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V an p ort:
Volume XXXX. Number 6
Wednesday • February 10. 2010
Portland’s Katrina
Flood wiped out a multicultural community
bv J ake
T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
When Hurricane Katrina stuck New Or
leans in 2005, people across the country
watched as residents o f the city had every
thing stripped from them by floodwaters
only to struggle with government agencies
that seemed indifferent, if not outright cal
lous to their plight..
But 57 years earlier, a comer o f Oregon, not
unlike parts o f New Orleans that were so
devastated, experienced a similar catastrophe.
At the height o f World War II Portland
was home to shipyards that were feverishly
churning out vessels for the war effort, and
people from all over the country converged
on the city looking for work.
Portland quickly experienced a housing
crunch, which lead the creation o f the Hous
ing Authority o f Portland. The agency built
Vanport in 1943, the largest public housing
project in the country at the time, to accom
modate the influx o f workers.
V anport, named for being midway between
Portland and Vancouver, attracted a motley
group o f people from regions as faraway as the
After Vanport was
destroyed, many of
the flood victims were
given temporary
housing in dilapidated
war surplus mobile
buildings at Guilds
Lake in northwest
Portland. But after
more than a month of
living in these
circumstances, the
residents organized a
caravan to Salem to
protest their condi
tions. (Photo by Allan
DeLay, July 7, 1948)
continued
on page JO
AM
111 Equipped
Mental health crisis ends in death
by J ake
T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
The tense situation was broken when an
officer fired his A R -15 rifle.
Police were responding to an emergency
call that described Aaron Campbell as a
suicidal man armed with a gun at an apart
ment complex in northeast Portland. There
was information that said he was depressed
over the death o f his brother earlier in the day
and had his girlfriend and children inside.
After an hour-long back and forth be
tween Campbell, 25, and the police, the chil
dren were shepherded out o f the Sandy
Terrace apartments. Exactly what happened
next isn't clear, but in the end, Campbell lay
dead.
As Campbell’s friends and family mourn
his Jan. 29 death, questions still linger if the
Aaron Campbell
incident could have had a different outcome,
and how effective efforts by the police bu
reau have been in making sure officers are
equipped to deal with people in crisis.
Ever since the 2006 death o f James Chasse,
continued
yf
on page 20
photo by J ake T homas /T he P ortland O bserver
The entrance to the Northeast Sandy Boulevard apartment building where Aaron
Campbell’s confrontation with police led to his death.