Portland, Oregon:The Portland Alliance needs a poetry editor to research, scan, layout, & edit a presentation of two local poet's work from our archives. (Will also need two pages of breaking poetry, new creative arts,and poetry venues & events for the October Issue) poetryeditor@writingresource.org or see community meetings page...
No Fear, No Compromise, & No Surrender!
Date: Sunday, November 17
Time: 11am - 1pm
Location: Northwest corner of MLK and Alberta
A coalition of concerned citizens will gather this Sunday to protest a decision made by the Portland Development Commission (PDC) that will further exacerbate gentrification in the neighborhoods of North and Northeast Portland.
The PDC has voted to give away $2.4 million in taxpayer dollars to a billionaire family for the development of the national grocery chain on Northeast Martin Luther King Boulevard and Alberta.
In this age of service reductions, school closures, layoffs and budget cuts, the PDC hopes this subsidy for billionaires- which includes the owner of LA Lakers who is also pursuing acquisition of his 3rd professional sports team- will trickle down to benefit the “underserved community".
This development will occur in one of the fastest gentrifying zip codes in the nation. Over the past decades, the PDC has contributed to the rapid displacement of traditionally African American and low income residents living in North and Northeast Portland. This abuse of taxpayers dollars will continue to fuel a massive amount of new private investments- micro-apartments, skyrocketing rents, real estate speculation, that will continue to transform this community into an unlivable red-line for low income residents.
There are obvious concerns about whether the PDC should subsidize Majestic Realty Company when there are 4 grocery stores that offer commercial and organic choices within a mile and a half of the site. There are true food deserts in our city, mostly in East Portland, that continue to be overlooked for equity in public resources.
In addition, this deal constructed by the Portland Development was far from transparent. The recommendation for a grocery store project was developed by a committee over a decade ago. No public forum has been provided to reevaluate this recommendation in over 5 years. The general public was not informed of the 'mystery grocery store' until days before the PDC Board brought their secret agreement to a vote.
Despite a long history of unfulfilled promises for remedies, the City bureaucracy has failed to see this property as an opportunity to bring together neighbors and community members effected by gentrification about what our vision is for our public land.
We must try harder to hold the PDC to higher standards- more accountability, more transparency, and more focus on equity.