Rock and rope YOUR ONLINE LOCAL Man of Oregon Popular Portland gym DAILY NEWS Homegrown Helfrich settles celebrates 25th year www.portlandtribune.com in as Ducks’ main man Portland— See LIFE, B1 Tribune— See SPORTS, B10 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAY “We really want it to be a walking tourist attraction, so people don’t have to drive from one side of the road to another.”— Dan Cogan, 82nd Avenue of Roses Business Association TRIBUNE PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT PPS TAG chief Kim Matier is working to fi x problems with the program, including $100,000 in TAG funds that went unspent by schools last year. TAG tries to fi nd a way out of ‘crisis’ Budget control, TRIBUNE PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT more outreach focus The O’Sushi restaurant, in the Fubonn Shopping Center on Southeast 82nd Avenue, is bustling with business as customers watch plates of fresh sushi roll by on a of proposed changes conveyor belt. By JENNIFER ANDERSON The Tribune New Jade District another Nearly one in fi ve students in Portland Public Schools carries a badge of honor that is also somewhat of an enig- ma for district leaders. Eight thousand PPS students gem in Portland’s crown — and 40,000 statewide — are identifi ed as Talented and Gift- ed learners, a label that can mean a lot or a little, depending ■ 82nd Avenue emerges as the Pearl’s Asian counterpart on what school they attend. Some schools use all or most of the $2,000 to $4,000 they are allotted in TAG funds each ometimes a name It may seem audacious now, year, while other schools don’t change helps give an ar- but organizers hope it will one spend a dime of it. ea a new image or sense day be a tourist attraction fo- Those unspent funds — Sof vitality. cused on Pan-Asian food, enter- about $100,000 districtwide last Northwest Portland’s redevel- tainment and culture, with a year — are forfeited and and oped rail yards, ini- thriving street scene returned to the district’s gen- tially dubbed the STORY BY fi lled with pedestri- eral fund. River District, got ans. State funds for TAG have more panache when STEVE LAW Dan Cogan, man- been on the decline for years, they changed the ager of the Burger- and there are no federal funds name to the Pearl District. ville restaurant on Northeast available since Now eastside community 82nd and Glisan Street, already it is a state-de- leaders are working on a coun- has a tag line for the marketing “My job fi ned and terpart to the Pearl seven miles campaign: “The Jade District, is to create state-mandat- away, using the another jewel in ed program. same jewelry Portland’s crown.” a vision Many par- theme. TribTown During several to connect ents who’ve They call it the years, the area has been fi ghting Jade District. SOUTHEAST become dotted to the for years to Still in the forma- with restaurants common see that their tive stage, the Jade District is an selling Chinese seafood and dim core, to TAG students’ Asian-dominated commercial sum, Vietnamese pho (beef noo- needs are zone along Southeast 82nd Ave- dle soup) and sandwich shops, increase tended to see nue between Division Street and Korean barbecue and cafes spe- rigor for all that as a cry- Chinese herbs are weighed out and combined into prescribed remedies to be used in tea Powell Boulevard, and spilling ing shame. at the Wing Ming Herbs shop along Southeast 82nd Avenue. east on both arteries. See JADE / Page 2 students.” “It’s a very — Kim Matier, big deal; the PPS’ new resources are TAG chief so precious,” says Brenda Ray Scott, parent of a fi fth-grade daugh- ter in TAG at Llewellyn Ele- mentary School. Danger or not, offenders labeled for life Scott leads the district’s par- ent TAG advisory council, tered, in December, he said he ting a bum deal depends on which meets monthly and will An offender’s life of was homeless on 82nd Avenue. whom you ask, and whether soon release the results of a poverty vs. victim’s Police have since learned that they feel he represents a public parent TAG survey taken last he is living in the Kenton neigh- danger. With evidence that year. ‘lifetime of trauma’ borhood, nowhere near 82nd Portland appears to be attract- The group will also release Avenue. They called and told ing more than its share of regis- an “action plan” to address the By PETER KORN him to come in and register. He tered sex criminals, it’s a ques- major fi ndings — most of which The Tribune didn’t. Last Thursday morning tion criminal justice officials are likely to have been noted in they came calling. often have to consider. the October 2012 report by the When the knock came at The police also know that Answers won’t come easy. A Oregon Department of Educa- Stanley Washington’s door, it Washington has been referee- large number of sex abuse cas- tion that calls TAG the “quiet came softly, accompanied by: ing at youth basketball leagues es involve young men and un- crisis” in public education. “Hey, Stanley, come out and around the city. Technically, derage women. None is easily “For the past decade, in the talk to me.” Washington can legally referee categorized. United States and in Oregon, ef- It didn’t take Washington boys and girls basketball, and As an example of the poten- forts have centered on address- long to fi gure out who had come Bridget Sickon, who supervises tial dangers, registered sex of- ing the learning needs of strug- calling — the the police sex reg- fender Mark Beebout, 40, was gling and lower performing Portland police. istration detail, accused last summer of killing a students, a noble cause,” ac- And once he TribSeries recognizes that. TRIBUNE PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT 32-year-old Portland woman and cording to the report, written knew that, he But failing to reg- Portland police offi cer Bridget Sickon prepares to take sex offender a 15-year-old girl. Beebout had by a task force led by the state’s knew why. SECOND OF TWO STORIES ister, even just a Stanley Washington to jail for failing to re-register after changing his to registered as a sex offender TAG specialist, Rebecca Washington is change of ad- address. because of a sex abuse convic- Blocher. a registered sex dress, is a felony. tion when he was 22 in a case The report continues: “How- offender. Convicted of second- Handcuffed in the back seat of kept at the county jail for only a der the supervision of a proba- that involved a 14-year-old vic- ever, the state’s guiding belief degree rape 20 years ago of an Sickon’s police car, Washington day or so. A court appearance tion offi cer, Sickon says, Wash- tim. that students from all economic underage girl, he is supposed to says he is still homeless, and will follow. If a judge or jury ington probably won’t be al- Attorney Judith Armatta has and cultural backgrounds can re-register every time he moves caretaking the house in North agrees that he legally failed to lowed to referee youth basket- spent a good part of her life ad- to a new residence. He’s done Portland for a friend. register, Washington likely will ball. See TAG / Page 8 that. But when he last regis- Washington will likely be get a sentence of probation. Un- Whether Washington is get- See SEX / Page 4 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune Peterson ■ Former Clackamas County Chairwoman Lynn Peterson has been appointed to head the Washington deliver balanced news that refl ects the appointed to head Department of Transportation. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made the announcement on Tuesday. Search: Peterson. stories of our communities. Thank you Online for reading our newspapers.” Washington DOT Read it fi rst at portlandtribune.com — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, February 21, 2013 Jade: Support builds among businesses ■ — including the many commer- From page 1 cial signs in Chinese — along 82nd Avenue. cializing in “bubble tea,” a fruit- Rebranding the area as the fl avored or milk tea drink with Jade District might bring Asian tapioca balls originating from immigrants more pride and rec- Taiwan. Those were followed by ognition, organizers say. But it’s Asian groceries and immigrant really tailored to the rest of Port- service businesses, such as ac- land, to get folks to visit the area, countants and insurance offi ces. and for those visiting Portland Then came an Asian mini-mall, from afar. Fubonn Shopping Center. Portland Community Col- Starting small lege’s fast-growing Southeast Portland is close to maxing- campus, on 82nd and Division, is out the land it can tie up in urban offering language and other renewal districts, which siphon classes catering to the Asian im- off any growth in property taxes migrants in the area. And for the to fi x up an area. So the Neigh- last 11 years it has sponsored or borhood Prosperity Initiative hosted Asian New Year festivi- starts out small. ties, including one this week at The Division and 82nd district Warner Pacifi c College. includes 109 acres — about 85 Some call the area New Chi- acres of which is in private own- natown, recognition that it has ership. The district stretches supplanted the historic China- along the 82nd Avenue corridor, town in Northwest Portland as about a block or two in each di- the heartbeat of that communi- rection, south from Southeast ty.