“I Should Have Moved Somewhere Else”: The Impacts of Gentrification on Transportation and Social Support for Black Working-Poor Families in Portland, Oregon

Howland, Steven Anthony · 2020 · ROSA P / National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC)

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates how gentrification and subsequent displacement affect the transportation choices and social support networks of low-income Black families in Portland, Oregon. Motivated by the mass displacement of Black households from the historically segregated Albina district to East Portland, the research addresses a gap in transportation equity literature regarding how these shifts impact daily survival strategies. The author frames the inquiry using theories of social reproduction (the ability to maintain daily life) and social exclusion (impediments to participating in society), aiming to understand how geographic displacement alters access to essential services, employment, and community support. The methodology involved semi-structured interviews with 27 low-income, working-age Black individuals with children, divided between residents of Albina and East Portland. Conducted between April and December 2017, the interviews explored participants’ travel modes, destinations, social support networks, and the specific impacts of gentrification on their lives. The analysis focused on geographic differences in lived experiences, examining how transportation infrastructure, destination density, and social networks facilitated or hindered daily life maintenance in each area. The findings reveal a stark disparity in resources and mobility between the two groups. Albina residents were better equipped to manage daily life due to higher car ownership rates, stronger and more accessible social support networks, and a higher density of nearby destinations. In contrast, East Portland residents faced significant struggles; destinations were clustered at the western edge of their area, making them difficult to reach. While East Portlanders had social networks, these were often under-resourced and displaced, forcing them to rely on Albina-based contacts for critical needs like childcare, which required substantial travel effort. Additionally, safety concerns on public transit—driven by encounters with homelessness, untreated mental illness, and overt racism—led to a significant decline in willingness to use transit among participants. The study concludes that gentrification has eroded the cultural rootedness and survivability of Black communities in Albina while imposing severe spatial mismatches on those displaced to East Portland. The distance between destinations in East Portland, rather than road safety, was identified as the primary barrier to survival for displaced residents. The author argues that current urban development in East Portland fails to address the needs of its growing low-income population of color. Implications for policy include the need for targeted urban development in East Portland to improve access to services, as well as broader considerations for housing, transportation, and social safety net programs to mitigate the effects of social exclusion and support the social reproduction of displaced Black families.

Key finding

Albina residents were better resourced to accomplish daily life maintenance through easier transportation, stronger social support networks, and higher destination density, whereas East Portland residents struggled due to dispersed destinations, under-resourced networks, and transit safety concerns.

Methodology

field_study

Sample size: 27

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• demographic disparities