Updated March 31 On March 22, the Oregon Department of Transportation unveiled drawings that show what critics have warned for a month: State officials plan to make Interstate 5 more than 120 feet wide as it passes through the Rose Quarter.
WW asked Portland-area elected officials: Is this design going in the right or wrong direction? The most newsworthy reply came from Metro Council President Lynn Peterson, who tore into the design for offering bus lanes no one had requested (see Magic Bus Lanes ). But another theme also emerged: Everybody wants caps above the highway to restore the Albina neighborhood. Here are four responses, edited for length.
Screenshot: KTZV News 21
America’s racial awakening has brought about a number of positive changes or at least earnest attempts at bringing change. The spotlight on systemic racism in policing, for example, appears to have lawmakers (mostly Democratic, but still) taking police reform more seriously than ever before. But when it comes to racial injustice and inequality, police brutality is hardly the only issue structural racism isn’t a single-issue thing because the fact is that Black people’s entire American history is tied to our present state of inequality. That’s why it warms the heart to see lawmakers takingthe discussion around reparations seriously.
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Before George Floyd’s Death, Black Portlanders Were Killed by Cops at a Disproportionate Rate “What happened this summer was not a new item for the black community it was a new item for the white community.” (Joseph Blake Jr. ) Updated February 8 Between 2004 and 2018, one quarter of all people fatally shot by officers of the Portland Police Bureau were Black, according to an April 2020 report by OIR Group, an outside consultant that reviews and critiques police departments.