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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2017)
Fitness with JJ Tips for getting your routine back on track See column, page 4 ‘City of Roses’ Group reconvening to affirm power and strength See Metro, page 9 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month Volume XLVI • Number 42 Empowering Sisterhood www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • October 18, 2017 Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity Healing and Making Good Vicki Guinn, a public relations manager at Legacy Health, oversees the community outreach into plans to develop a vacant lot next to Legacy Emanuel Hospital for community use while acknowledging the black community that was displaced from the site decades ago. The exhibit behind her in the hospital’s atrium tells the story of urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s and its impact on a black community that continues to this day. photo by D anny p eterson / t he p ortlanD o bserver Past and future Intertwined in Hill Block development by D anny p eterson t he p ortlanD o bserver Plans to finally develop an empty lot that has long represented a sore spot in the heart of Portland’s historic African Ameri- can community is taking some root, but the details are far from formalized as commu- nity conversations and public input is still being gathered. The 1.7 acre block at North Russell Street and Williams Avenue was demol- ished in 1969 by the city’s Portland Devel- opment Commission, now called Portland Prosper, as part of an urban renewal project that included the construction of Interstate 5, the Oregon Convention Center, and Leg- acy Emanuel Hospital. Lost in its wake, was a predominately black community and many black busi- nesses, including apartments, a drug store and dry cleaners. It was a familiar trend that was going on at the time around the nation in so called “blighted” neighbor- C ontinueD on p age 5 photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver Vacant for decades, the Hill Block was once the center of African American life in Portland at North Russell Street and Williams Avenue. Plans call for developing the site with benefits to the black community that was displaced.