing Writer

There was not much promise in the week beginning August 1. On Tuesday, following the Congressional battle over the debt ceiling, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, and one day later national debt surpassed 100 percent of gross domestic product for the first time since World War II.

On that same day, Wednesday, August 3, Nick Turse posted to Tomdispatch.com an article about the clandestine reach of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), now metastasized to 120 countries, where special op teams from all branches of the military carry out “assassinations, counterterrorist raids, long-range reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and weapons of mass destruction counter-proliferation operations.” And while Turse’s chilling exposé was probably seen only by lefties – it went to Huffington Post, Common Dreams and Counterpunch within a day – by Saturday the New York Times had published a long and thoughtful piece by Drew Westen about the demise of our hope in Obama (“…the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise.”) that quickly became one of the most widely e-mailed of the year.

What a week! As some of us clicked frantically through websites looking for the elusive good news, others went outdoors into the novel Oregon sunshine, where news might never reach at all.

But then, on August 3, the vets came to town.

At Portland State University’s historic Lincoln Hall, 400 veterans convened for an annual national convention to talk about peace and to scheme, on several simultaneous fronts; to wage it even in the face of a war machine so lucrative that even Eisenhower might gasp.

Hope, in the form of resilience, resistance and nonviolent revolution, was brewing in our midst.

To abolish war, that’s the mission of Veterans for Peace (VFP), explains Daniel Shea, a Portland veteran of Vietnam who serves on the national board. “Some members are pacifists,” he adds, “but I don’t count myself as a pacifist because I do believe in self-defense. If somebody were occupying our country, I’d join in the fight. But that would be the only time.”

Shea, along with other members of local VFP Chapter 72, spent months planning the convention, which Portland hosted for the first time. Vets arrived from across the country for five days of film, music, tabling and book sales, speeches and a business meeting at which 16 resolutions, on issues from depleted uranium to Palestine to toxic chemical dumping in South Korea required their vote. Shea, an artist with a day job at the Oregon Symphony, personally curated an exhibit at the Littman Gallery called The Tenacity of Hope.

On Thursday, day two of the convention, the workshops begin and the corridors of Lincoln Hall are loud with talk and laughter as vets, WW II to Iraq, high five, hug and try to figure out where each of the nine offerings will be held in that first time slot. Back-to-back presentations include two on PTSD (encounters with the criminal justice system and transformational healing), drone payloads that target civilians, helping GIs who want out of the military, and a teach-in on the basics of organizing behind VFP’s new campaign: How is the War Economy Working for You? 

Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War

By Thomas Vincent, Contributing Writer

After reading a few chapters of “Washington Rules,” it might seem mystifying why its author is not more of a rising star in Washington politics. Andrew Bacevich is so knowledgeable about his topic — history and political science — so analytically solid in his reasoning and so articulate, it seems a wonder that he has not been tapped by some administration or other to serve as a foreign policy advisor or even an assistant cabinet official. After finishing the book, however, the mystery resolves itself. The reason Bacevich remains a lowly college professor is because he persists in exposing troublesome, inconvenient facts that few in Washington even want to acknowledge, much less discuss seriously.

At 20, Potluck in the Park feeds an ever-growing need

By Israel Bayer, Staff Writer

Potluck in the Park, the all-volunteer organization, is turning 20 years old this month. Street Roots had the chance to talk to longtime political and civic activist David Utzinger, who has been with the organization nearly all of that time. The organization works to nourish and enrich the lives of individuals in need by providing nutritious meals every Sunday in downtown Portland. This year alone the organization has provided 12,726 healthy meals.

Israel Bayer: Potluck in the Park is turning 20 years old this month. Looking back what are some of the highlights you have seen with the organization and the people it serves?

David Utzinger: Potluck struggled in early years with how to stay small and grassroots. More recently has been the realization that to serve a growing guest list we needed to increase our food sources and get our own kitchen. We joined Birch Gleaners and the Oregon Food Bank in 2008 and began cooking in leased kitchen space in 2009. The result has been good quality and more nutritional food.

Oregon Senator Merkley “pessimistic” after returning from Afghanistan

by Joanne Zuhl

Eighteen months since his first visit to Afghanistan, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley returned home yesterday from the war-torn region, with little in the way of optimism on how the transition efforts are progressing.

Merkley spoke with reporters earlier this afternoon about the three-day trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, expressing dismay over progress with infrastructure and economic improvements, despite a renewed focus on transitioning the military out of that theater.

“I was extremely pessimistic after my first visit 18 months ago,” Merkley said. “It was that last visit that convinced me that the national building mission is off the mark.”

Biggest labor struggle in years dismissed by major media

By Michael Munk, Contributing Writer

Background: Four months ago, contract talks between the ILWU and EGT broke down, making the Longview site the only grain terminal on the West Coast not operated by the ILWU. The union says its contract with the Port of Longview requires EGT to hire the ILWU Local 21 labor for the terminal.

EGT attorneys sued the port in federal court in January, saying the company is not bound by the port’s contract. A trial is scheduled for next year.

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 and allies demonstrate outside the EGT Development headquarters in Portland after the company refused to honor the union’s contract with the Port of Longview.

Help make Street Roots strong this summer!

Dear Street Roots supporters,

Volunteer Kaisa McCrow writes, “Street Roots motto is ‘for those who can’t afford free speech.’ The content and investigative journalism in the paper provides stories regarding marginalized communities, inequality, systemic abuses, addiction, etc. It brings clarity to political wranglings over budgets and often complex systems that are difficult for people to understand. The newspaper asks what the need is, and works to provide solutions for the general pubic, policy makers, and the non-profit community. Street Roots is also a platform for individuals to publish their voices through poems, editorials, and opinions. It connects the Portland community with each picture, heartfelt poem, and customized cartoon. If the investigative journalism of the paper uncovers the way people are being marginalized, the personal side of the paper reminds us that we are all human and together share in these experiences.”

But Street Roots takes it a step further. With our ear always to the ground, we’re listening to the problems and helping to forge solutions.

“Street Roots is playing a catalytic role in affordable housing policy at the city level. They have stepped into the leadership role and are bringing new voices, new partners, new energy and new ideas together in really exciting ways,” says Janet Byrd with Neighborhood Partnerships.

Real news from the streets

Some of those ideas have included groundbreaking reporting about healthcare and the homeless, specifically on traumatic injuries, post traumatic stress disorder, deaths on the streets, harm reduction models and mental health. The newspaper highlights important news stories with new and emerging ideas, ranging from the LBTQ and minority communities to immigrants and to veterans returning from foreign wars. We have taken on important legislative matters locally, in Salem, and around the United States.

With your help, we will continue to work towards using media to seek a future of both equality and justice for all — something we share as a collective responsibility in a healthy society.

Please give a one-time or recurring donation today!

or write 211 NW Davis, Portland, OR. 97209

Thank you for your consideration and support!

Sincerely,

Israel Bayer

Executive Director

Street Roots

Mission: Street Roots creates income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and poverty by publishing a newspaper that is a catalyst for individual and social change.

Update on state’s rejection of fair housing complaint

By Joanne Zuhl

The Portland Housing Bureau says it stands by its Fair Housing Action plan, even as the credibility of the fair housing survey fanned its creation it has been cast into doubt.

“We’re very concerned,” says Margaret Van Vliet, talking about the state’s critical review of the Fair Housing Council of Oregon’s handling of a series of tests in Portland.

“I hope it doesn’t cause anyone to believe that there isn’t actually a problem (with discrimination),” Van Vliet said. “I know that there’s a big problem out there and I don’t want that undermined by this.”

Today, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries announced it has dismissed the only complaint by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon resulting from last year’s audit of fair housing practices in Portland. BOLI released the decision today after a contentious give and take with FHCO over the testing methodology that ultimately implicated Cascade Community Management in treating potential renters differently based on their national origin.

BOLI, the statewide agency that enforces housing law and civil rights, said the testing in the report “does not rise to a level sufficient for serious consideration of a Commissioner’s complaint.”

In February, the FHCO presented the city with its results of 50 housing tests: Out of those 50 tests, the Fair Housing Council reported finding discrimination based on race or national origin in more than 32. Among the disparities in treatment were African-Americans and Latinos being told higher movie-in costs and higher rent, and additional costs that were not applied to white applicants.

When it was disclosed in April, the audit caused a fury among housing advocates and critics alike. Fish came under attack for not releasing publicly the results and the targets of the audit sooner, and for appearing lax on enforcement against the alleged offenders. The results of the survey were turned over to BOLI for further investigation and to determine if they were substantial enough to proceed with a legal case.

By then, the Oregon Senate Republicans had jumped into the fray with a letter to Attorney General John Kroger and Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian calling for more aggressive investigating and prosecuting violations of fair housing laws. Avakian fired back, defending the work of BOLI and FHCO.

Breaking News: State rejects Fair Housing Council’s complaint

Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries has dismissed the only complaint by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon against a Portland landlord accused of discriminating against tenants, following a high profile audit that sent the city into a furor over fair housing practices.

BOLI released the decision today after a contentious give and take between BOLI and the FHCO over the testing methodology and implicated Cascade Community Management in discriminating based on race and national origin.

BOLI, the statewide agency that enforces housing law and related civil rights, said the testing in the report “does not rise to a level sufficient for serious consideration of a Commissioner’s complaint.”

The city contracted with the Fair Housing Council last summer to audit fair housing practices among local landlords. It was the first of such audits for the city, which would use the results as part of the federally mandated “analysis to impediments” process in order to receive federal housing funds.

The results, completed in February, were jarring: Out of 50 tests, the Fair Housing Council reported finding discrimination based on race or nation of origin in more than 60 percent of the tests. Among the disparities in treatment were African-Americans and Latinos being told higher movie-in costs and higher rent, and additional costs that were not applied to white applicants. The results of the survey were turned over to BOLI for further investigation.

However, in its summary evaluation of the tests, BOLI sharply criticized FHCO’s practices, in one case stating: “Given the fact that the testers spoke to different agents on different days, with no clear indication that the rents referenced were for the same or qualitatively similar units, it does not appear reasonable to conclude that the discrepancy in the entries on FHCO’s cover sheets should be attributed to discrimination based upon a protected class.”

More on this to follow.

Posted by Joanne Zuhl

Living in gangland: Former gang member turned educator talks about the globalization of a violent culture

By Jake Thomas, Staff Writer

Luis Rodriguez joined an East Los Angeles street gang when he was just 11 years old. After living a tumultuous life that involved numerous arrests, drug use and a stint being homeless, which he documents in his memoir “Always Running:  La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.,” he turned away from the violent life, becoming a respected activist and community leader. He also began working as a journalist for various newspapers in California and became the editor of the People’s Tribune, a radical newspaper that covered labor issues, homelessness and the arts.

The highly praised author of both poetry and nonfiction is an outspoken critic of more conventional lock-’em-all-up approaches to combating gangs, which Rodriguez says are shortsighted and make the problem worse. Rodriguez says that we are in an age of gang globalization that is being driven by policies in the U.S.

In recent years, Portland has seen an uptick in gang violence, including a rash of shootings. All of which has community leaders and city officials stepping up actions to respond to the public outry. Rodriguez weighs in on some of the approaches being advocated in response, what drives kids to join gangs, and how far it’s gone beyond the kids in the hood.

Jake Thomas: How have gangs changed in the past 20 years. Who is joining them today?

Luis Rodriguez: It used to be more about protection, but now it’s more about drugs and money. The vast majority of kids who join gangs — that vast majority — are not violent. Most of them aren’t even criminally involved. They join gangs for reasons that have to do with fitting in. They think they’ll get respect. Some of them will get in trouble, but they’re not really gangsters.

But the hardcore part of the gang — it’s hard to say what that is, maybe 10 percent — that hardcore group drives most of the violence. They’re the ones that go in and out of the prison system. The prison system trains them to be better at it. Better gangsters, better shot-callers. The prison system is like the school for the advanced gang leaders, so what’s happening is because we have such a great proliferation of prisons in this country, you’re getting a greater proliferation of hardcore gang members entering communities, schools and neighborhoods where kids would join gangs but not necessarily be hardcore. But with hardcore gang members among them, a lot more tends to happen.

Extra! Extra!

Not a drop in the sky, which makes for perfect outdoor reading! The only thing that could perk it up this weekend would be a fresh edition of Street Roots, warm and waiting in the capable hands of your friendly neighborhood vendor come Friday morning. Here’s what’s rolling on the press right now:

Lost — in a moment: A traumatic brain injury on the job in Iraq turned journalist Bob Woodruff into an advocate for veterans experiencing homeless. An interview with Woodruff about his personal experience and how the work he does not to raise awareness of the plight of veterans.

Setting new sights on the city: An interview with City Council candidate Steve Novick on the state of Portland, it’s obsession with being cute, and the real work at hand.

But then the vets came to town: Portland author Martha Gies writes about her time at the Veterans For Peace National Conference, held last weekend here in Portland. The conference brought together more than 400 veterans for four days of engaging workshops and discussions about achieving real peace in the face of the military machine.

Hands on — from the heart: The Downtown Chapel prepares to exhibit a mural by their guests to display in the First Thursday art tour.

Plus, commentary from Portland author Michael Munk on the Longview labor dispute, a column by SR vendor Leo Rhodes, scenes from a demonstration and assorted news you can really use! Thank you, and as always, let us know what you think. Letters are always welcome at streetrootsnews@gmail.com, or drop a line via our blog, www.streetroots.wordpress.com, where you can catch up on our past editions.

Photographer David Burnett talks about exchanging views with street paper vendors

 

David Burnett with Photographers For Hope

By Richard Flynn
Street News Service

In July, the legendary photographer David Burnett and his team worked with homeless vendors from Street Roots’ sister paper The Big Issue in Scotland to help them capture their daily lives in photographs and film. This unique workshop culminated in a photo exhibition launched at the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow.

“I was just a kid, wandering my way through, figuring things out,” remembers David Burnett of his first job: an internship at Time magazine. “It was a hell of a lot of fun. I was not a great photographer, but I got a little better while I was there. You don’t have to be the star the first week you’re taking pictures. You just have to work hard and get to the point you’re putting everything you’ve got into your pictures. It’s not like a chemistry class where you can learn it; you just have to feel it. That takes a little while to get in touch with.”

Burnett has been putting everything into his pictures for more than 40 years. The world-renowned snapper has worked in more than 80 countries; captured revolutions in Iran and Chile; borne witness to famine in Ethiopia; covered every U.S. presidential election since 1976 and every Olympic Games since 1984. Starting his own New York agency in the mid-70s, Burnett has forged his own way of working on magazine assignments, keen to experiment wherever possible and unhampered by the demands of working for a wire service or daily newspapers.

Vendors at Street Roots sister paper in Scotland put their lives on display

Self-portrait of Joan in front of her mirror. Joan became homeless after a car accident left her nearly entirely blind and destitute. She now sells The Big Issue magazine, Street Roots' sister newspaper, in Glasgow, Scotland.

By Richard Flynn
Street News Service

An unlikely exhibit by photographers from Glasgow, Scotland’s streets is on display for fans of urban imagery and gritty reality from a group of photographers who live with both. Street Roots was there for the show’s unveiling as part of the 16th Annual Conference of the International Network of Street Papers, which is headquartered in Glasgow.

The exhibition is the result of a week-long photography workshop, which saw four homeless vendors of Scotland’s Big Issue street paper, a sister paper to Street Roots, being coached on photography by world-renowned photojournalist David Burnett and his Photographers For Hope team.

Food Works youth grow vegetables and self in Sauvie Island soil

By Stacy Brownhill, Staff Writer

“We’ll need 40 bunches of dinosaur kale for the markets … Those cabbages could ripen a week more … Let’s get a better price for the salad mix … We need trellises for those beans…”

Such seasoned farm management decisions come not from veteran farmers, but from North Portland teenagers who participate in Janus Youth’s Food Works program, part of Village Gardens. The ten-year-old youth employment and empowerment program grew 10,426 pounds of organic produce and made $10,178 in sales last year alone, and is on the forefront of increasingly popular youth urban agriculture programs.