Displacement mapping

The Mercury and Bus Project held a forum a couple of weeks ago on “Gentrification”. I noticed when viewing Matt Davis’s photographs on Blogtown that all three speakers and the majority of the audience were not people of color. Isn’t at least part of the problem of gentrification about displacing minorities?

It’s been a while since that event, but displacement is an issue that’s been festering for decades, and few signs of improvement have been documented. Matt said in his report, “[Metro President] David Bragdon [who was moderating] began by asking: “Well, isn’t gentrification not such a bad problem to have? There’s a lot of inner city housing in other cities in the country, and nobody wants to be there. But in Portland we have an intentional strategy to revive our inner-city neighborhoods. The question is, isn’t managing the signs of growth and prosperity a whole lot better than having to manage decay?”“

That may be your question, President Bragdon, but it isn’t mine. I think perhaps one of the reasons concerns with gentrification and displacement persist is that many people, particularly politicians, tend to blow them off. “Gentrification = neighborhood improvement = increased property taxes = more revenue, more affluence” often seems to be the philosophy, with the “tough luck to those forced out” left unspoken.

To me, the question is about the people who don’t profit from growth and prosperity; why that is that? And what can and should be done to correct historical and new inequities, particularly with respect to people of color who suffered and continue to suffer disproportionately from them? It seems to me having at least one Portlander who’s experienced those inequities on the panel of speakers would have promoted a more progressive discussion of both questions and answers.

In contrast, the Tribune published an interesting article by Jennifer Anderson recently on displacement, including profiling a person directly affected by rising property values in an urban renewal area. Even rarer, the Trib published a follow-up article the following week, telling the response to the evicted man’s plight and offering some additional perspective. Good work, Jennifer and the Tribune.

People who are concerned about shifts in who can afford to live where in the Portland metropolitan region, and which services are provided in different neighborhoods, may be glad to know the Coalition for a Livable Future’s Equity Atlas is finally printed and available. It shows changes in census information over ten years between 1990 and 2000. It contains both maps and analysis, such as: “Home ownership rates by all communities of color have declined in the region since the 1970s. Areas with the highest gap in home ownership between communities of color and whites are distributed throughout the region, thus it is not only a Portland problem.” It’s a fascinating book, and a helpful tool for anyone wanting to understand facts and trends on gentrification and displacement, before leaping into questions and solutions. You may purchase it on line for mailed delivery here.