Oregon Advance Times_1968-03-28

Park Bureau Nallles Area Representative The parks in north and northeast Portland are going to have a special represent– ative in the city's Parks De– partment with whom the com– munity will be able to work on suggestions for improve– ments, He is Charles Walker, an employe of the Park Depart– ment for 30 years. His appointment was announced by Commissioner Francis Ivan– cie to Albina residents and members of the School Com– munity Action Committee who met with lvancie in the City Hall. The meeting was suggested by Mayor Schrunk the week before when the same group appeared in the mayor's office to express grievances about the park programs. The mayor had told the group to meet with Ivancie because the park program was one of Ivancie' s responsibilities. The members of the group, which included Mrs. Lizzie Sheppard, Nate Proby, Robert Nelson, and Walter Morris as well as Vern Weiss and The Oregon ADVANCE Jeanne Searles from South– east Portland, told lvancie that they hoped the park program would lower its age and ed– ucational employment bar– riers. Proby suggested that teen– agers be involved in the plan– ning of the program because they are the ones directly in– volved yet they have never 714¥.i N.E. Alberta, Portland, Oregon Plan Board Gives Post To Baskett The Citizens' Planning Board for the Portland Model Cities Program is headed by Emmett J, Baskett, building contractor, from Highland school area. He was elected chairman at the board's or– ganization meeting. First Vice-Chairman is Robert Cochran, NAACP Youth Chai-rman, appointed by Mayor Schrunk. W. Leonard Smith, printer, elected from Woodlawn school area, is sec– ond vice chairman. Mrs. Helen Rawlins, ap– pointed by the mayor, a teacher at Highland School, was elected secretary of the Board. Mrs. Treva Barker, housewife, elected from the Irvington school area, was This Memorial Coliseum Is <1t the southern e'ltrance to Albina. It has attr...cted 10 mil– lion persons in just over seven years. The managers say the business it has brought has helped the area, brought new buildings and generally been a success. Coliseum Is At Albina's The Memorial Coliseum almost any way you want to elected corresponding secre- was opened less than seven measure success: Dollars, tary. and a half years ago at Al- ' entertainment, culture and The board adopted rules of bina's south door. community growth. procedures which provide for It h b i Th nity h be an executive board which in- as ee~ an mportant e commu as n- l d h ffi d f center ever since for the city efited in so many ways it is c u es t e O cers an our I and for the north and north- hard to list them. But now other elected members: Dean east dist . t th t are we have the state A..l high G · · ld tt elected nc s a nsvo • a orney, closest to it. school basketball champion- from the Irvington school It has been a success in ships, enabling students and area: the Rev. John Jack- parents of the area to at- son, pastor of Mt. Olivet Bap.. T Mk tend. There are the home tist Church, appointed by the eens a e shows, the auto shows, the mayor: Mrs. Elaine Cogan, roadster shows. president of the League of CI b I In additioq to the entertain- Women Voters, appointed by u p ans ment aspects, there are the the mayor: and Mrs. Bobbie jobs that have come as the Nunn, teacher, elected from result of this increased ac- the Woodlawn school area Albina's teen ~enter is al- Th bo d ill · most here, A group of 30 tivity. New hotels and mo– e ar w meet every tels have risen since the other week on the first and teen-agers met Sunday after- Coliseum's doors were th . d Tu d f th th noon at the North Branch 1r es ays o e mon • opened, including the Thun- The meetings will be held in YMCA and began making derbird, Coliseum and Holi– rotation in the eight school plans for their club, day Inn Motels in the im- areas of the Model Cities Officers were elected: area. Leslie Dennis, president; mediate area, and the Port- land Hilton in downtown Port– The board became bogged Konnie Jenkins, secretary; down for a time over the and Demetrias Brown, treas- (Continued on Page 7) urer, Training Work Involves Many The group decided that they wanted the membership to be open to any teen who wished to join. They plan for the center, located at the corner of Knott Street and Williams Avenue, to be divided in half Several companies in co- with a cafe on one side and operation with the Urban room for dancing or movies League are now engaged in on the other, four training programs in- The group will form com– volving over 50 persons. The mittees for supplying work bulk of these are in clerical crews, publicity and fund upgrading ·classes similar to raising, The teens also plan the SUP program, inaugu- to set up their own employ– rated by Western Electric, ment service this summer, Georgia-Pacific, and the Ur- During the school months, ban League three years ago. the center will be open from Companies active in these 1 p.m, until curfew, In the programs are Consolidated summer, the center will open Freightways, U.S. National at 9 a,m, and close at cur– Bank, Georgia-Pacific, and few, the J.C. Penney Co. All teens are urged to take The Urban League and part in the planning, The Western Electric cooperated next meeting will be held in a pilot program aimed at Sunday evening, March 31, training and employment of at 7 p.m. at the North Branch young men as installers. YMCA. land. Manager Don Jewell and others agree that businesses in the immediate area should benefit from the existence of the Coliseum. "With so much traffic coming and going, it just has to create business for service organizations close by and on the perim– eter," they agree. When the Coliseum was West of Portland Are Homes Closed A meeting at West Slope was told Tuesday night that Negroes, no matter what their jobs or income cannot rent or buy houses in Cedar Hills, Cedar Mills and Hillsboro areas. The speaker was James Airy, president of the Beaver– ton Human Relations Counsel. Tom Sloan of Tektronix, Inc., said Negroes are employed by his company,' but - "they live in Albina." Gateway under consideration, there were many guessing games as to what attendance might be on an annual basis. The most optimistic forecasts were in the neighborhood of 750,000 per year. The ex– perts were fooled. Every year the attendance has aver– aged over one million and on March 12 of this year the 10 millionth person passed through the gates. At this time, Memorial Coliseum ranks among the top five multi-purpose fa– cilities in the United States from the standpoint of at– tendance and rentals. No person can "put a finger'' on the exact number of new dollars that have been brought into Portland as a result of the Coliseum. There is no question, however, that it totals many millions of dol– lars since the doors were opened for the first time on November 3, 1960. The Convention Bureau of the Portland Chamber of Com– merce estimates that the average convention del– egate in Portland last year spent $33.17 per day, not in– cluding what his wife and family spent if they accom– panied him. lf you apply this $33.17 per day average (and it is considered conservative), a convention such as the Na– tional School Boards Associa– tion, which was held at the Coliseum in April, 1967, was worth $232,190 per day to the economy of the City of Port– land. Looking ahead, the Coli– seum is booking events into the 1970s, including the Na– tional Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1971 and the clinical meeting of the Amer– ican Medical Association in (Continued on Page 7) been consulted before. A statement, prepared by the School Community Action Committee, was read by the chairman, Robert Nelson. He told lvancie that "during our listening sessions we heard over and over, from the com– munity and the so-called hard core youth that, ''There is nothing to do, no place to go, Thursday, March 28, 1968 Carter Says Link Areas Of Poverty The Albina Citizens War on Poverty Committee ought to open communication with other low-income areas ofthe city so that all five poverty pockets will have some unity. This was one of the recom– mendations of the Rev. George E, Carter Jr., in his fare– well report to the commit– tee at its annual meeting. His recommendations were read by Emile Summers who acted as chairman because the Rev, Mr. Carter had resigned due to ill health. The other recommenda– tions: That the committee be encouraged to tackle the most difficult problems that appear in the Model Cities program; that the committee seek funds outside the federal Office of Economic Opportunity to assist local community action programs to do a more ef– fective job: that the commit– tee adopt a policy of obtain– ing help for proposals with merit because many groups are unable to find the leader– ship they need: that the com- (Continued on Page 6) Swim Pool Due Soon The Portland Bureau of Parks has announced that it is making every effort to have a new aluminum swimming Street Community Center by the start of the summer sea– son. The aluminum pool, which will measure 25 meters by 25 yards, has been ordered and will be delivered in the near future. The City Coun– cil has authorized the pur– chasing agent to advertise for bids for preparing the site of the installation which will in– clude costs of equipment, ex– cavation, deck and marquee. Park Bureau officals said that because of the urgent need for the new out– door heated pool by residents of the Albina and Irvington areas, work of installation will be given priority in order that the pool may be finished for an early summer opening. See Page 11 for BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTORY just wait for something to hap.. pen." In our community there is nothing to do for many young people, no shows, no dances , , . just boredom and frustration which creates a climate for rebellion. "Right or wrong, the feel– ing is that the •establishment' could care less what happens to people as long as they don't make any noise. This feeling is reinforced when the Park Bureau says, in effect, that "you are not capable of being useful in the summer park program; you don't know enough to help plan activities for the youth of the area. Just let us tell you what to do. After all, this is our business." Such an attitude creates the short fuse that makes a "quiet" summer a near im– possibility, he said. Nelson continued, "It is our feeling that if grass roots people can have a say as to what goes on in the · parks, and given job opportunities that much of the tensions will be relieved. We do not agree that it takes three years of college to work in the parks. We do not agree that grass roots people cannot be trained for this work." In closing his statement, Nelson told lvancie, "Our question today is, Do you agree that it is desirable to have community involvement in program and employment in the summer park program? If the answer is yes, our next question is, Are you willlng to implement this com– mitment?" lvancie answf'red the group by saying, ••A show of citi– zen interest is a good sign. However, there are just so many jobs in a park pro– gram. If all amateurs run the programs, you just have a lot of confusion. You must strike a balance between citi– zen interest and a good pro– gram." He told the group, "We would be kidding ourselves if we considered the parks as a big job factory. There are Just not that many jobs." He added that he felt, "Rec– reation is most important to summer activities.'' lvancie then told the group that he had appointed Walker to be the representative for North and Northeast Portland. The committee was told to work with Walker. Walker informed the group, '"No one has come up with an answer to what to do with teenagers." Nelson answered him by say– ing, "No one has asked the kids yet what they want, We must have the patience to listen." Again. Nelson asked (Continued on Page 6) ADC Mothers Raise Money Money for the scholarship fund, set up by the ADC Mothers Association, (Aid for Dependent Children), will be raised by a spaghetti dinner to be held at Centennary Wil– bur Church, Southeast 9th and Pine Street on April 8. The dinner will begin at 7: 30 p. m. Cost of the dinner will be $1.50 per family or 50 cents per person. The dinner is being planned by Mrs. Faye Lyday, presi– dent of the organization and Mrs. Joy Wood, secretary. The ADC s.cholarship fund enables an ADC mother to go to college for vocational training. For every $100 raised by the organization, the government will pay $300 for the schooling.