Portland, Ore. -- Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson and David Yaden will co-host Portland 2.0, an event examining Portland’s urban success, as well as its future challenges. Participants will include Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Carl Abbott, Rukaiyah Adams, Michael Alexander, Adam Davis, Caitlin Baggott Davis, Tony DeFalco, Su Embree, Rick Gustafson, Kayse Jama, Marissa Madrigal, Martha Pelligrino, Carmen Rubio, John Tapogna, Alan Webber, and Bill Wyatt, among others.
The event will take place Saturday, January 26th from 9:30-4:30 at Portland State University’s Hoffman Hall. Registration information and additional details can be found here. Free registrations are being offered to those burdened by the $60 cost.
“We want to open this event up to all people,” said Vega Pederson. “We want emerging, young leaders to attend, as well as those already civically engaged. This is a chance to learn about the past and the future and figure out how to build an inclusive, progressive, equitable future for our region and our citizens.”
The event will explore the energy-filled period in the late 1960s when the Portland region boldly chose to move in a direction different than other urban areas—rejecting sprawl and unrestrained freeways, rebuilding a vital and active downtown, maintaining desirable neighborhoods & attractive public parks and amenities, and fostering regional cooperation. Through these choices, our city gained a reputation for urban success, civic vitality, and innovation.
However, the region’s quality of life has not been equally shared. Many were simply left out, excluded. Importantly, the burdens of our desirability, especially displacement and housing affordability, have fallen disproportionately on those least equipped to cope and those historically bypassed by our “urban success,” particularly communities of color and lower income groups.
Rapid growth is creating new strains, and circumstances have changed, including an increasingly diverse population, technology, economy, and modes of civic engagement.
Panel topics will include:
-
What do we need to know about Portland 1.0—that period beginning in the 1970s changed our region’s direction?
-
What has changed and where are we today with regard to the economic and social context and conditions that gave rise to Portland 1.0?
-
What about inclusion and accountability? Do we care as much about our neighbors as our neighborhoods?
-
Is our “civic infrastructure” of citizens and leaders, of public and private institutions up to creating Portland 2.0?
Spanish translation services will be provided and childcare services offered. Additional panelists will be announced in the coming weeks.
Two workshops will follow the kick-off event, and provide a unique opportunity for a group of thirty to fifty diverse emerging civic leaders to explore questions of governance. The group of workshop participants will be a rich resource both individually and as a body for forums.
“Participants in these workshops will do a deeper dive into the questions of citizen engagement and civic infrastructure,” said Yaden. “Technology, media, civic knowledge and methods of engagement have shifted significantly. We envision participants being recognized as thought leaders with knowledge and perspective that makes what they do more effective and informed as civic leaders.”
Those interested in learning more about the workshops and applying can do so here.
# # #