11.21.2017

Writing the Portland Story: A Conversation with Doug Macy


Submitted by: Sarah Iannarone
Associate Director, First Stop Portland

On Nov 10, 2017, Portland said goodbye to renowned landscape architect, urban pioneer, and civic treasure James Douglas "Doug" Macy. Doug was an original member of First Stop Portland's Advisory Council and helped shape our program from the beginning, sharing his knowledge and wisdom with our staff, students, and visitors from around the world.

First Stop's mission includes "connecting visitors with Portland's experts, leaders, and innovators-- the people who can share 'The Portland Story' best because they're writing it." Few people have written Portland's story with more passion or influence than Doug. In 2010, we sat down at the offices of Walker | Macy to talk with Doug about Portland-- past, present and future.

Doug Macy shares the story of Pioneer Courthouse Square with a reporter from Geo France Magazine,2011

1.05.2017

Student Spotlight: James Alexander

Submitted by: James Alexander, Student Coordinator, First Stop Portland

I will graduate from Portland State soon, and with the diploma comes the end of my time with First Stop Portland. As the culminating opportunity of my time here, I  spent the last term interning on the development and investment team at the Portland Development Commission (PDC).

As an undergraduate, I studied how to maximize public dollar expenditures and this internship allowed me to apply what I learned in the classroom to one of the most influential projects coming down the pike-- redevelopment of the U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Northwest Portland, which the PDC acquired for $88M in 2016.

It was exciting to take my first step out of Portland State University into one of Portland’s most transformative projects, especially in its preliminary planning phases. I don’t think most people my age get a chance to experience a classroom-to-workplace connection like this. In four weeks working at PDC, I participated in meetings that touched on all aspects of the project including the bureau’s future financing mechanisms (such as tax-increment financing), partnerships with potential development firms, and the Broadway Corridor Framework Plan. As a student who has closely watched negotiation of the post office site, this property acquisition showcases the role of public agencies like PDC in creating healthy, livable neighborhoods. In their own words, “This is a once in a generation chance to transform a downtown development and the Union Station multimodal transportation hub in a uniquely Portland way.”

Walking through those doors on my first day was as daunting as it was riveting. The relationships I'd built at First Stop Portland  eased my nerves. I quickly learned that the PDC is undergoing massive institutional changes in both its funding structure and its operations, shifting from a pro forma-centric model to a more community-based one.

PDC Director Kimberly Branam explains the vision for the Broadway Corridor to the community
Even in my short time here, that shift has been apparent under its new leadership. I helped PDC host the Broadway Corridor Visioning Workshop, an open forum that invited a diverse range of voices to learn and discuss what items in the plan are most important to the community - an event in true Portland fashion. Additionally, I’ve been tasked with transcribing and maintaining analytics of what those leaders at each table thought the Broad Corridor Framework Plan should represent. I may know better than anyone else here at the PDC what the community thinks, haha-- pretty cool if you ask me.

FSP Advisory Council member Charles Kelley, ZGF, engages with community members at a community visioning workshop
I'm grateful for the opportunities First Stop Portland offered me. I met people from nearly every continent. I was inspired by learning from Portland's leaders and experts who are working to make Portland a more livable, sustainable and equitable place for all. My work with First Stop Portland helped refine my academic and professional focus, preparing me for my next step in life. While it’s sad to be leaving that environment, I now feel prepared work alongside city leaders at this exciting time in our city's history.

Who knows, perhaps in five years I’ll be presenting on the Broadway Corridor for First Stop Portland's visitors?


You can find these and other photos from PDC's community planning meeting on Flickr

11.03.2016

Detroit's Got Lessons for Portland

Submitted by: Sarah Iannarone, Associate Director, First Stop Portland


In 30 years of hosting outbound study trips on behalf of the greater Portland region, organizer Randy Miller has never revisited a city.

Until now.

This month, compelled by rumors of Detroit’s dramatic comeback, a cross-sector contingent of Portland-based leaders, hosted by Greater Portland Inc. and co-facilitated by First Stop Portland, headed back to the Motor City for a firsthand look at what had changed in six years.

On the ground in Detroit, the Portland group heard a story that was in many ways the inverse of theirs. While Portland had entered the knowledge economy and was planning for sustainable growth, Detroit was hemorrhaging population, beset by municipal mismanagement, and battered by globalization’s effects on its one-and-only industry—automobile manufacturing.

Detail, "Detroit Industry" fresco cycle, Diego Rivera, 1932-3, Detroit Institute of Arts
When Portland’s future seemed implausibly bright, as touted by The New York Times and embodied in the young talent (and their empty-nester parents) migrating to the city in droves, Detroit’s couldn’t have seemed more bleak: by 2013, America’s once fourth-most-populous city had lost over a million inhabitants and filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, more than $18 billion in debt.

 

At 3.5 million square feet, Detroit's Packard Automotive Plant is the largest industrial ruin in the world
Detroit’s motto, Resurget Cineribus, "It will rise from the ashes,” foreshadows how hitting rock bottom was probably the best thing that could have happened to the city. There’s a saying when it comes to adversity:  you can let it define you, let it destroy you, or let it strengthen you. By all accounts, Detroit’s bankruptcy forced state and local leaders to change course ASAP, setting the city on a new path toward a stronger, more resilient future. Their turnaround strategy was rooted in re-imagining their downtown as a vibrant, connected, livable place that would attract the talent and investment its economy sorely needed. Six years later, according to the Portland delegation, the difference was dramatic. Throughout the study trip, discussions among the delegates returned invariably to the rapid pace at which the central city revitalization was driving Detroit’s urban renaissance.

Public art adorns high-rises in downtown Detroit
This comes as no surprise to someone whose 'Welcome to Portland' presentation includes a slide titled, “Reimagining the City Center.” A key part of the narrative that First Stop shares with visitors is how a placemaking revolution in the downtown forty years ago underlies much of Portland’s success today. Escaping Robert Moses’ concrete and asphalt influence was not easy: it took a change in leadership (and some stern warnings from the Feds) for Portland to head back to the drawing board in the 1970s and transform its downtown from a repository for suburban commuters to a vibrant commercial center oriented around pedestrians and transit.

Campus Martius Park is managed by the Detroit 300 Conservancy under the auspices of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, a public-private partnership overseeing downtown Detroit's BIZ (business improvement zone)
Since then, steady urban planning and investments have made Portland a “model city,” renowned around the globe as a “green” leader. This suggests Portland has a lot to teach Detroit about successful city building. While there may be some valuable lessons Portland could share, I get the sense that Detroit is growing weary of unsolicited advice from outsiders. Frankly, based on my experiences there, they don’t really need it.

In three days of site visits, bike tours, and meetings with local leaders across Detroit, I saw a city on the right urban redevelopment track: revitalizing their core; connecting green, walkable communities with bike lanes and transit; building partnerships for better project outcomes; and attempting to grow more equitably through investments in local talent and entrepreneurship. From riverfront conservation to artisan manufacturing, business accelerators to urban agriculture, public art to restaurants & nightclubs, Detroit right now is, in many ways, out-Portlanding Portland.

"Open Streets Detroit" opens 4 miles of major streets downtown for cyclists and pedestrians twice annually, "to create space for healthy activities, community building, and connection to local retail." Sound familiar?

My most important take away from the study trip? Portland has a thing or two it should be learning from Detroit—especially when it comes to getting things done.

In Portland, as rapid growth quickly becomes the “new normal,” locals have been struggling to keep up with the pace of change. The economy is expanding at a healthy clip, yet a lack of affordability drives cocktail party conversation. Real estate developers and density advocates butt heads with neighborhoods over issues like infill and historic preservation. Increased congestion downtown and on arterials has motorists, bicyclists, and transit operators vying for precious right-of-way. And while the vast expanses of East Portland are expected to accommodate the majority of population growth in coming decades, they hold little-to-no power in City Hall where decisions are being made about how that growth takes place.

Conventional wisdom holds that rock bottom situations like Detroit’s bankruptcy are a necessary precursor to transformative change, but I don’t think Portland can afford to wait for extreme conditions before changing course, at least a little bit. Although Detroit’s situation dramatically differs from Portland’s (and while I’m sure their city leaders would love to have some of Portland’s growing pains), Detroit’s remarkable comeback offers relevant lessons for Portland:


1. Identify your common cause and act with a sense of urgency.  Detroit’s bankruptcy gave the city a “nowhere to go but up” optimism. From the airport shuttle driver to the small-biz owner, non-profit volunteer to elected official, the entire city seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the possibilities inherent in working together to bring about the city’s recovery. The all-hands-on-deck energy was almost intoxicating. What is Portland’s common cause right now? Perhaps it’s seeing the current growth as an opportunity to do what it does best—growing sustainably and equitably. It would be powerful indeed if the city rallied with a sense of urgency around an expressed common goal at this critical juncture in the city’s history.

Quote: Jeanette Pierce, Detroit Experience Factory
Interestingly, First Stop Portland’s Motown counterpart, the Detroit Experience Factory, has shared Detroit’s story with over 70,000 people the past decade! Sharing stories with locals as well as visitors seems to play a key role in creating a shared citywide narrative.

2. If it’s broken, fix it. Detroit’s bankruptcy forced local leaders to take hard look at the toll that 60-years of white flight, disinvestment, mismanagement, and corruption had taken on the city. What they saw left them with little choice: they had to break things apart to put them back together again. In response, Detroit completely overhauled their retirement system and—in a citizen-led effort—rewrote the city charter so that city council members would be elected by district rather than at-large. Sound familiar? These reforms are fiscally responsible while helping ensure greater transparency and representation for Detroit’s communities.

Reps from city council and non-profits share how they brought Detroit's communities together to fight blight, clean-up neighborhoods, and reform municipal government
3. Think pink. With little more than dreams at their disposal, Detroit’s communities are taking DIY to a whole new level, undertaking revitalization block-by-block, transforming empty lots to farms and empty buildings to artist studios and business incubators. We repeatedly heard the phrase, “get it done… lighter, cheaper, faster.” In Detroit’s recovery, duct tape ingenuity and innovative partnerships necessarily stand-in for big budgets. For a small but enthusiastic cohort of seemingly "risk oblivious" early investors, a lack of municipal regulatory capacity means projects get done with minimal bureaucracy. Andres Duany calls this “pink tape” development—zones where red tape is lightened (to pink) spur cost effective innovation and investment. Granted, Portland’s land markets differ significantly from Detroit’s, but some pink thinking around certain transportation and housing problems could lower the costs and speed up the rate at which projects come online. Imagine the possibilities of less red tape for housing our homeless or transportation safety in East Portland—places where the need is greatest, the budgets lowest, and the landscapes look more like Detroit that the Pearl District in many ways.


4. Ask the question: “How does this create jobs?” It seems commonsense, but I was surprised by how frequently I heard this asked during my time in Detroit. Every presentation. Every site visit. Every policy discussion. Detroit’s obsession with job creation is completely understandable given their unemployment rate hovered around 25% at the peak of their fiscal crisis. Yet, even as Portland’s unemployment rate dips to 15-year-lows, the question of how we’re creating jobs—what kind and for whom—with our public investments sometimes get lost in a sea of lofty aspirations. A focus on job creation as we work toward our climate goals will help ensure our communities are equitable and resilient.


Finally, since sharing ideas across cities is as much passion as occupation for me, I can’t resist offering Detroit one piece of unsolicited advice—and it’s for the greater region, not the municipality per se: focus on building regional cohesiveness. A bit of regional planning in the short term could go a long way strengthening Detroit for the future: reducing inter-municipal competition, building out the transit network, investing in education and R&D, and filling in the “doughnut of disinvestment” between their center city, neighborhoods, suburbs, and edge cities. I anticipate that with a little foresight and a lot of relationship building, the greater Detroit region will be be a resilient powerhouse in a rapidly changing global economy. If Detroit would like to visit Portland to study regionalism (or any of our other smart growth tools), First Stop Portland would be happy to host them.

(You can visit our photo album from the trip, too.)

4.21.2016

Lessons From Argentina: How Participatory Budgets Can Increase Civic Engagement

Submitted by: Adrianne Ackerman
Student Ambassador, First Stop Portland

In 2002 the port-city of Rosario, Argentina’s 3rd largest municipality, was experiencing heavy growth and a bevy of deficits, not the least of which pertained to civic engagement. Amidst economic growing pains, with an eye towards the future and sustainable practices, the city’s core leadership decided to embark upon an experimental path to engage its citizenry and create a more robust network of citizen-lead, city-supported projects.

Portland State Study Abroad students meeting with local legislator Carlos Comi to discuss city projects like Presupuesto Participativo.




4.08.2016

Iceland sees resiliency at play in Portland

Transit planner, Peter Koonce (center) with planners from Reykjavik, Iceland(Photo taken by Victoria Dinu)
Submitted by: Victoria Dinu
Student Ambassador, First Stop Portland

Cities across the world are challenging themselves and others to work towards reducing climate risk and greenhouse gas emissions. “Is the conversation getting easier as the city gets greener?” asked one of the five urbanist from Iceland who joined us for a day long study tour. Many of their questions where almost rhetorical, proving the point that there is still much to learn and improve when collaborating with different sectors while creating a shared vision for the future. Two of the deeper themes that threaded throughout the day alluded to how change is made and the importance of intentionality in regards to protecting our natural environment and what is built in, on, and around it. At one point, Portland transit planner Peter Koonce explained that the best way we can make the conversation and the process easier was to:
  1. “Internalize caring about the environment, and its value.”
  2. “Do things incrementally.”

2.04.2016

The Dream of the 50s is Alive in Havana

Submitted by: James Alexander
Student Ambassador, First Stop Portland

My first steps out of the José Martí International Airport were greeted by a humid blast of warm air seasoned with smells of heavy car exhaust. The taxi driver placed my luggage in the back of his bright blue Chevrolet Bel Air (1958) -- a deep sigh of relief --  “Where are you from, Sir?” the man asked in very broken English. “Portland, Oregon.” I replied. “Ahhh...Portland!” he said quite excitedly. I knew I was in good hands.  


My housing arrangement had been made back in Cancun by some questionable individuals at the airport, but that soon proved to be quite a worthwhile exchange. The house was owned by a charming old woman who had spent her career working for the Ministerio de Cultura (Cuban Ministry of Culture). Pictures of Fidel and family were seen throughout her home. She gave me a very informative background on the historical context and present state of Cuba’s housing laws, socialized medicine, and education. She asked me questions about the Pacific Northwest, as I was her first resident from the area; specifically, I shared with her our regional successes in smart growth, transportation options, sustainable design, and how Portland differentiated itself from other American cities. “You share cars?!” she said while laughing hysterically.

12.03.2015

On Sustainability Study Tour in Rosario, Argentina

Submitted by Adrianne Ackerman
Student Ambassador, First Stop Portland

Greetings from Rosario, Argentina!

Reminders to imagine, learn and care for your health hang from blossoming trees on Rosario's "waterfront park" on the banks of Río Paraná during Art Week 2015.
It’s been two and a half months since I first arrived in this burgeoning municipality where I began to learn so much about city planning, civic engagement and sustainability, South American-style. Studying the political history and culture of Argentina with Portland State University Political Science Professor Melody Valdini has allowed me to capitalize upon the university-to-city connection that First Stop Portland is founded upon and values so deeply. My experience as a student ambassador for FSP prepared me well to meet with city and national officials, helped me access information about municipal programs, and deepened  my research of ways cities (including Portland) use planning policy to strengthen democracy. Coupled with witnessing one of the nation’s most exciting presidential elections to date and you may begin to understand the exponential value of my experience thus far.

Whether on the sides of government trucks, at the site of a street repair or on the vest of a volunteer coordinator, "Rosario in Action" can be seen everywhere, as city programs gain momentum.