Portland State Vanguard Volume 77 Issue 14

OPEN OPINION PLATFORM COLUMN FOR

OPINION

MISSION STATEMENT

accurate, comprehensive

while

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

THE EFFECT OF

MARIJUANA PARDONING IN OREGON

BRAD LE

THE IMPACT OF REPEALED CONVICTIONS IN A LEGALIZED STATE

President Joe Biden recently announced  the pardoning of all federal offenses of the “simple possession of marijuana” on Oct. 6. The pardon will only apply to federal offenses of marijuana, as thePresident only has the power to pardon federal offenses. As a direct result, proponents of the legalization of marijuana may be disappointed with how few people will be pardoned, with only about 6,500 cases being eligible for a pardon

The Biden and Harris Administration has remained openly and publicly in support of marijuana, though the administration has long received criticisms of hypocrisy on this front—Biden was instrumental in criminalizing marijuana further with his involvement in the 1994 Crime Control Act, where he commented that his bill was “much tougher than the president’s.” Even more recently, there was a controversy around the White House firing staffers who had a history of

marijuana usage while Harris has openly commented about their past marijuana usage. These events are confirmation that the Biden administration is not as committed to the cause of marijuana legalization as proponents of marijuana are.

“I’m still not satisfied with just a simple pardoning,” said Chad Roberts, who owns Foggy Acres, a business which grows and sells cannabis products such as CBD oils. “My unbiased opinion and speculation is that this is simply because of polling reasons. The Biden and Harris administration already said that they were going to federally legalize marijuana, but the fact that after all this time they’re only pardoning is only a grain of sand in a mountain of possibilities.”

Biden—in addition to pardoning all federal offenses for the simple possession of marijuana—is also urging state governors to pardon possession of marijuana at

the state level too, as the majority of marijuana offenses are at the state level. In the case of Oregon, pardoning possession of marijuana offenses has already been pursued seriously with the Senate Bill 420 passed in 2019, which relates to the expunging of marijuana related-convictions. “The results were bipartisan, especially in the Senate,” said Jason Hitzert, the staff-to-state representative to Sen. Chris Gorsek. “It wasn’t a very controversial bill.” In addition, Oregon has already pushed the boundaries of marijuana legalization and decriminalization with Measure 110 in 2020, which helped decriminalize small drug uses for personal use.

The most important part of Biden’s move to pardon federal offenses is not actually its direct impact of pardoning offenders, but rather its soft impact, which indicates the stance that the White House is trying to pursue. “I still don’t think that a federal pardon is strong enough,” Roberts said. “But I think that this is an open recognition of just

how strong the activism to legalize marijuana is. It is a victimless crime with lots of strong medical benefits and most importantly, money being lost for the state if they keep on with criminalizing marijuana… This will definitely increase acceptance of marijuana across the country at a time when there are still people who believe that marijuana is as dangerous as it is portrayed by pharmaceutical companies.”

It is possible to speculate that with the White House pardoning possession of marijuana in addition to urging state governments to do the same, this could also mean that state governments with at least a mixed stance on the criminalization of marijuana will start to cease prosecutions against marijuana. This is important for marijuana users across the country, as this means that arrests for marijuana may decrease due to considerations of pardoning marijuana offenses.

“The sooner we can decriminalize marijuana the better,” Roberts said. “If not just for the taxes generated for the states,

then at the least for the sake of the people who use marijuana. Convictions for even simple possession of marijuana are insane. I know someone who was imprisoned by the state for 30 years for less than an ounce of cannabis. The first thing he saw when he got out of prison? A weed shop with weed to sell. It’s ridiculous and people who are still imprisoned for marijuana need to be released.”

“I’m glad that this is being done,” said a former inmate who wished to remain anonymous. “The pardon will not bring back the 10 years I spent in prison, but at least it can salvage the time that others are unjustly facing. Whether you like it or not, marijuana is going to be legalized. At some point the people are accepting marijuana and are in favor of it faster than ever. This honestly isn’t a question about whether people should be pardoned for having some weed, but whether the states want to keep putting people in prison and ruining lives when the near future is going to make it legal.”

KELSEY ZUBERBUEHLER

PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL HAS RETURNED TO ROSE CITY

The 2022 Portland Film Festival—running until Sunday, Oct. 23—has returned to Rose City for its 10th year! Film festivals like this have popped up worldwide for almost a century and gathered great films to present to the public. The purpose of these festivals is to allow independent filmmakers to share their films with people seeking great stories—stories that would often go unnoticed due to lack of opportunity to be in the Hollywood limelight.

We see movie theaters in every city that show the exact same movies, with very few exceptions. In some cases, these films are cinematic masterpieces or blockbusters.

Events such as the Portland Film Festival allow independent filmmakers to get their stories shown to a mass of people. However, more importantly, it enables these audiences to enjoy the art of film, in addition to being exposed to educational workshops created to help improve attendees’ own movie-making abilities.

The 13-day Portland Film Festival delivers entertaining and educational opportunities to the public by focusing on the people, ideas, technology, skills and artistry behind filmmaking. The festival was founded in 2013 by Joshua Leake through the help of Jay Cornelius.

Leake said they were just filmmakers who wanted to see more movies from the people around them without the high price tag that often comes with film festivals. Cornelius, through teaching filmmaking, had many connections with people interested in films, people willing to band together to volunteer and help make this festival a reality for Portland. Leake said it was a long and arduous process to reach the position that they’re at now, but they’re pleased to be in their 10th year.

The original 2013 festival ran for six days and screened over 80 films. During its second year, the festival lasted seven days, screening more films and hosting more filmmaking events than any prior Oregon film festival. This year’s 2022 Portland Film Festival will screen over 400 films, with over 300 artists visiting to present them. Leake said that the festival will obviously feature

several films created by Portlanders, but they are also expecting filmmakers from all over the country and the world.

There are thousands of film festivals around the globe similar to this one, even a few around Portland, but Leake said he takes much pride in the films featured at the Portland Film Festival. He mentioned a few films that they’ve shown in the past and how rare it is to see tasteful art on a big screen that will stir your emotions in the best way. “[The festival] is a little bit more provocative; our films tend to be a little bit more edgy,” Leake said. “I think people—especially with the pandemic—are looking for more authentic stories than overly cleansed stories.”

Leake also mentioned his excitement for a film titled Addicted to Life , which follows the Belgian female athlete Marieke Vervoort. After dealing with a debilitating illness for over 20 years, the Paralympic champion begins to notice its negative effects on her body. In the documentary, written, directed and edited by Pola Rapaport, Vervoor lives her life to the fullest before engaging in assisted suicide.

Pola Rapaport is just one of many women featured in this year’s Portland Film Festival. “A lot of times when we see movies in the theater, predominantly like 80, 90% of the directors are white cis men, and our festival is already breaking that barrier: 50% of the directors are women,” Leake said.

The festival is expecting several famous guests this year. A couple of filmmakers coming for the premier of their new film The Latin from Manhattan are Taryn Manning (Orange is the New Black) and Jesse Metcalf (John Tucker Must Die). Leake expressed his excitement over guests like these. “Last year, for example, we had a film that had most of the cast—the voiceover cast—of The Simpsons!” he said. “Several years ago, we had Jason Momoa screen his first movie that he made before he was Aquaman, so you never know who you’re going to meet!”

The films are available to all by either attending the festival in person or by streaming the films. Streaming independent films allows more people to join in on the festival’s fun and

helps these passionate filmmakers have their work enjoyed by even more people. “That’s something that we recently did, and we’re actually one of the only film festivals in the world that has this technology,” Leake explained. “What I love about it is that we’re able to share some of our Portland directors with the world!” He went on to compliment the city of Portland and shared even more enthusiasm for letting the public in on films that “reflect that Portland vibe.”

“We all have this craziness going down in our life,” Leake said. “I think being able to empathize and look and see what other people are doing in this crazy world is a great way to self-care.” He also suggested that films can help you look at your own life from new perspectives. “I think it’s cool to hear authentic stories from people that are our neighbors, and there’s no better way to do it than watching it in a movie.”

AUTHENTIC AND ARTISTIC FILMS FROM PORTLAND TO AROUND THE WORLD

ADDICTED TO LIFE. COURTESY OF PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL

ELEMENTAL, REDEFINING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH WILDFIRE PRODUCTION PHOTO. COURTESY OF PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL

MILO LOZA

BUFFALO SOLDIERS PRODUCTION PHOTO. COURTESY OF PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL

EYES WITHOUT A FACE

MILO LOZA

This weekend at Portland State’s 5th Avenue Cinema—Portland’s only studentrun theater—the theater’s film curators have chosen to screen Eyes Without a Face, a French film by Georges Franju.

The horror movie follows a doctor and his daughter at their secluded chateau in the French countryside. When Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) causes an accident that disfigures the face of his daughter Christiane (Édith Scob), he allows the public to believe that she is dead. He is disgusted and appalled by the appearance of his once-beautiful daughter. With the help of his laboratory assistant and now accomplice Louise (Alida Valli), the doctor begins to kidnap young women and deliver them to the Génessier man sion. Once they are unconscious in the labora tory, Dr. Génessier starts to operate on them, removing their faces and attempting to graft them onto his daughter’s face.

The 1960 French horror was chosen for screening by one of 5th Avenue Cinema’s newest members, Clara Johnson. “[ Eyes Without a Face ] came out during the French New Wave, but I don’t think it was consid ered a French New Wave film,” Johnson said. “I know the viewers were shocked by it, and some of them even threw up and passed out in the theater when they watched it.”

The French New Wave was a film art move ment that began in the late 50s, known for its rejection of traditional filmmaking conven tions. As a result of the New Wave, French films became much more experimental, ex ploring different approaches to editing, narra tive and visual style. Johnson said that Franju

“was putting out films during the French New Wave, but I think he was pushing the bounds of film, of what people were expecting even more, from a thriller aspect.”

Although the film remains Franju’s most known, it was not initially received very well. Critics bashed the film and called it disgusting.

“I definitely don’t think that the films that he put out did as well as the other films that were being put out at the time,” Johnson said. “People did not particularly enjoy watching this one in the theater, but then they re-released the movie in the U.S. in 2003, and it did pretty well.”

Eyes without a Face was brought to United States theaters in its original and uncut form more than four decades later, leading the film to earn a 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviews calling it poetic.

Johnson noted that she often considers older films slow and boring, but this one caught her attention. “It’s a slow-paced film—there are scenes without a lot of dialogue and just mu sic,” she said. “You’d have to kind of observe and read between the lines of the dialogue— and some people don’t like that. They like ev erything presented to you.”

There is much less breathing room in movies these days, since most are focused on dialogue and getting to the next event. However, movies used to have much more space that allowed you time to grasp and ponder what was happening on the screen. “It was 1960, so it definitely had that feeling of entering an era of dialogue in film but without it being overwhelming for the viewer, because a lot of scenes are just really long shots of an event that’s happening or unveiling itself,” Johnson said.

Thriller films especially know how to take advantage of silence, but on the flip side, the fast-paced shock and horror we are used to in today’s thrillers still existed in this older one. “I definitely feel that the slow pace is to make it feel more agonizing, like you’re watching these events happen and unveil themselves in real time—the way wounds take a long time to heal,” Johnson said. “But toward the end of the movie, it definitely picks up, like many thrillers do. It’s just setting up the story.” But not only can the silence be seen as a breather and a tool for ex position, Johnson added, “I think the silence was a remnant of the silent era.”

In addition to the long bouts of silence, audiences should be prepared to face some good old-fashioned gore. “I definitely can understand why people would be grossed out by it,” Johnson said. “I was trying to put my self in the headspace of watching it in 1960 when they haven’t seen any special effects or makeup to that degree.”

She talked about a scene where the doctor took a woman’s face off and compared it to Psycho, the Hitchock film that had come out a couple of months later, noting the wave of thrillers that came out at the time. “It could have been more gory, but it was definitely unset tling seeing a long-held shot of a person trying to take someone’s face off,” Johnson explained. “In that particular scene, they didn’t have any music, and it wasn’t silent either. It was just the operator breathing really loudly for a long time.” In her opinion, knowing that filmmak ers filmed this scene so many years ago made it even more impressive and freaky.

Johnson noted another scene where the doctor is eating dinner with his daughter wearing her new face. Before replacing her face, they had covered all the mirrors, but she still got scared looking at herself on reflective surfaces. At the dinner table, the doctor com pliments her, saying she looks better than she did with her original face. “I think blocking your identity is one thing—obviously recog nizing a face is a big deal, and it’s very human, you get to know people based off of what they look like—but I think hiding behind a mask and losing your identity as a person is a big thing throughout a lot of thrillers as well,” Johnson said. She mentioned similar thrill ers that involve masks, like Scream , Friday the 13th , and Halloween

Johnson said the film hit her hard, see ing how easily society rejected the defaced woman. “There are whole industries that make billions of dollars every year that try to make people look a certain way—beauty has always been a prevalent thing in society,” she said. Not only does the father avoid looking at her face, but he helps fake her death so that she can get out of her engagement. “I think it’s interesting that he would rather kill peo ple and steal their faces instead of just letting his daughter’s face heal naturally and live the rest of her life in the world, probably because they think that life will be worse for her than if she doesn’t have a new face,” Johnson said.

Eyes Without a Face can be seen only this weekend at 5th Avenue Cinema. Catch it Friday or Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with an other showing on Sunday at 3 p.m.

EYES WITHOUT A FACE. COURTESY OF 5TH AVENUE CINEMA

A HORRIFYING TAKE ON LOSS OF IDENTITY AND UNREALISTIC BEAUTY STANDARDS

EVERYONE DESERVES GREEN SPACES

EQUAL ACCESS TO GREENERY IS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT

NICK GATLIN

Reader, wherever you are, look out the window. What greenery do you see? If you see rows of streetside shrubbery, shady tree canopies and lush public gardens, congratula tions: you can look forward to comparatively mild summer weather. Your neighborhood is shielded from the sun by urban vegetation.

However, if you instead see an expanse of concrete sidewalks, blacktop roads, wide parking lots and industrial complexes: you likely live in an “urban heat island.” Chances are you live in a lower-income neighborhood that’s become a victim of the tree canopy gap.

Everyone deserves to live in a green environment, but too often urban greenery is restricted to affluent neighborhoods. It’s long past time for every Portland neighborhood to have the tree cover and public green spaces the most privileged areas of the city—like the Portland State campus—already enjoy. We need to begin thinking about urban green spaces as a vital factor in human health and a key component of our response to climate change. That starts with closing the tree canopy gap in Portland.

The most dramatic impact of greenery disinvestment comes from extreme heat in so-called urban heat islands, such as during the June 2021 heat dome. What are urban heat islands and why do they matter? I spoke to Dr. Vivek Shandas, professor of climate science at PSU and director of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab, to find out.

Shandas’ research is focused on “the way we’re designing our built environments,” particularly in urban and suburban areas, and their “potential impacts on human health and wellbeing.”

Urban environments can be broken up into “gray” and “green” infrastructure, Shandas said: hard surfaces like roads, driveways and concrete buildings on one hand—and plant life like trees, parks and open spaces on the other. Some areas of Portland, particularly industrial centers in places like North Portland along Columbia Boulevard and the Willamette River waterfront, have much more gray infrastructure than other areas.

Most affected, however, are lower-income residential communities. “Pretty much unequivocally, some of the hottest places in Portland that we’ve measured… are in Southeast Portland in the Lents neighborhood, Northeast Portland in the Cully Neighborhood… Rockwood, Powellhurst-Gilbert,” Shandas said. These neighborhoods have a notable “tree canopy gap” with greenified parts of the city such as much of West Portland or the higher-income Laurelhurst and Sellwood neighborhoods. “On a hot day, if the [weather station at the Portland] airport is telling us it’s 90 degrees, these areas will be above 100 degrees,” he explained.

This is one case where it may be easier to feel it for yourself. On a hot summer day, take a walk through the tree-filled canopy of the PSU Park Blocks and the concrete wasteland of SE 82nd Avenue—you’ll feel the difference immediately.

Extreme heat is deadly on a massive scale, but we often treat it as an individual issue rather than a societal one. For example, a June 2022 study published by Multnomah County found that 72 people died in Multnomah County as a result of heat illness in 2021, with 69 of those deaths as a result of the June 2021 heat dome.

In this report, discussion of urban heat islands

only takes up a single page with its staggering finding that 42 deaths, or 58% of all 2021 heat deaths, occurred in neighborhoods with the two highest urban heat index values. Instead, both the study and official press release from the county government emphasize the fact that most of those who died were over the age of 60, lived alone and/or lacked air conditioning. The focus on these individual risk factors skirts around the systemic factors at play.

In the short-term, Shandas said, the most effective policy interventions against heat illness and death might come from providing on-the-ground support to marginalized communities most vulnerable to heat: “Older adults, children, those with preexisting health conditions, those who live in hot areas, those who have lower income, those who are historically marginalized like Black, Indigenous and people of color, for example.” Opening cooling centers and designating heat ambassadors to provide assistance to individuals could play a large role in preventing acute illness and death.

In the long-term, however, we need to socialize the issue of heat illness, as Shandas said. We must examine how building codes and paved infrastructure can adapt to climate change, and most importantly, find green alternatives to gray infrastructure. That means planting trees in areas of Portland that have historically lacked canopy cover, especially considering that canopy has been shrinking; creating more parks and distributing them more equally throughout the city; and directing government investment

toward the residential areas that will be hit hardest by climate change.

It’s important to remember the countless benefits that green spaces provide to our wellbeing. Besides providing shelter from extreme heat, trees and other greenery help ease the symptoms of myriad health issues.

“Being in a forest… or even in a patch of greenery has been shown to reduce blood pressure, it has been shown to reduce brooding, depression and anxiety… recent evidence suggests that issues of stroke and brain health are improved through exposure to green space,” Shandas said.

Trees in particular play a large role in cleaning the air of pollutants, Shandas explained, such as nitrogen oxides from car exhausts, particulate matter from woodburning stoves and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Though less quantifiable, the subjective benefits of green space cannot be ignored. Should any child be denied a green neighborhood park to play in? Should any community be deprived of trees to relax under, shade to escape the sun or performances of Shakespeare in the park?

It’s difficult to hold a picnic in a parking lot.

Human beings are meant to live amongst nature—but the development of urban spaces too often involves shrinking those public commons into small islands scattered across richer areas of the city, with wide expanses of concrete jungle for the rest. Gray infrastructure robs our city of life and in the process makes us hotter, sicker and sadder.

It’s time to take back green space for all of us—not just the few.

LEFT: DENSE STREET IN GOOSE HOLLOW.

RIGHT: STREET CORNER LACKING TREES ON 2ND AND OAK. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD

THE CITY THAT WORKS?

NEO CLARK

JUSTIN CORY

Portland’s current slogan is “The City That Works.” When it was adopted in 1995, then-Mayor Vera Katz explained that the new slogan “lets the citizens know that the city cares about what they think and wants to hear from them.”

One doesn’t need to be a data analyst or political pollster to gather that most Portlanders do not feel that their city is working particularly well.

Portland Proposed Ballot Measure 26-228 aims to address the dysfunction within our city government by changing the structure of city hall, the number of districts and attendant commission positions within them and the power invested in the mayor, as well as implementing ranked choice voting.

According to the city’s website, “Portland has more than three times as many people as it did in 1913, yet Portland City Council has not grown in size or representation in over 100 years.”

To address this, the proposal creates four new regional districts that will each have three representative councilors, expanding city hall from five—the current system has five councilors, including the mayor—to 12 commissioners in total.

The commissioners would no longer reside over large city bureaus but would instead focus on legislation and policy. The mayor and city auditor would still be elected by the voters, but their capacities would shift to administration rather than voting on policy or using veto power within the legislative body.

It is worth noting that Portland is the only large city in the United States that still implements the current commission form of government. It inherently centralizes authority in fewer individuals who then lack any specific accountability,

as they are elected city-wide. This is undemocratic in nature. On this front, the proposal is a step in the right direction. We should be able to pressure representatives toward our collective aspirations. Our needs are quite varied in different segments of the city and largely seem to go unaddressed, unless those lobbying for them have the power and capital to influence the five individuals controlling this process.

Further, the oversight of city bureaus currently parceled out to commissioners would shift to the city administrator, which proponents argue has been shown to be more effective.

Portland United for Change explained that the shift to ranked choice voting will also allow for a more proportional representation, as it encourages us to vote for our true first choice and rank others in a succession of preference, allowing for all of our votes to count in contrast to the winner-takes-all method at present. They elaborated that cities that use ranked choice voting tend to have a far more diverse range of identities and viewpoints in their city governments. This is obviously a boon for expanding representation in our supposed democracy.

The ranked choice system would also do away with the need for primaries and run-off elections, which tend to have lower voter turnout. More effective election processes and higher voter turnout means more representation—at least in theory. Of course, we still need to tackle the illicit influence of lobbyists, corporatebought politicians and money-as-free-speech enshrined into law by the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Citizens United

We might consider that these changes are endorsed by Coalition of Communities of Color, the Urban League of

Portland and a group called Portland United for Change, which includes the local chapter of the NAACP, ACLU Oregon and the League of Women Voters, among others. These organizations believe that—while imperfect—these changes are a necessary evolution towards a more participatory city government.

It is also noteworthy that those opposing the changes include current councilors who are already vested with quite a lot of power like Mingus Mapps, and the notoriously antidemocratic business lobby Portland Business Alliance who, as I have previously noted, enjoy a very cozy relationship and influence with current Mayor Ted Wheeler.

Vanguard already ran a news piece on the intricacies of this ballot measure over the summer, so without getting too in the weeds, I just want to forcefully state that—while I do not think this measure goes far enough in decentralizing authority and placing power back into our collective hands—this is a good starting point for the evolution of participatory power for the people in our city.

This is not a magic pill, and I don’t believe that we will see immediate change should this pass, but considering the voices in favor and in opposition of this proposal—my inclination is to support it. I will vote yes on this measure and subsequently follow its implementation and evolution should it pass. We may not have a “city that works” as a result, but it is better than the consolidation of power and lack of accountability we currently suffer under. It is my position that power should be decentralized to the point of participatory direct democracy and self-government, but until that time, any step in that direction is a worthy one.

MILO LOZA

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