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I have been learning a lot about the transformation of Lower Albina, the heart and soul of Black Portland, located in Portland City Council District 2.
I spoke with Albina Vision Trust (AVT) at their office and attended a City Council work session this summer with AVT leaders. I went as an ally, and what I heard deeply inspired me. For two hours, I listened to heartfelt testimonies from Black Portlanders – each story a testament to the injustices they’ve faced and proof of their power, brilliance, and resilience.
Lower Albina is located on 94 acres of land, on the banks of the Willamette River, in the Boise, Eliot, and Lloyd neighborhoods. Due to the city’s racist policy of exclusionary zoning, Lower Albina became one of the only places where Black Portlanders could live and became home to 80% of Portland’s Black population. Then in the 1950s, Lower Albina was cut in half with the construction of the I-5 freeway. Gentrification forced families out of the community that was their haven, their home, their heritage. And in a final indignity, city leaders described this brutal process as “urban renewal.”
The Albina Vision Trust is a local nonprofit with an innovative strategy that will not only revitalize Lower Albina, but the entire city of Portland. Their plan will actively remedy much of the damage done to Albina: knocking down the crumbling PPS central office, putting up more than 1,000 units of family-oriented housing for the return of once-displaced families, reconnecting the two halves of the neighborhood by building a cover across a stretch of I-5, offering culturally-specific hubs designed by Albina residents, and reinvigorating the three historically Black schools in the neighborhood.
That’s community-driven urban renewal, the most transformational land redevelopment project in the country.
AVT’s work will finally reverse the decades of gentrification that have forced our Black neighbors further and further to the edges of the city. Their vision will not only make space for families to move back to Albina, but also build generational wealth by putting home ownership within reach.
Albina Vision Trust embodies the kind of transformative partnership that I’ll champion on the Portland City Council. What’s more, I’ll fight for racial justice and reparations in Portland because it is not just a duty, but a moral imperative. Black Portlanders have endured enough empty promises and insincere apologies – it’s time for the city to do more than commit to meaningful action. We need to see this project through to completion and make real change.
The plan isn’t starry-eyed daydreaming either. AVT has worked for years considering all the angles, identifying grants and federal funding, and anticipating the obstacles they’ll face. As a result, this isn’t a “someday” project. It’s already underway.
And that’s the other inspiring element of AVT’s work; at a time when Donald Trump is still regularly trashing our city in interviews, and our reputation for progressive government has been replaced by clips of people suffering on the street, the revitalization of Albina is inspirational, good news. It shows that Portlanders aren’t giving up, that we’re learning from our setbacks and shortcomings, and fighting to make our city the place that everyone wants to be.
When I met with an AVT leader, she emphasized that the city needs leaders who “will fight” for the project until it is complete. She also was clear that we need city leaders who will be ambassadors to the rest of the country, reminding folks that our city’s roughest years don’t define us, and reclaiming our national reputation as The City That Works. I will be that leader with your help and support.