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‘City ¿/Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • July 30, 2014
Grow, Portland, Grow!
by D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
Portland, you’re growing. M etro’s latest projections see
the region swelling to about 3 million people in the next 20
years, an increase of around400,000people. For communities
of color already impacted by gentrification, low employment
and other factors, what does that mean for the future?
Metro s ‘2015 Growth Management Decision’ report,
released earlier this month, assesses the capacity of the
region’s urban areas to accommodate housing and jobs for
the added population. But one thing that the report does not
account for and never has since the government agency
began doing them in 1970, is the impact population growth
has on race.
Urban League of Portland’s Director of Advocacy and
Public Policy for Midge Purcell says that fact in itself is
problematic. The non-profit social services and civil rights
organization is currently working on the second installment
Established in 1970
) p s iy e r
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Impacts on race not studied
in population forecast
of their State of Black Oregon report, started in 2009. The
report combines data, narrative, and lived experience to
illustrate the social and economic realities of black people in
Oregon.
Finding good housing and gainful employment is especially
acute in the African-American community. According to the
city’s planning bureau, blacks have the lowest annual median
continued
on page 4