January 02, 2004

Twelve Stories To Watch For In 2004

Having posted the nearly-requisite "year in review" item, it's time to turn our attention to looking forward to the stories we'll see in the new year. Many of these stories will be remarkably familiar to readers here, as they are stories from 2003 which will follow us into 2004, although some of them are entering distinctive new phases.

Aerial Tram

Debate will continue about the OHSU/South Waterfront aerial tram (and indeed about the South Waterfront Plan as a whole), despite its status as a foregone conclusion.

With the old "political" cost estimates for the tram out the window, much of this year's debate likely will center around the project's growing pricetag -- presuming decisions are not made to shortchange the project now that it is moving forward -- and how to finance it.

Mount Tabor Reservoirs

With the imminent institution of a 90-day review committee charged with examining the Open Reservoir Replacement Project, expect the entire range of conflicting opinions when it comes to burying the Mt. Tabor reservoirs to be distilled into a highly-concentrated and likely heated discussion. Also waiting in the wings are the results of court challenges to processes and procedures used thus far by the project, and a determination as to the reservoirs' historical status.

Pioneer Courthouse Square Ice Rink

Somewhat lamentably, we'll also once again be debating the ever-undead proposal to construct a seasonal ice rink in Pioneer Courthouse Square. With some luck, we could find ourselves instead with a much broader -- and much more appropriate -- discussion of potential ways to invigorate the Square during its "off-season," rather than merely a rerun of earlier insistence that an ice rink was some sort of silver bullet.

I'm not holding my breath, however. While the Pioneer Courthouse Square board expanded its internal discussions in such a manner several months ago, they have thus far failed to push such a discussion into the public arena, apparently opting instead to simply (and yet again) revamp the nearly unanimously-maligned ice rink proposal.

Downtown Transit Mall

In the coming months, various agencies will be faced with making the determination as to the final shape of the Portland Mall Revitalization Project, which began as a move to bring light rail to the first such mall in the nation designed specifically for mass transit.

With early proposals having met with mixed reaction, and criticisms that they focus too narrowly on transportation engineering and not enough on urban design, this project likely is shaping up to be the largest reconsideration, and reconceptualization, of this portion of downtown since it was first constructed.

New options which soon will be released the the public take into account (to some degree at least) a set of principles garnered from a study of "great pedestrian streets" around the world, and broaden the discussion to include urban design and public spaces. While still not perfect, the new design proposals will advance the public discussion of the project into a context both broader and more appropriate.

Murals, Billboards, And The Sign Code

Regulation of murals within the City of Portland will receive an open airing, as Mayor Katz's proposal to permit them as "public art" through the Regional Arts & Culture Council is formally pitched for public discussion.

Expect resistance from Clear Channel, since the proposal, unlike the aborted negotiations between the company and Commissioner Randy Leonard, does not directly address its concerns. Up in the air as well is the final fate of Clear Channel's lawsuit over Portland's sign policies, which in its current phase has maintained a financial judgement against the City.

Memorial Coliseum

Lost to the background in recent months but due for a return is the fate of Memorial Coliseum, and in which direction for adaptive reuse of the facility the City will choose to go.

Expect some version of the Memorial Athletic & Recreation Complex to continue leading the pack of proposals, expecially since was endorsed last year by the vocal constituency of the region's veterans, who have been dogged in demanding that the building's memorial intentions be respected.

Police Reform

Progress of the Portland Police Bureau on police reform and the revitalization of community policing will have their real tests this year, as will Chief Derrick Foxworth himself.

Goodwill and a grace period will likely continue for a time, since Foxworth has been fairly responsive to recommendations made by three separate reports on Bureau policies and procedures, and soon is expected to release a table detailing all such recommendations and Bureau responses to them -- in and of itself a commitment to public accountability which had been unimaginable under Foxworth's predecessor, Mark Kroeker.

Kendra James Shooting

Of course, matters for the Police Bureau will not be a cakewalk this year. On the horizon are a police union's appeal of the disciplinary measures taken against Officer Scott McCollister after the shooting death of Kendra James, as well as the onset of the Federal lawsuit filed by the James family against the City, the Police Bureau, and three officers involved in the traffic stop which led to James' death.

Public And Neighborhood Involvement

With some neighborhood dissatisfaction over Commissioner Randy Leonard's stewardship of the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, the coming release of the report from the Public Involvement Task Force, and the neighborhood rhetoric coming out of Mayoral and Council campaigns, its likely that 2004 could become one of the most important years for Portland's nearly-unique experiment in institutionalized public and neighborhood involvement.

Despite often-unacknowledged common ground, the presence of some heated issues regarding turf on the City side and similarly-heated issues regarding disenfranchisement on the neighborhood side likely will mean that much of the rhetoric surrounding public and neighborhood involvement wil require some serious sorting through.

Small Business

Already one of the focal points for this year's Mayoral and City Council campaigns, fully expect intense discussion this year about how best to support the City's small businesses.

This discussion will include much talk of local and regional "micro-economies," more debate over the so-called creative class and "young creatives," continued controversy over the use of urban renewal areas and tax increment financing, and perhaps (remember that I said "perhaps") involve at least a modicum of soul-searching -- although much of this is likely to be imposed from the outside -- on the part of bodies such as the Portland Development Commission and the Portland Business Alliance.

Portland Business Alliance

Whether or not the Portland Business Alliance can manage to extricate itself from the embarassment of Kim Kimbrough's leadership now that he has been ousted will become apparent this year, as the organization mounts a search for a preferably-local replacement for Kimbrough.

After more than a year of Kimbrough's cookie-cutter approach to business boosterism -- if one can reasonably consider his constant assaults on Portland as a place to do business as "boosterism" -- the Portland Business Alliance is in dire need of a shakeup as central as the one we might see this year at City Hall.

Mayoral And City Council Elections

Which brings us to what arguably ought to be the biggest local story of the new year. While also technically a story which continues out of 2003 into 2004, it is in the new year that it will truly take shape, and take hold in the mind of the public.

Into this coming May, if not into November, the City will partake of what possibly are the most important Mayoral and Council campaigns since I moved to Portland in 1997. With the departure of three-term Mayor Vera Katz, Portland faces a pivotal moment in defining its identity, and in choosing a vision for its governance.

This year, Portlanders will elect a new Mayor, a new Commissioner No. 1 (to replace Commissioner Jim Francesconi, himself a Mayoral candidate), and a Commissioner No. 4 (currently held by Commissioner Randy Leonard, who is running for re-election) from an ever-growing list of candidates.

During the lead-up to his eventual decision not to run for Mayor, Congressman Earl Blumenauer held a series of talks around the City to discuss a vision for Portland. Implicit in this was the notion that this election, no matter who ultimately ran, almost by necessity would be about defining such a vision.

Despite the decision of Blumenauer not to run, this remains the right and proper content of the Mayoral and Council elections.

The Leftovers and Left-Outs

Of course, it is inevitable that we will also be faced with the unexpected stories no one can predict ahead of time. And I have left out some stories which will certainly continue to surface, such as the wrong-headed pursuit of Major League Baseball and the future of Portland General Electric, among various and sundry others.

Absent as well are stories which reach beyond the confines of Portland (although they may, in fact, affect our City), such as the eternal fighting over Oregon's budget, the balances and tensions amongst different regions of the State, and (of course) the effort to create Brand Oregon.

All of these will, in some fashion or another, be covered here as well. But the above list of twelve stories, I believe, will be some of the major Portland-centric ones facing us in the year ahead -- even if many of them are, indeed, following us from the old year to the new.

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