Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Legacy Of Redlining: A Geospatial Analysis Of Environmental Burdens In Portland, Oregon, Warren Louis Gunn, Meenakshi Rao

University Honors Theses

Historically-redlined neighborhoods across the metropolitan United States -- most often socioeconomically disadvantaged communities of color -- have been shown in multiple studies to be disproportionately affected by environmental burdens, having greater exposure to air, water, and ground pollution as well as being subject to the "urban heat island" effect, among other disparities. Studies into the continuing environmental inequity present in these communities in Portland, Oregon specifically have addressed this phenomenon, finding that these neighborhoods are 8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on average than their wealthier and (mostly) whiter counterparts, in large part due to a lack of green spaces and tree …

Racialized Space: Historical, Economic, And Social Factors Contributing To The Gentrification Of North & Northeast Portland's Albina Neighborhoods, Red Burkett

University Honors Theses

Portland, Oregon has long held the reputation of being a quirky, artistic, mid-size American city for the ecologically friendly and progressively minded. What is less well-known is that Portland has a long history of segregation, racial violence, and public policy that is often viewed as hostile by the Black residents, especially the Albina neighborhoods of North and inner-Northeast Portland. Since Dr. Gibson published Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment in 2007, terms such as gentrification, redlining and restrictive racial covenants have become more common in academic and social parlance concerning Portland. In this thesis, we will explore how gentrification …

Transportation And Gentrification: Impacts On Low-Income Black Households In Portland, Steven Howland

PSU Transportation Seminars

Portland’s Black population has been heavily impacted by gentrification in the historic Albina community. Nearly half of Portland’s Black population lives in the area east of 82nd Ave, known as East Portland. This has had substantial impacts on both Black households that can continue living in Albina and those living in East Portland. The suburban-esque built environment of East Portland makes it difficult to get around and reach basic necessities. Those living in Albina have taken on exorbitant rents. Both groups suffer from a geographic divide that has made it difficult to rely on family and friends for basic needs …

Evaluating The N/Ne Preference Policy, Amie Thurber, Lisa Bates, Susan Halverson

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

North/Northeast Portland has long been the heart of Portland's Black community. By 2010, the area had lost two-thirds of its Black residents to displacement. In response, the City adopted a Preference Policy that prioritizes displaced affordable rental and homeownership applicants. This report describes findings from the first phase of a study to understand what difference this policy is making in the lives of residents.

Our Town: Articulating Place Meanings And Attachments In St. Johns Using Resident-Employed Photography, Lauren Elizabeth Morrow Everett

Dissertations and Theses

The St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland is known for its strong regional identity, working class character, and diversity. Portland as a whole has experienced a major socioeconomic shift in the last ten years, and these changes are hitting St. Johns particularly hard. My research seeks to identify the place meanings that underpin sense of place, place attachment, and processes of attachment formation, among residents of the neighborhood. My research questions are: What are the objects of attachment? Why (the place meanings that underpin attachment)? And how (through what processes are attachments formed)? In what ways are the "why" and …

The Landscape: Cully Neighborhood, Eavan Moore

Metroscape

This installment of The Landscape focuses on Portland's Cully neighborhood, briefly reviewing its history, demographic trends, and current planning efforts.

Responsible Pet Ownership: Dog Parks And Demographic Change In Portland, Oregon, Matthew Harris

Dissertations and Theses

Dog parks are the fastest growing type of park in U.S. cities; however, their increasing popularity has been met with increasing criticism of pets in public space. Dogs have shown to be a deep source of neighborhood conflict, and the provision of dog parks, or off-leash areas, is a seemingly intractable controversy for city officials. In 2003, Portland, Oregon established a network of 33 off-leash areas which remains the second largest both in count and per capita in the country. The purpose of my research is to understand the public debate over off leash dogs during the establishment of Portland's …

Preserving Housing Choice And Opportunity: A Study Of Apartment Building Sales And Rents, Seyoung Sung, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

NOAH sales show precariousness of this rental housing at a regional scale.

• Active transactions of multifamily rental properties have been disproportionately NOAH. There have been over two thousand transactions of NOAH buildings in the Portland metro area from 2006 to 2017 — over 68,000 units of housing. These sales are accelerating, with over 20 percent occurring in just the last 18 months.
• Sales prices for multifamily rental properties have increased substantially, making preservation of affordable rents more challenging. Regionally, the average sale price increased by 78 percent between 2010 and 2017; during this period there was a 43 percent …

Inequities In Urban Mobility In Portland: Understanding Community Vulnerability And Prospects For Livable Neighborhoods, Amy Lubitow

PSU Transportation Seminars

Gentrification and development are changing the face of many Portland neighborhoods. This talk will draw on data from focus groups and participatory mapping research with residents in SE and North Portland neighborhoods. The presentation will share findings on the patterns of movement reported by residents in gentrifying neighborhoods and will offer ideas and perspectives on how to plan for a sustainable future for all Portlanders.

Gentrification And Displacement: An Environmental Justice Challenge For Social Work In Urban Environments, Eileen M. Brennan, Kevin Jones, Ryan Elizabeth Bender

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter presents a lesson which includes a case study highlighting the social, economic, and environmental injustices associated with the gentrification of Northeast Portland, Oregon, US. The reader will then engage in an exercise, which includes reviewing the suggested video clip and news article segment highlighting experiences of families caught up in gentrification in Northeast Portland. Finally, the reader will work through the associated questions and activities to achieve the learning outcomes.

Food Access Narratives In Southeast Portland, Oregon, Gwyneth Genevieve Mckee Manser

Dissertations and Theses

Since the late 1990's, "food deserts" have dominated the academic and policy literature on food access and food security. Food deserts are defined as areas that lack easy access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food, and are typically measured using Geographic Information Systems and spatial data sets. However, while food deserts may provide a useful measure for identifying food insecurity at a broad scale, they fail to account for individual definitions and perceptions of food access (Barnes et al. 2015; McEntee 2009). Furthermore, the food desert model assumes a lack of agency on the part of low-income populations (Alkon et …

Edged Out: Location Efficient Housing And Low Income Households In The Portland Region, Andrée Tremoulet, Ryan Dann

PSU Transportation Seminars

Transportation costs are typically a household’s second largest expense after housing. Low income households are especially burdened by transportation costs, with low income households spending up to two times as much of their income on transportation than higher income households (Litman, 2013).

Thus, access to location efficient housing is especially important to low income households, including those who use a housing voucher to help pay for housing costs.

This seminar presents the results of a two-year project supported by the Portland region's four public housing authorities to design and test tools to help people with housing vouchers find location efficient …

Encouraging Low-Income Households To Make Location-Efficient Housing Choices, Andrée Tremoulet, Ryan Dann, Arlie Adkins

TREC Final Reports

The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate tools to assist Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program participants in the Portland, OR, metro region with considering transportation needs and options when making decisions about where to live. The project consists of two elements: development of a set of tools in collaboration with the four metro-area housing authorities, and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the tools. The four housing authorities conceptualized and initiated this project, and then selected our team to fully design and complete it. Transportation costs are typically a household’s second-largest expense after housing and, on average, …

Uneven Development Of The Sustainable City: Shifting Capital In Portland, Oregon, Erin Goodling, Jamaal Green, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland, Oregon is renowned as a paradigmatic "sustainable city". Yet, despite popular conceptions of the city as a progressive ecotopia and the accolades of planners seeking to emulate its innovations, Portland’s sustainability successes are inequitably distributed. Drawing on census data, popular media, newspaper archives, city planning documents, and secondary-source histories, we attempt to elucidate the structural origins of Portland’s "uneven development", exploring how and why the urban core of this paragon of sustainability has become more White and affluent while its outer eastside has become more diverse and poor. We explain how a "sustainability fix" – in this case, green …

Property Tax Rates As An Indicator Of Neighborhood Change: An Examination Of An Unanticipated Effect Of Measure 50 In The City Of Portland, Sonia N. Singh

Geography Masters Research Papers

Gentrification and stagnation are two prominent themes in neighborhood development today. The city or Portland, Oregon is experiencing both of these neighborhood stages in different neighborhoods. In Oregon a property tax measure passed in 1997, Measure 50, caused property tax rates to vary by location according to changes in real market values over time. Recent analysis has revealed that property tax rates in Portland follow the spatial patterns of gentrification and stagnation in Portland, and therefore could be contributing neighborhood change. Differential property tax rates have shown to influence mobility and homeownership, two factors of neighborhood change. In order to …

Gentrification And Displacement Study: Implementing An Equitable Inclusive Development Strategy In The Context Of Gentrification, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study focuses on the effects on the housing market, particularly the loss of affordable housing. It builds upon earlier studies to consider a broader interpretation of displacement that encompasses not just when a household is forced to move by conditions that affect the dwelling, but also to take into account changes in the neighborhood as a whole. These neighborhood changes can result in a neighborhood’s inability to provide basic services that make it impossible to continue residency as a “voluntary” response. Housing in Portland is almost exclusively produced by the private sector, with a limited public sector role through …

Senior Shedding: Mortality And Migration Of Seniors Create Vacancies For Gentrifying Neighborhoods, Robert Lycan, Charles Rynerson

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Looks at how vacancies created by deaths and out-migration of seniors and baby boomers facilitates housing turnover or gentrification, referred to as Senior Shedding.

An Examination Of Gentrification And Related Displacement Of Black Residents In Portland's Boise Neighborhood, 1990-2010, Jordan Jordan

University Honors Theses

Issues related to gentrification and its primary consequence, the displacement of vulnerable populations from their homes and communities, are rightly considered among the most pressing social concerns faced by urban communities. Portland, Oregon has seen many of its neighborhoods undergo the gentrification transition, especially in traditionally Black neighborhoods. The Boise neighborhood lies within Northeast Portland's Albina district, which has served as the cultural and commercial heart of Portland's Black community for generations. In the 1990 Census, over 70% of the population of Boise (situated within Multnomah County Census tract 34.02) were Black, while 26% were White. By 2010, those figures …

The Impacts Of Gentrification On The African American Business Community Of Portland, Oregon, Alexandra Hosford

Anthós

I focus this inquiry on the impact that gentrification has had on black business and entrepreneurship in the Albina District of Portland, Oregon. The Albina district of provides a unique opportunity to measure the effects of gentrification on black business and business development because the area has historically been a residentially segregated black community and has seen dramatic changes due to gentrification in the past decade, including an influx of middle class, white residents. I conduct this examination by subdividing my inquiry into three main sections. First, I provide an outline of the background and evolution of the discourse around …

Food Cartology: Rethinking Urban Spaces As People Places, Hannah Kapell, Peter Katon, Amy Koski, Jingping Li, Colin Price, Karen Thalhammer

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Urban Vitality Group (UVG) partnered with the City of Portland, Bureau of Planning to study the effects that food carts have on street vitality and neighborhood livability. The number of food carts within the city seems to be growing, while the City lacks sufficient knowledge about the industry to guide policy. The purpose of the study was to assess the benefits and negative consequences of allowing food carts within the city and to ascertain what economic opportunities may be offered by food carts, especially for low-income and minority entrepreneurs. The findings indicate that food carts have significant community benefits …

Revisiting Invasion-Succession: Social Relations In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Lynda Franks

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the social relationships of different residents in a gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon. It examines theoretical tenants in the social identity tradition to understand social change in terms of the impact of neighborhood change on the day-to-day interactions of individuals in a gentrifying neighborhood by exploring the ways in which different members of that neighborhood define and describe the terms “neighborhood”, “neighbor”, and “neighborly behavior”.

Intergroup neighboring research posits two outcomes of neighborhood change on interactions between old and new neighbors, one of conflict, the other of cooperation. The conflict perspective proposes that, in situations where …

Re-Imaging A Neighborhood : The Creation Of The Alberta Arts District, Portland, Oregon, Meredith R. Rizzari

Dissertations and Theses

Art is often used as a catalyst to stimulate redevelopment and neighborhood change. This often occurs inadvertently as the presence of artists in certain communities can attract both public and private investment to revalorize economically depressed areas. Marginal neighborhoods in inner-urban areas offer inspiration and diversity to artists seeking lower-cost housing. Their presence effectively makes these marginal communities "safe" for middle-class residents looking to live in a funky, urban neighborhood. Ultimately, however, artists are eventually priced out of the communities they helped to create.

The Alberta district in northeast Portland, Oregon has used art to create an identity that distinguished …

"Alberta Arts District" : Boundaries And Belonging Among Long-Time Residents In A Culturally Changing Neighborhood, Sammy Shaw

Dissertations and Theses

This study takes a cultural perspective in studying the "Alberta Arts District," a gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland in which bohemian cultural production/consumption has become the dominant and commodified vision of the community. Survey data demonstrates residents' general opinions and levels of participation in the changing neighborhood. Forty long-time residents, black and white, homeowners and renters, are interviewed in-depth regarding their perceptions of change. Long-time residents of gentrifying neighborhoods are often overlooked as a less powerful group that only has to negotiate rising rents and property values. This study approaches the meaning of neighborhood changes for long-time residents who have …

Reading Neighborhood Character : A Semiotic Analysis Of Three Portland, Oregon Neighborhoods, Jodi Hanson Tanner

Dissertations and Theses

The character of a neighborhood is demonstrated through environmental cues that tell the casual passerby about a neighborhood and its residents, including such aspects as privacy, neighboring, and wealth. Neighborhoods may be made up of residents all speaking the same message, such as exclusivity or independence; these neighborhoods give coherent messages and have strong identifiable character. Other neighborhoods may seem fragmented or have unclear character because the residential make-up is changing over time. Residents reflect aspects of themselves through the physical surroundings that make up a neighborhood.

This study examines three neighborhoods in a preliminary effort to identify which characteristics …

An Empirical Assessment Of The Gentrification Process In Northwest Portland, Oregon, Sabrina Oesterle

Dissertations and Theses

Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, many American cities experienced the process of gentrification, and there are many studies based on data from this time period. A first purpose of this study was to follow up on the development of gentrification in the 1980s. Northwest Portland, Oregon, is culturally clearly defined as a gentrifying neighborhood and was, therefore, chosen as to empirically assess this process by comparing the 1980 with the 1990 census data.

There is some theoretical confusion about the concept of gentrification. There is, however, general consensus on two aspects. The first is a physical renovation of …

Residential Mobility And Revitalization In Portland Between 1970 And 1980: A Study Of The Urban Structural Impacts On Neighborhood Revitalization, Sheka Gassimou Kamara

Dissertations and Theses

Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time and change through neighborhood revitalization provide the basis for this study. Additionally, some of the characteristics often employed in explaining the phenomenon in cities are manifested in the city of Portland. For example, Portland is endowed with a distinctive and well established downtown area that provides opportunities for the establishment of businesses as well as white-collar job opportunities. By the standards of the U.S. Bureau of the …

Neighborhood Plans, Dennis Wilde

Ernie Bonner Collection

No abstract provided.