In my diary last Sunday entitled Killer Strikes again, 70 yro woman dies, Nothing being done to stop the killing, I wrote about the death of Valentine Khubeyeva. She was trying to cross the street and was struck by a SUV. But the real killer was the road, not the driver.
Below the fold, I will tell you what happened in response.
On Friday, a wonderful thing happened. The community came out to support the family and friends of Ms. Khubeyeva. A vigil was held to commemorate Ms. Khubeyeva's life and to demand that changes be made to SE Powell Blvd, the killer in this tragedy.
The vigil almost didn't happen. As I mentioned in my first diary, there was going to be a gathering this past Tuesday to celebrate one of the few newly installed crosswalks across Powell. It had been planned prior to Ms. Khubeyeva's death, and was canceled the first thing Monday morning. I was actually angry about the cancelation, because I was planning on going a making a ruckus about the recent death. I was hoping to make a mockery of the celebration of a crosswalk, when someone had died about a mile away because she had not had a crosswalk.
I was first notified about the canceled celebration by an email from my State Rep. Shemia Fagan. Much to her credit, she decided she couldn't participate in such an event right after the latest tragedy. I like Shemia. She is a great legislator. But thinking the email was created by a staff member, I shot back a rather pithy email thanking her for her decision, and stating rather matter of factly that at exactly one week from the accident that I would be standing next to the road where it happened and would light a candle to honor Ms. Khubeyeva.
Much to my surprise, I received a quick response from Shemia saying that she thought it was a great idea and that she would be happy to attend. From there things just snowballed. Shemia's staff was great in organizing the vigil and getting the word out. Also of great help was Lore Wintergreen who is the staff advocate for the East Portland Action Plan. EPAP is an organization of individuals and member organizations that advocate for East Portland.
Ms. Khubeyeva's daughter and church gave their permission and said they would be at the vigil. Activists who advocate for pedestrian rights were in attendance. Advocates for broader issues that concern East Portland attended. And friends of Ms. Khubeyeva who lived in her apartment complex for seniors attended. In addition to Rep. Fagan, we also had a number of elected and unelected officials.
There were many speakers. We all demanded change. We also made it clear that we are going to keep the issues that caused this tragedy front and center until we get the changes that are needed.
I want to also thank the DailyKos community for its support, and those commenters to my last diary who encouraged me to send something to the Oregonian which is the local daily newspaper. I did send something, but was quickly told it was way too long to publish. So I trimmed it down, and it was published in todays paper. If you are interested in reading it, Powell Boulevard perils go unaddressed: Guest opinion.
Here are a few other interesting links
Here is an awesome article by the Oregonian, East Portland's housing explosion tied to city plan without basic services.
Which makes this article, Mayor Charlie Hales says the city -- not ODOT -- needs to manage Powell Boulevard: Portland City Hall Roundup totally piss me off because it was this fucking asshole who help create what is modern East Portland, and he acts like he can do a better job in managing Powell Blvd? God help us if he gets his wish.
3:35: Cardinal Fang noted that the link to my Op-ed in the Oregonian didn't work. I have put the text of it in the comments. The odd thing is that the Android app for the Oregonian allows me to read it, but I cannot get it to work at the regular site. If I believed in conspiracies, I would think that someone in the Mayor's office or somewhere else had something to do with it.