Portland’s next mayor, Ted Wheeler rose some eyebrows earlier this year, after donning a controversial t-shirt ripping at the city’s popular unofficial “Keep Portland WEIRD!” motto.
The shirt, an Ignorant/Reflections design, reads simply, “Gentrification Is WEIRD!“, in similar styling and text to Music Millennium owner, Terry Currier’s original ode to the PDX-DIY way of life and business.
The move set off a firestorm of opinions, on what it meant for the well-to-do, seasoned politician and sitting State Treasurer to wear the statement, which Wheeler would later tell us he “just thought was cool.”
Fast forward, a few days, Wheeler’s wins the race for mayor of one of America’s hottest cities in a deciding fashion prompting Ignorant/Reflections Media to invite him to speak directly to the community he’s now, charged with serving come Jan. 1, 2017.
Wheeler, accepted our invite, in a fitting location no doubt — joining us at our community bike ride with the Community Cycling Center, which tied the lasting effects of the 1948 flood of Oregon’s then second largest city, Vanport, to Portland’s current housing crisis.
Taking to the stage, with Ignorant/Reflections own, Donovan M. Smith, Wheeler answered questions on how he plans to address a growing wealth gap between Blacks and the city’s majority population, its long (and lawful) exclusionary practices of racism, and the post-Portlandia economic and development boom it finds itself in with the world’s eye’s watching what outgoing Mayor Charlie Hales calls the transition of the Rose City from a town to a “major American city.”
The following is a transcription of our conversation that day:
Cover photo by Sika Stanton
BEING ON PURPOSE ABOUT GENTRIFICATION
I/R: Do you believe gentrification, as far as on purpose. A purposeful targeting of the Black community?
TW: When you look at the policies of the not so distant past around exclusionary laws that existed state and city wide, [and] understand, that until fairly recently we had redlining laws, and it was difficult for Black people to get home loans, and get ownership, I think it’d be disingenuous for me to tell you, there was not intentionality around those policies.
Now today, the wave of gentrification that we’re seeing as a result of lots of people moving here, lots of development, housing prices going sky high, I don’t think it has nearly that same degree of intentionality but the impact is exactly the same. Therefore the policies I am committed to implementing would be around investment, development, home ownership, job creation, economic prosperity the things that allow and the type of things. We’re not gonna be able to stop the growth, but we can mitigate some of those resources.
I/R: 25 percent of Multnomah County’s homeless population right now is Black – we’re only 6 percent of the population in Portland [and 2 percent in Oregon]. Often when we’re talking about economic development and policies, we’ll have things that touch a broad spectrum, but never written with the same degree of intentionality around this specific community.
TW: We have to, again as you said, acknowledge that Black individuals are disproportionately affected by the factors that lead to homelessness—and there a lot of them. When you look at the incarceration rates in America, or even here in Oregon, you’ll see Black males are disproportionately incarcerated therefore those homeless for that reason are Black males. When you look at economic opportunity, we do not have equity in this community or anywhere else in this country as far as I’m concerned. That lack, is being exacerbated as we see growing wealth disparity and the cost of housing getting out of reach for so many people. Therefore, if we’re going to be able to solve the homelessness problem, in Portland we can’t seek one-size-fits-all solutions we have to go back upstream to the causes of homelessness which means we have to do more to address the problems in the Black community if we really want to get at the drivers of homelessness here in Portland.
And I look forward to working with the Home for Everyone Coalition and other organizations to see what specific policies we can put in place – whether economic, behavioral, or policies around educational opportunity. It’s about preventing people from being dislodged from their communities in the first place. Everything from targeted rent subsidies for organizations that work with the Black community whether it’s the Urban League, or SEI or anyone else. Being more resourceful and direct with job training. When the City and the County and state are engaged in large projects for buildings or roads, we need to make sure we have contract policies, and procurement policies that target those communities.
I/R: In thinking about targeting, we can all Google now the clear line politicians drew saying Black people l cannot have access to this or that in terms of economic development. Even in procurement, where you have MWSBE targets, it’s a broad terms that basically is everyone that is not a White man. What can Ted Wheeler’s office promise to the Black community with these targets.
TW: I’ve worked very hard during the course of my campaign with organizations that represent minority contractors, subcontractors, apprentice opportunities Black developers – like NAAMCO and cultivated the beginnings of what I hope are long-lasting relationships. There’s a lot more we can do though. Looking at the development opportunities in the next 10 years – and I’m here for at least four – we have the opportunities on South Waterfront, the post office site, and some other things in the downtown core and I hope we enter into rock solid Community Benefit Agreements that benefit the community that make sure we’re not only using companies that are run my minorities, but we set specific targets around how many people on any given days of 365 days a year can I take an average over the course of a year on a job site how many of those people are Black , Latina, API, Native. I think it’s really important for us to be that clear with the data, and set targets around contracting procurement.
I want to make sure that people who have been disproportionately affected by development in this community are disproportionately benefiting from the upside of development that’s happening today—by the way that’s completely legal and I think it’s a worthy goal for a progressive community such as this. Number 2, I’d like to set a larger stretch goal. This is a community that like so many others that’s seen massive displacement of Black people from our community and we are already not particularly diverse. I’d like to see us implement some policies and programs around some of these development opportunities, where we do intentionally create homeownership opportunities, and we do intentionally make sure people have access to economic growth, and job training and in doing so we actually start to reverse the longstanding trend of gentrification. No city has been able to successfully demonstrate that they can reverse gentrification through development. I believe we can and should. I would like to see Portland be the first leader, be able to do that—we have ever opportunity to do that.
I/R: Vanport was a poor community, of mostly poor Black and White people. Then you have, after Vanport, Black people specifically forced into the Albina neighborhood, by law. Now, with the gentrification that’s happened in that neighborhood you have a lot of appeals to bring people back into that neighborhood. But if Black people are the poorest they’ve been in 50 years here in Oregon, which they are, by bringing these same people into what’s [now] an economic hub of the city, are you setting them up for failure in it?’
TW: The short answer is yeah. We cannot ignore educational opportunities, opportunities for jobs training, employment. All those things are just as integral to prosperity. If we’re simply saying we’re helping someone secure a house and that’s the end of the discussion that’s not sufficient. It’s an important first step – I think housing is fundamental – but people also need the tools, education, and access and opportunity for meaningful engagement. We’re becoming an increasingly skills based economy, and at the starting gate only about half of Black males are getting their HS diploma in 4 years. That means right at the start of the economic prosperity chain, even if those young people had that access to affordable housing on day one they don’t yet have the tools to be sufficient in this economy.
I/R: One of things that came out of this housing movement was when the Portland African American Leadership Forum had protested the development on MLK and Alberta. You’re on the record, as chastising the PDC for pulling out of that deal, but that moment set off the moment we’re living in where people realized there is a HUGE need for affordable housing in Portland. I’d like to hear more of why you weren’t a fan of that deal.
TW: It’s not that I wasn’t a fan of that deal. I think what it exposed was a lack of understanding about the neighborhood in which the neighborhood was dealing.
What I could see was a community was frustrated by the PDC apparently giving a large piece of property away, well below market value to a for-profit corporation which many people were concerned would immediately drive up the real-estate in the area, instead of supporting a local business. I think it was a positive learning experience for government agencies like PDC, I think they listened and learned. I think some of the work they’ve been doing recently around equity, particularly economic has been fantastic. The Neighborhood Prosperity Initiatives I think are a great example of the government working with people in the community first hand to understand what they need, and how government can help the economic goals of the neighborhood. Also the Inclusionary Startup Fund the PDC created to help entrepreneurs that might necessarily have access to capitol and banking opportunities. I’m really impressed with what they did with Portland Mercado, where there’s like 22 families, many of them recent immigrants, some longtime Portland residents who are now successful entrepreneurs. Why I may’ve had some disagreements with the PDC’s handling of that project, I’ll encourage that moving forward.
I/R: The Comprehensive Plan lays out our cities longterm goal until 2035. Our last 3 mayors have been 1 term mayors, so every few years you’ve had someone with a different vision. I’m wondering how you’re working with our current mayor so that if another person takes the reigns, plans don’t fall through the cracks.
TW: Mayor Hales and I have certainly had our disagreements on certain programs and policies. We meet regularly. I view this as an opportunity to meet with City Commissioners, and their staff. I’m out in the community meeting with different organizations, and building relationships. While I’ll undoubtedly have objectives for things I wanna achieve as mayor for this community, I think consistency is key too so I’ve been working on a host of issues with the mayor, particularly on the Comp Plan which will be finalized when I take office and look forward to working with the community in seeing it through in a positive way.
“Gentrification Is WEIRD! — The Ride” recap from Donovan Smith on Vimeo.
EAST SIDE
I/R: One of the challenges we face in the Black community, is that we’ve been dispersed throughout the region. Where, by law we were forced into communities like Vanport and North and Northeast. Now, we have different groups of people making decisions around their poor people. Now you have Portland City Council, but you also Gresham City Council, Wood Village etc. making decisions for this dispersed group . So I’m wondering how your plan includes working with these different cities around the specific targeting that has happened to Black communities because now they’re being juggled between all these different agencies?
TW: We love government here in Portland, and there’s a lot of overlapping and different things can get messy. I’m someone who came to Mayor as at Multnomah County Chair, so I’ve had experience with regional government, I’m currently a statewide office holder, and I’m committed as Mayor to being a regional player on these issues. We can’t talk about economic, education, housing, transportation, large infrastructure if we’re not talking as a region. I think, in running for mayor, I was the only one who had a coalition of mayors supporting my effort.
Last year, I went down to Cottage Grove to meet with the mayors to talk about the importance of issues like this as a regional priority. I’ll finish where I started. We have to own the past, and our past includes overt racism and includes policies and laws designed to be inclusionary. And those laws are gone, but the legacy is still with us […] disparities created by those policies still exist today. That means we have to be intentional and not say we’re going to lift everyone’s boats at once – no. Some people are struggling more in this community, and we need to do more, for them.
I/R: In people moving towards East County, especially the 162nd border there’s an interesting tradeoff where the Portland Police and Gresham police kinda play hot potato, where there’s a lot of criminal activity right, but it’s because it’s a lot of poor people that’ve been uprooted and placed in that area. It’s one of those examples where you see there’s no direct line of communication, or policies to make sure organizations are trading information and working together to [reduce] criminality in the area. Are you thinking of creating, or working in a coalition for that issue of being in a different city in a matter of minutes but having different policies and laws.
TW: I’m gonna break your heart. There are already tables like that, where conversations are taking place and the City of Portland has not been an active participant. And I pledged when I ran for mayor, that I’d be an active participant. There are a number of regional mayors that get together and talk about some of these broad issues. Closer to home, Metro, The City, Trimet, we need to have our own meetings because when you’re talking about East Portland specifically there’s a lack of equity [from] transit, to parks, to infrastructure and there’s very little access to help people get access to home ownership. We’ve learned the lesson of gentrification. Now the question is, if people have been displaced out to 162nd, what policies do we put in place so that people don’t get displaced again because the same real estate influences we’ve seen in Portland, they’re gonna move East, it’s only a matter time. So we’ve got to be very clear about what policies we’re putting in place – for me I think it’s home ownership.
And we do everything, PDC, the City, A Home for Everyone Coalition if this housing bond passes, I hope a significant chunk of it goes to helping stay in the homes in which they currently live so they’re not priced and moved out when the rent goes up – I’d rather people be homeowners. That’s historically how people generate wealth, is equity in home ownership. As people become more and more reliant on renting, they’re transferring that wealth opportunity to their landlord. And while I’m not opposed to people being landlords, I’d like to see more people in the community, particularly in the parts where low-income folks are affected most my policy—new ideas.
at the time, and one of the most toxic. And it’s gonna take the entire region working together to clean up the site. How do you purpose to bring together the organizations and institutions, with the partnerships the city of Portland already has with these other organizations if the social issues are really stretching and reaching a boiling point how do you purpose to centralize those governing bodies of the metro area – they want our water? 
Ignorant/Reflections Media 