INSIDE:

NEWS/STORIES/ARTICLES
Book Reviews
Columns/Opinion/Cartoon
Films
International
National
NW/Local
Recipes
Special A.C.E. Stories
Online Paper (PDF)

NW RESOURCE GUIDE
Archives
Consulates
Organizations
Scholarships
Special Sections

Upcoming

The Asian Reporter Eleventh Annual Scholarship & Awards Banquet -
April 2009

May, 2009

Asian Reporter Info

About Us

Advertising Info.

AR Merchandise
Contact Us
Subscription Info. & Back Issues

Readers Map on Frapper

ASIA LINKS
Asian Studies
Currency Exchange
More Asian Links
Public Holidays
Time Zones


Copyright © 2000 - 2008
AR Home

My Turn by Maileen Hamto

From The Asian Reporter, V18, #13 (March 25, 2008), page 6 & 7.

Vancouver is the fourth largest city in Washington, trailing only Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma. In less than 20 years, the city has almost tripled in size to more than 150,000 residents. Parts of the city are becoming more and more culturally diverse. For example, at Fort Vancouver High School approximately seven percent of students are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, two percent are Native Americans, seven percent are black, and 18 percent are Latino.

With the rapid pace of growth and change, it is not surprising some Vancouver communities are lagging behind. As the city draws immigrants of color, many blue-collar workers settle in the Fourth Plain Corridor, which includes the Bagley Downs and Meadow Homes neighborhoods.

A project called the Fourth Plain Revitalization Program is seeking to engage residents, businesses, nonprofits, and other agencies in creating community partnerships to revitalize the Fourth Plain Corridor, a densely populated 2.5 miles of apartment homes, small businesses, and other entities.

Also known as "Newcomers Neighborhood," about 30 percent of settlers in the area are foreign-born, including Asian and Pacific-Islander families. About 70 percent of the residents are renters, compared to 41 percent in the city. Almost 80 percent of households have a median income of $27,940, compared to the city average of $46,189. At Fort Vancouver High School, 62 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch programs, compared to the state average of 37 percent.

Along the corridor’s "international district," some 300 small businesses are owned and operated by families. Many small business owners are of Asian, Latino, and Eastern-European descent.

However, as in most economically disadvantaged areas, the crime rate along the corridor is about three times the city’s average.

Cheap housing draws many newcomers to the Fourth Plain Corridor area, says Vancouver city council member Pat Jolotta. In the 1980s, enclaves of Hmong people settled there. As their incomes increased, they moved to other parts of the city. People from the former Soviet Republics also made their homes there, and are now starting to move out.

To this day, the area has the highest percentage on non-English-speaking residents. The residents also have the lowest income in Clark County.

"Residents also have the largest family size in Clark County, and lowest percentage of registered voters," says Jolotta. "Very often, you will find that people running for office will skip those neighborhoods. Residents don’t have political clout."

The Fourth Plain Corridor Revitalization Project is intent on changing that by building alliances among community members, residents, and businesses to instill community pride, improve safety, increase volunteerism, and revitalize neighborhoods.

"We were such a cosmopolitan region, right from the start," says Jolotta, who also is an author and historian. As an integral part of the Fort Vancouver Historical Society of Clark County, Ms. Jolotta is well-versed in the area’s multicultural history and legacy.

The idea of coming together and working on community issues is not new to the City of Vancouver. Since its beginnings as a community the area bore witness to the intermingling of different cultures: British, Chinook, Hawaiians, French-Canadians, Iroquois.

According to Jolotta, from 1825 to 1865 the Vancouver area had the largest Hawaiian settlement outside of Honolulu. "The Hawaiians came with the Hudson’s Bay Company, which was de facto government here. The British Navy had a special relationship with the Kings of Hawaii," she said.

During that time, Hawaiians signed on to serve the British fleet for two or three years. When they came to Fort Vancouver, they interacted with the Chinook Indians. "The cultures were a great match," said Jolotta.

The Hawaiians and Chinooks shared many similarities in culture, particularly their emphasis on community. "A great deal of people (in Clark County) who are doing their genealogy today can trace not only Chinook in their lineage, but Hawaiian as well," Jolotta said.

Jolotta also shared a piece of history unique to Vancouver. In the 1940s, during the wartime building boom, the Vancouver Housing Authority became the only agency on the west coast to enforce the Fair Housing Act. By 1945, more than 5,000 blacks had made their homes in Vancouver.

"We institutionalized integration, in contrast to the Portland Housing Authority, which directed people of color to buy homes in Albina or Vanport," she says. "Now, 65 years later, we have no ghettoes, no barrios, or even a Chinatown. There are enclaves of immigrant and communities of color. For the most part, people of color are dispersed in our community."

Over the past couple of decades, Vancouver considerably expanded its geographic reach. Newer communities received more attention and resources. Inadvertently, older neighborhoods such as the ones along the Fourth Plain Corridor have fallen through cracks.

Grace Farmer, community outreach specialist for Vancouver’s Community Housing Center, is spearheading the charge to bring all stakeholders together. She leads a task force consisting of more than 45 community leaders. The group is looking at ways to maintain dialog between newcomers and residents who have been in the area for several generations. "We have a dire need to re-energize the community and bring people together toward achieving common goals," says Farmer.

As she works with immigrant community leaders, she emphasizes the importance of civic engagement. Many newcomers come from cultures that have different views of becoming involved in civic life and local government. The task force is working with communities to bridge that gap.

"We have many young families who have young children. People work very hard for their families, and they want more sustainability in their lives. They’re young, passionate people: they want to support their families, have better job outlooks, and buy homes," says Farmer.

"We stress the importance of being engaged, in speaking for and advocating for their communities. We want people to have a louder voice."

Working with people to get the message across is an important first step. Already, dialog and conversations are under way, but there’s still a lot to be done, says Farmer.

And the ultimate goal of the Fourth Plain Revitalization Project?

"We want everyone to be successful," Farmer says.