Ever imagine if the historic Albina community had never been sundered by demolition and the construction of Emmanuel Hospital, Interstate 5 and the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum? The Albina Vision Trust is taking imagination a step further, planning a longterm restoration of Lower Albina as a place for Portlanders to live, play and work.
The Portland Tribune explores the Albina Vision Trust, and the work of Meyer's CIO, Rukaiyah Adams, to turn vision into reality:
The Albina Vision is far from a master plan, but only because it's in the early stages: it's in its third year of work for a 50-year vision. Rukaiyah Adams, chief information officer of the Meyer Memorial Trust, is chair of the Albina Vision Trust, the nonprofit that was created to shepherd a community-centered development vision for the area that used to be known as Lower Albina. The Albina Vision Trust intends the community to be a stand-alone place to live, work and play.
"We want the neighborhood to include community spaces. It has to be viable, we want affordable living, and by affordable we mean not just a few mandated units of housing in a community where people who live in those units can't afford to eat or get their hair cut in their own neighborhood. We'd like to curate development so that there's a diversity of options for people of different income levels," Adams said. "It'll have housing, commercial space, creative space and here's the deal: it's almost 90 acres of a blank slate other than the Moda Center and Coliseum, it's really open, believe it or not. There virtually is no residential housing there now."
Read more of this in-depth look at the Albina plan here.