Street roots., July 13, 2018, Page 11, Image 11

Page 12
Commentary
Street Roots • July 13-19, 2018
Portland’s houseless people, who contact
dangerous substances such as dioxin and
lead in riverbank campsites, are particularly
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T S
vulnerable. Houseless camping in the harbor
T T u n d red s of Portlanders will join the
is nothing new: thè river’s bounty of fish
“Big Float” for its eighth year on July
and relative seclusion has enticed houseless
JL 14 to celebrate recent progress in
people to call the riverbank home for over
our river’s health, boarding fluorescent pink
100 years, including in a “Hooverville”
flamingo inner-tubes and bright yellow rafts
encampment during the Great Depression,
to float from Poet’s Beach to Waterfront
and again beginning in the 1980s, with
Park.
Reagan’s rollback of the social safety net and
In 2011, the city of Portland completed
the defunding of mental health services.
the “Big Pipe” project, which dramatically
Even earlier, at the turn of the century,
reduced stormwater and sewer overflows.
the Oregonian reported that 5,000 people
Since then, the Willamette has received
lived in old ship skeletons along the river.
growing attention as an ideal place to
From 1909-1911, Portland’s mayor ordered
recreate. In spring 2016, mayor-elect Ted
these “scows” and their residents removed.
Wheeler even delivered his ballot via “tiny
Workers set some shelters on fire and
triathlon,” ceremonially swimming across
moved others to cheap plots of then-rural
the Willamette, biking along the waterfront,
land six miles east of the river, in Lents. As
the
Willamette.
Activists
worried
about
walking a few blocks to Pioneer Courthouse
Two decades later, the U.S. government
police violently sweep houseless people
harmful effects of water pollution on
Square, and dropping his voting card in the
ratified treaties that tore native people from
from
Portland’s residential neighborhoods
commercial
fishing,
as
well
as
on
tourist
and
box. A few months later, Mayor Wheeler
their homelands, including today’s Portland
today, the river maintains its draw, despite
recreation-centered fishing, business and
took another public dip, starting what has
Harbor, which would eventually become a
hazards.
swimming. They successfully pushed for a
become an annual tradition. He remarked,
major hub for exportation of grain, lumber,
Portland’s sustainability successes,
reduction in pulp and paper mill dumping
“Today we’re going to swim in the water,
and other commodities.
into tihe river and convinced the city to build including river remediation thus far, have
the water quality is very good. We’re not
While whites flocked west to claim land
a new wastewater treatment plant. Such
had uneven impacts. The brief history
going to stop and eat mud on the bottom of
under the Oregon Donation Land Act of
remediation efforts helped put Portland on
outlined here illustrates why Portland
the river.”
1850, it was illegal for Black people to live
the map as a leader in the nascent
Harbor Superfund site remediation has
But Portland’s green façade hides a
in the state under the threat of the lash,
environmental movement Later, green
substantial implications for our region’s
murkier reality, one that river boosters
until 1926. But with World War II on the
infrastructure construction and the Big Pipe most vulnerable residents. It also suggests
often overlook.
horizon, laws changed, and roughly 23,000
helped reduce
Although the Willamette may be safe for
that the ways in which remediation takes
black people moved to
stormwater and
swimming most of the year, an 11-mile
place is important. The Portland Harbor
Oregon. Portland
sewage runoff even
stretch going north from the Broadway
Community Coalition (PHCC), an alliance of
became home to the
more.
Bridge is so toxic that the Environmental
biggest wartime
Houseless camping la the
grassroots groups and supporters, is
Water quality has
Protection Agency (EPA) designated it a
shipbuilding and
currently advocating for a thorough cleanup
harbor is nothing newi the
improved
Superfund site in 2000. It may well be true
shipbreaking
of the harbor. At the same time, PHCC
river's boaaty of fish and
substantially, and it is
for the majority of Portland residents that
operation in the US,
demands humane treatment of houseless
relative seclusion has enticed now considered safe
toxins in the mud pose little danger. But
in large part thanks to
people living along the river, as well as a
houseless people to ca ll the
to swim in the
they actually prevent thousands of people
the labor, of black and
transparent planning process. PHCC
from safely engaging in cultural traditions
rlverhaafe home lo r over 1OO Portland Harbor most recognizes that Portland’s river cleanup and
native workers, as
of the time. Yet, these
and life-sustaining activities, like fishing.
well as many Chinese J
years? lacladlag la a
redevelopment to date, including the green
advancements have
The Oregon Health Authority advises
and other immigrants.
"H ooverville" encampment
infrastructure lining Portland’s streets and
had little impact on
against consuming any amount of the
Shipyard workers
during the Great Depression? pollution buried in the the condos lining the South Waterfront, is
harbor’s resident fish, such as bass, catfish,
were exposed to
part and parcel of the city’s recent boom,
and again beginning In the
harbor’s sand and
and carp, which feed on benthic organisms
extremely toxic
which has fueled the displacement and
1980s? w ith Beagan's rollback sediment Extremely
contaminated with PCBs and other
substances on the
docks, such as lead
hazardous substances.
of the social safety net and the dangerous substances exclusion of communities suffering most
from toxic exposure. PHCC is therefore
continue to v
To understand why not everyone is
and asbestos. Adding
defending of meatal health
fighting for a substantial portion of the
accumulate
up
the
insult to injury, black
celebrating the Portland Harbor as an urban
services«
estimated $1 billion it will cost to remediate
food chain, ultimately
laborers were
recreational paradise, it is necessary to
the harbor to be allocated toward living
poisoning the bodies
excluded from the
examine the history of the harbor from a
wage jobs and job training for impacted
of those who eat
Boilermakers Union,
“people’s view”— from the perspectives of.
resident fish - largely
communities.
resulting in fewer
those who have carried the burdens of
black and native
So, let’s continue to celebrate our river,
Workplace protections
pollution, dispossession and displacement
people, immigrants and refugees, and
but let’s also be sure to keep in mind how
and lower wages than their white
for decades and centuries.
houseless people of all backgrounds.
we got here, who’s borne the burden of
counterparts. Starting with the 1948
Prior to the 1800s, approximately 3,000
“It was a past-time and a feeding,”
Vanport Flood, black Portlanders have
pollution - and cleanup - and how far we
Multnomah-Chinook people called today’s
explains Wilma Alcock, a local elder, whose
experienced serial waves of displacement
have to go.
Portland metropolitan area home.
parents were some of the first black
ever since. Other groups, including
Thousands of members of other tribes also
Evin Goodling is a researcher, writer and
shipyard workers in Portland. Her father
immigrants, have also been displaced to
travelled through the Willamette Valley for
activist. Donovan Smith is an artist,
passed
away
from
mesothelioma,
a
form
of
make way for industry (e.g., when Guild’s
trading, fishing, and wapato-gathering. But
journalist
and community organizer. Both
lung
cancer.
Many
people
are
unaware
of
Lake
became
an
“industrial
sanctuary”).
starting in the late 1700s, colonial explorers
were born and raised in Portland. For more
risks, while others realize the danger but
Just as the shipbuilding industry was
brought diseases such as smallpox and
prioritize practicing important cultural
information about the Portland Harbor
gaining steam, public health experts,
malaria, devastating native populations. By
traditions and/or accessing an affordable
Community Coalition or to get involved, go
sanitary engineers, conservationists and
1830, disease reduced the Willamette Valley
source
of
protein.
towww.ourfutureriver.org.
well-to-do
anglers
began
a
fight
to
clean
up
population from 15,000 to 2,000.
BY ERIN GOODLING
AND DONOVAN SMITH
I—I
A
Below the Surface
A People's History o f the Portland Harbor