Page 4
November 1, 2017
Tubman in Limbo
C ontinueD from f ront
Alberta Commons
Tenant Affordability
As the construction of Alberta Commons nears comple-
tion, Prosper Portland is beginning a first review of appli-
cations for its affordable commercial tenanting program at
the site. The program will follow a rolling, first-come first-
serve review process until all spaces are filled in the Nat-
ural Grocers-anchored project on the corner of NE Martin
Luther King Boulevard and NE Alberta Street.
Prosper Portland is committed to the success of Alber-
ta Commons to provide needed goods and services to the
neighborhood and create lasting, beneficial relationships
with the Northeast community.
The agency launched the affordable tenanting program
to address a recent dramatic increase in retail rents and de-
crease in vacancy rates in the city of Portland which have
resulted in the displacement of small businesses from Port-
land’s urban neighborhoods. The program offers small, di-
verse businesses access to affordable commercial space to
grow and succeed, advancing Prosper Portland’s commit-
ment to generating equitable outcomes from its investments
that contribute to shared prosperity throughout Portland.
As an agency, Prosper Portland has embarked on a stra-
tegic direction that focuses on building an equitable econo-
my. We work very intentionally on projects and initiatives
that realize benefits for all Portlanders – especially Port-
landers of color and Portlanders with low incomes – by
focusing on four cornerstones: creating vibrant neighbor-
hoods and communities, job creation, advancing opportu-
nities for prosperity and collaborating with partners for an
equitable city.
As the city’s economic development agency, Prosper
Portland continues to support small business and maintains
its commitment to support development opportunities to
meet community needs. In addition, every project, pro-
gram or investment now begins with the question: Who
will benefit, and how will the agency ensure that equity
and inclusion are central considerations in both the process
and the outcome?
That is the thinking behind Prosper Portland’s invest-
ment in affordable commercial space, not only at Alberta
Commons but also at two sites in the Lents Town Center
and other locations in the future.
Alberta Commons presents a unique opportunity for
small businesses, including those owned by people of col-
or, women, and those from low-income neighborhoods, to
gain a foothold in the retail mix of the area. The new ten-
anting program offers affordable commercial space; lease
priority to existing local businesses, particularly those
owned by people of color; tenant improvement allow-
ance and/or reduced rates; opportunity to build commu-
nity among tenants; and connections to business-building
resources, all designed to lower the barriers to entry for
small and emerging businesses.
Available space in the affordable tenanting program at
Alberta Commons totals 5,125 square feet and can be di-
vided into smaller units.
For more information visit prosperportland.us or con-
tact program manager Alison Wicks, 503-823-3949 or
wicksa@prosperportland.us. Prospective tenants may also
reach out to the project broker, Jessie Burke, Workspace,
503-862-3416 or jessie@urbannestpdx.com for more in-
formation.
diesel emissions and other air pol-
lutants. School officials said they
also want to gather information on
Tubman’s foundational integrity
as it is located next to a hillside—
which could take until summer of
2019 to complete.
While outdoor air quality test-
ing has been done at Tubman in the
past, no comprehensive indoor air
quality study has been completed,
Portland Public Schools Chief Op-
erating Officer Jerry Vincent said
at last week’s school board meet-
ing. The air quality standards have
also changed since the most recent
air quality test was completed in
2009, Vincent said, so they want
to have a third party look over the
needs and requirements.
“We don’t know what we don’t
know” said Superintendent Gua-
dalupe Guerrero at the School
Board meeting.
Tubman Middle holds special
significance in the African Ameri-
can community, as its initial open-
ing in 1983 at the former Eliot
Elementary School represented a
changing in the tides for displace-
ment of black children. Before
Tubman, there was not a dedicat-
ed middle school in inner North/
Northeast. Most black kids before
1983 got dispersed by the school
district, through busing, to middle
schools outside their communities.
Ron Herndon, director of Al-
bina Head Start, one of the civil
rights activists who helped ad-
vocate for opening Tubman as a
middle school back then, told the
Portland Observer that the health
concerns raised are not new. Most
recently, Tubman provided tem-
porary space for students from
Faubion Elementary, the northeast
Portland school which was rebuilt
and reopened this fall; and from
2007 to 2012, Tubman served
as the girls-only Harriet Tub-
man Young Women’s Leadership
Academy.
“I’m just very angry,” Hern-
don said. “It seems as if the clos-
er we get to the opening of Tub-
bring up health concerns.
He added that if the school
board was concerned for pollution
due to Tubman’s proximity to In-
terstate 5, then they should have
tested other schools near free-
ways, like Lincoln High School
which sits above I-405 in south-
west Portland.
Danise Elijah, a substitute
teacher at Open School North, and
mother of two Martin Luther King
School students, expressed similar
outrage over the school board’s
change in direction.
“This whole situation is ridic-
ulous,” Elijah told the Portland
There were children in
Tubman, the Tubman site,
from the Faubion School all
last year. Why weren’t health
concerns raised then?
— Ron Herndon, director of Albina Head Start
man, these, these, uh, concerns
are raised. There were children in
Tubman, the Tubman site, from
the Faubion School all last year.
Why weren’t health concerns
raised then?” Herndon asked.
Herndon said he met with
school board members routine-
ly, about twice a month, for over
a year regarding the opening of
Tubman and not once did they
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Elijah is worried that Martin
Luther King School, which cur-
rently serves K-8, may become the
backup school for Tubman. Elijah
said Martin Luther King School
needs to continue its place in the
community and not get shorted
by drawing attendance boundaries
that fail to sustain its students.
She said it was both frustrating
and tiring to see the two schools
in Portland named for historical
black leaders, Martin Luther King
and Harriet Tubman, to face such
obstacles.
Last year, a plan to open Tub-
man was postponed a year by
then Superintendent Bob McK-
ean. Now the board and Guerrero
acknowledge that the challenges
they face could force the district
to defer opening Tubman and the
proposed Roseway Heights Mid-
dle School until 2019-20.
The school board last week
also deferred action on setting the
future school boundaries for Tub-
man and Roseway Heights, and
the eight schools that would be
turned into kindergarten-to-fifth
grade elementary schools that
would send students to them.
A district proposal had called
for Boise-Eliot/Humboldt, Ir-
vington, Martin Luther King Jr.,
and Sabin to convert from K-8 to
K-5 schools and sending their stu-
dents to Harriet Tubman, and for
Vestal, Scott, Lee and Rose City
Park to become K-5 schools that
feed Roseway Heights. A proposal
of splitting up the gifted program
Access Academy into eight differ-
ence locations was taken off the
table in order to give more time to
find a single site for the school.