King is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Northeast Portland. Centrally located with a high walkability score and easy access to public transit and commuter routes, King also has a variety of home styles, including Craftsman, Victorian, and new construction. King has changed significantly since the City of Portland declared it part of a blighted area in the 1980s. Driving the stretch of ME MLK Blvd that is the neighborhood’s main commercial corridor, you will also see evidence of substantial commercial development.
The story of the King neighborhood is the story of racism against black people* in Portland, and the resulting disparity and gentrification. Originally part of the city of Albina, until Portland annexed it in 1891, the King neighborhood went by the name Highland until 1989 when its main commercial corridor–Union Avenue–was renamed Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. The neighborhood followed suit and renamed itself King.
King is part of what is known as the Albina area or Albina District, which includes Eliot, Boise, Humboldt, Overlook, Irvington and Piedmont neighborhoods. Early residents of the city of Albina–which was platted in 1873–were Irish, German, and Russian immigrants who came to work for the railroads. When the city was annexed by Portland nearly two decades later, west side residents fleeing overcrowded residential areas–especially African American residents who were restricted to specific areas on the west side–moved east.
Throughout the early 1900s, especially during World War II, the neighborhood grew given its proximity to jobs–primarily railroad and shipbuilding–and decent public transportation via streetcar. After the war, European immigrants moved to other neighborhoods. Portland’s black residents remained. Discriminatory real estate practices from the 1940s through the 1970s kept Portland’s black residents concentrated in the Albina district neighborhoods. There was a vibrant black business community in the 1950s. Still, little support from the city for urban renewal projects and redlining blocked access to capital, so the neighborhood declined throughout the 60s and 70s.
The construction of the Memorial Coliseum, I-5 corridor, and the Emmanuel Hospital complex removed a significant amount of housing and displaced hundreds of residents from the neighboring Eliot community. Businesses and residents moved north into the King neighborhood, which became the center of Portland’s black population. Continued discrimination and predatory lending practices led to the area becoming blighted in the 80s. In the 90s, the City of Portland decided to invest in and revitalize the area.
Considerable development, both commercial and residential continues in King. The Neighborhood Association is active in working to maintain the neighborhood’s livability, as is evidenced by its efforts to create safe cycling corridors, ample green space, and to demand cleanliness and safety from commercial tenants.
*Interested in learning more? Check out this essay in the Oregon Encyclopedia online archives, “Blacks in Oregon,” by Dr. Darrell Millner, former Department Chair of Black Studies from 1984-1995 at Portland State University and current Professor Emeritus and adjunct faculty member. Priced Out (2017)and its precursor, Northeast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream (2002) are documentaries specifically about the history and gentrification of the Albina District. And, of course, there’s a Priced Out podcast too.
amenities
No matter how you plan to get around in Portland, the King neighborhood is well situated for commuting. Residents are approximately one mile east of I-5 and just a few blocks from cycling corridors (N Vancouver and N Williams). Numerous bus routes service the neighborhood along NE MLK Blvd, NE Alberta, NE Prescott, and NE Killingsworth.
Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School is within the neighborhood boundary. The closest middle schools are Harriet Tubman Middle School in Eliot, Ockley Green Middle School in Arbor Lodge, and Beaumont Middle School in Beaumont. Jefferson High School in neighboring Boise is the nearest high school.
King School Park is at the heart of the neighborhood. The adjacent parking lot is the location of the seasonal King Farmers Market that runs from May through November. The park has basketball courts, soccer fields, a track, and play structures.
Completed in 2001, Two Plum Park is a postage stamp-sized (.36 acres) park located in the southern part of the neighborhood. The park grounds used to be a couple of vacant residential lots. One of the lots was cleared of debris and cleaned up by frustrated area residents around the same time that Portland Parks & Recreation allocated funds received from a foundation to create more parks. PR&R was able to purchase both lots to establish the park. PR&R invited Neighborhood residents to collaborate on the design of the park.
culture
Whether you’re interested in Ethiopian food, Pacific Northwest cuisine, or classic pub fare, the King neighborhood has you covered. And all of it is easily explored on foot, bicycle or bus!
Over the past ten years, a flurry of restaurants have opened at the southern end of NE MLK Blvd beginning with wood-fire focused Ned Ludd in 2008, family-owned Sengatera Ethiopian (this is their second location, the first being in the Sengatera neighborhood of Adis Ababa!) and market stand turned brick-and-mortar bakery Bushel and Peck in 2012. This part of MLK is also home to The Community Warehouse, a furniture bank collecting furniture and household goods to distribute–with help from various social services agencies–to those in need. If you love browsing vintage goods, check out the Estate Shop adjacent to the warehouse.
Further north along MLK is Mama Pauline’s African Market where you can find African snacks, fabric, food stuffs, and beauty products. Just around the corner from Mama Pauline’s is the Portland Playhouse, a local theater that started putting up plays in an abandoned neighborhood church in 2008. Read their story about getting the church approved for a new use to see what’s possible when citizens band together to support the arts.
The intersection of NE MLK and NE Alberta underwent major commercial construction in the past few years and is now home to a gym, a new grocery store, and Cason’s Meats–a butcher shop that relocated from the historic Kenton neighborhood. The stretch of NE Alberta between NE MLK and NE 14th Street has experienced steadily increasing commercial growth since the early aughts.
When the Tin Shed Cafe opened in 2003, few guests of the restaurant would have been compelled to head east on NE Alberta because there wasn’t much in terms of retail businesses to explore. In the last ten years, this has changed dramatically, businesses that have opened include an upscale fabric and sewing store, a snug Swiss restaurant, a vegan bar, a reimagined neighborhood pub, and a tiny house hotel.