Vision: Portland is one of the most globally competitive, healthy and equitable cities in the world.

• Do you agree that this vision should guide PDC and its partners over the next 5 years? - 4

Goal: the goal of this strategy is to harness and expand PDC's tools for job creation, place-making, and economic opportunity to achieve widely shared prosperity among all resident of Portland.

• Do you agree that this goal should drive the work of PDC and our partners over the next 5 years? - 5 - Strongly agree

The following are the 5 main objectives of the Plan. Let us know how important each objective is to you:

• Create healthy, complete neighborhoods throughout Portland - 5 - Very important
• Increase access to high quality employment for Portland residents - 5 - Very important
• Foster wealth creation within communities of color and low income neighborhoods - 5 - Very important
• Form 21st century civic networks, institutions and partnerships - 5 - Very important
• Operate an equitable, innovative and financially sustainable agency - 5 - Very important

What do you like about the Plan?

As a WBE/ESB, I like "Direct bid all PDC-owned projects under existing legal thresholds to certified firms."

Does anything in the Plan need greater emphasis? Please explain.

"Direct bid all PDC-owned projects under existing legal thresholds to certified firms." Not all MWESB certified firms who need help do bricks and mortar. Many of us are highly educated and offer consulting services in planning and urban design. We are even part of the Green Cities services sector, but we find it nearly impossible to break into Portland's highly competitive consulting market.

What is missing from the Plan? Please share your advice:

Not all of those who need help are minorities living on the east side. I am white. I am well-educated w/a Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning and accreditation from the Congress for the New Urbanism. I live downtown with other low-income people like myself. Although I lead hiking and backpacking trips and bike nearly everywhere I go that I don't walk, I seem to be too old to get a job in planning or urban design. So I run my own business--at least I attempt to. And I need help to get out of poverty too!

Here's a recent example of my difficulty: Metro recently put out an RFP for a Willamette Falls Riverwalk that touched upon many of my passions in its four core values. They told potential applicants that they wanted MWESBs on their teams. I wrote and called nearly every potential team on this RFP ORPIN list--with no success. Neither Metro, nor PDC, nor the City of Portland seems to question why it is always the same MWESBs--some of whom have been around for 30 years or more--who make it onto the teams. None of you seem to look beyond the boilerplate firms use to convince you that they are doing their part for MWESBs. They are NOT!

I've asked you before to let more MWESB firms into your We Build Green Cities database. After a great deal of pressure on my part, you did let me in. But you need to promote us and perhaps mentor us in how we get contracts through it.

What's missing? Attention to a common sense idea that would make PDC's real estate activities more equitable. I hope you will read the full article that the quote below is taken from:

Using Value Capture To Finance Infrastructure And Encourage Compact Development https://www.mwcog.org/uploads/committee-documents/k15fVl1f20080424150651.pdf.
by Rick Rybeck
p. 257
. . . Furthermore, because tax increment financing obtains revenues from existing taxes, any
negative incentives embedded in the existing tax structure remain. Thus, although TIF can succeed
in raising revenues, it lacks the positive incentives associated with the split-rate tax that promote more compact and affordable development.
In general, a split-rate property tax uses market forces better than these other techniques to promote compact and affordable development. Also, it automatically captures land value
increases from a wide array of new and improved public facilities and services. From an equity standpoint, owners who receive the greatest benefits would pay proportionately more than those who receive the least. . .

Land derives its value from the desirability of its surroundings. Increasing taxes on land values
discourages speculation and returns to the public treasury economic values that are largely created by public expenditures in the first place. A building, on the other hand, derives its value from the owner’s work in constructing and maintaining it. Reducing taxes on building values
reduces the cost of providing commercial and residential space. Thus, a split-rate tax promotes
affordable housing. By making commercial rents and building improvement activities more
affordable, it also promotes job creation. Together, these tax changes promote the clustering of
development adjacent to existing infrastructure, reducing development pressure on outlying
areas and discouraging urban sprawl. A value-capture, split-rate tax can help harmonize economic
incentives with public policy objectives for affordable housing, economic development, and environmental protection.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Yes, I think that to achieve more equity and less displacement, PDC needs to press the City of Portland to consider a split-rate tax system. I wrote about such a split-rate system for a limited area (downtown) in one of my recent blogs: http://plangreen.net/land-tax-downtown/, but the real expert is Rick Rybeck of Just Economics, LLC (http://www.justeconomicsllc.com/).

In at least one of his articles, he compares using TIF to the split rate tax: Using Value Capture To Finance Infrastructure And Encourage Compact Development - p. 257
"Furthermore, because tax increment financing obtains revenues from existing taxes, any negative incentives embedded in the existing tax structure remain. Thus, although TIF can succeed
in raising revenues, it lacks the positive incentives associated with the split-rate tax that promote more compact and affordable development."

Many of his more recent writings are linked here: http://www.justeconomicsllc.com/. Please consider putting some of Rick's ideas into your plan.

OPTIONAL: Have you worked with PDC in the past? (check all that apply)

• Participated in public input process or advisory committee
• Provided testimony
• Attended an open house