Google Plan Leaves Digital Gap with White Neighborhoods Getting Ser- Google Offi Cials Say the Split Was Not Inclusion Program Manager
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FREELAND EYES EDITION PLAYOFF RETURN — SEE SPORTS, B1 GREATER PORTLAND PortlandTribuneTUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2014 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY Google plan leaves digital gap with white neighborhoods getting ser- Google offi cials say the split was not inclusion program manager. Experience in Kansas vice and traditional minority neighbor- intentional, but an inadvertent result To better overcome them, the hoods being left out. of how they let neighborhoods decide company has increased its efforts to City sours some on “Originally, the way Google provid- whether they want service. They point convince all potential customers about ed the service, there was a stark divi- to research that shows there are many the benefits of being online in this high-speed venture sion between the historic haves and reasons people don’t have — or want digital age. have-nots,” says Rick Chambers, exec- — high-speed Internet access, includ- “We are doubling down and really By JIM REDDEN utive director of the Center Education ing cost, perceived relevance, lack of working with communities,” says The Tribune Foundation, a nonprofi t organization computer skills and worries about Swanson. that raises money for schools with identify theft. As part of that effort, Andrew Bent- To hear Mayor Charlie Hales and large numbers of low-income students “The challenges are quite complex,” ley, a Google digital inclusion special- other local elected offi cials tell it, in Kansas City, Mo. says Erica Swanson, Google’s digital ist, recently came to Portland to learn everyone will benefi t if Google about the city’s community and other brings its ultra-high speed broad- organizations working to expand In- COURTESY OF KEITH MYERS/THE KANSAS CITY STAR band network to the region. ternet access to more residents. Trucks manned by Google installers line But when Google Fiber was fi rst be- Among others, he visited the nonprofi t up in a Kansas City, Kan., neighborhood. ing installed in Kansas City a few years Free Geek computer reuse organiza- Google’s plans for high-speed Internet ago, the company was criticized for re- access have largely divided along racial inforcing historic racial breakdowns, See GOOGLE / Page 11 and income lines in Kansas City. ■ Three decades later, Terry Bowman still feels heat from BHS auditorium blaze MAN ON FIRE arch 19, 1979, was the day Terry Bowman burst into fl ames. It was the week of spring break, M and all of the 1,710 students at Bea- verton High School were gone when the school’s auditorium/theater caught fi re. Bowman, a fi refi ghter who worked for what was then known as Washington County Fire District No. 1, was on one of the engines re- sponding to the four-alarm blaze. Before the day was out, Bowman would be severely burned in one of the worst survivable accidents that a fi refi ghter has encountered in the last three- STORY BY and-a-half decades among the three fi re districts that would RAY PITZ eventually merge to form Tu- alatin Valley Fire & Rescue, ac- cording to local fi re offi cials. He would suffer second- and third-degree burns over 49 percent of his body. Several other fi re- fi ghters suffered less severe injuries. Still, 35 years later, Bowman clearly remem- bers the moment-to-moment incident as if it were yesterday. COURTESY OF ERNIE METCALFE “You know when they say you have a big ex- Lt. Al Edens (left), an unidentifi ed fi refi ghter (center) and fi refi ghter Art Thurber were on the Terry Bowman perience like that, it cements it well into your roof of the Beaverton High School theater shortly before it collapsed. The late Capt. Ernie displays the melted mind,” Bowman, 72, says from his Rockaway Metcalfe shot this photo before climbing down to retrieve more air bottles. helmet he wore when Beach home. “Yeah, I remember every bit of it.” he caught fi re Normally, Bowman, who was then 36, would battling a blaze that have remained on the ground, operating the at that point, and fi refi ghters were searching at the time, recalled telling his destroyed the aerial ladder. But that day he wanted to help for its source, which ultimately would be traced men to “get off the roof! Get off Beaverton High out, climbing up to the auditorium roof to hand to a space between the auditorium’s roof and a the roof!” School auditorium on off a chainsaw to his fellow fi refi ghters, so they false roof underneath it. The cause would turn By that time, the fi refi ghters at March 19, 1979. This could ventilate the building. out to be a light bulb touching a seat cushion. the scene already sensed the roof photo was taken in While he had his heavy turnout trousers on Once he got there, Bowman fired up the was about to collapse. the early 1990s, when he ascended the ladder, he didn’t have on chainsaw and waited to see if anything else was “I saw the smoke start coming shortly before he his turnout jacket, wearing only a short-sleeved needed. up from the seams between the retired. shirt. In 2011, former Beaverton Fire Department PAMPLIN MEDIA The fi re had been burning for several hours Chief Oscar “Sox” Lee, who led the department See FIRE / Page 2 FILE PHOTO: VERN UYETAKE Saltzman puts ‘workforce housing’ on agenda ■ On heels of unfl attering By JIM REDDEN leased an au- longer, however. He says there The Tribune dit saying it is is a lot of support on the council audit, council locks horns not clear how “I haven’t clinched any deals yet, and in the community to priori- on incentives After being in charge of the bureau de- tize low income housing proj- the Portland Housing Bu- cides which but I might going forward.” ects. Commissioner Nick Fish, reau for about a year, Com- project quali- who had the bureau before missioner Dan Saltzman is fies for which — Dan Saltzman, city commissioner Saltzman, was praised for com- considering expanding its program. And, ing up with city funds to help priorities from primarily the audit says, build Bud Clark Commons dur- low-income housing to in- SALTZMAN the bureau will few loans will be repaid. The ing to be repaid. We should call ing the height of the Great Re- clude so-called workforce only collect bureau has been focused on in- them grants,” says Saltzman. cession. Located at 655 N.W. housing for moderate-in- about $54 million of its total vesting in projects that provide But more than that, Saltzman Hoyt St., it offers 130 studio come families. portfolio of $357 million in out- housing for the city’s most vul- says the bureau needs to know apartments for the homeless, “There are a lot of needs for standing loans. nerable residents. Many of the which fi nancing options should including those with drug and housing in the community, in- “This limits the opportunity loans are made to nonprofi t or- be offered to each of the differ- alcohol addictions. cluding affordable housing for for PHB to invest in new projects ganizations that develop or re- ent kinds of projects it sup- Applicants must have an an- working families near their jobs in the future, since most loans habilitate such projects. They ports. Saltzman has scheduled nual income that does not ex- and schools,” Saltzman says. — more than $300 million — will could not afford to keep their the bureau to appear before the ceed 35 percent of the area’s Saltzman is also preparing to be spent once rather than rents low if they had to gener- council to discuss the issue on median family income for their ask the City Council to set loaned, recovered, and used ate enough income to repay the April 30. family size. Saltzman agrees guidelines for the bureau’s fi - again for additional projects,” loans. Saltzman says his desire to this population must be housed, nancing programs. The Port- according to the city audit. “We shouldn’t call them expand the range of projects land city auditor recently re- Saltzman is not surprised so loans if we know they’re not go- backed by the bureau will take See HOUSING / Page 5 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that re ects the GLUTEN-FREE BEER MAN stories of our communities. Thank you — SEE LIFE, PAGE B8 for reading our newspapers.” Inside — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Tuesday, April 1, 2014 Fire: Event video provides lessons for future ■ From page 1 dent today, including the day several Chemeketa Community roof and the parapet, and just College students paid a visit to suddenly it back-drafted and the Progress Fire Station, where happened all at once, and I ran he spent most of his career. for the edge,” Bowman recalls. “They were in training for be- “I knew where the ladder was, ing (firefighters), and they said, and I jumped through a wall of ‘You know, it’s kind of a danger- flame.” ous business. We just saw this Engulfed in flames, he made video of this guy that came it onto the ladder. “At that point, down the ladder on fire.’ And I the roof started to come down said, ‘Oh, that was me,’ and they and pulled away from the (con- said, ‘Oh no, it wasn’t; this was a crete block) walls and (went) young guy.’ “ down.” Because his hands and arms Return to the scene were so badly burned, Bowman Bowman eventually went couldn’t use them to navigate back to look at the destroyed down the ladder.