This Side of Home

This Side of Home addresses the impact of urban renewal on historically Black neighborhoods, exploring cultural displacement and economic change, which are relevant in many cities across the United States. Watson’s home city of Portland provides a rich context for this discussion because it is known for its progressive ethos yet grapples with the realities of rapid gentrification. According to data from the 2010 census, five years before the novel’s publication, the city’s population was 583,786, with 72.2% of the population white and only 6.3% Black. In 2020, the percentage of the population that identified as white had lowered to 66.4%, but Portland remained “the whitest big city in America” (De Leon, Kristine. “Is Portland Still the Whitest Big City in America?” The Oregonian, 5 October 2022). In addition, the city’s Black population had dropped to 5.7%.

Portland’s current demographics are the result of a long history of racist policies and ongoing systemic inequities. Discriminatory practices such as redlining concentrated the city’s Black residents in the north and northeast neighborhoods, such as the Albina District. Between 1960 and 1980, the city of Portland and the state of Oregon used the power of eminent domain to purchase and destroy dozens of blocks in Albina: “The effort dislocated families from their homes, the greatest source of wealth for most of them, and eliminated Black-owned businesses and other gathering places in the neighborhood” (Jaquiss, Nigel. “The City of Portland Tried to Undo Gentrification. Black Portlanders Are Conflicted About the Results.” Willamette Week, 25 May 2022). On the sites of these former Black-owned homes and businesses, the city completed urban renewal projects, including Interstate 5 and the Memorial Coliseum, both of which Watson references in her novel. Today, Portland’s historically Black neighborhoods continue to shrink as more and more people find themselves priced out of their homes by the impacts of gentrification.

The city of Portland is trying to address these problems through efforts to help displaced residents return and to better understand the ways that urban renewal impacts people of color. Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability commissioned a study by Dr. Lisa Bates of Portland State University which uses computer modeling and demographic analysis to identify neighborhoods on the cusp of or in the process of gentrifying. The goal is to use this information to avoid a mass displacement of people of color and people with limited financial means. Since 2014, the North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy has helped over 90 families purchase homes and has built subsidized apartments that can house 400 families. The strategy prioritizes applicants from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those whose families were forced to move because of eminent domain. However, many members of Portland’s Black community criticize the city’s efforts as insufficient to redress the wrongs of the past, undo the loss of their neighborhoods’ culture, and address underlying problems like a lack of affordable housing and racial gaps in generational wealth. As Portland continues to grapple with the effects of gentrification, Watson’s novel offers a reminder of the importance of learning from history and striving for equity.