Dear Friend,

Nearly half a billion dollars is headed to Portland to revitalize Lower Albina. I could not be more excited. 

Lower Albina was the historic heart of Portland’s Black community before the construction of Interstate 5 severed the neighborhood. Decades of anti-Black policies and federal disinvestment displaced thousands of residents and decimated the community.

For years I’ve worked to mobilize local leaders, governors, and federal support for projects that reclaim both land and legacy in Lower Albina. As the trillion-dollar federal infrastructure package moved through Congress in 2021, I fought hard to include a provision that would direct billions of dollars to reconnect communities torn apart by destructive federal infrastructure projects. I could think of no better place than Lower Albina for this type of investment. That’s why I brought U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to Portland last spring to learn about the neighborhood’s history and make the case for federal investment.

Our hard work paid off. The U.S. Department of Transportation will award $450 million in federal funding to construct a highway cover over I-5, which will help reconnect Lower Albina. The Department of Transportation will also award more than $38 million to the City of Portland to redesign two main roads in the neighborhood, paving the way for the construction of thousands of affordable homes. Both of these projects will help repair past harms to Portland’s Black community and help rebuild Lower Albina into a livable community where all residents are safe, healthy, and economically secure.

This funding will be transformative, not just for Portland but to serve as a national model for how we heal communities torn apart by destructive federal projects. With this investment we are showing how to do it right.

This work would not be possible without the visionary leadership of Albina Vision Trust, which has steadily built community support for a restorative redevelopment plan in Lower Albina. This effort requires a whole-of-government, a whole-of-community approach. I’m proud that the federal government is doing its part.

I look forward to the work ahead. I am committed to seeing this through.