Ladies and Gentlemen of the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA),
SUBJECT: DNA – Please come: DNA needs your voice!

Civic Life’s Code Change Advisory Committee will meet this Thursday, July 18 at 5:30 PM at the Portland Water Bureau at 664 North Tillamok Street. They will consider recommending a change to Ordnance 3.96 which will strip recognition of Neighborhood Associations and the requirement for open meetings…….both changes opposed by many Neighborhood Association members. Your attendance at this meeting is encouraged.

This is a comprehensive, personal letter, sent by Goose Hollow member Tracy Prince, to City Council. This is a personal letter that has not been approved by the Goose Hollow Board.

Dear Mayor Wheeler and Commissioners,
I wanted to make sure you have some facts in the swirl of misinformation coming out of Civic Life and from Commissioner Eudaly and Suk Rhee regarding their claims of how terrible neighborhood associations are. And I want to make sure you know the importance of open meetings/open records requirements and geographic representation.

Correcting the misinformation:
1) Eudaly and Rhee have said repeatedly that neighborhood associations are a bunch of retired white male home owners who do not represent renters or diverse populations. This is absolutely not true for Goose Hollow nor for many other neighborhoods.

In Goose Hollow demographics, more than half of our neighbors are low-income renters, and Goose Hollow is around 15% people of color. The Goose Hollow Foothills League board very accurately and fairly represents our demographics.

2) Eudaly and Rhee argue that neighborhoods are obstructionists with new developments. While we do sometimes testify against developments, we also support many developers who come to our planning committee. In just one example, a new apartment complex was being built on SW Jefferson. We asked if they would build the first floor apartments so they could be rented for retail in the future. We knew the zoning was changing that would allow for such use. (For years we advocated for “ground floor active use” throughout Goose Hollow, since we know that a lively pedestrian experience and neighborhood coffee shops and restaurants makes for a better neighborhood.) I saw that they were having trouble renting the street level apartments, so I spoke to the manager and explained how they could rent them for retail spaces in the new code. He didn’t know about that and was very happy to be able to rent out the street level spaces. We often work with developers in such ways that the public is unaware of.

We also do a lot more than only development issues. Right now we are working on:
-a community mural
-helping incorporate Native American and Chinese American Goose Hollow history into the redevelopment of Lincoln High School
-dealing with neighborhood concerns over parking and safety
-neighborhood clean ups and graffiti removal
-planting rose bushes in public spaces
-tending to all 4 of the city planters on Vista Bridge that the city owns but doesn’t maintain
-explaining to our neighbors about reservoir work and PBOT street projects that impact them
-working with apartment managers on safety and security concerns
-advocating for 4-way stop signs at high-crash intersections
-working with ODOT to activate the land they own next to I-405 for food carts
-planning a neighborhood picnic

Why it would be DEVASTATING to remove open-meetings and public records requirements as Eudaly and Rhee propose:
Six years ago, residents didn’t have a say in the Goose Hollow neighborhood association because it had been taken over by developers and property owners who own large swaths of Goose Hollow but don’t live here. At that time we had weak bylaws that didn’t prohibit voting in your own financial interests and the bad actors weren’t following open meeting/ open records laws. After we rallied residents and voted out people who frequently voted in their own financial interests, we tightened our bylaws so that people can’t vote to enrich themselves. We used ONI Standards/Code 3.96 to take back our neighborhood and to insist upon open meetings and open records. Code 3.96 helped us take back our neighborhood association and give residents a voice where, once, only the most powerful who owned the most land had a voice. Without open meetings and open records, neighborhoods can easily be taken over by those who will profit the most. We need city law to continue to require the cleansing light of day so that bad actors must do their actions in public so that they can be held accountable. Eudaly and Rhee are fond of saying that they aren’t weakening the neighborhoods. But if they take away open meetings and open records laws, neighborhoods will be destroyed in a very short time.

Neighborhood associations need a grievance process and insurance:
We need Code 3.96 to continue a robust grievance process so that residents have a legal means to force bad actors to do their actions in the public realm. We also need board and event insurance. If neighborhoods are no longer recognized in the code, they will each have to purchase insurance (currently purchased mostly by the coalitions). This would bankrupt many neighborhoods.

DEMOCRACY IS GEOGRAPHICALLY BASED:

Eudaly and Rhee want to remove democracy from the Portland process. With at-large commissioner elections, the only geographic representation that Portlanders currently have is with neighborhood associations. Democracy is, at its root, about geographic representation. Goose Hollow very strongly believes that neighborhoods should be required to represent their demographics! That can certainly be improved in the revised code. But the Eudaly/Rhee idea that geographic representation is practically irrelevant is appalling. In Goose Hollow, that will disenfranchise most of our neighborhood who are disproportionately low income renters. Our neighbors may not have time to sign up for 10 affinity groups, but they keep up with what’s happening in their neighborhood so they know they are not alone when they have break ins, so they know when to volunteer for neighborhood clean ups, and so they can know people they pass on the street and feel a part of their neighborhood. Eudaly and Rhee’s proposals would dramatically erode this grass-roots democracy.

Please vote to reject removing open meetings/ open records laws, vote for continuing our current grievance process, and vote that neighborhoods remain recognized in the code (as they are today). Any organization receiving city money should be required to abide by these simple rules. If they want closed meetings, they don’t have to take city money.

Portland Downtown Neighborhood Association, All rights reserved. http://portlanddowntownna.com/