February 13, 2003
More on the Portland Business Alliance
Following strangely on the heels of the recent Portland Mercury screed against the Portland Business Alliance comes this week's cover story in the Willamette Week on the head of the PBA, Kim Kimbrough:
As president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance, he's supposed to market the city to the rest of the world, yet he has spent most of his two years here talking about what a terrible place Portland is to do business. "When you start a mantra that Portland is anti-business, you're helping to make that reality," says City Commissioner Erik Sten. "It's a strange message for a group that we're paying to market the city." (More than 80 percent of Kimbrough's $11 million budget is public money.)
And in today's Mercury the following letter apppears:
FOLLOW THE MONEY
DEAR PHIL BUSSE: Thank you for exposing the Portland Business Alliance ["The Alliance," Feb 6], but why the "shock" at discovering their real control of Portland's government?! The old sayings, "He who has the gold makes the rules," and "Money talks, bullshit walks," apply to our current situation. But will someone have the "intestinal fortitude" to challenge the usurpation by the PBA of certain governmental powers by the passage of an initiative to restrict the PBA to lobbying?
David Brock
For those interested in keeping up with the activities of the Portland Business Alliance (and recognizing that this is only the second time I've violated my general rule of thumb of not getting sucked into cross-weblog linking), check out the Alliance Watch weblog.
Comments (2)
heather on 14 Feb 2003
I understand not wanting to do much cross weblog linking, but can you point to (or create on this site) a list of portland-focused blogs so I could do my own multi-blog reading? And thanks for your work on Portland Communique!
Mr. Benson on 14 Feb 2003
I liked the banner on the Mercury's vending machines this week: Read today in the Mercury what will be in next week's Willamette Week.