On the Streets, with Attitude

Far below the rumble of the Fremont Bridge, on a scrubby patch of grass, mud and pigeon shit in the industrial section of Northwest Portland, Jack, J.B. and Tim are trying to pitch a tent before nightfall. As the watery afternoon light fades into dusk, Jada Mae Langloss, 62, unfurls the umbrella lashed to her wheelchair and shivers against the wind and the rain.

In some respects, this motley assortment of tents, tarps and trash bags bears the classic hallmarks of a hobo encampment. But this is no ordinary camp. It has cellular communications, email, lawyers and a media outreach team. It also has a name--Camp Dignity.

A "mobile community" organized by Street Roots and the Out of the Doorways campaign, Dignity represents a new kind of nomadic activism. Although its nine or 10 residents are homeless, several of them are also articulate and grizzled veterans of the politics of vagrancy, protesting what they regard as rank hypocrisy on the part of the city, which continues to enforce an anti-camping ordinance despite a September ruling by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Stephen Gallagher declaring the rule "cruel and unusual punishment."

"The mission is to get ourselves out of the doorways and elevate our condition," says Jack Tafari, proudly pointing out the camp's portable toilet. "So we can shit like human beings and not like animals."

They are not alone. Last week,

10 local religious leaders wrote to Mayor Vera Katz to express their opposition to the ordinance and to call for more money for homeless programs.

While not abandoning the ordinance entirely, the city appears to be backing away from strict enforcement. "We're trying to dialogue with these people," says Det. Sgt. Mike Hefley of the Portland Police Bureau. "We're trying to avoid using the ordinance, but we're still enforcing it when necessary."

As WW went to press, Camp Dignity had a deadline of noon Tuesday to pull up its tent pegs. Its residents were planning to find another campsite and pitch their tents anew. "We're going the course," says Tafari. "Birds have their nests, we're looking for ours."

--Chris Lydgate

Silence in the Trees

Many Portlanders will spend Sunday night ringing in the New Year with friends and family in the warmth and comfort of home or their favorite bar. But 45 miles east of town, a handful of die-hard forest activists will be belting out Auld Lang Syne in the branches of their favorite tree.

Rather than suspend their arboreal protest during the cold season, activists are bracing for a long winter, braving freezing wind and driving snow to protect what's left of the 1,030 acres of the Eagle Creek timber sale from falling to the ax.

There are currently three active tree-sits near Forest Road 4615 in the Mount Hood National Forest near Estacada, and a base camp nearby. "It's necessary that there are people here through the winter," says Silence, a 25-year-old protester perched 150 feet above the forest floor. "We don't really trust the Forest Service."

The protestors' renewed determination comes after a dizzying political roller-coaster ride. Two weeks before the election, in an effort to prevent the Green Party from siphoning off environmental voters, Al Gore pressed Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman for an environmental review of the sales, to be performed by scientists outside of the Forest Service. Although Glickman didn't promise to cancel the sale if it failed to pass muster, it was considered a key victory for tree-huggers.

But with the election of George W. Bush, the future of Eagle is less certain than ever. The scientists for the review have not been selected, and activists are having a difficult time getting any answers from beltway bureaucrats. Glickman will be leaving the administration along with the rest of the Clinton has-beens, and it seems unlikely the Bush regime will be interested in keeping Glickman's promise. (See Q&A, page 18).

The activists of the Cascadia Forest Alliance vow to maintain their vigil as long as necessary. They also plan to celebrate, holding their second annual New Year's Eve party in the woods. For information, call (503) 241-4879.

--Patty Wentz

Accidents will Happen...

Of all the sweet nothings men have ever whispered between the sheets, surely the least welcome is "Whoops!"

For years, the standard response to an amorous accident involved abortion, adoption, prayer or shotguns. Now, however, a new form of emergency contraception, sold under the tongue-in-cheek name Plan B, is stealthily making its way into Oregon's clinics and pharmacies.

Plan B, unlike RU-486, doesn't end pregnancies. But it can prevent them. When two tablets are taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex, a woman's chances of becoming pregnant drop by 89 percent.

"It's a regimen of ordinary birth control pills," stresses Lois Backus, executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Columbia-Willamette. "There's absolutely nothing risky about it."

In one form or another, "morning after" pills have been around a long time, but Plan B is a clear improvement. Whereas RU-486 requires a doctor's exam, a sonogram, four pills and follow-up visits, women can get Plan B simply by walking into a Planned Parenthood clinic. (Planned Parenthood is also pushing for a new law that would let women obtain Plan B directly from a pharmacist without seeing a doctor or nurse.)

Because it consists of progestin, not estrogen or other hormones, Plan B also produces fewer side effects than other methods. And if the drug fails and the patient does become pregnant, there is no evidence that it harms the fetus.

So why isn't everyone talking about it?

Ironically, Plan B has gone largely unheralded because it is uncontroversial. Unlike RU-486, which is essentially a non-surgical abortion, Plan B cannot stop a pregnancy already in motion. "Plan B is generally regarded as a contraceptive, because it works before the fertilized egg has implanted itself in the uterus," says Allison Mobley of Population Services International, a nonprofit organization promoting the drug.

An Oregon Right to Life representative says the group has taken no position on Plan B.

The drug is marketed by the Women's Capital Corp. of Seattle, a public-private partnership that has set up a
24-hour hotline (1-888-NOT-2-LATE) and a website (www.go2planb.com) providing information on emergency contraception and where to get it.

--Christie Scotty

Tis the Season

AN APPEAL TO READERSWe have a confession to make.

We are fans of writing. Writing soothes the soul, energizes the brain, sets people free...OK, we're getting carried away. Nevertheless, few would challenge that the skill of writing--the ability to organize one's thoughts and communicate through the written word--is one of the greatest assets a student can have.

That's why we strongly urge you to write a check in support of Community of Writers, a novel program begun three years ago in the Portland Public School system. This nonprofit program puts professional writers in the classroom. It trains teachers on how to teach writing. It does family outreach. And it does so on a shoestring.

Started by Larry Colton, a former WW writer who has published a number of acclaimed books (most recently, Counting Coup), Community of Writers has reached more than 4,000 students in over 200 classrooms. Test scores in every measured classroom have improved.

Be part of the solution and write a tax-deductible check to Community of Writers, 1631 NE Broadway, PMB 121, Portland, OR, 97232.

If you're still feeling charitable toward public schools, please consider supporting Schoolhouse Supplies, a nonprofit that was established to provide arts supplies, scissors, notebooks, paper and other classroom needs to teachers--free.

Many teachers in Portland spend their own cash on supplies. In some schools, parents raise funds. Schoolhouse Supplies, which for two years has targeted schools in low-income neighborhoods, has given away more than $300,000 in merchandise. A Crayon in every classroom may not be a call to arms, but it's a goal worth supporting. Send money to Schoolhouse Supplies, 5153 NE Columbia Blvd., Portland, OR, 97218.

In the past two weeks, we've also encouraged readers to support two other worthy charities: Both Wallace Medical Concern (274-1277) and Sisters of the Road Cafe (222-5694) need contributions and volunteers to continue their important service to Portland's homeless and other low-income residents.

Murmurs

NOT WITH A WHIMPER BUT WITH A BANG!

* Christmas wasn't very merry for Peter Stott this year. The lumber mogul watched the value of his 4.2 million shares of Crown Pacific drop 37 percent last Friday after the company announced it was cutting its payout to shareholders (the rough equivalent of a dividend). Stott, also a major investor in Portland Family Entertainment and the Brewery Blocks development, saw his net worth plunge by more than $22 million.

* Ron Saxton scored a big victory in his campaign to claim the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The Portland lawyer and former school board chairman won the endorsement and an undisclosed contribution from Eugene lumber baron Aaron Jones, who many assumed would back Jack Roberts, the state labor commissioner who is also seeking the Republican nomination.

* After months of Capitol Hill combat, advocates for low-power radio took a shellacking in the final days of Congress' rump session. Big-bucks broadcasters won a deeply buried rider gutting the FCC's plans for ultra-small FM stations and stripping the agency of its policy-making power in the area.

* The rising cost of newsprint snagged another victim last week when The Oregonian announced it would dump its personal ads next month. The Big O's hook-up section never really caught on with local lonely hearts.

* Opposition is mounting among the architectural community to Neil Goldschmidt's plan to connect the North and South Park Blocks. The Historic Resource Committee of the local AIA has issued a trenchant critique of the project, and there may be more to come. see below for details.

AIA/Portland Historic Resource Committee's statement of opposition:

"The blocks involved in the proposed scheme contain a number of historically significant buildings (by some of the city's most notable architects) which would need to be demolished. Included in the area are buildings that would be included in a future Glazed Terra Cotta Historic District and on the National Register of Historic Places, including buildings designed by Whidden & Lewis; A.E. Doyle; Pietro Beluuschi; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and others."

"The north and south Park Blocks do not align, making a future park connection between the two tenuous. Moreover, Portland has small block sizes (resulting in significantly more open area than in other cities) and a significant amount of parks and open public area in its central core. This area of downtown is not park-deficient, but instead needs to house more people for living, working, and other activities."

"Las Ramblas [the park in Barcelona on which the proposal is based] developed from an existing pathway established over a very long period of time; its situation is not similar to Portland. Barcelona's culture, people and climate are very different from Portland, making the probability for success of a copied design extremely slim."

Night Cabbie

by Willie Milkis
willie_milkis@hotmail.com

I WONDER how many all-night convenience stores there are in this city? There must be a lot, and I think I know them all. Late at night, in front of any one of them, you might find a cabbie working on notes for his cab book, waiting for the next call. That cabbie would be me. This will be my last column in these pages. It's been a nice ride, Portland, but all cab rides have to end somewhere. (Yep, we're at the bar.) By my count, I've had about 10,000 people pass through my cab since I started driving it. I've had people from every state, from many countries, and more than a few out looking for their spaceship (or running from it). Not bad for a guy who never used to pick up hitchhikers, and each fare is another unique story. Well, some not so unique, maybe, but at least never boring. I hope you've enjoyed riding along as much as I've liked sharing my stories with you, and I'm sure we've not heard the last of each other.

Oh, and I almost forgot...that'll be eight bucks for the ride, plus tip. See you out there.

--Willie Milkis