Growth in Our Neighborhoods: Accommodating Density.
This free event (Saturday, April 18th, 2009 9 a.m. to 12 noon), presented by the Irvington Community Association & Main Street Portland Coalition, is open to all who are interested and concerned with issues of growth, development, density and maintaining neighborhood character and livability.
http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?c=29385&a=240684
The very title of this public meeting sets the tone of defeatism, Growth in Our Neighborhoods: Accommodating Density. Change Is Inevitable - Growth Is Not. Elected politicians, especially in the state legislature, make the decisions that determine who, when, where and how much public and non-public housing will be available. To simply talk of density is obfuscatory and intellectually dishonest.
There are two fundamental growth questions that should be addressed that won't be at this meeting.
1. How many people attending this event, including David Bragdon and Amanda Fritz, are willing to take political action to remove the Oregon home builders legislation which required local jurisdictions to accommodate anticipated growth for twenty years?
Very powerful forces inside and outside of government keep this self-fulfilling prophesy/legislation from what should be a continuous public debate.
2. Why isn't public housing statistical data available from all public jurisdictions that administer public housing programs within Metro's three county boundary?
About $300,000,000 is spent annually on approximately 100,000 public housing clients in Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties. The density of public housing clients is concentrated in just a few neighborhoods in Multnomah county. With the notable exception of the Oregon Sustainable Land Trust, every member organization of the Coalition For A Livable Future supports the regional status quo of continuing and increasing the density of public housing clients into a few select neighborhoods in Multnomah county. With this number of NIMBY forces is it any wonder that Portland's Bureau of Housing and the Housing Authority of Portland refuse to tell the taxpayers where their money is being spent.
Vera Katz recently appeared before a class at Portland State University. She said that Richard Ellmyer was wrong about the Portsmouth neighborhood having the most public housing clients and the second highest percentage of public housing clients of any neighborhood in the Metro area. Katz said a neighborhood in Northwest Portland had the most. What former mayor Katz declined to mention was the fact that she couldn't possibly state her opinion as fact because she, as mayor, refused to allow HAP to provide public housing statistical data to her or anybody else. (In the spirit of academic freedom, intellectual honesty and the pursuit of truth I offer to appear before the same class, without charge, to counter Katz's claims.) Her former chief of staff, Sam Adams, now mayor Sam Adams, continues along the path set by his mentor and similarly refuses to give Vera Katz, Richard Ellmyer or anyone else access to HAP's public housing statistical data. In fact, Adams has outdone Katz's coverup by hiding not only public housing statistical data but also budget data from his newly expanded Bureau of Housing.
Just as those students listening to Vera Katz give a false and one sided perspective at Portland State so shall the attendees of this public event here from speakers David Bragdon and Amanda Fritz. David Bragdon has no interest in bringing the regional issue of public housing into the Metro tent. Amanda Fritz lured hundreds of citizens to a public meeting at city hall similar to this one with the promise of including their ideas in the city's lobbyist agenda. Not a single suggestion, not one, of any individual present at the packed city hall meeting in January was ever included.
The invitation to citizens to speak out at this meeting on growth issues as if anything they have to say will result in meaningful change is even more disingenuous. There will be no challenging arguments presented to counter Bragdon and Fritz. Their presentations will be nothing more than personal know-it-all stump speeches. Attendees will merely be an ego satisfying audience.
The organizers of this event are no doubt well meaning. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If you plan on attending keep this in mind: Caveat Emptor.
Richard Ellmyer