In order to understand the relationship between Portland’s UGB, housing equity, and gentrification in Northeast Portland we carried out the following research methods:
- We conducted an extensive review of the literature with regards to growth managementt strategies, housing/land value, and gentrification
- Text analysis of Portland municipal planning documents, including the 1979 Comprehensive Plan and the 1993 Albina Community Plan. This analysis focused on the city’s treatment of the economic and social aims of these programs and their awareness of the potential for gentrification/displacement as a result of urban revitalization drives.
- Spatial analysis—We created several maps, including broad scale land value inside and outside the UGB, 1998 Portland land value and race, and the change in land value and race between 1998 and 2015 in Portland. We used this to examine how the UGB affects land value inside and outside the boundary, and to provide evidence of the spatiality of gentrification in Portland. To create the UGB land value map, we used taxlot data from Metro containing information on land value and the size of the lot, to map value per square foot by lot. We compared this land value to a line shapefile of the urban growth boundary, obtained from Metro’s RLIS website. To control for the effects of zoning on land value, we then joined the taxlot files by location to a shapefile containing the single family residential zones in the Portland metro area, obtaining a median value per square foot for each of the discrete single family zones. We then measured the distance from the center point of each of these zones (categorized as inside or outside the UGB) to the center point of the downtown census block group. To assess whether or not these zones display a break in land value conterminous with the theorized effects of a UGB on land value, we then graphed these results as a two-series scatterplot and added a linear trendline for zones inside and outside the boundary. Maps on racial change in Portland were created using census data from the 2014 American Community Survey, available on American FactFinder, and 2000 census data from the US2010 longitudinal database, which contains past census data normalized by present tract boundaries.
- Interviews:
- We conducted interviews over email with Liz Fouther-Branch and Nya Branch, two black women, a mother and her daughter, whose family is historically from Northeast Portland and have seen the area change over time. Liz and Nya are actively involved in community organizations and, while not deeply involved with urban planning, express life experiences and sentiments regarding gentrification and displacement in the city. Liz works with the Mckenzie River Gathering Foundation and Multnomah County Citizens Involvement committee, and Nya volunteers with the Black United Fund, McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, and Playworks.
- We conducted in-person interviews with Tina Buettell, Linn Davis, John and Bev Martinson, members of two different white families, who run the Mahonia Land Trust Conservancy just south of Oregon City. Tina, age 65, bought and founded the land trust just outside of the UGB in 1975. Her son, Linn Davis, spent his early childhood on the land trust and is now a student in PSU’s Urban Planning and Policy program. John and Bev Martinson currently live on the land and take care of day-to-day operations. Mahonia includes 67.4 acres located in Oregon City, which is directly the opposite side of the city from Nya and Liz. Mahonia is a registered nonprofit with the goals of preserving greenspace, protecting wildlife habitat, encouraging community, conducting outdoor education, and promoting sustainable agriculture and forestry.
Interview Questions:
Questions for Nya and Liz:
- With which organizations (if any) are you involved in Portland? What role(s) do you play?
- In which Portland neighborhood do you live?
- In what ways have you seen neighborhoods in NE Portland change over time? Please describe any changes you have noticed. Do you see neighborhood changes as positive, negative, or somewhere in between?
- How would you propose remedying any of the problems you have experienced or observed in your neighborhood (or in Portland more generally)?
- What do you believe are the primary causes of gentrification and displacement?
- Do you believe that different urban planning strategies could help solve issues such as gentrification or displacement? What other solutions can you imagine?
- What is your experience with gentrification and displacement in NE Portland (this could be directly personal experience, observation, participation in community organizations or politics, or anything else)?
- What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of city planning in Portland? Do you have an opinion regarding city planning in Portland (or, more specifically, Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary)? If so, what do you see as the positive and negative aspects of the Urban Growth Boundary? Does the UGB affect your life?
- Who do you think benefits from Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary?
Questions for Tina and John:
- Story of the land trust–how did it come to be? What values is it founded on, and how does it operate?
- What is the relationship between Mahonia and the Urban Growth Boundary? Has this relationship changed over time, between 1979 and now?
- Do you have an opinion regarding Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary? If so, what do you see as the positive and negative aspects of the Urban Growth Boundary? How does the UGB affect your life?
- Tina: Since you have lived both within and outside the UGB, what do you see as the positives and negatives of each? How does your quality of life, including cost of living, differ between the two areas?
- I noticed from your profile on Food For Oregon that Mahonia provides programs for community development, low income housing and land reform. What do these programs look like? What are their aims, and are they successful in achieving results?
- From your experience, do you believe that Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary affects housing prices within and outside the city? Do you see any relationship between the UGB and gentrification in Portland?
- In what ways have you seen the land in your surrounding area change over time? Please describe any changes you have noticed. Do you see these changes as positive, negative, or somewhere in between?
- How would you propose remedying any of the problems you have experienced or observed in your area (or in Portland more generally)? Do you believe that different urban planning strategies could help solve environmental or social issues? What other solutions can you imagine?
- Do you think that creating land trusts within the UGB could help alleviate housing inequalities?
- Do you think that the UGB should (or could) be restructured, expanded, or collapsed? Are you satisfied with boundary policies and zoning?