The West End News Vol 14 No 1

“We’re back!”

Volume 14 Number 1 Portland, Maine August 22, 2014

Body of Missing Man Found in Presumpscot River Welcome to the Police Say Death Does Not Appear Suspicious. New West End Portland police found the body Rob- officers and several concerned family memNEWS ert Koch, 52, in the Presumpscot River on bers, but Mr. Koch’s body was not locatWhen we published the first issue of the Tuesday, August 19th, just after 1PM. Mr. Koch left his residence at 723 Riverside Street on August 15th at about 8:30PM and mentioned going to the Trolley Park at Forest Avenue and Riverside Street. The area of the Trolley Park was searched by

Robert Koch, Courtesy Photo

ed until four days after his disappearance.

Mr. Koch suffered from medical conditions that may have altered his mental state. Details of his condition have not been share. His death does not appear suspicious at this point, according to Portland police.

The Future of Congress Square

City Manager Resigns

The West End NEWS Weighs the Options (see Page 4)

Portland City Manager Mark Rees announced his resignation on August 18th to the Mayor, City Council, and City staff.

Citing the wish to pursue other opportunities, both professional and personal, Mr. Rees tendered his resignation to be effective Wednesday, September 3, 2014.

During his three years as City Manager, Mr. Rees established the City’s first five-year capital improvement program and received approval for over $92 million in capital expenditures necessitated as a result of deferred maintenance of infrastructure and environmental mandates.

Above is a possible scheme for the redesign of Congress Square that would include changes to the intersection and plaza. Below is a concept that would include a roof-top park over an event center. Provided by City of Portland Planning and Urban Development

City Manager Mark Rees “I appreciate the work that Mark has done for three years as City Manager,” said Mayor Michael Brennan.

“I’ve enjoyed working with him and I wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Mr. Rees will continue to serve as City Manager until September 3, 2014. At the City Council meeting that night, the Mayor and Council will appoint an acting city manager. A search for a new city manager will begin immediately in order to ensure a smooth and expeditious transition.

“I’m pleased that Mark has agreed to work with us during a 90-day transition period while we conduct a search for a replacement,” Mayor Brennan added.

Inside Astrology .........................................

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Community Events ..........................

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Daily Dumpster ...............................

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Portland Citywide Minimum Wage Proposal Seen as Overreach, Not Going Far Enough On Wednesday, August 20, Mayor Brennan and the Minimum Wage Advisory Group held a public forum on raising the minimum wage in Portland. The advisory group of business, labor, nonprofit, academic and community leaders was formed by the Mayor, and they have been meeting for months to hash out a plan to raise citywide wages.

To be clear no formal proposal to raise the minimum wage has been made to the City Council. Mayor Brennan formed the advisory committee to discuss the issue, and so far the draft plan would raise the minimum wage in Portland in three tiers.

At first the minimum wage would rise $2 per hour from $7.50 to $9.50. Next year it would rise to $10.10, the amount to which President Obama recently pegged the minimum wage for federal contractors. The following year it would rise to $10.68. Every year after it would rise in proportion with the cost-of-living.

Mayor Brennan hopes to bring a minimum wage proposal to City Council as early as September or October.

Over 80 members of the public representing a mix of Portland residents including business owners, activists, and minimum wage earners, gathered to voice their concerns and praise for raising the minimum wage. All agreed that the minimum wage needed a raise, but they agreed on little else.

Restaurant owners offered concerns that raising the tipped minimum wage could cost Portland’s hundreds of restaurants dearly, and lead to layoffs and cuts in benefits. Currently tipped employees can earn as little as half the minimum wage, $3.75/hr, as continued on Page 6 Munjoy Hill resident Asher Platts holds a sign at a demonstration in front of Portland Public Library held before the City’s Minimum Wage Public Hearing.

West End NEWS Photo

West End NEWS on St. Patrick’s Day, 2001, we really had no idea what we had created or of the incredible adventure that lay ahead. Nearly twelve years, and numerous neighborhood meetings, breaking stories, political intrigues, malfunctioning computers, stolen bicycles and financial crises later, it was time to take a break. So, in the fall of 2012, the West End NEWS stopped publishing its print edition (its online edition kept chugging along) and lay low for nearly two years, waiting to see where our journalistic instincts would lead us.

Well, the time has come to put on our reporters’ hats again and get back into the newsroom. Welcome to the new West End NEWS! Our new publisher Tony Zeli has a lot of new ideas, and lots of energy, and is ready to roll up his sleeves and lead our little journal into the unseeable future.

Over the past dozen years, whenever I have been introduced to a stranger as the publisher of the West End NEWS, the one response that I almost always received - unsolicited - was ‘Oh, I LOVE the West End NEWS!’ You can imagine how gratifying that has been. What has made the West End NEWS what it is has been the enthusiasm, hard work, talent and generosity of a long list of readers, writers, artists, advertisers and other contributors, most especially my friends Harlan Baker, Steven Scharf, Liz McMahon, Orlando Delogu, Marge Niblock, Bobby Lipps and so many others who have contributed to our success in so many ways.

I hope that Tony will get all the help and feel all the love in the exciting years that lie ahead. I know that PaperBoy and DeliveryMan will be around to keep things in order and make sure the newspaper gets into your hands. Thank you all, and welcome to the new West End NEWS! -Ed King

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Vol. 14 No. 1 August 22, 2014

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Activity Escalates With Repeal of Planned Parenthood Buffer Zone

West End Green Candidate Drops Out of State Legislative Race, Blames Gentrification Tom MacMillan, the Green Party candidate for the West End (District 38) seat in the Maine legislature, has dropped out of the race after losing his West End apartment. MacMillan’s campaign for State Representative came to an end on July 28th.

On July 14th, MacMillan’s landlord informed his partner and him that their lease would not be renewed and that they must move out of their apartment of two years by August 31st. Since receiving the news, they have searched for a new place to live within District 38 (West End, St. John Valley neighborhoods) but have been unable to find an affordable place.

MacMillan cites gentrification as the reason for rising rents that he claims are too high for working people.

MacMillan submitted his withdrawal and is looking for a new apartment in the City of Portland.

Police Separate Protesters, Patients, Pedestrians

Tom MacMillan, Green Independent Party Candidate for District 38

“I am deeply sorry that I will not be on the November ballot,” said MacMillan. “During my brief run, I was glad to meet hundreds of neighbors who supported me with signaures, clean election contributions and pledges to support my campaign in many ways.”

“Though I will not be on the November ballot, I will continue to advocate for a Portland affordable to all residents; one in which healthcare is considered a human right, not a privilege; and one in which all workers are paid a living wage, not the poverty wage system we have in place now.””

In November, West End voters will choose between incumbent Democrat Matt Moohan or Republican challenger Tom Loring.

With the repeal of Portland’s buffer zone, dozens of protesters escalated their activities outside Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s Portland health center on Congress Street in early August, requiring the intervention of the Portland Police Department.

According to Planned Parenthood spokesperson Nicole Clegg, protesters obstructed access of the sidewalk and health center entrance, and police issued multiple warnings to protesters who were loud enough to be heard clearly within exam rooms. Clegg called the actions “a violation of the Maine Human Rights Act.” More than thirty protesters lined the street videotaping and photographing patients and pedestrians as they walked along the sidewalk on Friday, August 8th. The next day, police were contacted again when more than a dozen protesters lined the sidewalk near the entrance of the health center and were asked to stop obstructing access along the sidewalk.

“When the buffer zone was in place, we were able to operate in a

peaceful coexistence with the protesters,” said Clegg. “Since its repeal, the atmosphere has returned to one of routine harassment, bullying and intimidation of patients and pedestrians alike.”

Massachusetts Governor Patrick signed into law ‘An Act to Promote Public Safety and Protect Access to Reproductive Health Care Facilities’, and the City of Burlington, Vermont is considering alternatives in response to recent protester activity. New York City, Los Angeles, Colorado and other communities have various ordinances in place to ensure the peace and security of reproductive health care facilities.

Clegg said harassment and privacy invasions are distressing and frightening not only for women seeking abortions, but also for the men and women going to the health center for cancer screenings, birth control, prevention and treatments of STDs, breast health services, pap tests, sexual health education, information, and health counseling, which comprise more than 95% of the services provided at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

Leo Knighton Tallarico

Transformational Astrologer, Counselor & Writer

♦ On-Going Individual & Couples Counseling ♦ Complete Astrological Services & Weekly Forecasts: www.spiritualtherapy.wordpress.com

Spiritual Renaissance Center ~ (207) 653-7717 884 Broadway, South Portland, Maine 04106

soulus@aol.com ~ www.spiritualrenaissance.com

WEST END NEWS BRIEFS

EAST END NEWS BRIEFS

“Butt-lers” Installed in Congress Square Park

West End Installing Neighborhood Herb Garden

City Inspectors Shutter Munjoy Hill Building for Safety Violations

Downeast Magazine Marks 60th Anniversary in East End

Two ‘Sidewalk Buttlers’ were installed on August 8th on the Congress Street side of Congress Square Park, courtesy of the Friends of Congress Square Park. The group hopes the Sidewalk Buttlers will help lessen some of the cigarette butt litter on the sidewalk, as well as in the park itself.

West End Neighborhood Association President Rosanne Graef said that residents can help further the effort to remove cigarette butts from sidewalks, gutters and waterways by contacting City Councillors to urge their support for the project. Butts collected from the ‘Buttlers’ are recycled into pallets and other products.

Aside from the initial cost of the Buttler ($59), there is no further cost for the receptacle, or for getting the butts to the recycler. Getting the receptacles emptied is the issue that’s holding up deployment of additional Buttlers, according to Graef.

The West End Neighborhood Association, as part of its adopt-a-park activity, is working with the City to install an apothecary garden (think medieval herb garden!) in the back portion of the Clark Street park.

Home gardners are asked to donate plants. The list of herbs sought include: Clary Sage, Fennel, Hyssop, Lavender, Common Sage, Tarragon, French perennial, Thyme perennial, Valerian.

Please contact Sanda Kynes (sandra.kynes@gmail.com), Liz Parsons (ecparsons33@hotmail.com), or the West End Neighborhood Association if you have plants that you would like to donate.

If you’d like to be involved in any other way on this project, contact WENA. WENA meets the second Wednesday of every month at 6:30pm at the Reiche Elementary Community Room between Brackett and Clark Streets.

City inspectors have shut down a 10-unit Munjoy Hill apartment building after discovering numerous safety violations at the site, including exposed live wires, broken fire alarms and non-functioning sprinklers.

The inspectors were summoned to the building, which is undergoing renovations, by the Portland Fire Department, according to local reports. The building, at 193 Congress Street, is situated between Homegrown Herb & Tea and Mama’s Crow Bar. It was also the scene of a raid by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency in 2012 in which one man was arrested and charged with dealing crack cocaine, according to the Portland Press Herald.

About a dozen people live in the building. It is unknown when they will be permitted to return to their homes.

Downeast Magazine celebrated its 60th anniversary with a gala party and fundraiser on Thursday, August 14th, at the Portland Company Complex at 58 Fore Street, on the East End waterfront.

The gala featured a raffle for artwork produced by six prominent Maine artists, Maine-produced food and drink, and live music from the Larry William’s Band followed by a special performance by Gunther Brown.

The event benefited six Maine organizations, including The Locker Project/Good Shepherd Food Bank, Maine College of Art Scholarship Fund, Colby College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, North Haven EMS, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, and the Penobscot Bay YMCA.

Vol. 14 No. 1 August 22, 2014

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Cherry Blossom Heavy Rains Tree Honors Cause Damage 30th Year of Across City More than six inches of rain caused Sister-City Rela- flooding and damage at many locations across the city on Wednesday night, August tionship with 13th. The damaged included the following: • Flooding and sewage backup at Portland’s City Hall and Merrill AuShinagawa ditorium, which had to be cleaned

Mayor Brennan and members of Friends of Shinagawa plant a cherry blossom tree in Post Office Park on August 20. The tree marks the 30th anniversary of Portland’s sister-city relationship with Shinagawa, Japan. West End NEWS Photo

Welcome Back to The West End News!

We’ve missed you!

West End Neighborhood Association Meet your neighbors ~ Voice your concerns Second Wednesday every month 6:30 pm at Reiche Community Room

Mayor Brennan, members of Friends of Shinagawa, and City staff planted a cherry blossom tree on August 20 in Post Office Park between Exchange and Middle Streets. The planting marks the city’s 30th anniversary of its sister-city relationship with Shinagawa, Japan.

In April, Mayor Brennan led a 22-person Portland delegation to Shinagawa for a week long program in honor of the 30th anniversary. Friends of Shinagawa, a non-profit group, organized the trip.

Shinagawa, a city of roughly 350,000 people, is a suburb of Tokyo and is the oldest of Portland’s four sister-city relationships.

Shinagawa Cultural Exchange Trip Needs Studens from PTLD Portland students ages 14-19 are needed for a Cultural Exchange trip to sister-city Shinagawa, Japan. The trip is scheduled for July 21 through August 2, 2015. The trip will include up to18 students from the Greater Portland area. Also needed are two adult chaperones. Students and chaperones will be required to raise funding for the trip, and help with fundraising can be provided.

The cultural exchange is one of a series of annual visits from Portland to Shinagawa. A sports exchange is planned for 2016, and will include boys baseball and girls basketball.

The cultural exchange is organized by the Portland-Shinagawa Student Exchange.

Interested students can call 207-929-8570.

There is ALWAYS MORE NEWS @ thewestend NEWS. com

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up for a concert later this week.

A street collapse at High Street, between York and Commercial Streets, across from Becky’y Diner.

• Flooding at the Deering Oaks Pond on Park Avenue and at various locations in the Parkside neighborhood.

• Cars were reported floating in the area of the H.P. Hood milk processing plant on Park Avenue, and flooding at the LaQuinta Suites Hotel in that neighborhood, where 200 guests were evacuated.

• Flooding on Marginal Way in the area around Trader Joe’s.

• People reported being stranded in their car as it filled with water at the bottom of Danforth Street in the West End. Firefighters rescued three people who were stranded in cars.

• Some flooding was reported in businesses on Congress Street.

• The Residence Inn on the East End was flooded on the ground floor.

The annual West End Neighborhood Association potluck picnic, which had been schedule to take place earlier in the evening, was cancelled. Thirteen manhole covers were blown off during the storm and later replaced.

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Constellation Gallery Looking for New Space The Constellation Gallery at 511 Congress Street, a non-profit art collective in the arts district, is looking for a new home.

Portland City Councilor David Marshall is the gallery’s previous owner and founder. Three years ago Marshall sold the gallery for $1 to the nonprofit artists’ collective he helped form. The price of a membership in the collective is $60 a year.

The building the gallery operates out of was recently sold and the newowners have placed a sign in the gallery window offering the space for lease. The collective has been able to work out of the space because of an understanding the previous owner had with Marshall. The gallery paid a percentage of sales to the landlord in exchange for occupying the space.

The collective will have thirty days to find a new location after a new tenant is found.

“What ever happens, the collective will continue,” said Marshall.

For more information about the gallery and collective go to: www.constellationart.com.

The West End NEWS is a proud supporter of

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OPINIONS PAGE

Vol. 14 No. 1 August 22, 2014

If you have an opinion to share, let’s hear it! Send your op-eds, letters to the editor, and other thoughts to thewestendnews@gmail.com.

Raise My Wage, Please!

There is good news and bad news on the effort to raise the minimum wage in Portland.

The good news is that Portland Mayor Michael Brennan has commissioned a working group to explore the possibility of the city establishing its own minimum wage, separate from the state’s $7.50 per hour. (The federal minimum wage is a quarter less, at $7.25.)

The bad news: His goal of $9.50 is not nearly enough to constitute a substantive improvement in the lives of minimum wage workers.

Indeed, the mayor’s proposal falls short of even President Barack Obama’s plan of $10.10. And Brennan is pretty dead-set against the $15 goal of the grassroots, “Fight for $15” campaign which was instrumental in raising the minimum wage to $15/hr in Seattle earlier this year.

This is also assuming, of course, that the Portland City Council passes Brennan’s minimum wage hike—or that it does so without watering the bill down significantly. Given the Council’s recent, particularly pro-business track-record, I remain skeptical. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens…

But let’s “ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive,” as the Andrews Sisters might say.

The good news is that, for the first time in many years, the topic of raising the minimum wage is front-and-center in political discourse, both locally and nationally.

It is a conversation that is long overdue.

The fact is the national minimum wage has not kept pace with the rate of inflation since 1968. If it had, it would be around $10.70 today—higher by other estimates. In fact, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz in his latest book, The Price of Inequality, the “real federal minimum wage” is actually “15 percent lower than it was almost a third of a century ago, in 1980” (Pg. 242; italics in the original).

The United States has the lowest minimum wage among industrialized nations of the world. Australia ($16.88), France ($12.09), and Ontario, Canada ($11) all pay their workers a higher minimum wage—and they provide universal health care, to boot.

If Portland succeeds in establishing its own city-wide minimum wage, it will become the first community in Maine to do so.

The renewed interest in the minimum wage comes at a time when Portland is becoming increasingly unaffordable for working-class residents. Many residents fear a gentrifying trend which increasingly seems to favor wealthy retirees from “away,” while forcing lower-middle class Portlanders out.

Jimmy McMillan was right: “The rent is too damn high!”

Congress Square: Time to Speed Up the Process

The concrete plaza in the heart of Portland’s Art District has been scheduled for a facelift for over 7 years. by Tony Zeli, WEN Editor

Adam Marletta Political Columnist The city’s lack of good-paying jobs, the dearth of affordable and subsidized housing, the lingering effects of the Great Recession (wait, I thought that was over…), and employers’ general pickiness over hiring have all compounded the problem.

Thus, the need for a higher minimum wage is all the more imperative.

In the wake of the recession, jobs in retail and the so-called “service economy” are the only industries that are growing.

Here in Maine, that means Hannaford, Walmart, and L.L. Bean—the state’s topthree employers—are where most of us are working. All are minimum wage jobs.

Zack Anchors, in a recent edition of his Portland Phoenix column, “One Cent’s Worth” (“Not Getting By in Portland,” 08/08/2014) referenced Barbara Ehrenreich’s seminal 2001 book, Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

The revelatory expose finds the journalist and social critic going “undercover” in a series of low-skilled, minimum wage jobs—one of which has her cleaning houses in Portland--to get a firsthand account of how difficult it is to make ends-meet.

What is truly striking about Ehrenreich’s pre-Great Recession account is not so much that very little has changed for minimum wage workers in the last 13 years. Rather it is how much worse their plight has become.

“When I watch TV over my dinner at night,” Ehrenreich writes, “I see a world in which everyone makes $15 an hour or more…” “ The sitcoms and dramas are about fashion designers or schoolteachers or lawyers, so it’s easy for a fast-food worker or nurse’s aide to conclude that she is an anomaly—the only one, or almost the only one, who hasn’t been invited to the party. And in a sense she would be right: the poor have disappeared from the culture at large, from its political rhetoric and intellectual endeavors as well as from its daily entertainment.”

Adam Marletta is a writer, freelance reporter, and activist.

You can read his blog at guerrillapress.blogspot.com.

The dust has settled after the June vote on the parks initiative. Many saw the initiative as little more than a scheme to stop development of a large portion of Congress Square Park by the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel (or as most West Enders still refer to it, the Eastland). Others portrayed the referendum as a necessary step to prevent Councilors and outof-state investors from developing our precious public spaces. All sides agreed that the park sorely needs renovation. The question now is what will it look like?

On August 20 the group charged with answering that question, the Congress Square Redesign Study Group, met to discuss possible scenarios for a brand spanking new Congress Square.

And good news! They have narrowed it down to two options. It only took at least seven years of meetings, public comments and countless suggestions from every corner of the city to get this far.

The City Council started the redesign process for Congress Square in 2007. This is when Councilors Kevin Donoghue (East End) and Dave Marshall (West End) sought and gained the approval of City Council to form the Congress Square Redesign Study Group. This group first met in 2008.

Donoghue and Marshall originally proposed to charge the study group with redesigning the entire Congress Square intersection, one of the busiest intersections in the state, but the City Council reduced the scope to only the park.

In 2008 the study group got as far as approving a RFP (Request For Proposals) process for the park’s redesign. So why the delay? Why were Councilors and members of the public condemning the park as a failed space as recently as this summer?

Enter a mysterious easement. In 2009 city staff halted the Congress Square RFP process. They claimed that the hotel that abuts the park had an easement that prevents a redesign of the park. Every thing was put on hold for our poor, neglected park. But why? What did the easement have to do with any of this? We may never know. The easement was never produced by city staff or the owners of the hotel. No one in recent history has actually seen this easement.

Regardless, the city staff delayed the process and created an opportunity for Rockbridge, the investment firm out of Ohio that owns the Westin Hotel, to get involved. Then things got messy, but let’s skip that part.

Earlier this month at the last Council meeting the entire Congress Square intersection was added to the study group’s purview. They will now consider the intersection of High and Congress Streets, Congress Square Plaza, the public spaces in front of the Portland Museum of Art and the H. H. Hay building, and surrounding sidewalks and traffic islands.

It looks like Councilors Donoghue and Marshall will get what they wanted when they first envisioned the study group.

Of course, we are still far from an improved Congress Square. The study group is likely to be meeting for several more months, with a deadline for recommendations to the City Council in November.

Their next step is to choose a scenario for the park so that a new RFP process can begin.

This scenario will likely be one of two options: a redesign of the park without the event center Rockbridge wants, or a design that includes an event center with a public access green space on its roof. continued on Page 6

Vol. 14 No. 1 August 22, 2014

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PERSPECTIVES FROM THE SKY by Leo Knighton Tallarico

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An Astrological Guide for Worldview and Personal Transformation during these Changing Times on Planet Earth We are moving through important tides of change for our human experience here on Planet Earth.

There are three planets that symbolize transformation: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. When they make aspect to one another it signifies important spikes of change for our human condition.

For example in 1992-1994 Uranus and Neptune made conjunction with one another. This meeting synchronized with the advent of the internet revolution and even more meaningfully an information revolution that has provided us with perspectives outside the mainstream media.

In 1965-1966 Uranus and Pluto made conjunction with one another. This

meeting synchronized with the beginning of the powerful ‘60s revolution, a time when “power to the people” helped bring us greater civil rights for African-Americans, a sexual revolution, freedom from old gender roles, a clearer view of societal hypocrisy and corruption, and eventually the ending of the Viet Nam war and the Nixon presidency.

I believe these two transformational time periods brought great waves of revolutionary and evolutionary progress on the road to an Age of Aquarius.

Astrologers have varying calculations for the beginning of that New Age. I personally believe the 2020’s will bring us more fully into that age after Saturn conjuncts continued on Page 6

Leo Knighton Tallarico is an astrological and spiritual guide and counselor. His specialty is counseling for those in the process of change, transformation, transition, and crisis. He also specializes in couples’ counseling for any and all kinds of relationship. He has been a Full Time professional for 30 years.

Leo co-directs the Spiritual Renaissance Center in South Portland with his life mate Deborah Knighton Tallarico. (www.spiritualrenaissance.com) Leo also writes a weekly astrological forecast (www.spiritualtherapy.wordpress.com).

You can contact him to make comments or to set up a consultation at soulus@aol.com.

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contnued from Page 5

Jupiter in Aquarius in December of 2020.

In the meantime, the speed and intensity of worldwide and personal evolution are greatly increasing. Worldwide revolution intends to break down the old order, seek to redistribute power, and break down and change current national borders.

In personal lives, belief systems and consciousness will need to transform in accordance with the needs of the new world, creating a “new human”, one who seeks true authenticity beyond societal and familial programming. That new human is also more aware of, and moving toward a need to respect and find connection and

unity with other humans, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or lifestyle.

We are in need of more “power to the people” and an individual sense of responsibility for our Earth and human family instead of the current Corporate, Governmental and Militaristic structure of the world.

An Age of Aquarius brings greater equality and rights for all humans, a “Diversity In Unity” world.

This may seem like a “pie in the sky” sense of our collective future, but if you think about it- if we are not moving toward that kind of world and consciousness, we will likely become

long as they take home the minimum wage at the end of the day.

Many in the crowd agreed that the Mayor’s plan does not go far enough. Members of the “Fight for 15” coalition argued that $10 per hour is not sufficient, and that a living wage of $15/hr, like that recently enacted in Seattle, would be a better goal.

A living wage is calculated based on the cost of basic needs such as food, rent, utilities, health care, transportation and child care. In 2010, the Maine Department of Labor calculated that a living wage in the Portland metropolitan area for a single adult with one child is $21.40.

Still others argued that the Mayor’s plan did not contain sufficient enforcement mechanisms.

“There is not a strong enforcement plan,” said Drew Joy, chair of the Southern Maine Workers’ Center, “and labor laws are only as strong as the rules made to enforce them.”

The roof-top park is not a new idea.

Councilors Donoghue and Marshall brought the idea before the study group years ago, but the developers said it would be far too costly. No kidding.

The developers have changed their tune... slightly. They are open to the idea as long as the city pays for any extra costs to them to reinforce the event center’s roof and maintain public egresses. In other words, it will never happen.

Not only are cost estimates for building a roof-top park as high as $4.5 million, but there would be huge costs and challenges to maintaining such a space. Who pays for and maintains the park, the building, the egresses to get on and off the green roof?

In our opinion the roof-top park is a cool idea, but the study group should not waste anymore of their time considering it. Dismiss it as too costly immediately and move on to more realistic recommendations. It is long past time to move forward and build our new park.

Congress Square Citywide MiniRedesign Study mum Wage ProGroup continued from Page 4 posal continued from Page 1

extinct. The weapons of mass destruction which are entering the hands of more and more people and governments, added to the hatreds and demonizing for those who are different, equals eventual self destruction in a world of humans more connected then ever by commerce, transportation, and communication networks.

The Corporate and Government control of human hearts and minds and lives, getting easier and easier with absolute control of wealth and military by the Empires, spells eventual destruction of human freedom and human soul if we do not change.

I believe on a deep level our human

Vol. 14 No. 1 August 22, 2014 collective is in evolutionary crisis and the potential Age of Aquarius is in jeopardy. We can evolve or we can become the dinosaurs of the future.

Right now is a crucial turning point for our human condition. Uranus and Pluto are in square ( 90 degree separation) to one another, the first major aspect between them since the conjunction of the ‘60s. This square lasts from 2012-2016.

Those two powerful planets again seek to awaken us to the truths, beyond the programming, lies, and illusions. They seek to transform our individual lives and continued on Page 7

Former West End NEWS publisher Ed King celebrates the return to publication of the local Portland newspaper with Elvis, The King, on Hollywood Boulevard in LA.

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Vol. 14 No. 1 August 22, 2014

Perspectives from the Sky continued from Page 6 consciousness, and to break down the Military/Economic power structure that controls our lives and brings such disparity of wealth, privilege and self worth.

This year 2014 is especially important, as along with the Uranus/Pluto square there was a Cardinal Grand Cross and major eclipses earlier this year.

Those planetary configurations brought us a conflict in Ukraine/Russia, and major turmoil in the Middle East, including a horrific massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and the powerful gains of the ruthless Islamic State in what is called Syria and Iraq.

Of course those so-called states were created and then manipulated by western powers after World War I, and Israel was formed not long after World War II by western powers again.

The Middle East is especially important in the transformation between ages, as it “housed” some of the first civilizations like Egypt and Sumeria, and planted the seeds of major world religions like Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, which in a horribly ironic way have birthed some groups that create wars and kill for their Gods.

The wars in the Middle East (and elsewhere) are just getting started, and the hope is that these horrors will awaken a sufficient number of humans to the need to transform us out of an “us versus them” mentality and into one of equality and Diversity in Unity.

The breakdown of the current Economic structure is also on the horizon, so we may potentially build a system that is fair for all.

In September of 2014 we are setting the table for Autumn Eclipse Season 2014.

Eclipses are times when there are spikes of change in personal lives and in the world.

There are breakdowns of that which is no longer viable, and breakthroughs, awakenings, and inspirations that assist us to lead more authentic lives connected to the Universe and its movement into new consciousness.

Jobs, relationships, living situations, dysfunctional patterns, and old belief systems that no longer serve your

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thewestendNEWS.com growth may be challenged to get better or to end during an Eclipse Season.

Before the end of September the Eclipse Season will bring its first winds of change. Then on October 8th there will be a Total Lunar Eclipse Full Moon in Aries.

That will be followed by a Solar Eclipse New Moon in Scorpio on October 23.

These eclipses strongly suggest a shaking up of our lives, so energies of transformational change can move through.

We will discuss this Eclipse Season in more depth in late September in our regular column for West End News.

In this month of September 2014, the natal chart of Israel’s birth from May 14, 1948 will be triggered by aspects from aggressive Mars and Jupiter. Conflicts in Israel and the Middle East will likely be triggered even more.

There will be a Full Moon in Virgo/ Pisces on September 8, a time to balance one’s needs to make order and fix (Virgo) with one’s need to surrender and “go with the flow” (Pisces).

On September 22 is the Autumn Equinox- a time usually for peaceful transition into the Fall Season. There is an equal balance then between light and dark, yang and yin. The Sun moves from Virgo to Libra at the Autumn Equinox.

But this Autumn Equinox will be more intense and powerful than the usual one as “guardian of the underworld”, ruler of Scorpio, planet Pluto, will be changing directions from Retrograde to Direct.

At such directional changes, the energy and meaning of a planet is strongly influential. Pluto is intense, explosive, and transformational, and brings to light that which has been repressed, in secret, or covered up..

This Pluto formation on the day of the Autumn Equinox promises a season ahead of powerful change.

Then on the 24th is a New Moon in Libra. New Moons mean new beginnings.

And being in Libra there is a suggestion that stronger efforts to make relationship are required. Balance, Justice, Harmony and Fairness are issues that may arise.

See you next month, Leo

THE DUMPSTER WHERE WE THROW ALL THE STUFF WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH

The traffic lights were restored to Gorham’s Corner on August 13th after being out of commission for several weeks. Despite the upgrade, there was at least one fender bender in the busy intersection. West End NEWS Photo Steven Scharf making new enemies on John McDonald’s morning show...WPOR’s Rachel Flehinger just tired of getting up so early every day... Cliff Gallant getting serious about writing his first novel... Sarah Colton back home from a blazing hot Nevada... Lemonade sales going strong outside Reiche... Everybody’s doing the ‘ice bucket challenge’... Ellen Sanborn moving from City Hall to the school department after 30 years... Shelton Waldrep first USM prof elected to Maine Film Center board... Its ‘Wait ‘til next year’ for WENA’s annual (rained out) picnic... Marge Niblock partying in East Bayside at National Night Out...West End NEWS fans on Congress Street getting excited about the imminent return of the popular local rag... Casco Bay Ferry’s new terminal officially open...

Senate candidate Shenna Bellows finishing up walk across Maine in Monument Square... West End motorist chased down driver who smacked her car and took off..

Dig into the

THE DAILY DUMPSTER Archive

The Amazing Adventures of DeliveryMan and PaperBoy When we last left DeliveryMan and PaperBoy, they were somewhere on a beach on the Mediterranean Sea in their Speedos, sipping their traditional bottle of inexpensive red wine. NewsHound was happily digging a hole in the white sand. They had run the WestEndNewsMobile off the Maine State Pier into Casco Bay, and they had taken an oath that newsprint would never again blacken their newly-scrubbed workingman hands (or paws). But when you have talent like they do, people find you. Their cell phone rang, and after a few moments of reflection, they were on a plane back to Portland to resume their true calling. ‘Whose idea was it to get rid of all the winter clothes?’ wondered NewsHound from under the business-class seat...

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the west end NEWS Volume 14 Number 1 August 22, 2014

Cooperative Carry That Tune Portland Buy A Celebration of Labor, Fermentation Local Mixer Casco Bay Frames & Gallery, 295 ForSolidarity and Song est Avenue, Hannaford Plaza, Portland Mayo Street Arts Center, 10 Mayo Farm Dinner Wednesday, September 24, 6- 8pm Street, Portland With music by Sean Mencher and Jenny Saturday, August 30, 7:30pm In celebration of Labor Day, come out and hear musicians Micah Blue Smaldone, SNAEX, Nate Schrock, Sarah Lazare and others perform some smart and rockin’ labor-themed songs. $10 suggested donation, with proceeds going to the Southern Maine Workers’ Center.

Buy Local Member Mixers are informal networking and social events for members, friends, and anyone who would like to know more about Portland Buy Local.

Casco Bay Frames & Gallery will be displaying work created by their employees.

The event is sponsored by Sebago Brewing Company and will feature Sebago beer.

What You May Have Missed...

Free Clinic and Community Picnic Held in Deering Oaks

Rally, Free Clinic and Community Picnic in Deering Oaks Park. Photos Courtesy of SMWC

On Saturday, August 18, the Southern Maine Workers’ Center hosted a community picnic and rally for universal health care. They were joined by the Maine State Nurses Association. The nurses ran a free screening health clinic.

The event was part of a statewide Health Care is a Human Right (HCHR) Campaign, a grassroots campaign to win full access to health care for all Mainers.

Van West Neverdun Farm & Seashore Trolley Museum, 195 Log Cabin Rd. Arundel Saturday, September 6, 5-8pm Celebrate the local harvest by eating a classic Maine bean supper with a fermented foods twist. Cooperative Fermentation’s Farm Dinner guests will ride on a trolley from the Seashore Trolley Museum to arrive at the dinner at Neverdun Farm in Arundel. Jenny Van West will serenade guests with old time fiddle music on their train ride to the farm and during dinner. After dinner Sean Mencher will get folks moving with rockabilly music around a bonfire.

All the food for the dinner will be sourced from local and organic farms and will be prepared by Jonah Fertig, coordinator of Cooperative Fermentation and co-founder of Local Sprouts Cooperative, along with volunteers from the community.

From 3-5pm there will be workshops including Fermentation, Intro to Permaculture and Yoga. Interested participants should register separately for these workshops.

There will be a raffle and silent auction featuring locally made goods, fermented foods and services. Proceeds from the event will go to benefit cooperative development and learning initiatives from Cooperative Fermentation.

Tickets are sliding scale from $25$50 for adults and $8 for kids. We also accept work trades and barters, please contact us for more information.

Tickets can be purchased at: http://www.cooperativefermentation.org/ cooperative-fermentation-farm-dinner/

Portland to Hold First Annual Greenfest Monument Square, Portland

Saturday, September 13, 10am - 4pm The Natural Resources Council of Maine and the City of Portland - working to become one of the greenest cities in New England will cosponsor Portland Greenfest 2014 on Saturday, September 13th in Monument Square. More information is available at: http://www.portlandgreenfest.org/.

Portland Greenfest is slated to be southern Maine’s premier annual celebration and festival of all things green. There will be live music, local food, and locally made sustainable products. Also featured will be more than 60 exhibiting groups and organizations who are working hard every day to make Maine more sustainable. The Greenfest will also have local art, a free eco-film or two, and an eco-fashion show and eco-poetry slam.

Anyone interested in exhibiting or selling goods at Portland Greenfest 2014 should submit an application soon, as space is limited. Sponsorship information is also available on the event website.