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Adams comes to Land Use Committee

LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

In 1944, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was preparing to run for his fourth term in office, an aide sent him a memo that party leaders favored Harry Truman of Missouri for vice president. Roosevelt reportedly sent the memo back after scrawling four words across the top: “Clear it with Sidney.” The Sidney in question was Sidney Hillman, leader of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The indication that a labor leader could have veto power over the composition of a major party presidential ticket marked a high point in the trade union movement of the 1930s and ‘40s.

A similar moment for Portland’s neighborhood movement may have occurred last month when Mayor-elect Sam Adams initiated an appearance before the Citywide Land Use Committee. The group, organized and chaired by Mid-county activist Bonny McKnight, provides a forum for neighborhood representatives from across the city to discuss and exchange information about common issues. It has gradually gained power and influence. On this occasion, because of its special guest, the committee’s normal attendance of 20 people increased to 50.

Adams noted that he had visited the committee four times before as a city commissioner and said, “I always find it useful to check in with this group. I’m very excited about serving as your mayor starting January 1.” Then he delivered some less upbeat news, echoing FDR’s famous Depression-era statement that “one-third of the nation is ill-housed, ill-clothed and ill-fed.”

Speaking well before last month’s market crash, Adams said, “The economic slowdown is now predicted to become a full-blown recession” lasting at least two years, with recovery taking another two. “The last time we had one of these, Oregon was the worst state in the country in terms of proportional job loss. We currently have a 43 percent high school dropout rate; it’s probably a little better in Parkrose, but not by much. One quarter of the population makes a poverty wage or is unemployed. We need to accommodate our share of the region’s growth, and do that while we reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to 1998 levels. We will be constrained in our ability to invest in projects that depend on the general fund.”

However, neighborhood activists did not walk away empty-handed.

McKnight called on Adams to provide 45 days notice to neighborhoods of pending public or private projects that affect them, and to utilize coalition offices as consultants. Adams agreed to both, but called on neighborhood associations to do a better job of outreach to all parts of their communities. “As I look around the room, this is hardly representative of the citizenry of Portland,” he said of the predominantly white crowd. “You’re making a request of me, and now I’m making one of you.”

Another volunteer, Mary Helen Kincade, complained about the lack of coordination among public bureaus, the difficulty of keeping track of public meetings and processes, and asked that someone attempt to coordinate them. “You’re by no means the first person to express frustration about that,” Adams said as he promised to task whoever gets the Office of Neighborhood Involvement as a bureau of assignment.

Adams and transportation planner Patrick Sweeney discussed the Streetcar System Plan, an effort to designate appropriate places for future streetcar routes. Rosemary Opp and her Mill Park Neighborhood Association are opposed in principal to the streetcar and the high-density development it is designed to bring; they have stymied a Citizen Working Group in east Portland. To the west, the Boise Neighborhood Association has had other criticisms, among them the perception that the process had deliberately bypassed neighborhood associations and instead entrusted the planning process to streetcar supporters. The number of potential routes under consideration upset others.

Adams said the intent of the outreach plan was to attract people who were not regular meeting goers as well as those who were. “(Sweeney) says that if he had to do it over again, he’d start with a discussion by neighborhood association and coalition chairs,” he said.

“People saw lines on maps going everywhere and panicked,” Sweeney said. “We don’t want to put streetcars everywhere, just where they’re appropriate.” Already the process has whittled the potential routes under consideration from 210 miles to 140.

Adams said the city would try to update existing neighborhood plans and create more where they don’t currently exist. There are currently 64 neighborhood plans. “Some (are) more relevant than others. We want to level the playing field.” However, he noted that the plans contain some $300 million worth of uncompleted projects. “We’re not being honest with you if we let you think we’ll come up with that in the next four years.”

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