kontextmaschine:

Hear From Portlanders Living in a Neighborhood Where Gunfire Is Killing Black People

The parking lot has been the scene of two shootings in a year, Fernandez says. The most recent was last month, when two cars pulled up in front of the adjacent, pale green office building, where tenants include a Farmers Insurance office, a dog groomer and an OnlyFans agent. Parked outside the office, the drivers began firing at each other.

Wait what?

Oh and regarding the article subject itself – this area centrally east of the 205 freeway is the new Black Part of Portland, replacing the older concentration in North and inner NE (the turnover not too hostile, there was high homeownership so this cashed out less as evictions than as estate sales and nice nest eggs for heirs)

It was originally built on unincorporated county land not up to the amenity standards (parks, sidewalks etc.) of the city then reluctantly annexed in when it clearly couldn’t pay for sewer upgrades (it was a poor white area at the time).

But it IS in range to all the warehouses by the 205/84 junction, and the airport up by the river and thus some of the best unskilled jobs in Portland. This combination of cheap (substandard) housing in proximity to port and goods-moving jobs is really the same thing as North Portland (around the port) and the old downtown Skid Row (around the working waterfront and rail yards) were in their day.