2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

Using Data for City and Regional Strategies 263
race and ethnicity), especially at the neighborhood level, was at play and
could be verified, located, and measured. As a result, these equity advocates
(with the help of Metro Councilor Robert Liberty, who was also a
founder of CLF and former executive director of 1000 Friends of Oregon)
were successful in getting equity language relating to income incorporated
into the bond measure, explicitly establishing equity in Metro’s regional
greenspace policy. The inclusion of this language was a huge victory for
equity advocates. And, although language relating to race and ethnicity
was not included in the bond measure, equity advocates could assume,
because of the geographic intersections between low-income neighborhoods
and communities of color that the Atlas revealed, the priority
given to proposals in low-income neighborhoods would affect racial and
ethnic minority communities as well.
The other key concern shared by CLF and Audubon—that the affordability
of neighborhoods receiving grant dollars could, as a result, be
threatened—was not addressed by the bond measure. However, CLF and
Audubon have taken on making those linkages a priority at the outreach,
proposal development, and even postproposal stages for projects.
Further, the Regional Equity Atlas neighborhood-level analyses relating
to parks and greenspaces had some unanticipated impacts. The Atlas
effort was instrumental in persuading a nationally influential health
institution, Kaiser Permanente, to take the unprecedented step of publicly
supporting a bond measure that it saw as promoting its community
health agenda.
On the environmental organizational front, although Houck and
other greenspace advocates were quite certain, even before the analyses
began, that there was an equity dimension to park and natural area
access, they did not anticipate the extent to which the findings of the
Atlas would influence Portland Audubon’s own strategic planning. The
Audubon Society of Portland has been located in the relatively affluent
Portland westside since 1949. The Atlas analyses made clear not only the
intersection between park deficiencies, low-income populations, and
ethnic and racial minorities, but also the large number of underserved
children living in Portland’s outer eastside and Gresham. In July 2010
the Audubon Society of Portland opened its first eastside satellite office
at the Leach Botanical Garden, which is within walking distance of two
of the region’s lowest-income neighborhoods, Powellhurst-Gilbert and
Lents. Audubon currently offers bird and natural history classes, walks,
presentations, and summer camp for youth out of that facility. Labbe