The St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland is known for its strong regional identity, working class character, and diversity. Portland as a whole has experienced a major socioeconomic shift in the last ten years, and these changes are hitting St. Johns particularly hard. My research seeks to identify the place meanings that underpin sense of place, place attachment, and processes of attachment formation, among residents of the neighborhood. My research questions are: What are the objects of attachment? Why (the place meanings that underpin attachment)? And how (through what processes are attachments formed)? In what ways are the "why" and "how" intertwined? What are the commonalities across different variables, and how do those gesture at a holistic St. Johns essence, or sense of place? My primary method was Resident-Employed Photography, supported by participant observation and archival research. This 'photo voice' method entailed giving single-use cameras to 43 place-attached St. Johns residents and asking them to photograph and write about twelve things that explain their connection. The results offer a rich, multifaceted understanding of place meanings and processes of attachment in St. Johns, and insight into what individual facets are most intrinsic to sense of place. The intention of this research is to inform planning efforts, contribute to community dialogues about the future of St. Johns, empower residents to become civically engaged, and articulate a sense of place that can be leveraged by the community in spatial struggles.

Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, many American cities experienced the process of gentrification, and there are many studies based on data from this time period. A first purpose of this study was to follow up on the development of gentrification in the 1980s. Northwest Portland, Oregon, is culturally clearly defined as a gentrifying neighborhood and was, therefore, chosen as to empirically assess this process by comparing the 1980 with the 1990 census data. There is some theoretical confusion about the concept of gentrification. There is, however, general consensus on two aspects. The first is a physical renovation of old and run-down inner-city neighborhoods, and the second is a change in the demographic composition of the revitalizing neighborhood from low and middle to upper-middle and high status residents. One aspect of gentrification is largely ignored by empirical studies, but often assumed to flow from physical renovation and compositional change, i.e, an alteration in the fabric of social life in the gentrified area, in patterns of interaction and symbolic attachment. It was a second purpose of this study to explore this issue on the basis of longitudinal survey data collected in the Northwest neighborhood in 1978 and 1993. The census analysis showed that the demographic change in Northwest Portland was surprisingly consistent with Gale's original stage model of gentrification from 1980, but not with predictions for more recent times. The analysis of the survey data showed a lack of overall change in the interactional and symbolic fabric of community life. T-tests for distinct life-cycle stages and socioeconomic status showed a perception of the Northwest neighborhood as a nicer and safer place for all groups. The young were found to form a community consistent with the model of a "community of limited liability." Specifically for older and high income residents it is proposed that the demographic change, which made the neighborhood more status homogeneous, had an important socially integrating impact, consistent with Claude Fischer's notion of "critical mass" creating viable subcultures, since they were found, in opposition to common expectations, to have increased attachment and social contacts in the neighborhood.

Since the late 1990's, "food deserts" have dominated the academic and policy literature on food access and food security. Food deserts are defined as areas that lack easy access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food, and are typically measured using Geographic Information Systems and spatial data sets. However, while food deserts may provide a useful measure for identifying food insecurity at a broad scale, they fail to account for individual definitions and perceptions of food access (Barnes et al. 2015; McEntee 2009). Furthermore, the food desert model assumes a lack of agency on the part of low-income populations (Alkon et al. 2013), and ignores other factors of food access, such as walkability, grocery store safety, customer service, and personal preference. In this research, I examine the food access perceptions of residents, non-profit employees, and business owners in the Lents neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Although Lents is classified as a food desert, there is also an abundance of ethnic grocers and specialty markets within the neighborhood. These grocers reflect the neighborhood's racial and cultural diversity, and are often overlooked by the spatial datasets typically used to measure food access. The research that I conducted in Lents revealed a disconnect between how the residents I interviewed perceive their food environment, and how government, non-profits employees, and business owners within the neighborhood view local food access. The findings underscore the importance of factors other than physical proximity when measuring food access, and also show the importance of ethnic and specialty markets in the landscape. These findings support the assertion that binary measures of food access often fail to capture the complexities of individual perceptions of food access (Alkon et al. 2013).

Dog parks are the fastest growing type of park in U.S. cities; however, their increasing popularity has been met with increasing criticism of pets in public space. Dogs have shown to be a deep source of neighborhood conflict, and the provision of dog parks, or off-leash areas, is a seemingly intractable controversy for city officials. In 2003, Portland, Oregon established a network of 33 off-leash areas which remains the second largest both in count and per capita in the country. The purpose of my research is to understand the public debate over off leash dogs during the establishment of Portland's off-leash area network, and how dog parks relate to processes of demographic change. The analysis involved two phases. First, I conducted a thematic analysis of editorial perspectives published in the major local newspaper. Second, I conducted an exploratory spatial analysis of the distribution of Portland's off-leash areas and patterns of racial and economic change throughout the city from 2000 to 2015. Central to the debate are conflicting notions of responsible pet ownership. The notions of responsibility employed in the debate are primarily personal, yet the findings from my exploratory analysis of the relationship between dog parks and demographic change suggest a need to attend to notions of public responsibility. I recommend that future research, discussion, representations, and policy regarding dog parks consider the consequences of off-leash areas as amenities within the changing neighborhoods in which they exist.

In 1865, a settler named James John laid out a small neighborhood at the end of the north Portland peninsula, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. For a half century, until its annexation to Portland in 1915, St. Johns was an independent municipality. Factories lined the waterfront, and a full complement of businesses in the small downtown area--grocers, bakers, hardware stores, clothing shops--catered to all the residents' needs. St. Johns was always a working-class town with a strong sense of identity. But after World War II, as Portland grew, St. Johns began to seem defined less by self-sufficiency than by isolation and neglect. Mom-and-Pop shops had a hard time staying in business. Junkyards and drinking establishments proliferated. Residents began to realize the full extent of decades of industrial pollution on the St. Johns waterfront. At some point, St. Johns officially became the poorest neighborhood in Portland, a distinction it still holds today. But St. Johns never lost the loyalty of its residents. This thesis is about some of the people and places that embody the neighborhood's eclectic and stubborn character. As St. Johns undergoes a gradual and perhaps inevitable transformation into a trendier, more upscale area, time is running short to meet the old-timers and try to understand the neighborhood through their eyes. This thesis attempts to capture the essence of a neighborhood with a rich past, a colorful present, and a promising but uncertain future.

This thesis examines the social relationships of different residents in a gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon. It examines theoretical tenants in the social identity tradition to understand social change in terms of the impact of neighborhood change on the day-to-day interactions of individuals in a gentrifying neighborhood by exploring the ways in which different members of that neighborhood define and describe the terms “neighborhood”, “neighbor”, and “neighborly behavior”. Intergroup neighboring research posits two outcomes of neighborhood change on interactions between old and new neighbors, one of conflict, the other of cooperation. The conflict perspective proposes that, in situations where new, higher income, better educated, socially dominant group members move into a previously lower-income, racially-mixed neighborhood, communication between old and new neighbors is limited by group differences in values and priorities. Conversely, research in cooperative intergroup neighboring in times of change demonstrates that the different members can, under certain conditions, collectively act to address adverse changes to their shared environment. Conditions promoting between-group cooperation in a changing environment include a history of neighborhood political activism, an atypical ideological attraction to diversity, and the ability to articulate common interests and goals. The thesis examines the applicability of these two perspectives through a qualitative case study of "neighboring" relations in a portion of King Neighborhood. It specifically seeks to understand how residents' stated perceptions and observed outcomes can be related to issues in class-classism, race-racism, and length of residence in the neighborhood or if other factors such as reasons for choosing this neighborhood, prior and recent experiences, and one's ideological/cultural worldview supersede economic-racial concerns. The study found that the ‘different residents’ viewed neighborhood, in general, and their neighborhood and neighbors, in particular, through a variety of filters. While ‘race’ was mentioned in describing past interactions, respondents focused more on the broad, albeit mundane, factors of everyday life such as friendliness, approachability, and speaking rather than specific racial-ethnic or economic-class differences. These results are consistent with intergroup neighboring cohesion research showing that class and race are not readily important when neighborhood is viewed as a place of comfort, self-expression, or desired relaxation.

Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time and change through neighborhood revitalization provide the basis for this study. Additionally, some of the characteristics often employed in explaining the phenomenon in cities are manifested in the city of Portland. For example, Portland is endowed with a distinctive and well established downtown area that provides opportunities for the establishment of businesses as well as white-collar job opportunities. By the standards of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Portland has a relatively large population and several older neighborhoods. The city provides its residents the feel for inner-city living, such as its beautiful waterfront scenery, its high-rise and park block apartments, its cultural facilities and unique transit mall. These criteria underscore the selection of Portland as the geographical area of this research. The purpose of this research itself is to assess the urban structural changes that occurred in Portland between 1970 and 1980. The research used a sample of inner-city neighborhoods from the city to explain these structural changes over time. Additionally, two samples of neighborhoods (Northeast and Southeast) within the city were selected as the basis for comparing the structural changes. The data developed from the 1970 and 1980 census of population and housing characteristics comprised the change in the median household income ratio, the change in the home value ratio, and the change in the median rent ratio designated as dependent variables. Nine independent variables representing the pre-existing conditions in the city at the start of the decade were selected from locational, demographic, and housing factors. The research hypotheses were tested by regresslng the three dependent variables against the nine independent variables resulting in three regression models for each sample. The a priori expectations as reflected by the signs of the coefficients show mixed support for the hypotheses in each sample in predicted direction, and in level of significance. In the city sample the neighborhood housing quality factor was observed to have a strong positive causal relationship with neighborhood revitalization. The outcome confirmed the contention that a significant and systematic reverse revival trend occurred in Portland at the start of the 1970 decade. This finding contradicts the conventional invasion-succession theory associated with Burgess (1925). Similar reverse revival trends were observed in the Northeast and Southeast samples. But unlike the city sample the race factor had a strong positive causal relationship with revitalization. The outcome may be a reflection of the rental squeeze in terms of housing affordability faced by black renters in both subareas because their incomes could not keep pace with housing costs. Consequently their demand for rental housing may have grown faster than the supply of the rental housing stock in a segregated rental market. The chow tests show significant structural differences between the two submodels, but the impact of the race factor as reflected by the measures of relative variability was greater in Northeast Portland than in Southeast Portland. In light of the research findings, this study concludes that Portland may undoubtedly be the only city in the nation that experienced a significant and systematic revival trend between 1970 and 1980. However, this trend did not extend to the predominantly black areas of the city as reflected by the strong negative outcome of the race factor. In addition, the functional significance of the systematic revival trend in Portland may not be substantial when compared to larger and older cities like St. Louis and New Orleans that received media attention for a similar trend.

This study draws on census data and geographic information systems (GIS) to investigate the relationship between light rail transit (LRT) infrastructure development and gentrification in Portland, Oregon. While recent research using comprehensive measures of neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) supports a potentially causal link between transit development and gentrification, research into the effects of transit on property values alone tends to dominate the discourse. This study therefore seeks to build on previous research to develop an index measure of neighborhood SES and SES change based on measures of education, occupation, and income, using census data from 1980-2010. This multifaceted measure of neighborhood SES is analyzed in relation to LRT access using correlation, OLS regression, and GIS hot spot and choropleth mapping. Findings: Throughout the study period, low SES neighborhoods largely disappeared from the City of Portland, while low-income households were gradually priced out. Simultaneously, the easternmost suburb of Gresham became more highly concentrated in low SES neighborhoods. No definitive relationship between LRT and SES is found along the Eastside Blue or Westside Blue Lines, but strong evidence is found supporting a positive effect of Yellow Line MAX development on the rapid gentrification of North Portland from 2000-2010. Regressions run on neighborhoods along the Yellow Line indicate that SES change was greatest for those that began the decade with large Black populations, low rents, and close proximity to stations. Findings are discussed through the theoretical framework of the urban growth machine, which suggests the differential relationship between LRT and neighborhood SES relates to the distinct values of different parts of the region for the pursuit of general growth goals.

Art is often used as a catalyst to stimulate redevelopment and neighborhood change. This often occurs inadvertently as the presence of artists in certain communities can attract both public and private investment to revalorize economically depressed areas. Marginal neighborhoods in inner-urban areas offer inspiration and diversity to artists seeking lower-cost housing. Their presence effectively makes these marginal communities "safe" for middle-class residents looking to live in a funky, urban neighborhood. Ultimately, however, artists are eventually priced out of the communities they helped to create. The Alberta district in northeast Portland, Oregon has used art to create an identity that distinguished it from other redeveloped neighborhoods throughout the city, having become known as the Alberta Arts District. The research presented in this thesis traces the history of the Alberta district from its roots as a thriving streetcar community through its years as a dilapidated, crime-ridden neighborhood, and into its current state as a vibrant arts district. I show how the commercial corridor along Alberta Street has evolved to reflect the changing demographic composition of the surrounding neighborhood. Additionally, housing in the surrounding residential neighborhood has experienced a dramatic increase in average sale price and an upfiltering of aesthetic appearance. Many are attracted to the Alberta district for its vibrancy and diversity, the people and businesses that contribute to the diverse atmosphere may disappear as real estate becomes increasingly more expensive.

This study takes a cultural perspective in studying the "Alberta Arts District," a gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland in which bohemian cultural production/consumption has become the dominant and commodified vision of the community. Survey data demonstrates residents' general opinions and levels of participation in the changing neighborhood. Forty long-time residents, black and white, homeowners and renters, are interviewed in-depth regarding their perceptions of change. Long-time residents of gentrifying neighborhoods are often overlooked as a less powerful group that only has to negotiate rising rents and property values. This study approaches the meaning of neighborhood changes for long-time residents who have the potential to react culturally, socially, and economically in a neighborhood where racial and economic differences are structured by segregation and divestment. In the course of identifying positive, negative, and mixed feelings about changes, long-time residents also establish their belonging in the neighborhood as it changes around them. This is often done through constructing symbolic boundaries around newcomers, new businesses, and new cultural events in the neighborhood. This study finds that although most long-time residents perceive changes to be positive, race and homeownership affect different outcomes for different groups. Particularly, long-time black residents may establish belonging as being black in a diminishing black community, whereas long-time white homeowners may establish belonging by being homeowners in the context of positive changes.