VOLUME 77 • ISSUE 1 • JUNE 29, 2022
PRIDE IN IN PRIDE PORTLAND PORTLAND NEWS
ARTS & CULTURE
OPINION
PSU President Stephen Percy reflects on a term filled with surprises P. 6
Portland Pride festival fills the streets after a twoyear hiatus P. 4-5
Portland’s anti-houseless architecture reveals the city’s classist attitudes P. 7
AT PSU L L A R O F N M U L O ORM C F T A L P N O I N I P O OPEN LIATION W/PSU ITOR • STATE NAME AND AFFI E ED ED AND CHOSEN BY TH TE AN AR GU T NO , ID PA COM • SUBMISSIONS ARE UN ITOR@PSUVANGUARD. ED TO NS IO IN OP D AN S ORIE • SEND THOUGHTS, ST
CONTENTS
COVER DESIGN BY WHITNEY MCPHIE COVER PHOTO BY CAMDEN BENESH
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS SEND US YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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ARTS & CULTURE PORTLAND PRIDE FESTIVAL FILLS THE STREETS AFTER A TWO-YEAR HIATUS
NEWS PSU PRESIDENT STEPHEN PERCY REFLECTS ON A TERM FILLED WITH SURPRISES
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P. 4-5
OPINION PORTLAND’S ANTI-HOUSELESS ARCHITECTURE REVEALS THE CITY’S CLASSIST ATTITUDES
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STAFF EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Tanner Todd MANAGING EDITOR Karisa Yuasa PHOTO EDITOR Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani NEWS EDITOR Nick Gatlin ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Kat Leon
OPINION EDITOR Justin Cory ONLINE EDITOR Christopher Ward COPY CHIEF Nova Johnson DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Tanner Todd CONTRIBUTORS Alex Aldridge Jeremiah Hayden Carmen Peters Isabel Zerr
PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Whitney McPhie
ADVISING & ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
DESIGNERS Leo Clark Mia Levy
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Maria Dominguez
TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Rae Fickle George Olson Sara Ray Tanner Todd
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Vacant To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MISSION STATEMENT Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
ABOUT Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Wednesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
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SEND US YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR! HAVE A STRONG OPINION ABOUT CURRENT PORTLAND EVENTS? SHARE IT!
TANNER TODD After a month-long hiatus from publishing, the Portland State Vanguard is back—with an update! We will be reviving our “Letters to the Editor,” a recurring Opinion feature that publishes and spotlights voices from around PSU, as well as the larger community of Portland, Oregon. This is a section devoted to spotlighting the opinions and feelings of our readsers, rather than the writers and contributors in our newsroom, and we welcome submissions from anyone. We’re particularly interested in perspectives related to current Portland events and community issues, as well as circumstances that impact the Pacific Northwest overall. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on stories we’ve covered—if you have a strong opinion about something we’ve reported, write us! We’ll happily read your submissions. To share your letters for publishing consideration, email your thoughts to opinion@ psuvanguard.com with the heading LETTER TO THE EDITOR, followed by your subject line. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, The Vanguard Editorial Staff
PRIDE FESTIVAL RETURNS IN-PERSON AFTER TWO YEARS ONLOOKERS OF PRIDE PARADE MARCH ALONG TOM MCCALL WATERFRONT PARK ON JUNE 18. CAMDEN BENESH/PSU VANGUARD
PRIDE 2022 CELEBRATES COMMUNITY IN THE WAKE OF COVID PANDEMIC KAT LEON 53 years ago, police violently charged into the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, N.Y. In the face of constant discrimination, the LGBTQ+ community rose up and stood for their right to love whomever they wanted. The riots lasted for three days. “The uprising became a catalyst for an emerging gay rights movement as organizations such as the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance were formed,” CNN Health stated. “A year after the Stonewall riots, the nation’s first Gay Pride marches were held.” As a result, almost every year Pride celebrations come to towns across the United States. The LGBTQ+ community uses Pride to commemorate the Stonewall riots and, as time has passed, create a safe space to celebrate the community and the things that unite us. As a 2022 Pride attendee, Vanessa— who asked not to be identified by full name—said, “I think it just brings people together.”
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Pride was especially important this year for several reasons, one being how unsafe it feels to be LGBTQ+ in the U.S. as of late. “Pride is important because there’s still so much violence against us, and the world can feel scary,” said 2022 Pride attendee Twi, who also asked not to be identified by their full name. “This is our time to feel united, alive and safe, if even only for a short time.” There has been a rise in hateful rhetoric and programming about LGBTQ+ individuals in conservative media, numerous hate crimes across the U.S. targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community and as reported by NBC, “more than 320 antiLGBTQ bills…introduced in state legislatures this year.” These things and more all contribute to an environment that is making the LGBTQ+ community feel unsafe. Because of this violence and discrimination, fostering a feeling of safety in our cities was essential to many participants.
“Pride was more important to me this year than previous years because I have been feeling very unsafe in recent years as a queer person,” Twi said. “Pride felt safer than most days because I knew I’d be around so many other queer folks. We’re safer in larger numbers than we ever will be alone.” Pride was also a momentous occasion this year because reclaiming a sense of community felt especially meaningful, given the pandemic’s impact on making many in the LGBTQ+ community feel isolated. Many Pride attendees reflected on their feelings as LGBTQ+ people during the pandemic. “I would say I was more depressed than anything,” said Nora, who also asked not to be identified by full name. “I stayed in a relationship longer because of feeling isolated.” Unfortunately, this feeling was far from a unique one. As Healthline Media reported, “A new study found that the COVID -19 pandemic has exacerbated already existing
PSU Vanguard • JUNE 29, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
psychosocial and emotional issues that affect LGBTQIA+ people.” Many lost their sense of community because of the pandemic, contributing to the exacerbation. As reported by Healthline, “Experts say the need to remain physically distant during the pandemic has caused disruption to several social coping mechanisms that exist for sex and gender minority communities.” From attending LGBTQ+ bars to local community gatherings, LGBTQ+ people are used to connecting in groups. “I did feel isolated from the queer community during the pandemic, because most of my interactions with other queer people was at gay bars, and many of them weren’t operating for the first year that the pandemic has been going on,” Twi explained. While Pride most definitely served its purpose of reuniting some within the LGBTQ+ community, as reported by some attendees, it is also important to note that, as Twi said, that “the parade took place during Juneteenth, and a lot of Black queer folks expressed feeling unwelcomed because of that.” When determining why overlapping these events was necessary, the justification for Pride organizers was timing. According to Pride Northwest, there are just too many events in Portland, specifically in the month of June, for “things to not overlap or butt up against each other.” “I heard the people on stage talking about Juneteenth,” Pride attendee Vanessa noted. This is seemingly in line with how Pride Northwest determined it would address the overlap, as they stated, “Years in which the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade overlaps with Juneteenth, we increase the intentionality with which we plan, especially as regards the Main Stage, Black Queer visibility, and economic opportunity.” While participants noted the importance of stage presence, when asked if that was enough, Nora said, that “as far as the stage and different things, yeah, but at the same time no.” It seems clear to some that Pride could do better when many are unhappy with the event’s police presence. “Portland Pride works so closely with police,” Twi said. “Having Black speakers and performers doesn’t make up for the ways in which the overlap with Juneteenth further alienates queer Black people.” Back in 2020, Pride Northwest released a statement about their event’s police presence. “Beginning in 2021, uniformed and armed law enforcement officers will be disallowed from marching in the Portland Pride Parade and from exhibiting at the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival,” the statement read. However, in a statement to KOIN 6 News about safety concerns before Portland Pride 2022, Pride Northwest told them it would be “working closely with the Portland Police Bureau, private security, de-escalation teams, and others to ensure that the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade are as safe as possible.” Pride Northwest did not immediately respond to requests for further clarification on their change of stance towards police at the festival in 2022.
PSU Vanguard • JUNE 29, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
PRIDE PARADE MARCHES THROUGH DOWNTOWN PORTLAND ON JUNE 18. CAMDEN BENESH/PSU VANGUARD
THE LAST REGIMENT OF SYNCOPATED DRUMMERS MARCHES WITH PRIDE PARADE ALONG TOM MCCALL WATERFRONT PARK ON JUNE 18. CAMDEN BENESH/PSU VANGUARD
ARTS & CULTURE
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LOOKING BACKWARD —AND FORWARD— WITH STEPHEN PERCY WHITNEY MCPHIE
NICK GATLIN
AS HE ENTERS THE HOME STRETCH OF HIS TERM AS PSU’S PRESIDENT, STEPHEN PERCY HAS A LOT ON HIS MIND
In an email headed “Message from President Percy,” Portland State University President Stephen Percy announced to the PSU community on May 13 that he would retire when his three-year term expires at the end of next year. After many years working in higher education, Percy wrote that “it was always my intention to embrace a new stage in my life.” Portland State Vanguard spoke with Percy about his time as president, the arc of his career and what comes next. Stephen Percy never intended to become a university president. He entered the role during a furor surrounding the actions of his predecessor, Rahmat Shoureshi, who resigned amid an ethics investigation that undermined confidence in the administration. Shortly after Shoureshi’s resignation, the PSU Board of Trustees (BOT) voted to make Percy, then dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs, acting president. “I’ll be honest with you,” Percy said. “A lot of my career, I was happy running a research center, working with presidents, doing a lot of projects—so I came into the role of dean, an academic leadership position, a little bit later in my career than other people might have…It was never in my sights to become president. I was enjoying being a dean, and I sort of anticipated staying in that role for a while.” The step up to president came suddenly, under somewhat amusing circumstances. “I was in my driveway,” Percy explained, “on my
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knees…in a t-shirt and shorts on the driveway potting, and the phone rang, and it was thenchair of the Board of Trustees [Gale Castillo] saying, ‘Steve, would you be willing to step into [the position of acting president]?’ And so I said, ‘Can I think about it a little bit?’ to which they said, ‘Overnight, sure.’ But they needed to get someone in there.” “So I thought about it,” Percy said. “About what I thought I would be able to contribute to [the administration], and what it would be like. And I said the next day that yes, I would be willing to do that. It would be my privilege to help the institution in a period of leadership transition.” That was all he thought of the job at first—a transitional role. However, when the BOT offered a three-year term as president, Percy decided it was best to accept the job for a full term. “It’s been, actually, the privilege of my lifetime to serve in this position,” Percy said. “But it was not the plan.” Percy’s tenure as president has been marked by challenges such as community frustration and anger over a slow roll-out of disarming campus security patrols, financial difficulties and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking on the uncertainty of the last few years, Percy said, “I don’t think any of us will know for a while…what the pandemic has really meant…It was a challenge for everybody. A challenge for everybody living through it, a challenge to lead through it.”
“The pandemic caused those things which were routine to become no longer routine,” Percy said. Some challenges through the pandemic, he recounted, have included determining whether to hold classes in-person, what health precautions to institute on campus and how to best offer online instruction. Some things may remain after the pandemic is over, he said, such as online advising. “The notion of hybrid [instruction]—that is, some things online and some things in-person— is probably going to be a major thing we come out of the pandemic with,” Percy said. “But how do we do that right? We’ll be thinking about that.” In his last year, Percy looks to continue his unfinished work as president. “I’m going to be very active, maybe even doubly active, because I want to get some things accomplished,” he said. One of his priorities is racial justice and equity. “That’s important work…You don’t resolve generations of discrimination and injustice by a year or two of effort.” He also cited PSU’s climate change initiative, saying it was important to consider “how can PSU, in a more active and visible way, organize some of our work in engagement, our work in research and our work in teaching and learning to focus on climate action.” Percy said he is looking forward to the next stage of his life with mixed emotions. “I am bittersweet about it,” Percy said. “Many people say to me, ‘congratulations on your announced retirement,’ and
they mean exactly well, but it doesn’t resonate well with me. First of all, I’ve got a year left. Second of all…I love the institution, and I love the work.” He struck a note of optimism when discussing the 2022 PSU graduation ceremony. “It was my great privilege, a weekend ago, to congratulate 5,950 students who graduated,” he said. “And they persevered. And much of our conversation—the student speakers and myself—was ‘Wow, we made it, even through this.’ The joy in people having graduation for the first time in three years was great. There was such energy.” The search for a new president is already underway. In a resolution passed on May 16, the BOT announced that it would establish a presidential search committee to advise the board chair in selecting a nominee. The board chair will appoint members of the search committee, and the resolution advises the chair to include various community constituency representatives, such as a representative from the American Association of University Professors, an undergraduate student and the president of another public university in Oregon. The search committee will then field potential candidates and produce a report for the board chair recommending a nominee. Though he is entering his final year, Percy made clear that he is not done with the job. “I’m not going to be a lame duck, coasting out,” he said. “I refuse to do that.”
PSU Vanguard • JUNE 29, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
GET OFF OUR LAWN HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE BETRAYS PORTLAND’S ANTI-HOUSELESS ATTITUDE
LEO CLARK ALEX ALDRIDGE I first noticed it down the street from my apartment earlier this year—random planter boxes placed down on a corner where occasionally one to three houseless neighbors had tents set up. This corner is quite large compared to most around Portland, and even when a small number of tents were there, no one was ever impeded from walking through. These planter boxes appeared after another needless sweep—a term for the police eviction of houseless camps—reflecting Portland’s inhumane, forced relocations of our houseless neighbors. I worry about our houseless neighbors throughout Portland, a so-called progressive city that claims to be inclusive unless that requires empathy towards people who don’t have stable housing. These planter boxes that are being hastily placed in locations after sweeps occur are forms of hostile architecture, a tool that the NIMBY—an acronym meaning “not in my backyard”—Portlanders seem to think is cute and clever. Recently, members of the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association placed several planter boxes where a houseless sweep had just occurred. They were gone by the next morning. The NIMBYs of the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association had placed these planter boxes without a permit, so they became a lovely donation for anyone needing a planter box. While the Laurelhurst neighborhood is in the top 15% of highest income neighborhoods in the country, it was still a generous albeit small donation from the residents that placed those planter boxes out. Planter boxes aren’t the only types of hostile architecture that are being implemented after sweeps. Wealthy real estate developer Jordan Schnitzer installed almost two dozen bike racks along a strip of sidewalk adjacent to a seemingly vacant building that he owns. While disgusting and inhumane, it seems fitting that a place as passive aggressive as the Pacific Northwest would use planters and bike racks as forms of hostile architecture. A short interview on KOIN back in Jan. reveals Schnitzer’s out of touch and classist views. When he was asked about how he and the business community are dealing with the houseless population downtown, he said that he and those in the business community are all lucky enough to own property in both downtown and the suburbs, though he audibly stuttered near the end, possibly caused by a brief moment of self awareness of his privilege. He also said immediately afterwards that even though people don’t like the rising cost of apartment rents, it is a positive because it shows a strength in that market. While many articles describe Schnitzer as a philanthropist, the only well-being that he seems interested in improving is the wellbeing of wealthy property and business owners. While the wealthy property and business owners are aligned with NIMBY views, their hate towards houseless Portlanders is also
PSU Vanguard • JUNE 29, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
shared by many in the city. With the Portland subreddit being one of the more toxic city subs on Reddit, a look at any post regarding the houseless reveals incredibly disturbing and unfortunately popular comments. In these posts regarding the houseless, some of the most upvoted comments tell posters to call the cops several times a day to lie and say that the houseless are being violent and using drugs around kids despite that not being the issue brought up by the original poster, who seemed more annoyed than threatened. Other comments have users telling the original poster to wait for them to leave their tents so that they could soak their belongings by sticking a hose into their tents, or to throw all of their belongings in the trash. Comments that tell users to call the cops is an action that will likely get people killed by trigger-happy police. Those who control the narrative around the houseless also continue to fuel the fire of hatred. The way that local news, politicians and many people in the city talk about the houseless is by using rhetoric that purposely aims to classify our houseless neighbors as second-class, subhuman citizens—an othering of them done with the intent of dehumanization. While local news stations claim to objectively report the news, who they talk to and the stories that they focus on are rarely objective, allowing them to control the narratives that fuel such negative views towards the houseless. KOIN news had an ongoing segment titled “Is Portland Over?”, cheaply and dishonestly promoting further NIMBYism. KGW did a 30 minute video about the houseless that was somewhat more objective, but like many issues that are lauded as being reported objectively, they either draw false equivalencies on what they are reporting or completely fail by ignoring the bigger picture. One of the narratives that gets amplified across the board is that we need to focus on mental health and substance abuse as the source of houselessness. While harm reduction and free access to health and medical services absolutely need to be improved and made widely available, focusing only on these two things facilitates the tunnel vision that always seems to leave out capitalism as the primary source of so much suffering. The capitalist system isn’t broken either, and if the out-oftouch interview with Schnitzer mentioned above shows anything, capitalism is working exactly as intended by further enriching the wealthy while trampling over those on the bottom. While the effects of capitalism’s growing wealth inequality is made visible to Portlanders, politicians, in true American individualistic fashion, love to place the blame and the responsibility squarely on the houseless themselves. Betsy Johnson is campaigning for governor as an Independent, and blames the houseless for their own lack of personal responsibility, while hopeful Portland City Commissioner candidate Rene
Gonzalez says those who refuse offered shelter should be jailed or cited. Besides the eye-roll worthy comment from Johnson, not mentioned is the fact that shelters often have prohibitive contingencies such as curfews, drug and alcohol screenings and limits on personal belongings being allowed. It’s no surprise that people are less than thrilled to have to choose between shelter or keeping whatever belongings they have left after being thrown away or stolen by Rapid Response or the City of Portland. Popular narratives magically avoid looking at capitalism and its growing wealth inequality as a cause while also skirting around the solution of providing immediate and affordable permanent housing. The city of Houston is at least trying to provide more affordable housing. Of course, those trying to find housing in the city would run into the same NIMBY issues of apartment complexes not wanting to participate in such programs or homeowners not wanting affordable units nearby to bring down their property values. Hearing wealthy property owners, real estate developers, business and neighborhood associations all talk about bringing Portland back to what it was once before seems an awful lot like NIMBYism mixed with MAGA. For so many marginalized people, America was never great to begin with. When people wish for things to return to being great and beautiful again, that should raise some eyebrows on not only what they define as great, but who they think will benefit from this return to greatness. NIMBYism in Portland—and Oregon in general—used to mean using exclusionary laws that kept Black people out after the sun went down. Aided by the continued gentrification of Portland, marginalized communities have continually been pushed outwards. While NIMBYism is mainly based in classism it’s easy to see how it parallels and is often intertwined with racism. If looking around and seeing tents everywhere makes you feel uncomfortable, imagine how uncomfortable it must be to have to be constantly displaced by sweeps that end up with the loss and theft of personal belongings—or to constantly be looked down upon, hated and threatened on a daily basis by politicians, the Portland Police and Portlanders alike. We should feel uncomfortable. But just like the source of the increase in houselessness is being falsely identified in bad faith, our discomfort shouldn’t be directed towards the houseless or those who help, protect and support them. To do so is victim-blaming. If I were to agree with these wealthy business and property owners about anything, I would say that it would be nice to return so-called Portland to how it used to be. We should return these unceded lands back to the descendants of the Indigenous people that inhabited them before settler colonialism brought violence and genocide. Although, I have a feeling that is not what they mean when they talk about a return to greatness.
OPINION
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