Page 4
December 21, 2022
New Lawsuit Claims Redesigning Our Streets for Safety
Racist Destruction
and Displacement
Continued from Front
dents and are suing Portland,
the city’s economic and ur-
ban development agency and
Legacy Emanuel Hospital,
accusing them of the “racist”
destruction of the homes and
forced displacement.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday
in federal court in Portland,
shines a light on how urban
improvement projects and con-
struction of the nation’s high-
ways often came at the cost of
neighborhoods that aren’t pre-
dominantly white.
“In many cases, city and
state planners purposely built
through Black neighborhoods
to clear so-called slums and
blighted areas,” according to a
2020 report by Pew Charitable
Trusts, a Pennsylvania-based
nonprofit public policy group.
People who were part of ra-
cial minorities were often obli-
gated to live in those neighbor-
hoods because of “redlining”
—
banks
discriminating
against home loan applicants
based on race — and even due
to laws that maintained all-
white neighborhoods.
In 1934, Fouther’s great-
aunt and her husband bought a
house, which he and his sister
visited almost daily, in the Al-
bina neighborhood of Portland,
according to the lawsuit.
But even after buying homes
and building lives in Albina,
residents were forced to move
by so-called urban renewal and
highway building.
Albina had already been par-
tially destroyed and carved up in
the 1950s and ’60s by the build-
ing of Interstate 5 and Veterans
Memorial Coliseum, the origi-
nal home of the NBA’s Portland
Trail Blazers. But then a hospital
expansion was announced.
Between 1971 and 1973, the
Portland Development Com-
mission demolished an estimat-
ed 188 properties, 158 of which
were residential and inhabited
by 88 families and 83 individ-
uals. A total of 32 business and
four church or community orga-
nizations were also destroyed,
according to the lawsuit. Of the
forcibly displaced households,
74% were Black.
A first phase, in the 1950s
and ’60s, involved city officials
secretly agreeing to compensate
the hospital for the full cost of
the purchases and demolitions,
the lawsuit said. The homeown-
ers were intimidated by hospital
representatives and told that if
they didn’t leave, the city would
take their homes. They were not
fairly compensated and in some
cases not compensated at all,
according to the lawsuit.
“This case is about the inten-
tional destruction of a thriving
Black neighborhood in Central
Albina under the pretense of
facilitating a hospital expan-
sion that never happened,”
the lawsuit says, adding that
the loss of homes “has meant
the deprivation of inheritance,
intergenerational wealth, com-
munity, and opportunity.”
Much of the land that used
to be a thriving neighborhood,
where Black families felt safe
and had social and spiritual
connections, became parking
lots or stood vacant.
“I was taken out of my safe
and loving community. I was
moved into a neighborhood that
saw me as a nuisance and to a
school where I was one of three
Black children,” said Connie
Mack, one of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit said the defen-
dants are benefiting from “un-
just enrichment” from “this
horribly racist chapter from
Portland’s past.”
Legacy Health, which owns
Legacy Emanuel Medical Cen-
ter, declined to comment on the
lawsuit, saying it is evaluating
it. Prosper Portland, former-
ly the Portland Development
Commission, also said it is
evaluating the complaint and
had no additional comment.
City officials didn’t respond to
a request for comment.
Albina is now called the El-
iot neighborhood, which boasts
trendy shops, cafes and eateries.
“Our neighborhood, in the
heart of the former city of Albi-
na, is a great place to live, work
and play,” the Eliot Neighbor-
hood Association proclaims on
its website.
Many of the plaintiffs’
homes, if they had not been de-
stroyed, would have been worth
more than $500,000 today, the
lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs are seeking
compensatory damages from
defendants in amounts to be de-
termined at trial.
Map shows extent of Killingworth’s redesign project. Photo Courtesy of Portland.gov
Improvements
coming to NE
Killingsworth
in the Cully
Neighborhood
Following extensive communi-
ty outreach, the Portland Bureau
of Transportation (PBOT) and
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardes-
ty are excited to announce that a
variety of safety improvements
are coming to NE Killingsworth
St, from NE 53rd Avenue to Cul-
ly Boulevard - including parking
protected bike lanes.
NE Killingsworth Street is an
important connector for North-
east Portland and runs through the
heart of the Cully neighborhood.
In 2019, Killingsworth Street was
identified as a maintenance and
safety project to be completed by
Fixing Our Streets, the program
funded by Portland's 10-cent gas
tax. PBOT staff now start the work
to design the project, with con-
struction expected in 2024.
In February, the advocacy or-
ganization Andando en Bicicletas
y Caminando (ABC) wrote a joint
letter with the Community Cycling
Center to Commissioner Hardesty
and PBOT Director Chris Warner.
The letter asked us to “slow
down the Killingsworth paint and
pave project and meaningfully en-
gage with the community on how
our street can be reconfigured to
make it safer for all of us, especial-
ly our most vulnerable community
members.” The letter added, “Safe
bicycling would improve our mo-
bility options and give more of us
a way to get around with less stress
every day. We are particularly in-
terested in how a protected bike
lane would advance transportation
equity in our community by mak-
ing more people feel safe to ride
a bike on Killingsworth; it is our
opinion that protected bike lanes
slow down fast-moving traffic and
shorten pedestrian crossings.”
In response to the letter and
additional feedback, Commis-
sioner Hardesty requested PBOT
perform more community en-
gagement that examined addi-
tional design options.
“I am proud that we took a step
back to deepen our outreach – part
of which was to include more res-
idents who don’t speak English as
a first language.” said Commis-
sioner Hardesty. “Our final survey
showed 75% of all area respon-
dents were supportive of PBOT’s
final design. I am excited to see
the Cully community engaged
around a vision for a greener, saf-
er, multi-modal future that bene-
fits everyone no matter how they
share the road.”
The project will now enter the
design phase. During the design
phase, PBOT engineers devel-
op the detailed plans for the im-
provements and enhancements
coming to the street. These in-
clude civil elements like con-
crete pedestrian crossing islands
and ADA standard curb ramps,
electrical elements such as speed
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reader boards and lighting en-
hancements, and traffic elements
that identify the specific place-
ment of street markings along
the corridor. As part of the design
process, PBOT staff will engage
with property owners and resi-
dents along the corridor and of-
fer opportunities for feedback on
various aspects of the project’s
design. Microsurfacing of NE
Killingsworth is anticipated to
begin in 2024. Once the resurfac-
ing is complete the corridor will
be freshly striped with the final-
ized street design and additional
safety elements and signage will
be installed.
This month PBOT is installing
a new, high visibility crossing on
NE Killingsworth, in the middle
of the block between NE Cully
Boulevard and Lombard Street.
The crosswalk will include con-
crete pedestrian islands and new
lighting enhancements to in-
crease safety for pedestrians in
the neighborhood. Speed reader
boards are also being installed in
both directions on this block to
emphasize the need to for people
driving to slow down and yield
to people crossing the street.
This project coincides with the
opening of Hacienda CDC’s new
Las Adelitas 141-unit affordable
housing development.
Fixing Our Streets is also fund-
ing a separate project to add street
lighting to the north side of NE
Killingsworth Street from 42nd
Avenue to Lombard Street. This
work will improve safety for all
people who travel along the street.
It is expected to be built by 2024.