633 CHAPTER VII
REFORM AND REJUVENATION—2005 to 2013
Portland Mayor Tom Potter (2005-2008) dramatically reversed the decline of
Portland’s community and neighborhood involvement system and instituted the most
significant expansion of the system since the 1970s. The two mayors who followed
Potter—Sam Adams (2009-2012) and Charlie Hales (who began his first term as mayor
in 2013)—continued to support much of the increased funding and most of the programs
begun under Potter. The system changes instituted during this period represent a major
advance toward a more inclusive and vibrant participatory democracy culture in Portland
and a more effective and lasting governance partnership between city leaders and staff
and community members. This chapter examines the system reviews and key program
changes during the time period from 2005 through 2013.
Mayor Potter came into office with a deep belief that governance should be a partnership between City government and the community. Potter brought to his administration his unusually high level of support for public involvement and his long- standing-standing and deep commitment to ensuring a voice for historically under- represented groups—especially communities of color, immigrants and refugees, and youth. Potter used his position as mayor and the significant additional discretionary revenues available to city government during the good economic times of his administration to implement a wide range of processes and programs that put his values into action and implemented many recommendations of earlier system reviews. 634 This chapter begins with a review of a system assessment prepared by
neighborhood coalition leaders just prior to Potter taking office. The chapter also reviews
early leadership and programmatic changes made by Potter at ONI and four of Potter’s
twenty bureau innovation projects (BIPs): BIP 1/visionPDX, an extensive and very
inclusive community visioning process; BIP 9, which created a public involvement
assessment tool for city staff; BIP 20/Charter Review Commission, which proposed
amendments to Portland’s City Charter, including one to change the form of city
government (which voters rejected) and another that required the City Council to
establish periodic community charter review commissions (which voters adopted); and
BIP 8/Community Connect, the most comprehensive review of Portland’s community
and neighborhood involvement system since it was founded in the 1970s.
Community Connect established three primary goals and developed a “Five-year
Plan to Increase Community Involvement” that charted a new and expanded course for
Portland’s community and neighborhood involvement system. Community Connect recommended that Portland community and neighborhood involvement system be expanded and formally recognize and support organizations representing non-geographic communities—e.g., communities of people drawn together by shared identity or life condition—in addition to the traditional neighborhood association system. Potter initiated a number of new programs in ONI and elsewhere that implemented Community
Connect’s broader and more inclusive vision for community involvement in Portland.
This chapter describes these new programs. 635 Neighborhood activists also continued to seek ways to develop city-wide bodies to allow them to work together on citywide policy issues. This chapter examines two of these bodies, one focused on land use issues and the other on park issues.
Mayor Sam Adams took office in January 2009. Adams assigned responsibility over ONI to long-time neighborhood activist and newly-elected City Commissioner
Amanda Fritz. Adams and Fritz continued to support many of the new community and neighborhood involvement programs initiated by Potter and worked together to insulate
ONI from many of the sev