City ends $1-a-year lease: A supporter of the MLK Jr. Worker Center in Portland carries a sign as he joins protest organizers and several dozen laborers to march on Friday. The protest called for preserving the center, a hiring site intended largely for Hispanic day laborers. The center’s five-year lease expired last year, and the city has declined to give organizers another long-term lease. Opened in 2008, the center was leased to the immigrant rights group VOZ for $1 a year. It was meant to give job seekers who previously flagged cars on street corners a safer way to find work. Officials say they want to have flexibility to sell the property, which is in an up-and-coming inner-city neighborhood. (Associated Press)
City ends $1-a-year lease: A supporter of the MLK Jr. Worker Center in Portland carries a sign as he joins protest organizers and several dozen laborers to march on Friday. The protest called for preserving the center, a hiring site intended largely for Hispanic day laborers. The center’s five-year lease expired last year, and the city has declined to give organizers another long-term lease. Opened in 2008, the center was leased to the immigrant rights group VOZ for $1 a year. It was meant to give job seekers who previously flagged cars on street corners a safer way to find work. Officials say they want to have flexibility to sell the property, which is in an up-and-coming inner-city neighborhood.
