Gentrification Listening Project

Author Nathan McCall joins local dialogue on gentrification

Office of Neighborhood Involvement

hosts author Nathan McCall as part of Restorative Listening Project,

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Are you Confused? Concerned? Curious? about gentrification issues in Portland. Please join us to learn more at this Restorative Listening Project dialogue. Hear the stories of how gentrification has impacted long term members of the community.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Concordia University

Luther Hall, Room 121

2811 NE Holman Street

What is this special event?

Author Nathan McCall will speak as part of the Restorative Listening Project dialogue on gentrification on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 7:00 PM at Concordia University. Author, professor, lecturer, and former reporter for
The Washington Post Nathan McCall currently teaches journalism at Emory University. McCall will be in Portland on a book tour for his new book,
Them, a work of fiction about relationships between neighbors and gentrification. The Restorative Listening Project is a local initiative to foster dialogue and allow Portlanders to hear stories of how gentrification has impacted long-term members of the community. The event is located in
Luther Hall, Room 121 at 2811 NE Holman Street.

Who is Nathan McCall?

While Nathan McCall has been a journalist for more than 20 years, it was the 1994 publication of his memoirs, Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America, that established McCall as a
prominent voice in this country on social and racial issues and on the role of the press in covering those issues. In 1995, Makes Me Wanna Holler became a New York Times bestseller and was named Blackboard Book of the Year.

With the success of his first book, Nathan McCall left the Post to continue lecturing. What he saw and heard from people of all backgrounds while
touring the country led him to write a second book. In 1997 Random House published What's Going On, a series of personal essays that address the day
to day social, cultural and political tensions in this country.

In 1981, Nathan McCall earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Norfolk State University in Virginia. He later became a reporter for the Virginia
Pilot Ledger Star, and in 1983 he joined The Washington Post. There Nathan McCall covered the city hall beat and the prison system in D.C. and wrote opinion pieces for the "Outlook" section.

We are honored to have Professor McCall join us for the RestorativeListening Project event. Restorative Listening is based on the principles of Restorative Justice which says that only when those most impacted are heard, acknowledged and efforts have been made to repair the harm can the community be made whole again. Once the following questions are answered - What happened?, Who was harmed?, How were they harmed?, and How can the harm
be repaired? - we can identify ways to move forward. This special event will diverge from our usual format and be structured as a fishbowl
dialogue.

Directions:

One block north of NE Ainsworth at NE 28th Ave. Parking lot west of Luther Hall off of NE 27th Ave. or park on NE Holman St. Do not park on
residential streets south of Holman St.

Bus: #9 Broadway bus, get off at NE Holman on 27th Ave. or #75 39thAve./Lombard bus and get off at NE 27th or 29th Ave. on Dekum.

Accessibility:

Wheelchair accessibility on north side of building. To help ensure equal access to City programs, services and activities, the City of Portland will
reasonably modify policies/procedures and provide auxiliary aids/services to persons with disabilities. Call 7 days in advance to request special
assistance for ADA accessibility or language interpretation. TTY,
503-823-6868

For more information contact:

Judith Mowry

Office of Neighborhood Involvement

503.823.4112

Judith.Mowry@ci.portland.or.us
You can also find more information on the ONI website at
www.portlandonline.com/oni

HOW GENTRIFICATION WORKS IN NEW YORK CITY

By Vinny Barbarino

1- Artists, college kids and hipsters start moving in for the cheap rents, “great location” and/ or the neighborhood’s ethnic atmosphere

2- New chic restaurants, bars, businesses and small boutiques open

3- Local landlords see this and begin to raise rents. They suddenly find the cash to renovate their property so they can charge more money for the same space to the newcomers (who can afford it)

4- More and more trendy and exclusive bars and clubs starts moving in, and the fashion and media world discovers your neighborhood

5- Developers start buying property, financing and constructing new, larger “luxury” housing

6- Pretty soon your neighborhood is gone and you find yourself living next to corny, rich upwardly mobile white people from the rest of America (until you are eventually priced out and can’t afford to live there anymore). The parks and schools improve but you ain’t gonna be around to see it!

This is what happened in the Lower East Side and Williamsburg. Hey Bushwick and Bed-Stuy- see ya soon!

Is there any way for us to stop it?