Instead of abusing all the bums who wander onto the public park amongst the campus, move Portland State University back to Vanport, where it came from, and hope for another flood.

My little contribution to this tale:

http://www.reverbnation.com/lewilongmire/song/10847818-vanport-1948

Got news for all youse; that fashionable new city down by Riverplace, Vera Katz built without public debate, last thing before she retired in style - it's on a flood plane. That's why nobody was permitted to build down there from the beginning.

FRED ARE WE ALL GOING TO DIE???

Well, Colonel, you are getting a tad bit gray. With your eyes, try L'Oreal medium ash brown, and don't go near the water.

I think the history of Vanport pretty much epitomizes the true colors of Portland's and Portlanders' mentality: we talk a mighty fine talk up the fence about inclusion and tolerance, but we fall down the other side of it in a septic tank of racism and classism, facilitated by gentrification and an inept and corrupt city hall's policies (not to mention a police force I fear more than the one in Las Vegas!).

This sad story is a good reminder of why we should not be building on the flood plains of the Willamette and Columbia rivers - and a warning of what we could be facing again. While the flood in 1948 was very bad, it was not the worst recorded flood for this area: look for the plaques on the older buildings on First and Second Streets in downtown Portland, showing how high the flood waters reached in 1894.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that damages begin to occur in the Portland, Vancouver and lower Columbia River areas at flow levels above 450,000 cfs as measured at The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River and that substantial damages occur when flows exceed 600,000 cfs at that location.

For the 1948 flood event, the flows at current location of the The Dalles Dam were estimated to exceed 1,000,000 cfs.

For the 1894 flood event, the unregulated flow was estimated to exceed 1,200,000 cfs as measured at the current location of The Dalles Dam. The Corps has indicated that it would strive to manage such an event so as not to exceed 800,000 cfs at The Dalles Dam.

Think about what flows up to 800,000 cfs mean for Portland, Vancouver and other areas in the lower river. We should be planning now to avoid that kind of disaster in the future. For more information, see: http://www.critfc.org/tribal-treaty-fishin…

My colleague, Keith Kutchins, policy analyst for the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT http://www.ucut.org/index.ydev), also wanted to point out that one of "the most racist actions came after the Vanport flood, when massive dams were built upriver, permanently flooding the homelands of indigenous peoples and destroying the salmon those cultures depended upon, in order for the newcomers to build in Portland's floodplains."

Excellent article. Now I want to go explore the area.

I knew there was city but did not know the history behind it. My dad worked at those ship yards and I went to delta park and swan island all the time as kid. I always thought the "old villa" was where refuge was found. I want to explore more. Thank you for the share.

It was built during a time of war when the ship building facilities were urgently needed. The space was available to build on, because otherwise everyone knew better than to build there. The mistake was in not evacuating after the war.

what you do is you go down there on that Heroin lakes golf course by the canal on the 15th hole and you get yourself a metal detector. Go down there when its mushy and that thing will start beeping, the ground is so soft you can kick it open with your boots and find cavalry swords, WWII medals, colt revolvers. See thats where they had an army surplus depot right next to Vanport. Everybody forgot about that. I always find stuff. Sold some of it too.

I'm sure if it still existed there would be the gentrifcation argument going on about it.