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Portland Charter Reform Under Threat! [1]

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Date: 2023-07-19

I attended the Portland, OR, city council work session yesterday morning, which it turns out even the mayor’s office didn’t have much advance notice of. Commissioners Gonzalez and Ryan are attempting to undermine the voter approved charter reform/city government reform, including proposing going back to voters in less than 4 months time because they don’t like elements of the plan that has seen volunteers and city staff work countless hours of logistics and community outreach to implement. They could have raised these concerns at any time in the last 9 months, not to mention at least a year of discussions and community outreach that happened before the measure made it to last November’s ballot. One of the many maddening things that came out of this farce was Gonzalez arguing that city and county government already have plenty of diversity. But it’s not diversity we should be concerned with, it’s equity.

Historically, the power and money in this city has been held primarily in the west side; and the outsize influence this power and money has had over our politics is a travesty. It isn’t one person, one vote if your money gives you a bully pulpit. We should have learned this lesson even before Citizens United. Meanwhile, gentrification and redlining has pushed many of our black citizens, if they still live in the city at all, east of I-205; along with most of our Hispanic/Latino population who can’t afford to live anywhere near the city core. Which brings us back to Gonzalez’s fallacious point; do any of the council members live east of I-205? It’s not about diversity, it’s about equity. Proportional representation goes a long way in addressing this century-long wrong. One of my communication students tried to argue that redlining was no longer a problem because the suburbs are more diverse than ever; but not only does diversity not equal equality, the suburbs are largely segregated, which when it comes to services, generational wealth, etc. amounts to a de-facto redlining; and in other parts of the country blacks who have been forced out of traditionally black neighborhoods to the suburbs for affordable housing, are experiencing discrimination there, too; you can be sure that happens in Oregon as well. An additional point I’d like to offer in this diversity vs. equity problem is that marginalized communities that are pushed to the outer edges of the city are more likely to need public transit, and there are fewer options for transit in these areas. Are the council members who supposedly represent “diversity” addressing these kinds of issues? (please see my references below).

As a postscript, I’d like to add that it is incredibly galling for Gonzalez to question the “quality” of candidates when the city goes from 4 commissioners to 12, when we consider that he had the temerity to argue that his downtown rent should be almost nothing because conditions down there are so bad (see reference below). That’s really gonna sell condos in your cronies’ new downtown Ritz Carlton residence, Rene!

If you are a resident of Portland, I urge you to write to city commissioners asking them to vote NO on any resolution to amend charter reform.

Frey, W. (2022, March 9). Even as metropolitan areas diversify, white Americans still live in mostly white neighborhoods. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/even-as-metropolitan-areas-diversify-white-americans-still-live-in-mostly-white-neighborhoods/Links to an external site.

Hadden Loh, T., Coes, C., & Buthe, B. (2022, July 18). Separate and unequal: Persistent residential segregation is sustaining racial and economic injustice in the U.S. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trend-1-separate-and-unequal-neighborhoods-are-sustaining-racial-and-economic-injustice-in-the-us/Links to an external site.

Garcia, I. (2022, October 27). Oregon judge clears Rene Gonzalez of historic elections fine. Portland Mercury. https://www.portlandmercury.com/election-2022/2022/10/27/46160149/oregon-judge-clears-rene-gonzalez-of-historic-elections-fine

Hepler, L. (2020, July 15). The hidden toll of California’s Black exodus. CalMatters. https://calmatters.org/projects/california-black-population-exodus/

Olin, A. (2020, November 23). America is more diverse than ever, but diversity doesn’t equal equality. Kinder Institute for Urban Research | Rice University. https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/america-more-diverse-ever-diversity-doesnt-equal-equalityLinks to an external site.

Perry, A., & Harshberger, D. (2022, March 9). America’s formerly redlined neighborhoods have changed, and so must solutions to rectify them. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/americas-formerly-redlines-areas-changed-so-must-solutions/

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/19/2182206/-Portland-Charter-Reform-Under-Threat

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