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GABRIEL RUCKER STIRS THE POT CelebrityCelebrity chefchef doesn’t want to be pigeonholed after James Beard award — SEE LIFE, B1 PortlandTribune THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 22013 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAY ■ Vista Bridge suicide prevention volunteers offer hope, a willing ear TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE Neighborhoods between 82nd Avenue and Interstate 205 are now considered vulnerable to gentrifi cation, in part because the Asian-oriented Jade District is attracting residents to the area. ‘Next wave’ swamps east side City study points to troubled future for Janet Schumacher, who is a volunteer with Friends of the Vista Bridge, patrols the span to prevent people from committing suicide. working-class areas on’t try to tell Janet Schum- from her Mt. Scott home for a volunteer acher she is wasting her time. shift from 5 to 7 a.m. on the bridge with By STEVE LAW Don’t tell her the odds are Northwest Portland resident Jenny The Tribune ‘THANK Dtoo long that she will make a Duchene. difference with her nighttime vigils. Schumacher and Duchene have only As Portland’s hip and Schumacher has evidence. met twice, on their two Vista Bridge shifts. groovy image persists, along Schumacher is one of several volun- Walking together, peering over the with our reputation for a fi ne teers who have begun patrolling the bridge’s east edge, because both know the quality of life, gentrifi cation YOU. YOU Southwest Portland Vista Bridge precise spot from which most of the jump- is spreading to new and some- through the night and early morning ers have leapt, it is apparent that these times unexpected places. hours, hoping to dis- two women are not Lents, for example. suade people from comforting each other A few blocks from the city’s committing suicide. Story by Peter Korn through the quiet hour lone Walmart — known for its There have been a Photos by Jaime Valdez or so before darkness blue-collar clientele — home- SAVED ME.’ reported 175 suicides gives way to dawn. builders are from the bridge, They are celebrating knocking though that number is diffi cult to verify. life. They are telling each other stories, “When down small Easily verifi ed, however, are the deaths of laughing and enthusiastically waving at cottages on four people who have jumped this year, each car crossing the bridge. you’re a large lots and including a middle-aged man three weeks Yet both are constantly aware of the renter that erecting mul- ago and a 15-year-old Beaverton girl in reason they are here and the possibility needs a tiple two-story June. that they might be no help at all. Recent homes in their City Commissioner Steve Novick an- publicity announcing the volunteer effort yard for place. That nounced in July that he will spend about might dissuade a despondent person from your big means fewer $236,000 in Portland Bureau of Transpor- approaching the bridge for the next few starter homes tation funds to erect a mesh screen weeks. Or maybe someone will come in dog, the or affordable around the bridge to deter jumpers. Con- the quiet hours before dawn, take note of market for rentals in the struction began Tuesday. The screen Schumacher and Duchene or any of the small rental area, and This is a note should be in place in about two weeks. other volunteers, maybe even talk to more large that Janet Meanwhile, a loosely organized group them, and still jump. houses is houses priced Schumacher of men and women hopes to prevent more “I am here to be by them and do what we drying up.” $100,000 to found on the suicides before the screen is in place. can,” Schumacher says. “We’re not here to $150,000 more Vista Bridge Schumacher wakes at 3 a.m. to drive stop somebody from jumping off the — Cora Potter than what last week. they replaced, SUBMITTED PHOTO See BRIDGE / Page 2 says Cora Pot- ter, who has observed several demolitions a block or two from her house on Southeast Holgate Boulevard and 86th Avenue. It’s not the stereotypical gentrification of white new- New freshmen tap their inner autodidact comers replacing African- Americans, Potter says. It’s of- ten Asian immigrants looking you know you’ll be successful to- and cheerfully abide. Icezick Batiste, to buy new houses for multi- Ninth Grade Counts day,” he tells them as they The skills they’ll learn from 14, an incoming generation families near the program eases entry walked in last Tuesday. Hunter this year are part of freshman at Jade District, the cluster of He then slips into “fl ight atten- Ninth Grade Counts, a Mult- Wilson High Asian groceries, restaurants into high school dant mode,” as he calls it: “Put nomah County-wide collabora- School, takes a and other services along 82nd your seats in the upright posi- tion that aims to reduce high “text break” Avenue and spreading both di- By JENNIFER ANDERSON tion. Make sure your earbuds school dropout rates by giving during a Ninth rections on Division Street and The Tribune are safely stored away. And put incoming freshmen the academ- Grade Counts Powell Boulevard. In a single your electronic devices in air- ic and social skills they need to summer block of 87th Avenue just south Ben Hunter tries to teach plane mode or off.” succeed in school and life. program at of Holgate, Potter can point out his students not a bunch of Four weeks into their summer “Today I’ll teach you the best Robert Gray at least seven houses, or more facts, but how to learn on school class, the students — all way to fi x your mistakes on pa- Middle School. their own. soon-to-be freshmen at Wilson TRIBUNE PHOTO: See GENTRIFY / Page 8 “Find yourselves a seat where High School — know the drill See FRESHMEN / Page 9 JAIME VALDEZ “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune Museum brings ■ A new exotic car museum is coming to Wilsonville. World of Speed will move into the Wilsonville deliver balanced news that refl ects the exotic cars to Town and Country Jeep Dodge site near Southwest 95th Avenue. Search: World of Speed. stories of our communities. Thank you Online for reading our newspapers.” Wilsonville Read it fi rst at portlandtribune.com — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR Reall FINAL WEEKS Mummies.Mummies.s. Reall Science.Science. Reall 800.955.6674 People.People. OMSI.EDU 427805.080813 Discover this extraordinary collection of real mummies and artifacts from Don’t Miss It! Asia, South America, Europe as well as ancient Egypt, some dating back as far as 6,500 years. A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, August 8, 2013 Bridge: Volunteers hope to cause a ‘pause’ ■ From page 1 bridge. I’m not going to give them hugs. I’m here to hear what they have to say.” Duchene says she is saddened just knowing there is a place near her home known as “Sui- cide Bridge.” Like Schumacher, she doesn’t need to believe she might be a hero. “I may not even know if my waving and smiling and being here touched somebody and made their day a little bit bet- ter,” says the 70-year-old Duch- ene. “It doesn’t have to be about suicide necessarily.” A few early morning joggers and dog walkers get smiles and Left: Janet greetings from the two women. Schumacher, Only rarely have they seen soli- who is a tary walkers, but Duchene has volunteer with keenly studied those few. Friends of the “I can tell from a long way Vista Bridge, away how somebody’s mood looks over the is,” she says. edge of the Neither woman has been bridge during an touched by the suicide of a early morning friend or relative in their past. patrol. “Most of my family die from bad decisions, but it’s certainly Below: not suicidal,” Duchene says. Schumacher and Then, turning serious, she fellow volunteer adds, “I am amazed how much Jenny Duchene loneliness there is in this world, wave to passing and how many people really be- cars during their lieve that nobody cares.” morning watch. After their shift, the two new TRIBUNE PHOTOS: friends head down Vista for JAIME VALDEZ breakfast together at the Nob Hill Bar & Grill on Northwest would mind sitting on one of 23rd Avenue or at Stepping the benches instead. He did, Stone on 24th Avenue. Lend a hand and the two ended up talking for a long time, the young man ‘The spirits are here’ Friends of the Vista saying he’d been suicidal in the Barb Edwards took the 2:30- Bridge is seeking more vol- past, but he was not thinking of to-7 a.m. shift on a recent Fri- unteers. Contact: taking his life on this night. day, her fi rst on the bridge. She [email protected] or Just then, Kahn says, a June says simply reading about the 503-241-4105. beetle landed on the bench next volunteers was motivation to them. That struck the young enough for her. man as signifi cant. “I was just thinking, to come aged woman walked up and “He said, ‘The spirits are up here without hope and not wanted to talk. here. Everything is going to be have anyone up here who could “She said, ‘I want to thank OK,’ “ Kahn says. “And I said, tell you anything different, I you for what you’re doing. My ‘Thank you, June bug.’ ” could be a voice of hope for son jumped two years ago,’ ” She carried the bug off the someone,” Edwards says.