A report on Portland’s “drug impact areas” lacks key context on race.
drug free zones
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Set It and Forget It!

The 2011 News Stories You’ve Already Forgotten About.
The 2011 news stories you’ve already forgotten about.
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Hall Monitor
You’ve Heard This Before
Drug-free zones might be coming back to Portland—with some help from Mayor Sam Adams.
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The Policy that Wasn’t There
City’s Hazy Drug-Free Zone Replacement Program
AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS researching the city’s $1.3 million per year replacement program for the now defunct Drug-Free Zones (DFZs), the Mercury has been unable to find a clear and consistent written policy on the new program anywhere in Portland. The DFZs sunset last September, after independent statistical analysis showed African Americans were more likely to […]
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Blacklisted
Does City’s “Livability” List Have Racial Imbalance?
The city’s effective replacement for the now-defunct Drug-Free Zones (DFZs) appears to be targeting black people for harsher treatment by the judicial system—just as the DFZs did. Of the 408 people now on the city’s Neighborhood Livability Crime Enforcement Offender List (NLCEOL)—a list used to determine who is diverted into a city program that couples […]