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Abstract
A model U.S. city, Portland Oregon's progressive policies are often credited with making it highly livable, with a vibrant urban core. Yet these policies have not protected Portland from broader trends that have increased urban poverty over the past several decades in the U.S., including social welfare cuts and the shift in the economy to the service sector. In terms of poverty dynamics and social policies, we argue that while regional planning and other progressive policies have helped protect Portland from extremely high concentrated poverty present in many large U.S. cities, it has still experienced growing social dislocations associated with national and macro-level social and economic factors. These trends suggest both the possibilities and limits of local policy, regional planning, and activism for ameliorating the deleterious consequences of social welfare retrenchment and franchise capitalism for vulnerable urban populations, and highlight the importance of the broader social policy context and economic change for understanding urban poverty and the experiences of the urban poor.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank a UBC Hampton fund research grant for the financial support of this research.
Notes
1 Retrieved from http://www.sustainlane.com/us-city-rankings/.
2 One valuable source is The Regional Equity Atlas: Metropolitan Portland's Geography of Opportunity, by CitationCampbell et al. (2007), which was published by The Coalition for a Livable Future and Portland State University's College of Urban & Public Affairs. The report is based on detailed GIS mapping and demographic analysis to explore equity and sustainable development connections. It focuses on the six-county “Portland-Vancouver Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area” (PV-PMSA) as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, though resource constraints limit analysis to the four counties (Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington in Oregon, and Clark County, WA) comprising most of the Portland area's 1.9 million residents (The Coalition for a Livable Future, 2007, p. 103). Other sources include the U.S. Census 2008 American Community Survey, the Coalition for a Livable Future and Portland State University's Regional Equity Atlas (2007), CitationOrfield's Metropolitics studies (1998, Citation2002), U.S. Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Dept. State of the Cities Data System, Oregon Center for Public Policy, Brookings Institution, Economic Policy Institute, the City of Portland, Multnomah County, Portland Public Schools and the State of Oregon.
3 F.I.R.E. ranks in Portland's 1990–2000 top six employment sectors, and in the top two fastest suburbanizing. (U.S. HUD Dept. State of the Cities Data System, retrieved from http://socds.huduser.org/Census/industry.odb%3Fmsacitylist=6440.0*4100059000*1.0%26metro=msa.)
4 See “New Data Shows Oregon's Wealthiest Pulling Away from the Rest” (4/8/08). Oregon Center for Public Policy. Retrieved from http://www.ocpp.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi%3Fpage=nr080408pullingb; also CitationAcker et al. (2002) cite Oregon tax structure as disproportionately burdening lower income households.
5 Retrieved from http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm.
6 U.S. Census 2008 American Community Survey.
7 Portland during the 1990s had among the most dramatic U.S. increases in tax-base inequality (CitationOrfield, 2002, p. 59).
8 From 13.1%, to 14.4% in 2008 (U.S. was 12.4% in 2000 and 13.2% in 2008). Note that Oregon's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (the state-managed federal welfare program) cases similarly increased (retrieved from http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/assistance/data/papage.shtml).
9 These include outer southeast Portland, east Multnomah County (e.g. Rockwood), central Vancouver, Hillsboro, and Beaverton.
10 Along with 1990s economic growth, this pattern also reflects recent home buyers tending to have fewer children than longtime homeowners.
11 Estimates are that from 1/5 (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2008) to perhaps 1/4 of homeless persons are employed full- or part-time (CitationEhrenreich, 2001, p. 26). Most data show long-term persisting or increasing homeless populations, e.g. in 2006–2007 it was between 1.6 million (according to HUD) and 3.5 million (according to the National Coalition for the Homeless).
12 The winter 2007 one night count (Portland Bureau of Housing & Community Development, retrieved from http://www.portlandonline.com/bhcd) is likely an underestimate, e.g. by omitting long-term hotel/motel occupants (CitationEhrenreich, 2001). Also see Homelessness Resource Center (retrieved from http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/Channel/View.aspx%3Fid=18).
13 U.S. Census 2008 American Community Survey.
14 Excluding Vancouver, WA (Clark County, part of the Census PMSA), the Portland area becomes somewhat more diverse (and less White).
15 The more diverse and higher poverty Multnomah County is somewhat lower at 77.1 years.
16 Retrieved from http://www.mchealth.org/healthequity.
17 Based on statistically significant rate ratio differences greater than 2.0 (incidence per 100,000 during 2001–2005) between the group of color and the White non-Hispanic population (CitationMultnomah County Health Dept., 2008).
18 This is somewhat less than the 36% urban average decline. State of the Cities Data System, Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (retrieved from http://socds.huduser.org/FBI/screen1.odb%3Fmetro=msa).
19 From CrimeMapper2 – retrieved from http://www.portlandonline.com/police/%3Fc=29830 and http://www.gis.ci.portland.or.us/maps/police/; major arterials, e.g. Interstates 5 & 205, SE and NE Grand & MLK, SE 82nd & 122nd Aves., NE Sandy, SE Foster & SE Powell Blvds.
20 From CrimeMapper2 – retrieved from http://www.portlandonline.com/police/%3Fc=29830 and http://www.gis.ci.portland.or.us/maps/police/; major arterials, e.g. Interstates 5 & 205, SE and NE Grand & MLK, SE 82nd & 122nd Aves., NE Sandy, SE Foster & SE Powell Blvds.
21 East, Southeast, and Southwest older suburbs (Portland Police Bureau, Neighborhood Crime Statistics, 2004–2009, (retrieved from http://www.portlandonline.com/police/crimestats/index.cfm); Beaverton Police Dept., Beaverton, OR Crime Rates, 2002–2008. (retrieved from http://beavertonpolice.org/crime/docs/BeavertonCrimeRates.pdf.)
22 Home Again, A 10-year Plan to End Homelessness (Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development (retrieved from http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm%3Fid=130590); and Portland Economic Opportunity Initiative (retrieved from http://www.pdc.us/pdf/bus_serv/economic-opp/Changing-Lives-Brochure.pdf).
23 Portland Public Schools Summer Programs (retrieved from http://www.summerfoodoregon.org/).
24 At the same time, greater public investment can enable the sort of “stable communities where volunteerism actually flourishes best” (CitationHyatt, 2001, p. 227). This is perhaps seen in national efforts like police-facilitated neighborhood watch programs and AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps*VISTA addresses Oregon poverty with groups like Black United Fund of Oregon, Habitat for Humanity, NAYA, Neighborhood House, Oregon Microenterprise Network (retrieved from http://www.oregonvolunteers.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi%3Fpage=service-vistas).
25 Corporation for National Community Service, Portland profile (retrieved from http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/OR/Portland).
26 In 1988 for example, Portland's Baloney Joe's shelter founder Michael Stoops co-founded the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, DC.
27 Retrieved from http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/research_and_action/documents/broadsheet_2008-09_001.pdf. Oregon & Portland's hub of the nationwide America's Second Harvest/Feeding America food bank network, it sponsors Oregon Hunger Awareness Week, in which the Food Bank's Food Stamp Challenge invited supporters to live one week on a $21 food budget in 2007.