Equity atlas displays regional disparities

Map shows changes as low-income people move in

By Merry Mackinnon

The Gresham Outlook, Dec 22, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Merry MacKinnon / The Gresham Outlook

Jill Fuglister, co-director of the Coalition For A Livable Future, displays a recently published Regional Equity Atlas that uses census data and identifies growth trends through regional maps and by neighborhood. The atlas tracks indicators of inequity.

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As Portland has grown, many low-income households, unable to afford higher rents, have left their neighborhoods and relocated to less expensive parts of Outer East Portland and East Multnomah County.

Last summer, a Portland nonprofit published a regional equity atlas depicting that transition over the last 10 years, as well as other demographic indicators of economic inequity in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, including Outer East.

“Clearly, Outer East Portland is where we’re seeing problems concentrate,” said Jill Fuglister, co-director of Coalition For A Livable Future. “In our region, child poverty is most concentrated in Outer East Portland.”

Too often, in Portland and nationwide, policymakers and planners ignore questions of equality and people get left behind, Fuglister said.

“There is a clear disparity,” she said. “For example, upper income communities have much better access to nature and parks in the region.”

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