Legacy Emanuel
Hospital

The Kirby Ave. Parking Lot is the beginning of an undeveloped plot of land that represents loss, shattered dreams, and one hundred years of systematically restricting where black people can live in Portland.

Albina began as a city on the east side of the Willamette River and was annexed to Portland in 1891.  Partly because of exclusion from other neighborhoods and partly out of a desire to own homes and live near their places of work; black families were restricted to home ownership in lower Albina. The Albina neighborhood grew into a community that housed 80% of Portland’s black residents. The community was known for restaurants, centers of jazz and art, barber shops, churches, and a place where black families could put down roots and thrive.  In the 1960’s the City of Portland Development Commission declared that the neighborhood was in advanced blight and “clearly urban renewal, largely clearance, appears to be the only solution to not only blight that presently exists in central Albina, but also to avoid the spread of that blight to other surrounding areas.”  In response to this report, tenants were evicted; buildings were demolished, and properties were sold. This paved the way to implement the planned construction of Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum, I-5, and the Rose Quarter.

In the 70’s, more community members were displaced as they were forced to abandon or sell their homes (at below market value) for the expansion of Emanuel Hospital, effectively forcing over half the neighborhood’s population to relocate. Today there are still empty lots like the one in which we are praying that were once homes and businesses. The discriminatory housing policies, rundown and abandoned properties, contributed to an influx of crime and gang activity in the 1980’s and 90’s. Attempts have been made to improve the neighborhood and gentrification has taken hold. However, those displaced and who experienced the destruction of their livelihood are still impacted. Throughout the city there are members of our community who once lived in the Albina neighborhood that thrived and pulsed with black joy; today they continue to grieve the loss of their community and the lack of restoration.