I keep thinking about Beirut, the senselessness of the blast and the ubiquity of the materials that caused it. An ammonia plant was nearly built on the Columbia to turn fracked gas into ferilizer. Another one is there - Dyno Nobel, storing at least 275 tons of ammonium nitrate.

Then there’s the Critical a Energy Infrastructure hub - the official name for the six mile stretch of NW Portland where millions of gallons of explosive fossil fuels are housed. An explosion there would be apocalyptic for communities and the river. We should all be angry.

Thanks to @BlairStenvick and the @portlandmercury we now know the long dreaded cascadia earthquake could also cause one of the largest oil spills in the world in North Portland. This is what a global, extractivist economy gets you. It’s now our task as a community to undo this.

When I dream about the future we’re fighting to win, I try and start with an abolitionist frame, with open questions. In this case, we should ask ourselves, What does a society look like without sacrifice zones? What does it mean for all places - all people - to be held sacred?

As @ThornCoyle reminded me - Indigenous, African American, and low income residents of North Portland have been fighting for these changes for decades. Survivors of the Vanport Flood and Guild's Lake - the housing project displaced by the fossil fuel hub - are still with us.

NW Tribal Nations still retain treaty fishing rights here. Elders in the community remember subsisting on fish from the river. As access was cut off, these stories were suppressed from the official history of our city. But the community remembers. Stories don't disappear.

The last thing I'll say in this long thread is start by reading this: https://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/claim-summer-2017/a-citys-lifeblood/
Follow Portland Harbor Community Coalition (there are many other good connected orgs): http://ourfutureriver.org/ 
And be ready to organize with us in this long fight.