Guest blogger Dina Dinucci writes this post about poverty entering Rockwood. She is the owner of Park Place Cafe, and has been a Rockwood activist for many years. Please go to her blog: View from a Rockwood Cafe and see the insightful series of blogs on the recent history of Rockwood and how the neighborhood is in the place it is in.
What happens to a neighborhood when people aren't paying
attention? Who imagined that all of the
talk of the "New Columbia Villa" would create another substantial
impact on Rockwood?
In 2003, Columbia Villa in North Portland was fraught with
issues, and it was announced that a new Columbia Villa would be created. This required relocation of the tenants to
other housing options elsewhere. But
people in Rockwood weren't paying a lot of attention - then.
In 2003 a new population entered Rockwood that seemed out of
the ordinary. On 182nd and SE Stark
black prostitutes appeared. It wasn't
long until the police started dealing with new gang issues they didn't see
coming as black gangs started interacting with the other gangs that were
already here. It was also not uncommon
to see the positive sides of the new ethnicities entering Rockwood with many
black families and children in our neighborhood. What did NOT follow this new population into
Rockwood was the support services for these new families nor the resources
needed when a whole new population is added ALL AT ONCE.
Please don't take this as a racist observation, as it is NOT
at all. But it is once again about
another population that was taken for granted as it entered Rockwood. In 2003, when I was volunteering at the Back
To School fair, where we provide free school supplies to the local
children I was approached by the middle
school vice principal of Reynolds Middle School. He was puzzled by a huge new population in
the school that was never expected....mainly black children...who arrived on
the first day of school unprepared with little to no supplies. Mr. Biggs explained that this event was
helpful but couldn't meet the need.
I had researched the relocation plan from the Housing
Authority of Portland and it had detailed that schools would be informed of the
relocation and resources would be put in place to support the children at their
new schools. Upon further discussion, I
learned the school was not even informed.
The document here is not the document I read in 2003, but as
close as I could find....HAP Policy
page 25 ... "HAP is working with the local schools, as
well as with Multnomah County’s school-based support service program to provide
the specific services and counseling that may be necessary to ease the move for
children, regardless of whether or not they change schools. "
This new population entered Rockwood without considering the
needs of the population nor its effect on Rockwood. Rockwood is a neighborhood rich in cultures,
but cultures who grow here naturally develop the services over time as the
population grows.
The black population that was relocated in Rockwood did not
have access to the services they had in North Portland. Their places of worship were not available in
East County. Those things that mean
community to them did not exist in East County.
The services available to low income residents who left a low income
apartment community did not come with them.
Now, in 2012, we do have an African American church meeting at Harold
Oliver School. It's finally a start!
Without the appropriate services for this new population
both the new residents and the community were left struggling to adapt.
