WP: White Gentrification Hits Northwest

[liberalpragmatist]

Seattle, Portland losing historically black neighborhoods

By Blaine Harden
The Washington Post

PORTLAND, Ore. - Already the whitest major city in America, Portland is rapidly becoming even whiter at its core.

...

About 150 miles north in Seattle, the nation's second-whitest major city, the same process of downtown demographic bleaching is accelerating for the same reasons.

An invasion of young, well-educated and mostly white newcomers is buying up and remaking Seattle's Central District, the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix and the once-bluesy home of the young Ray Charles. What had been the largest black-majority community in the Pacific Northwest has become majority white.

"I am concerned and I am frustrated because I don't know what the alternatives are," said Norman Rice, who in the 1990s was Seattle's first and only black mayor. "It clearly isn't racist; it's economics. The real question you have to ask yourself is: Is this good or bad?"

...

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13389273/

[NVMojo]

1. scary ...life is so boring without color ....

[pnwmom]

13. There are lots of colors in Washington. Fewer African Americans than

in most major cities, but lots of people from diverse backgrounds -- including one in five in Seattle who are foreign born.

Looking at the Seattle School District's figures, the student body is 41% white; 23% Asian; 22% black; 11% latino.

[JI7]

17. so minorities are still a majority

when combined. whites are just a larger number when you count the numbers individually. looking at the article title it makes it seem as if just about everyone there is white.

so is this really different from many other places ?

[pnwmom]

19. Just a somewhat different mix. More Asians, fewer African Americans.

Even out in the suburbs, the area is diverse. There has been a lot of change over the last twenty years or so, especially in the closer-in suburbs.

[saigon68]

25. IT'S THE CLOROX PROJECT

Designed to "Whiten Up" the place.

[pnwmom]

27. delete

delete

[saigon68]

32. Sorry

We didn't get your words of wisdom

[roguevalley]

2. they are californicating my darling North west

RV, born Cally, raised Ory-gun and living Alaska thanks to Nixon's Phases

[Solo_in_MD]

3. A while back (5+ years?) there was an article in the WP

about the same thing going on in Wash DC. There was even a guest oped piece arguing that that blacks should only sell to blacks to maintain the color of the neighborhoods. That set off a bit of a ruckus.

It was interesting to watch. Some argued gentrification was rascism which horribly offended others. I don't see it as a racist, and most of the people moving into those areas are fairly liberal, Mayor Rice is right, there is no racial or class animus involved, but it clearly changes the political and social fabric of the area. San Francisco has been fighting this unsuccessfully as well.

[DBoon]

4. It's not that higher income people are moving in

it's that so few African Americans are part of that demographic.

[salin]

20. and that renters are being forced out - into very expensive housing mrkts

where do the previous residents go to live? IMO, that is often the key problem. Are there places to go? Is there even an awareness of the massive displacements that often happen with gentrification?

[Gormy Cuss]

21. That is one good question.

Is the bigger problem that there is no longer an affordable place for people to live, or that the community has been disbanded by the gentrification?

Gentrification is always harsh for renters. At least owner-occupants leave with some cash.

[musiclawyer]

26. Bingo. Here in CA, Oakland is now not even a black plurality

... anymore. Oakland is known as a black town, but that's not reality. It's an anglo/latino/asian town now and will get eless and less black. It's just not affordable. It's really a fantastic place to live if you can afford it. This is a bad thing for many people, but many look at this as a good thing. It's just a fact.

[Psephos]

5. OMG white people invading

quick lock up the wimmen and chilluns

Seriously, as long as we keep paying this kind of bullshit attention to race, we're going to keep...paying bullshit attention to race. It sends the message that race is a strikingly important label of people.

When a form asks my race, I put down "human." That's the only race that matters.

Peace.

[grasswire]

6. Portland has a real problem because....

....so many double income professionals have migrated from other parts of the country because it's such a superiorly liveable place, and then they have driven up property values exponentially and driven even middle class families out of the city, white as well as minority. Result? The school-age children who remain are in inferior schools. The schools in the burbs are rolling in dough.

A clear example of this was shown recently in a parade. The marching band from the old traditional elementary school had only four members, all white boys showing some spirit despite their numbers. The marching bands from the elementary schools in the burbs had hundreds of members, uniformed, outfitted to the teeth.

I am very worried about the Portland Public Schools, but it has less to do with color than with the gentrification by childless people who want to remake the community to their liking. Not so many years ago, white folk wouldn't venture to even drive through the neighborhoods they are now snapping up.

[pitohui]

7. i have a suggestion

we have a huge population of color from the south louisiana and mississippi area that now has no home and no safe place to live, we have no medical services, no housing, even now no "shelter of last resort" if another hurricane were to head southeast louisiana/gulf coast mississippi way

they are welcome to offer incentives for some of these folks to relocate to oregon

oh, wait a minute, it was just platitudes and they were really BOASTING about being so lily white, not inviting the people of color to move in

yeah, thought so

(sorry for being so cynical but honestly there is no reason at this time of century to lack people of color in your town if you want them, jeebus, do they understand that tens if not hundreds of THOUSANDS of housing units have been destroyed?

if you don't have black people in your town, try a little damn harder!

have any of you stood at point cadet, biloxi and taken a look at that neighborhood?

have you?

there is nothing there but effin' slabs

every damn one of those families need a damn house, so forgive me if i'm not all boo hoo impressed that portland is tryin real hard

don't they read the effin news up there in portland?

[AndyTiedye]

8. How Would This Work?

The OP was discussing how severe a housing shortage there is in Portland and how expensive housing was.

It would take some pretty huge incentives to make that housing affordable to displaced Katrina victims.
Then you would probably just displace more of the local poor.
Not sure how well people acclamated to the Deep South would do in the cold, rainy, Northwest anyway.

I don't think that black mayor was boasting about how lilly-white his city had become.

The solution for those empty slabs is to build new houses on them, but build them better and higher this time.

I think most of the people who were displaced by Katrina would prefer to go home and rebuild.

[pitohui]

9. look i understand i get it

they don't really want black people any more than houston does

i get it no problem

of course it would be far cheaper to relocate the displaced to the neighborhoods in portland, rather than have to rebuild ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOODS 20 feet in the air, entire levee systems, ENTIRE hospitals (you do understand our public hospitals are all destroyed) and ENTIRE school systems -- that would cost the taxpayer billions more than just relocating the people to oregon but don't let logic get in the way

they would rather the taxpayer spend billions rather than millions if it will just keep the black people out of oregon

so why the pretense otherwise? i just don't like the hypocrisy which this story reeks of

"oh woe, poor pitiful us, we can't find any black people ANYWHERE who would be willing to have a better life in an area with no crime, an actual hospital, and actual school system, these terrible people, they just INSIST on living in slums in st. bernard housing project"

i'm tired of the media promoting the lie that black people like to live in shit and that it is hopeless to offer them anything better

i know you don't honestly believe that black people prefer to live in slum housing, in drug and crime infested slums, where there are no decent schools and no hospitals, so don't buy into the media "oh woe they are so sentimental they would rather live in slum" crap that is being put forward by the media

if the mayor of portland wants black people in portland, it is pretty damn easy this time of century

oh, and the argument that the houses in oregon are too expensive for black people to want to live in -- that had to be badly phrased, so i'm going to back away from that one

trust me, we don't have any housing here either, except we also don't have hospitals, we lack schools, we lack libraries, we lack bridges, we lack LEVEES, so the choice is subsidize some housing or subsidizing houses, schools, hospitals, bridges, LEVEES...it's pretty clear what is cheaper

but it ain't about cheap

it's abt making some pious platitudes, it's the beagle who yelps about how his balls hurt but he's too lazy to roll over and get off his balls

[pnwmom]

12. Our school in WA offered to take some Katrina refugees

and we thought it was going to happen. But they decided that they would rather relocate somewhere closer to home instead.

[AndyTiedye]

14. Who Do You Want to Displace FROM Portland To Make Room For Them?

I seem to recall the OP was discussing a housing shortage, not a housing surplus in Portland,
and the fact that housing was getting expensive -- and that a large majority of those who could afford the
higher costs are white.

I think if you subsidize Katrina refugees specifically, it will mostly impact the local poor, as they are
likely to be competing for the same housing.

I don't live in Oregon, though all of the same conditions apply, only more so, here in California.
I think San Francisco in particular would be delighted to have a bit of New Orleans move there.
Unfortunately, the rents are several times higher than in NOLA, and there is no entity with the
kind of funding that would be needed to bridge that gap. Even if you could, you'd probably just
displace other poor, black people who already live here.

There used to be Federal programs to ensure that affordable housing was available, but those do not
seem to be functioning anymore.

It is not clear what you expect the mayor of Portland to do.

[pitohui]

15. it isn't clear? let me make it perfectly clear

all i am asking him to do is quit crying crocodile tears while increasing local property values even more by bragging abt how lily white portland is

because that IS what he is doing

i don't seriously expect him to lift one tiny finger, as you say, the fact that there may be a tiny housing shortage in portland and two or three people may be inconvenienced from time to time in finding housing is FAR more important than the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are without homes in the south

any northern person is more "real" than any southern person, trust me, i got it

no, all i ask him to do is stop boosting your property values by this blatant "we're all white people here in portland" type of publicity

i don't ask him to do thing one to acknowledge REAL housing issues, because he doesn't, you don't, clearly no one in oregon, knows what real lack of housing is

i just ask him to stop playing this cheap game to get more rich white people in the city, it's ugly, it's racist, it doesn't fool anybody who doesn't want to be fooled

it is the modern version of "whites only" isn't it? bragging about how mysteriously they don't have any black people any more, how odd, they must have all died out somehow or something

come on

seriously

you don't see this?

you cannot advertise any longer that your area is "whites only" but in this way he gets the message across CRYSTAL CLEAR and nation wide and nobody can call him on it

well sorry i may be from the south but my mama didn't raise no fools

i know exactly what he is doing and you prob. do too if you stop and think about it

[pnwmom]

18. Maybe you should talk to Seattle's first black Mayor, Norm Rice,

about your theory that he's bragging about this.

[closeupready]

22. Your ideas about property values are wrong.

Portland has long been known as an environmentally-friendly, livable city on the Pacific Coast in a relatively low-density area with lots of natural beauty. Like Seattle, it was just a matter of time before it gentrified with people who have money, ergo, raising property values. The endemic racism of the country sort of guarantees that this means of those who move in, many are white, and that blacks who live there are likely to be displaced by rising rents and conversion to condos and redevelopment and whatever.

There was a time when the Northwest's economy was crap, and it was said of Seattle, "would the last one to leave please turn off the lights?" So from that point to this point means property values are going to be much higher.

Furthermore, if what you are suggesting is that Portland really doesn't want Katrina refugees, then you should offer real facts in support of your beliefs, not just opinion.

[sandnsea]

30. Oh excuse me

Portland raised money, sent voluneers and took in evacuees. Even the Democratic Party here sent out a request for help in assembling kits for the arrival of evacuees. It turns out not too many people wanted to travel over a thousand miles and start a new life in a place where they didn't know anybody. We had more help available then people to take advantage of it.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=31565

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2005/09/intel_helps_kat.html

[nosmokes]

10. the plain fact is, north of SF the coast is pretty white, and

has been historically. i'm not exactly sure why, but after the civil war and the migration westward, i think most of them were smart enough to stay south where it was warmer and drier and the living is easier and your clothes don't mildew in the closet.... there were some movements into the interior west, nevada, arizona and wyoming, but the upper rockies and the coastal region just never was a big draw for the freed slaves and their immediate descendants. to the best of my knowledge there was nomore overt racism in this part of the country at that time than anywhere else, and there was still certainly land for the taking and money to be made and jobs to go around. i've always wondered why more blacks didn't settle the northwest. it can't be the weather. a NW winter may be wet and dreary, but it's a helluva lot more temperate than a winter in boston or chicago.

[pnwmom]

16. There are many more Asians here and in California than in much

of the rest of the country. One of my daughter's friends, a girl who is half-Japanese, was shocked at how few other Asian students were enrolled in the college she attended in New York.

[XemaSab]

23. I thought most of the westward migration of Blacks

happened during WWII, when they came out to work in the shipyards. :shrug:

[shanti]

28. yes

i know lots of bp from texas, alabama, and louisiana (and other parts of the south) here in norcal. the military was a big draw too.

[superconnected]

11. I'm in seattle, I don't feel like it's racist, of course I'm not black

and blacks would have a far better idea.

I know I've always worked around and been friends with plenty of Asians and Indians from India, so I've never considered the place racist. Oh there's lots of Mexicans here too.

I suspect the problem is not many blacks move here and honestly, the few that are, are more "white" than black. I don't mean light skin, I mean my few black co-workers have never been different than the whites. But then many of the asians don't even have accents here. At least not where I work - high tech. I'm sure there are blacks here that are into more black cultural things but like I said, the ones I run into wear preppy shirts and golf. Oh one good friend of mine who is a black man did notice during the seattle riots it was white people throwing the trash cans through the windows and damaging shops. He was right. I didn't see any blacks tearing up seattle on the news during the WTO riots. Only whites.

Also, we do have blacks, just not a lot.

I used to live in Georgia, west virginia and North Carolina. This place is completely different imo. I don't hear racism from the whites like I did in those states. The only racism I do hear from the white is about the mexicans sometimes. It's usually from bushbots.

[RaRa]

24. I have a theory that much, not necesarily most, but much of what we call

racism is really classism. That is, prejudices are often targeted at people of a lower class, not really their race per se. That's why many whites are more comfortable around blacks that we say act white, but really they are of the same or similar socio economic class. I'm not suggesting there isn't racism; of course there is. But I think that there are layers of issues to it.

[Poll_Blind]

29. Extremely good point. n/t

PB

[SoCalDem]

31. Cities "re-make" themselves all the time.. It's economics

High real estate prices create "opportunities" in less desireable areas. young people often choose price, and renovation over ease. As more and more follow the example, gentrification eventually forces out the poorer people who are renters. After some years, the gentrified properties will lose some of their values and once again become rentals, and the cycle begins again..

It's sad to see poor people pushed out, but if you do not own your own home, that's a risk that goes with renting.. Lots of older towns have some pretty nifty looking older buildings, and if sweat equity can restore them, it may help the community in the long run..