January 25, 2004
The Civic Identity Of A Perfect Portland
After seeing one of the commentaries in today's Sunday Oregonian I'm glad I hadn't yet gotten around to something in Friday's Portland Tribune, because they nicely dovetail together.
Friday's Tribune included the first batch of reader suggestions for sculpting the perfect Portland. "More than 50 people responded to the challenge of presenting ideas," the paper said, "ranging from the grandiose to the fastidious, that would make Portland and the surrounding areas better and more enjoyable places to live."
Readers might notice that my suggestion to bring back the Great Light Way of illuminated arches along SW 3rd Avenue makes an appearance in Friday's "perfect Portland" installment, although I wrote my submission before firmly committing myself to putting them on SW 3rd again, rather than perhaps looking at the transit mall.
Other imaginings presented in the first installment include: a fuller and more comprehensive support for parks; revitalized neighborhoods and neighborhoood involvement; perfecting the region's water system; real support for schools; more proper value placed upon artists and the arts; active support of local small businesses; and a number of transportation offerings.
Further reader suggestions will be published in the paper this coming week.
And in today's Oregonian, Randy Gragg delivers a commentary on civic identity, offering 10 suggestions to grow our "citizens' shared memories, spaces and points of pride -- the symbols around us."
Amongst Gragg's suggestions are: signs that mark our City's true borders, such as the urban growth boundary; investing in home-grown products and markets; expanding the region's connected parks, greenways and natural areas; providing a higher profile for Portland's pedestrian and bicycle cultures; capitalizing on the area's health, wellness, and amateur recreation; investing in the entrepreneurial young creative class; and turning to the City's plethora of local designers for our City's architectural features.
Although they are all good, one of my favorites, however, is this one:
The city that speaks: Seattle's Town Hall has become that city's center of intellectual discussion. Any night of the week, you can hear everything from political debates to "Seattle 360," a year-long forum on the city's future. In the days after Sept. 11, it was SRO for panels of Islam experts and terrorism analysts.
Portland's only town hall is the barely occasional KATU (2) TV debate. Why not create one truer to Portland's culture of participation -- both physical and virtual. Take over City Hall's Council Chambers in the off hours for weekly "Talk of the City" debates and discussions. Video-link them to neighborhood centers or even bars and coffee shops or, better yet, emerging, grass-roots "community living rooms" such as North Portland's La Palabra Cafe.
Let's do it. I'll give mad props to the first Mayoral and Council candidates who seriously and legitimately back this proposal, with details on how they'd make it happen. Hey, in the interest of showing off some of the "creative class" I'll even help push for one of these discussions to be a panel of local weblog writers, showing off how passionate a panel of citizens, rather than just "experts" can be about their City.
Both of these pieces should be clipped and saved for anyone who intends to seriously follow the conversations of this year's municipal elections, which necessarily must be about which direction the City should move. Add them to the pile that will hopefully soon include the document Congressman Earl Blumenauer is supposed to be generating from his series of "A Vision for Portland" discussion he had around town last year.