Neighborhood Revolution
(1) A City of Neighborhoods
Federal urban renewal agendas led to a “balkinazation” of Portland neighborhoods, and neighborhoods would band together to ensure they had a voice in the local planning processes that attempted to implement urban renewal initiatives. Between 1966 and 1972 a number of neighborhood organizations helped make local residents more active in planning decisions (2). A number of neighborhood organizations were spawned as a direct response to the Model Cities Program local initiatives in Portland. The influx of federal funding to remove blight throughout major metropolitan areas left planning commissions across the country with lofty goals. The neighborhood revolution in Portland was a series of neighborhoods looking to give their versions of renewal and revitalization the same consideration as those of the Portland Planning Committee. Fueling the revolution was the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) thoughts on citizen participation for urban renewal. HUD suggested that citizen involvement was merely for residents to be informed rather than residents being involved (2). In 1968, the director of the Model Cities Program made the decision to base planning decisions on resident input more heavily than public agencies (2). Later in 1968, HUD released a three-part plan largely considered to be disappointing to Portland’s black communities, which continued the trend of uniting and empowering neighborhood organizations (2).
In 1971 the city council established a District Planning Organization Task Force designed to define the role of neighborhood organizations in planning decisions establish criteria for their recognition, identify funding needs, and describe channels of communication between neighborhoods and the council (2). The first report completed by the task force in 1972 recommended a tiered system of neighborhood organizations and district planning organizations that were granted access to Portland planning staff for development of neighborhood comprehensive planning copied from a system that San Diego, California employs (2).
In 1971 the city council established a District Planning Organization Task Force designed to define the role of neighborhood organizations in planning decisions establish criteria for their recognition, identify funding needs, and describe channels of communication between neighborhoods and the council (2). The first report completed by the task force in 1972 recommended a tiered system of neighborhood organizations and district planning organizations that were granted access to Portland planning staff for development of neighborhood comprehensive planning copied from a system that San Diego, California employs (2).
1. (Image) "Home Team Portland." Home Team Portland. www.hometeamportland.com (accessed February 20, 2012)
2. Abbott, Carl. Portland: planning, politics, and growth in a twentieth-century city. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
2. Abbott, Carl. Portland: planning, politics, and growth in a twentieth-century city. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
Anthony Monaco