The surprise death this week of the Portland Development Commission's deal to bring Trader Joe's to a vacant lot in Northeast Portland brought unprecedented attention to an African-American group with little name recognition.

The first that many people had heard of the Portland African American Leadership Forum was its scathing letter to the media and PDC in December, accusing the urban renewal agency of perpetuating gentrification in what used to be majority black neighborhoods. The group demanded the $8 million Trader Joe's project be halted or reconstituted with the addition of affordable housing.

But when Trader Joe's announced Monday it was pulling out due to "negative reactions from the community," PAALF was as surprised as anyone. News broke hours before leaders were set to hold a news conference on other issues. They largely avoided questions from reporters about Trader Joe's.

The group with ambitions to be the hub of social, political and economic conversation for African-American Portlanders didn't see the Trader Joe's withdrawal coming. Instead, Director Cyreena Boston Ashby said PAALF's consistent goal has been to bring attention to what it views as the real problem: the development commission's lack of transparency in projects that affect the black community.

In the days since Ashby and other members of the leadership forum fielded reporters' questions on the vacant 2-acre parcel where Trader Joe's was supposed to go, the 33-year-old said she's more confident than ever that the group is doing the right thing. PAALF is beginning to discover it has legitimacy, she said.

"People don't like change," said Ashby, referring to some long-standing neighbors of the vacant lot who took issue with the leadership forum's politicking. "People don't like when community-based groups, especially those of color, ask questions."

Some of the criticism, though, comes from African-Americans who took issue with PAALF's methods.

"The opinions of the black community are as varied and diverse as the community in general," said Chris Guinn III, co-owner of Northeast Portland's Dwell Realty. PDC officials said the planned Trader Joe's stood to benefit Guinn and other tenants of nearby Vanport Square, the retail center built by African American developers and home to many minority-owned businesses.

"I know plenty of black folks who were supporting this thing," Guinn said of the Trader Joe's deal. While he applauded PAALF for "trying to speak up" and address tough issues, there are consequences.

"A lot more guile will probably be used in the future," he said.

Who is PAALF?

The leadership forum emerged in 2009 from a larger movement, based in the Twin Cities, to create networks for African-American leaders to talk about issues facing their local communities.

Initially backed by The Urban League of Portland, in 2011 PAALF found a new home and supporter in Self Enhancement Inc., the North Portland charter school and social center.

That same year, Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the state's premier philanthropic foundations, agreed to contribute $100,000 a year to the group.

The leadership forum brought in Ashby as director. Her resume includes a run for the Legislature in 2008, as well as staff work for Sen. Jeff Merkley and Gov. John Kitzhaber. Ashby grew up in Gresham and now lives in Tigard. She hired Rachel Gilmer, a 26-year-old Eugene native and former Oregon Health Authority employee, to staff the forum with her.

Tony Hopson Sr., president and CEO of SEI, welcomed the new group.

Hopson said Portland has individual leaders in the black community but no "collective leadership," citing the declining influence of the NAACP and the Urban League.

"When people think about black leadership now, they're still talking about Jesse Jackson," said Hopson, 59.

PAALF could become a hub for local civic engagement by both old guard and new, Hopson and Ashby thought. It could help mold young leaders who would snatch the baton from a generation of established names like Hopson and former state Sen. Avel Gordly, 66, who also became a key supporter.

The leadership academy

The leadership forum's opposition to the PDC's deal with a California developer to bring Trader Joe's had its roots in a project PAALF launched in January 2013.

That month, Gilmer and Ashby began running monthly meetings of PAALF's African American Leadership Academy, a free, year-long training program which drew more than 60 applicants.

The class included a lawyer, financial investor, City Hall staffer and small business owner and participants aged 22 to 40.

Academy members settled on researching how city policies and urban renewal money contributed to the departure of more than 10,000 people of color from North and Northeast Portland between 2000 and 2010. The group studied the displacement of black shipyard workers by the 1948 Vanport flood and the subsequent history of redlining by area realtors and banks. They pulled up the 1990s-era Albina Community Plan to analyze what city leaders had promised minorities in the past.

The leadership academy was deep in the weeds by October, when PAALF members toured North Williams Avenue with Mayor Charlie Hales and Patrick Quinton, executive director of the development commission, to take stock of the rapid changes there.

The city's deal to sell land for Trader Joe's to Majestic Realty at a discount became public just a few weeks later. PAALF felt jilted.

On Dec. 18, the leadership forum wrote to the PDC, labeling the deal "fraught with injustice." The group called for including affordable housing and a full accounting of tax increment spending in the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area.

While Gilmer acknowledged some tension between PAALF supporters young and old over the decision, she called sending the letter to the agency "a huge validating moment for young people."

The group drummed up attention nationally, contributing to a January editorial written by a national NAACP leader.

The Thursday before Trader Joe's pulled the plug, members and supporters were buoyant and excited. A packed audience of several dozen onlookers sat in bleachers at SEI to witness the first leadership academy graduation.

Young black Oregonians talked about bonds they formed with others in the leadership academy through tough conversations on issues such as misogyny in the black experience and homophobia.

"Over and over again, we were all talking about topics that we were all taught not to talk about in polite society if you wanted people to be your friend again," " said Sita Symonette, an acupuncturist.

Symonette said she had no doubt about her classmates' future success.

"We have the next superintendent of Portland Public Schools," she told the audience. "We have the next city council members, we have the first black female-owned investment company, we have the first multiculturally-specific wellness center," she said, smiling. "We have the next mayor, and the next governor."

The crowd cheered.

What comes next

PAALF leaders met Monday on the vacant lot which was slated for a Trader Joe's prior to the company's withdrawal this week.

The jubilation of graduation night was absent on Monday, as the old guard and new stood together on the vacant lot at Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Alberta Street.

Hours earlier, Trader Joe's had issued a brief statement to the news media saying that "if a neighborhood does not want a Trader Joe's, we understand, and we won't open the store in question."

At the site the grocer had since abandoned, Hopson and Gordly led the news conference. Ashby and Gilmer chimed in, as did leadership academy graduate Steven Gilliam.

"This was not about Trader Joe's," Gilliam said in response to questions from reporters. He said the group's opposition was rooted in development commission's "broken promises of the past."

PAALF's demands included a PDC fund to aid Vanport Square businesses and a new "community benefits agreement negotiated by an independent, community-controlled body" to oversee the future of the Alberta Street lot.

Majestic Realty Co., the California-based developer set to bring Trader Joe's said it would "take a time out" while the community dialogue takes shape.

Ashby believes deal isn't finished. ""I really do think Trader Joe's will come back," she said.

Other African-American leaders say they're taking stock of the Trader Joe's pullout.

"I think it cost the Northeast Portland community, cost the opportunity for continued economic revitalization that could've been shaped by members of this community," said Michael Alexander, president and CEO of the Urban League of Portland

John Washington, with the North Northeast Business Association, said PAALF took a stand for something "reasonable and real."

But Washington also worries PAALF's tactics will fragment the community. "You get a victory here," he said. "What doors does that close elsewhere?"

Doug Stamm, CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust, said he's pleased at the developing network of young leaders his foundation helped fund. The publicity over the Trader Joe's and PAALF isn't a concern.

"If you're really leading," Stamm said, "then at times it's controversial."

Looking back, Ashby said she has zero regrets about how the leadership forum responded to the city's plan for Trader Joe's. But, she added, PAALF can do a lot to explain its motivations.

"We definitely are a real, viable organization," she said, "and we need to decide our future in a much more deliberate way."

-- Andrew Theen