Story and photos by Kay Reid
The Portland Upside
August 2009
The Portland Upside
August 2009
The McIntosh family: (left to right) Mark, Ginean, Joseph, Jasmine, Michael and Derek.
New Columbia, the small community where I live, is a beautiful 82-acre site in the Portsmouth neighborhood of Portland. It’s home to the largest community revitalization project ever undertaken in Oregon’s history. In 2001 the Housing Authority of Portland received a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant to demolish and redevelop the World War II-era Columbia Villa housing project which stood there.
Today New Columbia houses 850 households, a combination of 232 homeowners and 618 rental units. Twenty-five hundred people live here; 1,300 children, 1,200 adults. On any given day when I walk my dog around the streets and parks of this neighborhood, I might encounter individuals representing 22 countries. Eleven languages are spoken here and I frequently hear some of them as I walk.
I bought a home in New Columbia a year ago and I’m happy with my decision.
I’d long known about Columbia Villa’s history. When I looked into New Columbia, the idea of living in this community and experiment was very attractive. The day-to-day reality has surpassed my expectations. The racial and ethnic diversity, the sights and sounds, including the nearby train whistle, all appeal to me. Plus I am near a dear friend on Sauvie Island, a place where I have old ties and where I love to walk.
Yes, I am pleased to be at New Columbia and would like to introduce some of my neighbors here.
Nancy and Carlos work full time. She’s an RN with the Red Cross and he’s a respiratory therapist with Providence Home Services. They bought their home in New Columbia four years ago, when many of the homes right beside them were still under construction. They were attracted to its handsome structure, affordability, and the hope of cultural diversity.
Carlos and Nancy Chavez
Nancy and Carlos are on a mission. Most missionaries would not be found at the St. Johns Fred Meyer parking lot at 1 a.m. But this couple goes there to capture feral cats congregating in a corner of the store property. Nancy and Carlos go through a process of baiting and setting the traps and then standing vigil. The cats fortunate enough to be caught will be taken to a Feral Cat Coalition veterinarian for spaying or neutering. Most will be returned to the grocery store lot, their original home.
In their sojourn at New Columbia the couple has trapped approximately 50 cats and fostered 27 of them. Nancy keeps a list of their names in the garage. This work is in Nancy’s blood—when she was a little girl she asked her mother if she could open an animal shelter in their basement. Carlos, clearly pleased, tags along as Nancy’s assistant. He calls his wife “the cat whisperer.” They have also influenced several neighbors to foster or adopt cats.
The joy of their mission, along with its significant time and expense, eclipses any imagined night life or long vacation. They did take pleasure, however, in one expensive social event, the Fur Ball. At the fundraiser they saw a clip of themselves in a film, in the wee hours of the morning, barely out of pajamas, unloading traps and taking cats into the clinic.
“We looked terrible,” Carlos said.
The Fraction family
About to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Megan and Micheal live two doors down with their three children, Janaeya, Keisha and Mike, and their Akita-chow mix, Boojum. Micheal is employed by Bank of America and Megan is a property manager for Steadfast Companies.
Although they both work, it’s an understatement to say that Micheal and Megan are devoted, loving parents. I often see members of this family on their front porch talking with animation and affection. The Fractions go fishing with their kids and have dinners with Megan’s family in Beaverton.
They warmly greeted me when I first moved to New Columbia. I’d lived here only a few weeks when my own new extended family from Syria arrived for a visit. As the foreigners exited the car, including my son’s veiled mother-in-law, Micheal and neighbors were playing catch on the sidewalk. They immediately invited eight-year-old Hakam to join them, a friendly gesture that Hakam still remembers.
Megan and Micheal bought their home in 2005. They were compelled by the convenient location, the numerous parks in and around New Columbia, and the proximity to Sauvie Island, where Micheal fishes for sturgeon, crappies, and catfish. In her scant spare time, Megan likes to sip wine and read. She says she “kind of enjoys gardening but mostly likes to watch Micheal garden.”
Ginean and Mark aspired to live in a walkable community in a healthy neighborhood; the multi-cultural, multi-racial mix of New Columbia also added to the appeal. They also chose New Columbia because it is close to Mt. Olivet Baptist Church on Chautauqua Avenue, where Ginean and Mark have been active since the mid-1990s. Their house is also 20 minutes from Mark’s work.
Ginean first moved to Oregon to attend George Fox University, where she majored in communications and minored in Christian ministry. After years in the work force as an admissions counselor at George Fox and then as an insurance processor, she married Mark. Now Ginean is the stay-at-home mom of the couple’s blended family of four children: Derek, Michael, Joseph and Jasmine.
Ginean’s passion is staging “Take Time” retreats for women, couples and families. An inveterate event planner, she also organized a November bazaar in one of the New Columbia community rooms, complete with Kenyan food, a Kenyan author, jewelry, and displays from numerous local businesses.
The availability of community rooms at New Columbia adds value for Ginean. She threw her son’s last birthday party in the senior housing center’s Trenton Terrace, where her mother now lives. Independently, Ginean’s mom had been exploring a move to Trenton Terrace while Ginean and her husband were mulling the prospects of purchasing a home at New Columbia. The extended family is happy to be together and they enjoy acquainting lucky neighbors with Ginean’s quiches and cobblers, which she regularly brings to New Columbia events.
Carmina Casimoro
Carmina has been in Oregon for 22 years. She left the pueblita of Uruetaro, Michoacan, Mexico, on her own, for the opportunity to work in an Oregon cannery. Going to considerable trouble and expense, Carmina eventually brought two of her children to Oregon. The mother of three—Faviola, Paola, and Rebecca—Carmina came to New Columbia from the Tamarack, a public housing complex in North Portland. Rebecca, her nine-year-old, goes to Portsmouth School.
Carmina has worked in childcare, elder care, and cooking. Recently she has been unemployed for several months. She has a passion for cooking and loves to work. Being unemployed has not deterred her. With a crew of Latina women, she goes to Rosa Parks School on the New Columbia campus and picks up litter. She also helps Community Coordinator Lucia Noriega-Pena do daycare at meetings.
Carmina epitomizes neighborliness. More than 90 families from Latin America live in New Columbia, mainly from Mexico, but also from Uruguay, Cuba, El Salvador and Guatemala. When Carmina learns about someone in the hospital and most of the adults in the household are working, she takes the bus to visit the stricken family member. She enjoys working with both seniors and youth and recently accompanied 40 children on a New Columbia-sponsored trip to the zoo.
On the waiting list for Section 8 housing for five years, Marsha said New Columbia was the last place she wanted to live. But she’s been converted and now wouldn’t live anywhere else. Marsha was a certified nursing assistant at Baptist Manor and later worked at the Forest Park Care Center.
Caregiving for family is a major theme of Marsha’s life. She helped care for her mother, with whom she lived from 1999 until 2007. Marsha inherited some of her mother’s zest for life. An amputee from diabetes, her mother didn’t let a wheelchair stop her from having an active social life or going to church every time the door was open.
At New Columbia, Marsha has volunteered for National Night Out, the Community Speaks Initiative, and for the youth training program, Kids Creating Harmony in Neighborhood Growth
(K-CHING). Marsha likes the summer mini-concerts, and the knowledge that she has neighbors from around the globe, including Russia and Ethiopia.
New Columbia has had growing pains and an occasional eruption here and there. However at any given time, my neighborhood is the home of hundreds of wonderful people leading good lives.
_____
Filmmakers Sue Aburthnot and Richard Wilhelm candidly chronicle Columbia Villa’s disruptive demolition and transformation to New Columbia in their stunning documentary, “Imagining Home.” Visit www.hareinthegate.com or call 503-287-3731 for information on screenings in Portland.
For more information on New Columbia visit www.newcolumbia.org
Kay Reid is an oral historian who helps individuals, families, and businesses tell their stories. www.kayreidstories.com
Today New Columbia houses 850 households, a combination of 232 homeowners and 618 rental units. Twenty-five hundred people live here; 1,300 children, 1,200 adults. On any given day when I walk my dog around the streets and parks of this neighborhood, I might encounter individuals representing 22 countries. Eleven languages are spoken here and I frequently hear some of them as I walk.
I bought a home in New Columbia a year ago and I’m happy with my decision.
I’d long known about Columbia Villa’s history. When I looked into New Columbia, the idea of living in this community and experiment was very attractive. The day-to-day reality has surpassed my expectations. The racial and ethnic diversity, the sights and sounds, including the nearby train whistle, all appeal to me. Plus I am near a dear friend on Sauvie Island, a place where I have old ties and where I love to walk.
Yes, I am pleased to be at New Columbia and would like to introduce some of my neighbors here.
Nancy and Carlos work full time. She’s an RN with the Red Cross and he’s a respiratory therapist with Providence Home Services. They bought their home in New Columbia four years ago, when many of the homes right beside them were still under construction. They were attracted to its handsome structure, affordability, and the hope of cultural diversity.
Carlos and Nancy Chavez
Nancy and Carlos are on a mission. Most missionaries would not be found at the St. Johns Fred Meyer parking lot at 1 a.m. But this couple goes there to capture feral cats congregating in a corner of the store property. Nancy and Carlos go through a process of baiting and setting the traps and then standing vigil. The cats fortunate enough to be caught will be taken to a Feral Cat Coalition veterinarian for spaying or neutering. Most will be returned to the grocery store lot, their original home.
In their sojourn at New Columbia the couple has trapped approximately 50 cats and fostered 27 of them. Nancy keeps a list of their names in the garage. This work is in Nancy’s blood—when she was a little girl she asked her mother if she could open an animal shelter in their basement. Carlos, clearly pleased, tags along as Nancy’s assistant. He calls his wife “the cat whisperer.” They have also influenced several neighbors to foster or adopt cats.
The joy of their mission, along with its significant time and expense, eclipses any imagined night life or long vacation. They did take pleasure, however, in one expensive social event, the Fur Ball. At the fundraiser they saw a clip of themselves in a film, in the wee hours of the morning, barely out of pajamas, unloading traps and taking cats into the clinic.
“We looked terrible,” Carlos said.
The Fraction family
About to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Megan and Micheal live two doors down with their three children, Janaeya, Keisha and Mike, and their Akita-chow mix, Boojum. Micheal is employed by Bank of America and Megan is a property manager for Steadfast Companies.
Although they both work, it’s an understatement to say that Micheal and Megan are devoted, loving parents. I often see members of this family on their front porch talking with animation and affection. The Fractions go fishing with their kids and have dinners with Megan’s family in Beaverton.
They warmly greeted me when I first moved to New Columbia. I’d lived here only a few weeks when my own new extended family from Syria arrived for a visit. As the foreigners exited the car, including my son’s veiled mother-in-law, Micheal and neighbors were playing catch on the sidewalk. They immediately invited eight-year-old Hakam to join them, a friendly gesture that Hakam still remembers.
Megan and Micheal bought their home in 2005. They were compelled by the convenient location, the numerous parks in and around New Columbia, and the proximity to Sauvie Island, where Micheal fishes for sturgeon, crappies, and catfish. In her scant spare time, Megan likes to sip wine and read. She says she “kind of enjoys gardening but mostly likes to watch Micheal garden.”
The McIntosh family
Ginean and Mark aspired to live in a walkable community in a healthy neighborhood; the multi-cultural, multi-racial mix of New Columbia also added to the appeal. They also chose New Columbia because it is close to Mt. Olivet Baptist Church on Chautauqua Avenue, where Ginean and Mark have been active since the mid-1990s. Their house is also 20 minutes from Mark’s work.
Ginean first moved to Oregon to attend George Fox University, where she majored in communications and minored in Christian ministry. After years in the work force as an admissions counselor at George Fox and then as an insurance processor, she married Mark. Now Ginean is the stay-at-home mom of the couple’s blended family of four children: Derek, Michael, Joseph and Jasmine.
Ginean’s passion is staging “Take Time” retreats for women, couples and families. An inveterate event planner, she also organized a November bazaar in one of the New Columbia community rooms, complete with Kenyan food, a Kenyan author, jewelry, and displays from numerous local businesses.
The availability of community rooms at New Columbia adds value for Ginean. She threw her son’s last birthday party in the senior housing center’s Trenton Terrace, where her mother now lives. Independently, Ginean’s mom had been exploring a move to Trenton Terrace while Ginean and her husband were mulling the prospects of purchasing a home at New Columbia. The extended family is happy to be together and they enjoy acquainting lucky neighbors with Ginean’s quiches and cobblers, which she regularly brings to New Columbia events.
Carmina Casimoro
Carmina has been in Oregon for 22 years. She left the pueblita of Uruetaro, Michoacan, Mexico, on her own, for the opportunity to work in an Oregon cannery. Going to considerable trouble and expense, Carmina eventually brought two of her children to Oregon. The mother of three—Faviola, Paola, and Rebecca—Carmina came to New Columbia from the Tamarack, a public housing complex in North Portland. Rebecca, her nine-year-old, goes to Portsmouth School.
Carmina has worked in childcare, elder care, and cooking. Recently she has been unemployed for several months. She has a passion for cooking and loves to work. Being unemployed has not deterred her. With a crew of Latina women, she goes to Rosa Parks School on the New Columbia campus and picks up litter. She also helps Community Coordinator Lucia Noriega-Pena do daycare at meetings.
Carmina epitomizes neighborliness. More than 90 families from Latin America live in New Columbia, mainly from Mexico, but also from Uruguay, Cuba, El Salvador and Guatemala. When Carmina learns about someone in the hospital and most of the adults in the household are working, she takes the bus to visit the stricken family member. She enjoys working with both seniors and youth and recently accompanied 40 children on a New Columbia-sponsored trip to the zoo.
Marsha Roach
Marsha is the proud mother of seven children: Terrence, Jahmal, Lashaun, Shalamar, Champagne, Ginelle, and Diamond, two of whom live at home. She has been around children all her life and likes to work with them, doing in-home childcare for several years.On the waiting list for Section 8 housing for five years, Marsha said New Columbia was the last place she wanted to live. But she’s been converted and now wouldn’t live anywhere else. Marsha was a certified nursing assistant at Baptist Manor and later worked at the Forest Park Care Center.
Caregiving for family is a major theme of Marsha’s life. She helped care for her mother, with whom she lived from 1999 until 2007. Marsha inherited some of her mother’s zest for life. An amputee from diabetes, her mother didn’t let a wheelchair stop her from having an active social life or going to church every time the door was open.
At New Columbia, Marsha has volunteered for National Night Out, the Community Speaks Initiative, and for the youth training program, Kids Creating Harmony in Neighborhood Growth
(K-CHING). Marsha likes the summer mini-concerts, and the knowledge that she has neighbors from around the globe, including Russia and Ethiopia.
New Columbia has had growing pains and an occasional eruption here and there. However at any given time, my neighborhood is the home of hundreds of wonderful people leading good lives.
_____
Filmmakers Sue Aburthnot and Richard Wilhelm candidly chronicle Columbia Villa’s disruptive demolition and transformation to New Columbia in their stunning documentary, “Imagining Home.” Visit www.hareinthegate.com or call 503-287-3731 for information on screenings in Portland.
For more information on New Columbia visit www.newcolumbia.org
Kay Reid is an oral historian who helps individuals, families, and businesses tell their stories. www.kayreidstories.com
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2 comments:
This article so nicely chronicles the success of an urban redevelopment project and those who live there.
I have been to New Columbia several times to visit a friend who lives there. It is an impressive place. And now I am please to read about some other members of this strong community.
Thank you Kay Reid.
—RJ
Wonderful story, wonderful people, wonderful writing - makes me want to live there. Thanks Kay
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