Urban Form History
In the mid 19th century, most of inner Portland was constructed around streetcar lines. The rise of consumer car usage and the construction of highways throughout Portland became prevalent after World War II. This led to the deconstruction of streetcar lines, the historic structures of the old Lloyd Center, and surface parking lots in downtown. Policy revisions in the 1970’s (The City Center Plan of 1972) and 1980s (The Comprehensive Plan 1980) encouraged the revitalization of downtown. These changes involved instituting various plans for downtown, replacing Harbor Drive with the Tom McCall Waterfront Park (1974) and implementing the Urban Growth Boundary (1979). A freeway revolt in the mid 1970’s aimed at blocking the planned Mt. Hoot Freeway construction through Southeast Portland reallocated funds to construct the Eastside MAX line. More recently, The Pearl district and South Waterfront areas became upzoned to create upscale mixed-use areas from brownfield and industrial lands.
Portland has designated large portions of North Portland and the Center City as urban renewal zones. In these areas, targeted public investments funded by property tax levies on the areas in the zone, are made in order to increase the rate of private investment. There are currently major investment renewal projects being conducted in the Interstate Corridor of Northeast Portland. This area encompasses portions of Arbor Lodge, Boise, Bridgeton, Eliot, Humboldt, Kenton, King, Overlook, Piedmont, Portsmouth, Concordia, East Columbia, Friends of Cathedral Park, St. John’s, University Park, Woodlawn, and Vernon. In December of 2015, the Portland Development Commission set aside $1.2 million in grants to fund 18 projects in the region. These projects attempted to build larger capacity to support business growth, job creation, and social equity. As Portland’s largest urban renewal area, the interstate corridor is significant to the city for its diverse collection of historic residential communities, commercial corridors, and industrial districts (Portland Development Commission).
Sustainability Rhetoric
The idea of Portland, and the Pacific Northwest, as a green utopia for white residents was an idea that has been historically supported. Ernest Callenbach wrote Ecotopia in 1975. The story used fictionalized journalism to depict a hypothetical utopia that saw the Pacific Northwest secede from the US. The people of Ecotopia advocate for and practice eating and living locally, sharing resources, the abolishment of government and private property, and being at one with nature. In a 2011 study, Jim Proctor claims that exceptionalism in the PNW praises the environmental conditions of the area. The perspectives of many Oregonians are consistent with Ecotopian ideals, where Oregonians are more likely to embody ecotopian values than Americans are (Proctor 2011). The Pacific Northwest was originally called Cascadia. The name was given as a means of preserving the natural beauty of the region.
Many citizens of Portland live lifestyles of perceived sustainability. Portland is one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the country, 7.2% of commuters rely on bike riding (the largest percentage of any large American city). Portland is also regarded as one of the “greenest” cities in the country, it contains the largest amount of forest cover of any city with a population of more than 200,000 people in the US. Investment in public transit has also increased in the recent past. Portland was seen as the ideal city by the Federal Transit Administration in the 1990s and was held as a model for urban growth, this meant that capital for the light rail and streetcars continued to flow into the city.
Portland’s Racial History and the Advent of Gentrification
In terms of understanding the current racial makeup of Portland, it is imperative to examine the history of minorities in Portland. Up until the year 1926, black individuals were banned from the state of Oregon through actual Oregon Constitutional law. To this day, African-American individuals still make up a small portion of the population both statewide (1.8% as of the 2010 census) and in Portland (6.3% as of the 2010 census).
One prominent historical black community in the Portland area was the city of Vanport, where racial minority workers were hired to build ships for WWII and were housed in poor conditions. The Vanport flood of 1948 caused many workers to relocate for work since there was very little government investment in infrastructure.
In addition to discrimination in Oregon’s towns and instances of racial inequality, there was, for a long time, a much more immediate threat to black communities in Oregon due to a history of substantial KKK presence until the mid-1900s. Racial covenants were also in place until the 1960s, prohibiting black prospective homeowners from buying homes in white neighborhoods. There has also been a history of redlining in Oregon, redlining is a process in which mortgage lenders and social services refuse to lend capital to predominantly black neighborhoods. (Novak 2015)
A quote from Portland State University sums up the relation between minority communities and predominantly white neighborhoods as: “Housing was at the core of racial tensions… Neighborhood groups were up in arms at every suggestion or rumor that blacks might be moving to their areas…black workers found, that in segregated Portland, the close-in areas of Albina was virtually the only housing open to them” (PSU 44).
Historically, disinvestment in North Portland was followed by a rapid rebound in property values, this has led to increases in homeownership by white residents and the disproportionate displacement of black residents (Gibson 2007). Between 1990 and 2000 the number of black residents in NE Portland decreased substantially while numbers of white residents grew; over 5,000 housing units were added, while the percentage of black owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing units decreased. Accordingly, the number of cost-burdened households increased (McGee 2010). By 2000, white households comprised over 50% of households reporting an income of $25,000 or more.
The affordability of housing in the last few decades has worsened to the extent of a crisis. Portland features the fastest rising rents in the U.S., rent rates have been increasing by approximately 2-3% per year since 2010, while changes in incomes remain flat. These increases in rent prices are more severe in neighbourhoods that are closer to the city center. Less availability in housing leads to shortages in the rental market. At the same time, the amount of people moving to Portland has been increasing.