Buddha Rising

A visible life YOUR ONLINE LOCAL Hot Stotts! Author Sarah Thebarge’s DAILY NEWS Blazers coach critiques encounter changed lives www.portlandtribune.com up-and-down season Portland— See LIFE, B1 Tribune— See SPORTS, B8 THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAY ■ Portlanders embrace Buddhism as Dalai Lama’s visit looms PDC hits fi nancial turning point As funds dry up, agency must change course to stay afl oat By STEVE LAW The Tribune The gravy days are over for the Portland Development Commission, the urban renewal agency that helped re- vitalize downtown. As the PDC begins shed- ding a third of its staff and faces loss of its primary funding source, agency leaders Humor is frequently a part of the say it must re- Thursday evening service invent itself to FISH conducted by Yangsi Rinpoche, survive. president of Maitripa College in Mayor Char- Southeast Portland. lie Hales hasn’t tipped his hand Services draw a mix of ages, on his approach to urban renew- including student Mikki Columus al and neighborhood revitaliza- (below), but few Asians. tion, but promises to make it a top priority this summer, once more-pressing issues like the city budget shortfall get re- solved. include the many small Buddhist study The agency’s new direction Story by Peter Korn groups meeting in people’s homes, typ- could help shape the future of Photos by Christopher Onstott ically a point of entry for converts, many Portland BUDDHA which number more than 400 accord- neighborhoods ing to one assessment. — and the “I don’t or the record, yes, Yangsi Portland ranks sixth nationally health of Port- think Rinpoche carries a cell phone among cities for the number of Bud- land’s economy. in the pocket of his red robe. dhist congregations per capita and 13th Patrick Quin- people F But no, Rinpoche, originally RISING for its number of practicing Buddhists. ton, PDC execu- understand from Nepal, declared at the age of 6 to But don’t expect a sea of Asian faces tive director, be the reincarnation of a previous Ti- in most of those 37 Buddhist temples. says the era of how betan master, trained more than 20 Unlike Hinduism and Islam, Buddhism big, spendy different years in a Buddhist monastery, does in the United States and Portland is projects is over. the not have a smartphone. And he IN ROSE CITY dominated by converts. Only one in He wants to fo- doesn’t text. three U.S. Buddhists are Asian, and cus on job cre- solution to Such are the life compromises for a three in four are converts. ation, aiding this is than Buddhist holy man in 21st century The Dalai Lama’s visit is hosted by small business- Portland. Maitripa College in Southeast Port- es and “improv- what we’ve On May 9, the Dalai Lama arrives in land, one of a handful of degree-grant- ing the distribu- done in the Portland for a three-day environmental ing Buddhist colleges in the U.S. Mai- tion of wealth summit expected to attract followers tripa, which attracts students from and income past.” from around the globe. As a side effect, around the globe, is here mainly be- across the city.” — Patrick the visit will shed new light on Port- cause the Foundation for the Preserva- That means Quinton, land’s remarkably vibrant Buddhist tion of Mahayana Tradition, which less preoccupa- PDC executive community. oversees Tibetan Buddhist temples tion with down- director Although many Christian congrega- and organizations worldwide, decided town redevel- tions across the Portland metro area in 2004 to place its international head- opment and are shrinking and some are closing quarters in Portland. more attention to lower-income their doors, Buddhism here is explod- Rinpoche, 44, is the college’s presi- neighborhoods. ing. In 2000, there were 19 Buddhist dent and the spiritual leader for a large Think of it as Oakland As- congregations in the Portland area, ac- number of Portland-area Tibetan Bud- style “small ball” instead of the cording to the Association of Statisti- dhists. Asked why Portland was select- New York Yankees’ free-spend- cians of American Religious Bodies. ing swing-for-the-fences ap- Today, there are 37. And that doesn’t See BUDDHISTS / Page 2 proach. One thing is certain, Quinton says: The PDC can’t depend in the future on tax-increment fi - nancing, the urban renewal funding scheme that made it a powerhouse in city government the past half-century. For a vari- ety of reasons — mostly city What went wrong? Ockley’s era ends leaders’ own doing — the agency faces a dramatic drop-off in tax-increment financing next Principal’s leadership questioned year. Then it faces a “TIF cliff” in 2022, when the PDC expects to exhaust most of its tax-incre- as PPS blends two campuses ment financing, with little means to replace it for several By JENNIFER ANDERSON Moon, who teaches eighth grade years. The Tribune at Ockley Green K-8 School in Unless the agency comes up North Portland. with new ways of making mon- The 24 eighth-graders hov- In surveys last year, she says, ey by then, the “PDC goes ered around the tables, ready “they were checking off the box away,” Quinton says. “I don’t to pounce. that said they hate to read.” think people understand how It wasn’t candy, electronics or Moon schedules her “Book fundamentally different the so- even cash they were eyeing. Blasts” every few months, lution to this is than what we’ve They were looking at new whenever she or the school gets done in the past.” books: graphic novels like “Amu- a new batch of books. Each stu- Tax-increment fi nancing, pio- let,” nonfi ction books on car sci- dent also keeps a “TBR” box, neered by California in 1952, is a ence and baseball, popular se- which stands for “to be read.” powerful tool to raise lots of ries like “Dork Diaries” and “We’re trying to teach them money, but it’s often controver- young-adult novels like “Once to not just have a book they’re sial. As practiced for decades in Upon a Curse.” reading, but be thinking about Portland, the PDC creates an At their teacher’s command the next one,” Moon says. urban renewal district, then the (“Ready, set, book!”), they The latest batch of 400 books, city sells bonds to pay for dis- grabbed the volume they most valued at $5,000, came to Ockley trict improvements. To make wanted to read, then settled into through a grant from the Laura interest payments on the bonds, a cozy spot in their classroom Bush Foundation for America’s the city siphons off property where they spent the next 50 Libraries. School librarian Kirst- taxes accruing from increasing minutes with their eyes glued to en Truman had surveyed stu- property values. TRIBUNE PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT the pages. dents and teachers to fi nd out In the last decade or two, Conrad Hurdle, principal at Ockley Green for the past four years, says he’s done his best to stabilize the “Most kids can read, but they school amidst a whirlwind of challenge. His supervisor says PPS hasn’t given him the support he’s needed. don’t love to read,” says Kristin See OCKLEY / Page 10 See PDC / Page 5 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune County raises ■ State lawmakers are considering measures that could give rural areas, like in Clackamas deliver balanced news that refl ects the voice on County, a larger voice on local transportation issues. Search: Clackamas County stories of our communities. Thank you Online TriMet, ODOT for reading our newspapers.” Read it fi rst at portlandtribune.com — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, April 25, 2013 Buddhists: Dalai Lama visit brings new focus ■ From page 1 ed as the foundation’s headquarters he offered a story with a very Buddhist twist. The foundation’s board members, according to Rinpoche, were looking at San Diego, Den- ver, Boston and New York — all cities with large Tibetan Bud- dhist communities — as possi- ble headquarters. A Buddhist ritual reserved for important decisions was chosen for making the selection. Each city’s name was written on a piece of paper, and each paper was placed in a small ball of dough. At the last moment, one of the board members said he had once driven through Portland on Interstate 5 and he had a good feeling about the city, so Portland’s name was added to a dough ball. The dough balls were placed in a pot which was shaken until one piece of dough fl ew out — the one with Portland written inside. Nobody suggested best two out of three, or that a more rational selection process be used. “The decisions (are) beyond our intelligence,” Rinpoche says. “Really, it’s based on trust.” Portland loves prayer fl ags Maitripa College trains chap- lains to act as spiritual caregiv- ers and masters of divinity, much like Christian colleges do. TRIBUNE PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT Students do not have to be Bud- Jim Blumenthal teaches a class titled Engaged Buddhism at Maitripa College in Southeast Portland. The school offers a masters of arts in Buddhist Studies and a Master of Divinity dhists, though most are. The degree. Blumenthal also teaches in the school of history, philosophy and religion at Oregon State University. college, Rinpoche says, is an at- tempt to marry Buddhism with behind them.

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