PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland may be known for fashionable hipsters, devotion to public transit, locally sourced chickens and artisanal food carts. But a part of this city by the river counters the narrative of livable, weird, predominantly white ‘Portlandia.’
Long-overlooked by visitors and many locals, East Portland stretches far from downtown, on the city’s eastern edge. It’s ethnically and racially diverse, houses a large percentage of the city’s children, low-income families and immigrants, and lacks many of the amenities of ‘cool’ Portland.
Here, shabby apartment complexes, fading strip malls, wide avenues and fast-food chains are the norm. But with a quarter of Portlanders now calling it home and rising costs pushing residents out of the inner core, East Portland has become hard to ignore.
In recent years, city officials have recognized East Portland’s neglect, promising change and implementing improvements. But a group of residents says it’s too little, too late. And in neighborhoods where sidewalks and parks are scant and crime is high, they’re organizing to get greater representation.
A ballot measure filed earlier this month would overhaul Portland’s at large elections and commission form of government in favor of a strong mayor and nine council members elected by district. Most council members would have to live in the neighborhoods they represent, which proponents say would mean better representation for East Portland and areas with less political clout.
“There’s a magical line around the city, and the core gets all the money and all the special stuff,” said Collene Swenson, an East Portland resident and the ballot measure’s chief petitioner. “If we don’t fix it, we’re all in deep trouble.”
Portland is the rare large American city that still elects leaders via citywide elections; most cities with 500,000-plus residents elect candidates by district. In recent years, lawsuits across the nation have targeted at-large elections, saying they prevent minority residents from electing candidates of their choice.
But Portland officials say a change isn’t needed.
Once a stretch of berry fields and orchards, East Portland was unincorporated for years, with modest homes on large half to one acre lots, garages and vacant tree-filled land dotting the landscape.
Its reliance on septic tanks and cesspools led city, county and federal officials to push for annexation. Though East Portland residents opposed it — they even tried to form a city of their own — the area was annexed during the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Afterward, large swaths were rezoned as multi-family and commercial use. Haphazard, cheaply designed development followed, residents say. Apartment complexes and mobile home parks multiplied. Scores of newcomers moved in, attracted by lower housing costs.
But city-promised upgrades such as roads, sidewalks and parks never materialized. Over the years, housing stock deteriorated, schools ballooned with children (40 percent of the city’s students live in East Portland), and mounting crime rates prompted the exodus of long-time residents.
“There’s a lingering indignity,” said activist Arlene Kimura. “You promised us all those things, and now you’re surprised we’re angry that it didn’t happen.”
In 2009, the City Council adopted the East Portland Action Plan, a blueprint developed by the community with more than 260 actions, from upgrading housing to promoting businesses.
Activists formed a group, which Kimura co-chairs, to advocate for the plan. At its request, the city began tracking its budget by district — which showed that East Portland’s per-user expenditures were below the city average for transportation, parks and housing.
The plan faced hurdles due to a lack of buy-in and limited funding, Kimura said.
“There’s a reluctance to accept that the cost is going to be high,” Kimura said.
But the work has led to changes, residents say, such as new parks, crosswalks and rehabilitation of some housing units. Data shows city expenditures in East Portland are up, though in some cases still not at equitable levels.
Others say changes are too slow. Many streets lack sidewalks, Swenson said, crime is rampant, drug addiction and mental health issues are at epidemic levels, and officials aren’t doing enough to encourage new businesses.
“They’re not investing in East Portland. They don’t do anything for the taxes we pay,” she said. “How about some real jobs that aren’t vice, not strip clubs, pot shops, vape lounges and pawn shops?”
Earlier this year, Swenson and her neighbors filed a proposal to secede from Portland, but city staff determined the measure was flawed. The group now wants to change Portland’s election format from citywide to district.
“If your council person isn’t advocating for you, you can vote them out, because they’re getting elected out of your neighborhood,” Swenson said.
But Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she’s allocated more money to East Portland than a previous commissioner who lived there. She and others say the budget includes nearly $8 million for street improvements in East Portland. Rapid transit bus and new bus lines are planned.
“Nothing prevents council members from prioritizing East Portland,” said Commissioner Nick Fish, who helped launch a biking trail project in the area.
Commissioner Steve Novick said he would support a switch. City-wide elections limit candidates to those who can raise lots of money, he said.
Regardless of their views on elections, city officials hope East Portland can become a mixed-income, walkable community. But Kimura fears improvements could push out the working poor and immigrants.
“Maybe city officials think it’s going to happen in five years,” Kimura said. “Well, I’ve got news for them, it’s already happening.”
Profiles of East Portland residents and workers
East Portland doesn’t fit the mythical image of Portlandia. It’s a neighborhood of large car lots, fast-food joints and businesses that cater to working-class residents, immigrants and minorities, not hipsters.
These are the stories of some of those who live and work in the area:
Immigrant leader
Jamal Dar, who arrived in the U.S. two decades ago from Kenya, found success in Oregon. The Somali man studied management at Portland State University, and for the past 18 years has worked as a production supervisor at Nike.
But Dar worried about new Somali refugees streaming into the state, many of whom were being placed by resettlement agencies in East Portland’s cheap apartment complexes. The refugees, like Dar, were victims of Somalia’s civil war, and many had spent decades in refugee camps. In Portland, families faced culture shock, language woes and social isolation. Somali youth, some of whom had never attended school, dropped out at high rates.
So in 2009, Dar started the African Youth and Community Organization. Originally, the group was based in schools, focused on tutoring and sports. Last year, Dar moved the organization to East Portland and expanded its focus to help families. Community elders pay the office rent and volunteer.
“The idea is, we can help ourselves and become independent,” Dar said.
The group offers youth mentorship, academic support, leadership training and assistance with housing and employment. It works to keep youth out of the juvenile justice system and acts as a bridge with child welfare workers.
“When they arrive to Portland, they don’t know how to use the stove, refrigerator, or toilet,” Dar, 37, said. “But if they survived in a refugee camp, they can survive here.”
Urban farmer
Richard Dickinson has lived in East Portland since the 1990’s and saw firsthand the impact of unfettered growth and the city’s neglect. “It dissipated the whole social fabric of the area,” Dickinson said. Because the neighborhoods’ old rural character still remains — larger lots, towering Douglas Firs — Dickinson set out to re-build community through agriculture. He began farming on empty properties near his home, with the owners’ permission, and selling or giving away the bounty at a makeshift farm stand on his street.
He also started the Outer Southeast Farmer Training Project with local nonprofit Zenger Farm. The project teaches East Portlanders how to grow their own food. Residents can sell their extra harvest at a “community table” at the Lents International Farmers Market.
In East Portland, where fast food abounds and many family incomes are low, farming fills a real need, Dickinson said: It gives residents easy, inexpensive access to fruits and vegetables.
Dickinson, 52, was born in India and lived overseas before settling in Oregon, so he appreciates immigrants and the diverse foods, languages and customs they bring. He says neighborhood associations need to create places where everyone feels welcome.
“We need more connections between cultures and religions,” he said.
Business owner
For Prabin Pandey, a refugee from Bhutan in Southeast Asia, East Portland is a land of opportunity. His grocery store is one of dozens of ethnic stores and restaurants in the area, but his journey to business owner was arduous.
After living in a refugee camp in Nepal, Pandey’s family came to Seattle in 2009. Pandey, who was 17, attended high school and community college, taking English classes at night.
His dream was to study mechanical engineering, but both of Pandey’s parents are disabled, so he needed to work. While enrolled at Washington State University, Pandey became a traveling salesman in Seattle and Portland, selling cultural items he imported from Nepal — clothes, food, spices — out of a suitcase, door-to-door at other refugees’ homes.
Saving every penny, Pandey eventually had enough to open International Food Bazaar, a Nepali grocery store in East Portland. He’s only 23 years old, but he’s also opened two stores in other states and a gas station in East Portland. The income supports his parents and younger sister.
Pandey says he’s become a role model for others who want to start a business, but he wishes Portland would offer more support to newcomers interested in entrepreneurship.
“They all want to do business like me,” Pandey said. “I tell them it’s possible if you’re focused and put a lot of time into it.”
Police officer
Portland Police officer Jordan Zaitz, who grew up on an Oregon City farm and has spent most of her 11 years on the force in East Portland, says she loves her job — but would not want to live there.
The area has pockets of good people and nice neighborhoods, Zaitz said, but problems abound. “There are a lot of tweakers, a lot of transients, car break-ins, domestic violence, gangsters, prostitution. It’s a lot of sadness,” she said.
Zaitz works the 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift, the most intense in the busiest of Portland’s police precincts. East Precinct gets the largest number of calls for services per year in comparison to the other two Portland precincts. East Precinct also sees a higher number of ‘hot’ calls — those for violent or serious crimes such as burglaries and robberies. Though the precinct’s population is somewhat larger than the other two, it’s condensed in a smaller geographic area.
Over the years, Zaitz said, mental health issues have been on the rise, as well as homelessness and heroin abuse. On most nights, Zaitz responds to two to three calls that are mental health related.
On a recent Monday, Zaitz drove to the home of suicidal man, checked on a runaway teen with a warrant, calmed an 8-year-old who attacked his mother, and searched for a man who confronted another with a knife.
She also waved at passers-by and reminded kids on bikes to wear helmets. She wishes the police had more time to talk to residents, instead of just responding to calls.
“If I can make a little dent and do some good, if I can help even one person,” Zaitz said, “then my job is done for the day.”
Community organizer
Jenny Glass is trying to create change in East Portland’s biggest crime hotspot. The nonprofit she founded with local leaders, the Rosewood Initiative, is a community center that brings neighbors together.
Many live in isolation, Glass said. The area’s affordable housing attracts disabled individuals, single mothers, large low-income families, immigrants and people with criminal pasts.
“We have a lot of folks in very vulnerable situations,” she said. “Crime is the symptom we’re seeing in our community. But what are the underlying causes?” Those causes, said Glass, include poverty, a lack of jobs and educational opportunities, and limited access to transportation.
Glass, 31, was hired by AmeriCorps in 2011 as a community organizer. She got neighbors and businesses, police and apartment managers, school administrators and priests talking. She invited residents to events, and built up a network of volunteers.
Two years later, the city named the Rosewood Initiative one of six miniature urban renewal districts. That year, the organization converted a former billiards lounge into a community hub.
The community center has bilingual staff and attracts a mix of Latinos, African-Americans and whites. It offers computers, dance classes, and a space for residents and groups to hang out and hold events. There’s a business incubator and organizations that help people find a job or fix a bike.
East Portland is not all about crime, Glass said.
“There are plenty of residents here who are amazing and have great potential,” she said.
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