The
first one is racially based and can be called 'The Legacy
of Oregon's Racial History'.
During the Mid-19th
Century, Oregon's constitution prohibited ownership of land
by African Americans at the same time that the Homestead
Act was giving land to white families for free. After slavery
and desegregation, direct segregationist practices continued
across the country and in Oregon. More recently Banks would
not issue loans in the neighborhoods African Americans had
been segregated to. The compound affects of this pattern
of discrimination, coupled with poor schools, job discrimination
and other factors have lead to the fact that home ownership
rates in the African American neighborhoods of Portland
were disproportionately low. This made African American
neighborhoods especially vulnerable to displacement when
rental houses were converted and sold as home ownership
units when gentrification began. Even though the system
of direct segregation called Redlining had been dismantled
as recently as the 1990's, the legacy of those policies
still had a strong influence on the shape of the community.
It was only about 6 years later that the gentrification
began.
The
second factor is a grossly speculative area, which the film
does not go into in great length. It will be referred to
as 'Crime and the Legacy of the Sin Trade'.
Crimes and drugs
are a pervasive fact of American life. To where and what
the cause of this can be attributed to is an arena of vast
debate. There are some facts and histories that can shed
light on this factor in urban African American communities.
As black areas began to establish themselves in northern
cities across the country there was a tendency for law enforcement
to push and or confine the Sin Trade, such as bootlegging,
gambling and prostitution into these areas. When segregation
was lifted in the 50's and 60's, black middle class migration
out of these neighborhoods, exacerbated the sin trade and
some African Americans who couldn't leave the ghetto increasingly
turned to the illegal economy for opportunity.
This cycle of
departing middle class investment and the entrenchment of
the Sin Trade was exacerbated by the rise of the drug epidemic
in the 70s through to the early 90's. Again this is broad
speculation and it is the teacher's responsibility how they
want to approach this subject. Crime and the perception
of crime could be considered one reason why many inner city
communities saw no investment by the middle class or business
in the years that immediately followed desegregation. By
the early nineties as crime levels dropped around the country
gentrification began to emerge as a national phenomenon.
As middle class
investment increases in the inner city through gentrification
neglect declined. Properties that were once neglected by
absentee landlords or simply abandoned are now profitable
to recover, operate or resell. The reclaiming of abandoned
properties can truly be considered revitalization. This
reclamation along with an increase in city services that
new middle class residents increasingly and vocally demand,
causes crime to be suppressed or displaced. This gives the
appearance that the gentrification is reducing the crime.
The crime reductions occurred first, and helped to fuel
gentrification. Once the cycle of gentrification began crime
was further reduced and displaced.
The
third factor is racially based but essentially propelled
by market forces and can be referred to as 'The Housing
Snap'.
By the Mid 1990s
Northeast Portland, like in many inner city neighborhoods,
had suffered from years of segregation, redlining, crime
and reluctance by some governments to provide basic services.
This in turn had deflated land values, some would say artificially.
Once the various legal barriers of segregation were removed,
and once the gang epidemic and crime wave had subsided the
community was now capable of revitalizing itself.
Instead of a
slowly an methodical revitalization envisioned in such city
documents as the Albina Community Plan, what happened was
that the Portland Oregon region was swept up in the high
tech economy of the mid 1990s. North/Northeast Portland
was an area that had not seen housing price increases in
almost thirty to forty years. Therefore the housing in this
area was the most affordable housing stock in the area,
and it was conveniently located right next to Portland's
nationally regarded downtown.
New families,
people moving to Portland, real estate speculators, and
first time home buyers quickly scooped up these low priced
houses. The tremendous turn around in houses, (which is
the time at a certain price a house will spend on the market)
led to real estate speculation and conversion of long standing
and often neglected rental housing into houses for sale
to new burgeoning middle class market.
Changing taste
in the American middle class has also fueled much of the
market drive of gentrification. After an entire generation
of Americans had been born and raised in what critics considered
to be a faceless post war 'suburbia' there became a significant
portion of the home buyer market that no longer simply regarded
price and location of a home as the only factor in their
decision to buy. Starting in the 60's with the rise of the
historic preservation movement, new social and market value
was assigned to older homes and neighborhoods. The idea
of character, history and texture was fast infringing on
the puritanical real estate mantra of location, location,
location. Somewhere in this process the dominant idea of
the American Dream as two kids and a two-car garage in the
suburbs was subverted by the promise of "the Victorian fixer-upper".
These Victorians were of course mostly located in poor and
minority communities throughout the country.
As gentrification
began in some cities in the late 1970's and 1980's many
cities also began to find winning formulas for downtown
revitalization. Many American downtowns slowly transformed
from commercial/industrial hubs back into the mixed-use,
residential and commercial centers they had been before
World War II. By the 1990's the nation became aware of issues
like sprawl and the adverse affects of long commutes on
quality of life.
As gentrification
began to pick up speed in the mid 1990's the compounding
of these urban developments fueled market driven displacement.
In Portland and across America, not only were neglected
inner city neighborhoods filled with inexpensive older homes
with 'character' but also they were also located next to
the job centers of revitalized and entertaining downtowns.
The mantra of location, location, location began to apply
to gentrification as well. As crime fell and housing prices
increased more risk-averse home buyers who may have viewed
gentrification as 'pioneering' or even dangerous 10 years
ago began to see it as a rational economic choice.
The
last factor can result in a diminishing of the African American
population in a given community or North/Northeast Portland,
but which is a result of the internal forces of personal
choice by African American individuals. This factor can
be referred to as 'Black Suburbanization'.
Moving to suburbia
is the rite of passage for all ethnic groups in America.
In most industrial (or formerly industrial) American cities
African American Communities were artificially created by
segregation. In many cases black migration into these cities
came suddenly, and in a great wave. In Portland's history
it came late in the century with the boom in shipbuilding
that accompanied World War II. Regardless most African Americans
were restricted to live in certain parts of the city. The
natural cycles of immigrants moving into the city and then
slowly moving out to the suburbs as each successive generation
grew wealthier and more established was suppressed in the
African American community. Since the end of segregation,
an African American middle class has slowly been building.
As of such, more and more African Americans are choosing
to live in the most affluent communities they can afford
and often means the suburbs. The existing families are replaced
by new most white homeowners who see moving into once neglect
communities as an opportunity as rewarding as living in
the suburbs.
In this light,
gentrification in part becomes the reflective phenomenon
of Black Suburbanization. As urban black families gain more
and more access to white suburbs, white families choose
to live in urban black communities. The critical issue becomes,
where is the balance struck. At what point do the scales
tip. When does gentrification as revitalization stop and
gentrification as segregation begin? When do these neighborhoods
go from being neglected segregated, communities to being
integrated communities, to segregated communities once again?
