City Council today unanimously passed a resolution to create a framework for the future of the Lower Albina neighborhood and to repair significant past harm on Portland’s Black community. Commissioner Carmen Rubio co-introduced the resolution with Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Mingus Mapps.
City Council also unanimously adopted an ordinance to accept an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Reconnecting Albina Planning Project. The Portland Bureau of Transportation, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, and Prosper Portland will use the resources in partnership with Albina Vision Trust to develop a plan with extensive community outreach in the Lower Albina, Rose Quarter, and Lloyd areas.
“The Albina Vision Trust Community Investment Plan is a visionary framework for equitable economic, social, and environmental innovation in Portland’s Central City,” Commissioner Rubio said. “Together, we can establish a reconnected and thriving neighborhood district while reclaiming home and rebuilding wealth for historically displaced communities.”
Albina was once home to four out of every five Black families in Portland – a thriving, creative, and affordable neighborhood consisting of Black-owned businesses, homes, faith institutions, and world-class jazz venues. But over the past 70 years, the neighborhood was decimated by disinvestment, urban renewal, racist public policy, and the construction of Interstate 5 – displacing primarily Black families and creating severe generational hardships that persist today.
“The Albina Vision Trust was created to address a very specific problem,” said Winta Yohannes, Executive Director of Albina Vision Trust. “We have created transformational partnerships, including with the Portland Trail Blazers, to show that business and community will stand side by side in rebuilding this district. Today is about redefining what this kind of public-private partnership is – about embedding a commitment to this work and the communities it serves into the very fabric of city governance.”
The Albina Vision Trust Community Investment Plan provides a 50-year roadmap for a 94-acre restorative redevelopment plan for the area – the largest such initiative in the United States. The plan is centered on restorative justice by spurring inclusive economic opportunity for property owners, business owners, and contractors while introducing transportation and infrastructure connections to knit community together.