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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 1d

Wild About Our Waterways: Meet Your Local Riverkeepers
Hoku Events On Madison
1125 SE Madison St., Portland, 97214
Parking free on street and pay in lot
Doors and Info Tables at 5:30PM. Panel at 6:30 PM
Rumbles are always free.

Only text: You're invited Rumble on the River Free Community Forum. Wild About Our Waterways. Meet your riverkeepers. 11/20, 5:30 - 8:30pm

Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 1d

Portland's brownfields are mostly out of sight; along deadend roads and railroad tracks. People who advocate for the cleanup of Portland’s land and water are often met with hostility. Advocating for prevention may be seen as anti-business, even as the contamination's cost is billions of dollars.

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 1d

When a person leaves their garbage on the street, the public is outraged. When corporations left their garbage, rotting docks. and acres of cement structures, it took decades of lawyers and agencies to even try to hold them accountable.

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 2d

Standing by the railroad bridge, we see three brownfields in the journey of repair and restoration: River Campus at the University of Portland, the potential Botanical Gardens, and Willamette Cove Nature Park. All will be connected with the North Portland Greenway Trail. It is not easy.

Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 2d

Who “owns” a Brownfield if taxpayers pay for the monitoring and cleanup? Should it be ”given” to out-of-state corporations or let to go wild? Does the community who bore the risk of the contamination have a say in the redevelopment? What role should tribes have in the decisions? #Portland #Oregon

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 2d

Filled lakes and creeks oozing with things that in days past killed all the frogs and left scores of beavers dead on the shores. I’ve met elders who once fished at Doane Lake and remember the dumping of chemicals. This land has stories too.

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 2d

The North Reach brownfields sit and wait for someone to take a chance on them. Or the city waits for the taxpayers to pay for the cleanup so they can redevelop them as more industrial sites. Old cars, Agent Orange, DDT, creosote, PCB drenched electrical parts, barrels of bright green chemicals.

Rusted orange goo stained sign that reads DANGER HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 3d

brown and barren unlikely to grow even a blackberry bush. They are brownfields. Places where industrialists deposited contaminated materials and, when faced with the cleanup, often walked away. Sometimes the owners can be found. Sometimes they left town and the sites are designated as orphan sites.

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 3d

The first time I looked out at the North Reach from high up on Saltzman Road, I was in awe. Acres of fields beside the Willamette River with snow covered mountains in the distance. A beautiful pastoral view in the middle of the industrial area. Only, as someone pointed out to me, these fields are...

Text: Quick River Primar,r: There are 8,605 acres in Portland with brownfield constraints. Photo of willamette river, gray beach with logs on the shore, adjacent land is brown and barren

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 3d

are brown, barren, unlikely to grow even a blackberry bush. They are brownfields. Places where industrialists deposited contaminated materials and, when faced with the cleanup, often walked away. Sometimes the owners can be found. Sometimes they leave town and the sites are renamed "orphan sites."

Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

In the last few years, military troops have been in Portland over on-going struggles over the Bill of Rights. Military ships are a key part of the annual Rose Parade. ROTC is part of many schools. Veterans continue to struggle and face long term health problems in the Portland area. 🧵 7 of 7

Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

Old ships were taken apart and dumped in the river. Jump to Vietnam, where Agent Orange was manufactured in Portland on a now highly polluted brownfield. Today the North Reach is home to the Coast Guard and numerous training and National Guard units. 🧵 6 of 7

Photo of US Coast Guard ship anchored in the Willamette River on the banks of Tom McCall Park

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

When central downtown Portland did not want the ship builders living near them, housing was built throughout the North Reach. Books have been written about the post-war life of the housing and the people. Red lining, floods, tear downs, and urban renewal swept over the once busy shipyards. 🧵 5 of 7

Photo of Guild's Lake Court social housing in the 1940s. Black and white.

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

The military-industrial complex dug in, changing the river, the riverbanks, and the population. Thousands came to participate in the Kaiser war time industry. When central downtown Portland did not want the ship builders living near them, housing was built throughout the North Reach. 🧵 4 of 7

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

The Oregon Trails of Tears in 1856 were supervised by the military. The Army Corps of Engineers pulled in to dredge the river in 1866 in part for military purposes. Jump to World War II when the Willamette River was used to build ships for the war. 🧵 3 of

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

The US military followed, setting up forts to assure the domination of the land over the tribes. This was often done by force and instigation by the troops. Fort Vancouver, established in 1825, was a military fort even as it was a trapping operation. 🧵 2 of

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 4d

From the time European Settlers landed here, it was a military operation. The Corps of Discovery with Lewis and Clark 1804-06 was a military operation that camped along the rivers. Russia, Britain, and the US were competing for the Pacific NW until the Russo-American Treaty of 1824. 🧵 1 of

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

For almost all of Portland’s history the city council was represented by the wealthy. It is only now with a new form of govt that the annexed communities are beginning to have a voice. The ecological, cultural, and social damage to the North Reach will take decades to repair. 🧵 7 of 7

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

It was accepted then and now that these annexed areas would provide, not only their land and waterfront but the labor. They were expected to be grateful in a system of trickle-down economics. 🧵 6 of 7

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

Through annexation, industrial zoning, and eminent domain, these annexed areas became the bank account for some of our wealthiest citizens. With few environmental regulations and deep ties to city council, the shores of the North Reach were fair game as those who lived there tried to hang on. 🧵 5

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

Promises were made and broken. The Railroad Cut divided St Johns. Linnton watched half its town be dynamited and never replaced by the river, as once agreed on. It is unlikely that they understood that flammable oil tanks, CEI Hub, would replace lakes and that creeks would be driven underground. 🧵 4

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

Historians debate the legality of the annexations which were supported by those with the potential to gain. It is doubtful that residents understood that they were voting away their ability to fish. Large highways divided towns as core services and cultural identity were laid to ruin. 🧵 3 of 7

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

Albina was a far larger than Portland and extended to the Columbia River. St. Johns was annexed by City of Albina in Feb. 1891. East Portland & Albina consolidated with Portland in July 1891. St. Johns seceded from Portland in 1903. Linnton and St Johns were annexed by Portland in 1915. 🧵 2 of 7

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

For most of Portland’s history, the wealthier central city annexed its primarily working, immigrant neighbors to increase their population, acreage, and control of the riverfront. The lands to the east were composed of small villages made up of farms, fishing docks and timber operations. 🧵 1 of 7

Text: Quick River Primer. 1891: St. Johns annexed by City of Albina in February. Albina and East Portland consolidate with Portland to form one city in July. 1903: St Johns seceded from Portland and was incorporated as its own city. 1915: St. Johns and Linnton were annexed by Portland.

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Braided River Campaign @braidedriverpdx.bsky.social · 5d

It is only now with a new form of a representative city council, that the annexed communities are beginning to have a voice. The ecological, cultural and social damage to the North Reach will take decades to repair. 🧵 7 of 7