Politics Mar 4, 2015 at 4:20 pm

Is $20 Million Enough to Defy History, Fight Gentrification, and Revive the Black Portland that Was?

Comments

1
It would be nice if this somehow worked and all the sudden the return of the black middle class sprang up from the dirt like Tupac's ghost and made all of the liberals feel as uncomfortable do when they have to listen to Tupac's music.

But I am skeptical that anyone is going to bite and can't help but wonder if this will only lead to inflammatory reverse discrimination allegations by low income white people who feel unjustly discriminated against when they are not afforded their entitled living space too.
2
Did you move to Portland in the last seven years, possibly from the mid-west? You, and the rest of the white twenty-something hipsters who flooded North and Northeast Portland because it was cheap may just be the reason why rents have skyrocketed. Perhaps you guy's could invite the gang bangers from Gresham over for some cold-pressed coffee if you're concerned about gentrification?
3
a) Perhaps it is time that the PDC just gave up. The law of unintended consequences seems to have hit them hard. It might be better if the (gasp) free market dictated who the winners and losers are, instead of some half-competent, quasi-governmental agency.

b) Why is diversity only important in one direction?
4
Great reporting! Thank you for covering this so well. One thing: Natural Grocers is actually WAY cheaper than New Seasons and Whole Foods, and sometimes cheaper than Trader Joes, and, in my humble opinion, Natural Grocers offers a better shopping experience (spacious aisles, limited less overwhelming selections, and very friendly salt of the earth staff instead of snotty hipsters, well, at least at their Gresham location).
5
Lots of people are being displaced. Why only focus on one particular color?
6
Lemme take a wild guess here: I would bet this Holt guy must be black - for you can sure as shit believe if he were white he'd get thrown out of Portland for calling black majority neighborhoods "dark chocolate".
But hey, if you are black you are allowed to use such terms, or even the nasty word 'nigger', right?
I thought the headline of this was a joke Denis. Yeah, sure, throwing some more money at this perceived problem would make everything alright. If nothing else, soothe any lingering white guilt, eh?
If one is to frame the argument about keeping any neighborhood ethnically pure, then surely since these were white German immigrant hoods to begin with, I would suggest tax breaks for those who can prove their grandparents made their bones there long ago.
But are we really saying that only certain races should be in any neighborhood solely on the basis of their color?
7
Yeah, this whole thing strikes me as pretty ridiculous. Neighborhoods are NEVER static, trying to stop demographic trajectories is like stopping a runaway train. These neighborhoods were Norwegian and German before black (and poor). Where's the hand-wringing for them?
We'll hear a lot of platitudes and see a lot of crocodile tears from city leaders about this issue. Truth of the matter is, few are really sad to see the neighborhood change for the better (and an increased tax base and development), even if that means poorer people, of any color, move past 82nd.
And how about you (no matter what color you are)? Would you rather visit Albina now or 15 years ago? How about with your family or out of town guests? How about at night?
Thought so.
8
"If we, as a society, really value socioeconomic integration (and the racial integration that likely goes with it), we must create economic and legal incentives for mixed-income neighborhoods: competitive subsidies that encourage landlords to make properties available to low-income tenants, both residential and commercial, even in neighborhoods where more moneyed would-be residents are available; and public housing that is physically integrated with private housing, not set apart in vast tracts or imposing towers." http://thebillfold.com/2014/10/ok-gentrifi…
9
@the Clown's comment: the Black (or any color) middle class won't be eligible for subsidized housing. Do we know why the Black middle class is choosing not to live in the area now? Why live in Lake O where there is no one "who can style African-American hair."

One issue I have with the article and the PDC's effort is the geographic area they are discussing - The Villa to NE 33rd Ave, includes Overlook and Irvington?!? With the exception of a small section of Albina (Russell south), that huge area was predominantly white working class since the early 1910s. Why is that our history lesson of N/NE Portland starts in the 50s?
Why is the City and PAALF is interested in creating a ghetto? I thought we value diversity. N/NE Portland is now probably more racial/ethnic, and income diverse than it has ever been. It also has a higher percentage of subsidized housing units than anywhere in the metropolitan area.
Why is there no similar outcry to make Division, Sunnyside/Buckman more accessible to low-income and people of color?
10
That seems like a fair price! How much money would it take to reverse police profiling? This is a rich nation, do we have enough to undo slavery?
11
20 mil. Nice round number. White liberal guilt dollars there. How many street fixes would that be? Never mind the community as a whole, tears-based budgeting!
12
For real though; thanks for taking this on Denis. No other news outlet is addressing the issue of gentrification head on like the Merc. Sad to see you go and hope you can bring the on the ground news and analysis to the Oregonian that you've brought here
13
@buckaroo - you're a dumbass. A concentration of black people doesn't make a 'ghetto'. What makes a neighborhood with a concentration of black folks turn into a 'ghetto' is government neglect to streets, maintenance, parks, schools, and a failure by banks (ahem, white owned) to provide access to reasonably priced loans for businesses and homeownership. And yes Albina was a primarily working class white neighborhood before Vanport flooded and all of the black folks who migrated here from the South to work in the shipyards were forced to live side by side with working class whites in Albina. But those whites left and black folks were not allowed out of lines drawn by the City and real estate market.
14
Some honest questions about this:

1)If someone takes the home repair funds would there be provisions to stop them(or someone who might inherit the property) from just selling the house? Because in those neighborhoods with that housing market a little money put in fixing up an old home can go a long way--and who knows how someone on a limited income might feel once they see the price they can get--even if they do love the old neighborhood. I mean a lot of middle-class black and white homeowners in those neighborhoods sold out a while ago when prices started going up because they could suddenly get a nice profit for selling their home.

2)Since they can't specifically target this at African-Americans, could someone who isn't black who left a neighborhood because of "destructive urban renewal" as they put it, use these funds to buy a home in one of these gentrified areas or receive funds through the proposal ? How about an old person who might not be black whose home or property was destroyed during freeway construction years ago in North Portland?

3) "PDC officials say they still see some chance to turn around NE MLK"? The PDC has been supporting gentrification of MLK on one hand then putting money into low-income housing further up on the other--but what do they imagine "turning around" MLK is going to look like? There's already newer businesses on the south end of the street that fit the gentrification mold. None of this is going away. And a lot of black businesses on MLK have had trouble surviving financially for years--the ones that survive are mostly the hair salons and barbers. But do they really think that possibly bringing back a few hundred black families is going to change much when overall the whole population is still going to be more spread over the entire metro?
15
@the Clown Ghetto = a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. The term was originally used in Venice to describe the part of the city to which Jews were restricted and segregated.

You are a self-centered dumb ass.
16
Did you just cite Wikipedia to me? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto

Next time go ahead and scroll down to the 'African-American ghettos' section if you're going to try and get all academic about your trolling. Not that I advocate using Wikipedia as a research source since it can be edited by ANYONE; but if you're going to, try reading the whole damn thing, dumbass.
17
20 mill is how about how much mullah my mistress wants me to put into our mansion money pit. A bath tub for 5? I beg to differ. 3 max. Nude roman marble statues at the entrance and corners of the heated pool? A zipline from the east tower to the west tower? New dance floor and lighting in the bomb shelter? I mean the list goes on. Going to have to dig deep into our siberian tiger skin upholstered sofas for that kind of change. When I get to work those interns had better not be slacking off. I'll have to crack the whip on them. Ironically these our the kids displacing all them po folks in the N and NE. God bless trickle up economics.
18
@ the clown - the citation for ghetto shows the ORIGIN of the term, rooted in Italian. It is verbatim the New Collegiate Dictionary definition and Websters. My original point was about achieving and maintaining diversity in N/NE Portland rather than trying to reinforce as the "home" of any one demographic.
My grandparents moved to inner NE in the 30s, my parents moved to the 'burbs in the 60s, I moved back to NE in the early 70s. So I don't need you "educating" me about the history of this community.
And BTW, my comments are trolling because.....they don't agree with yours?
19
@buckaroo - Sorry to have to get all IAN KARMEL rage-ahol on you here but you're really getting on my damn nerves.

First off, we don't know who YOU are. That's the point, anybody that is anonymously posting comments is TROLLING (yes this includes myself).

Second, fuck your grandparents, your parents, you and your Webster's dictionary. Were your grandparents forced to live in inner NE? No. Were your parents allowed to live in the 'burbs? Yes. They were allowed to breakdown and setup shop wherever they wanted which is NOT the case for the black folks that were FORCED to live in N/NE.

Third, I don't consider condominiums, New Seasons, or hipsters adding to the diversity of a goddamn thing. Last I checked North Williams looked homogeneous as FUCK! Seems like you DO need someone to tell you the history of your town because you clearly don't know SHIT.

Here's a link to an article by a PSU professor that might teach you about how all this happened.... Mercury recommended this reading 3 years ago as mandatory for all new and oldcomer Portlanders. Check it out.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8vrhzdjE2…

Peace.
20
Cool it on the name calling, guys! Don't make me turn this comment thread around. Thank you!
21
My bad
22
Southeast Portland used to be a tin shack shanty town, in a mud hole, too. How about we bring that back?
23
I might have missed this in the comments above, but the rising tide of gentrification also helped black home sellers. The victim narrative here tends to leave out those people. Why? Because complexity cannot be reduced to a bumper sticker. There are winners and losers in every socioeconomic transformation. Hippies are losing out to yuppies, workers to professionals, and the old to the young. Portland is changing almost everywhere, and mostly to the better. Why better? Because reinvestment in its housing stock is crucial. Houses don't fix and upgrade themselves. You need people with economic assets to do that. Does this mean black culture is being disrespected? No. It means change doesn't care about color or cultural codes. The people who most resist change tend to be conservatives, but as this story points out, not always.
24
The Swedish and Jewish parts of Portland are long since gone [the city actually had them at one time]. The last vestiges of the SE Italian community was driven out by the hipster influx as was the working class population. Now Black Portland is dying...dying.

Old Portland is almost dead, killed by hipsters just like the Ptld Beavers were. At least they've brought some cool restaurants and a culture, of sorts. Hopefully some of the old school inhabitants made some money off of them.
25
Again.... The second part of my FIRST comment.

Unwillingness to look at equality with a systemic, historical framework will continue to contribute to the degradation and mistreatment of the poor and underserved members of Portland.

We are not championing PROGRESS with policies which evict and destroy on a mass scale to make way for the new liberal bourgeois class. This culture of complacency that has been established in Portland is thoroughly disgusting, ignorant and ironically poorly informed, particularly considering the focus on responsible consumerism the new liberal class wears on it's sleeve.
26
There might still be a few old Italian family farms in Parkrose.
27
Saint Michael the Arc Angel Catholic Church down by PSU, might still have a nice little Italian garden.

Enjoy your bowl of fucking cherries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AE-25r3TE

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