A Dream Rezoned

Acknowledging the City's Racist Planning Practices

In September 2019, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) released the report, Historical Context of Racist Planning, to acknowledge how discriminatory practices have harmed communities of color by excluding them from homeownership and wealth-building opportunities.

In response to this important report, BPS and Civic Life worked with community members—Cleo Davis, Kayin Talton Davis, Carolyn Leonard, and Sharita Towne—to explain how a local family was impacted by the racist city planning practices. It is our hope that this resource will help inspire communities to participate in the City’s public processes, from public involvement to civic leadership.

Read "A Dream Rezoned"

View full size image of Collage from the front cover of the zine "A Dream Rezoned" Image shows Mama Julia smiling with houses, redlining map, and notices from the city in the background

"A Dream Rezoned" was created as a free resource. 

Civic Life and BPS are humbled to have worked with community partners on this project. Sharing personal stories about the impacts of racist practices can be difficult, vulnerable, and triggering; we are grateful for their willingness to share their account with us.

You can read the zine here!

The zine was also translated into six additional languages. The translated languages are the top three spoken/used in Portland after English and three languages were chosen for culturally-specific outreach.

Hebrew

Spanish

Traditional Chinese

Vietnamese

Tigrinya

Simplified Chinese

Download a Version to Print at Home

This English version is designed to easily print the zine as a booklet. Set up the printer to print on 8.5 x 11 and double sided. Once printed, stack the pages, with cover page on top, fold in half and place two staples in the spine! 

Why A Zine?

The decision to have the story presented as a "zine" was intentional. A zine is defined as a self-published work of original (or appropriated) texts and images that are popularly photocopied for circulation. In keeping with the tradition of zines, we created this resource to be free and easy to reproduce and distribute. This is the second zine Civic Life has published, the first is all about civic engagement and can be found here.

View full size image of A collage showing Cleo and Kayin Davis standing next to each other. They are both smiling and Cleo has his arm around Kayin. There are rainbows coming out of the couple and in the middle of the rainbows is the Mayo House.

Thank You Project Partners

This zine was written by Cleo Davis, Kayin Talton Davis, and Carolyn Leonard. It is illustrated and designed by Sharita Towne.

The project was made possible by the following partners:

View full size image of Stacked Logos, top to bottom: Regional Arts & Culture Council, Portland City Auditor Archives & Records Management, The Bureau of Planning & Sustainability, and Office of Community & Civic Life