On December 16th, Portland City Council heard testimony from community members urging them not to amend and extend the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area (ICURA). The district covers the area around I-5 in North and Northeast Portland, the majority of Portland’s historically Black neighborhood, Albina.
Inside the district, Prosper Portland, the city's development commission offers incentives to new developments in the area with the goal of renewing and revitalizing the community. Historically, though, urban renewal has not meant the revitalization and advancement of existing communities and neighborhoods. Instead, it’s meant removal through gentrification. Now, the City and its development agencies want to extend the life of the urban renewal area and increase their maximum indebtedness by $67 million.
The City and Prosper Portland argue that green lighting this extra money from the extension is an opportunity to do urban renewal the right way, to actually uplift the existing community. That said, City Council has faced pushback as well. Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 (EDPA2) has organized against the ICURA extension, and is now pushing City Council to postpone its January 6th vote on the amendment. They say the City shouldn’t move forward until it has a plan for restitution for the Black residents of Albina who were displaced by the expansion of Legacy Emanuel Hospital in the 1960's and 70's. A minor amendment by Prosper Portland last year included vacant property near Legacy Emanuel Hospital into the ICURA, at the cross streets of Russell and Williams. This is of particular importance to the EDPA2 since the Russell and Williams property is vacant because it had been demolished as part of the Legacy Emanuel Hospital expansion that was never finished.
KBOO's Althea Billings spoke with Byrd from EDPA2 and Quinton Blanton from the N/NE Community Development Initiative Program Advisory Committee to learn more about the consequences of the extension.
A version of this story originally aired on 12/10/2020
- KBOO