I read with interest your thorough article about the decimation of the Black/Albina area of Portland, (“Publishing Prejudice: Whitewashing Albina’s destruction,” May 30). I believe there is another perspective.
In the ‘60s, Portland was one of 20 cities in the country designated a Model City. We were awarded vast sums of money to deal with “blight” in the Buckman and Albina areas as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.
I was appointed by then Mayor Terry Schrunk to Portland’s biracial Model Citizens Board. Although all the negatives mentioned in your article did occur, there were some positives. Noteworthy was the location of the North Portland campus of Portland Community College, Unthank Park and recruitment from California of Charles Jordan to be our executive director. He later was elected to the Portland City Council.
Elaine Cogan, Portland
Cogan is a former chairwoman of the Portland Development Commission.
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