Give us your feedback on PDC's 2015-20 Draft Strategic Plan

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? - 5 - Strongly agree

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 - 4
• Foster wealth creation within communities of color and low income neighborhoods - 4
• Form 21st century civic networks, institutions and partnerships - 4
• Operate an equitable, innovative and financially sustainable agency - 5 - Very important

What do you like about the Plan?

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

I am very appreciative of recent focus and investment in the Gateway area, but I would strongly encourage PDC to refocus and increase its investment and commitment to the Gateway Regional Center URA. The challenges in Gateway are unlike those of any other area in Portland and it is the area that could most benefit from the coherent efforts of an organization like PDC.

Gateway desperately needs to be included more in the general collective dialog. There is an urgency here that is equaled only by the profound opportunity. That opportunity, however, is in peril of slipping away.

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

The PDC 2015-2020 Strategic Plan’s goals of increasing equity and livability throughout all of Portland are laudable and extremely important in my opinion. My concern is that the commitment to points east of 82nd Avenue seems to fail to take into account the intense historical neglect the area has endured. For those of us that live in East Portland, it is as if 82nd avenue is a fulcrum point and as fortunes on the west side have risen, the downward pressures on the east side have weighed ever more heavily.

The goals of including affordable housing in gentrifying areas are extremely important, but I would argue that it is even more important to include market rate housing in areas that we currently consider underserved. In a way, when we continually refer to areas as underserved, we subtly reinforce and perpetuate the idea. If those areas are beyond a physical and phycological barrier like 82nd Avenue and I205, we set up a dangerous division between the “haves” and the “have nots”. If we allow any area of Portland to be only affordable housing, we will create a ghetto that marginalises the very people we are trying to help.

The hope is that our goal is not to "serve" underserved areas, but to eliminate any areas from being underserved and stigmatized as such.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Certainly Portland is not the only city where disadvantaged populations tend to be marginalized to the periphery while city centers flourish, but here it is happening where the infrastructure and amenities are the least prepared to handle the influx. However, If any city can take a real leadership position in what will likely be one of our biggest collective challenges going forward, it is Portland. I honestly believe that what we allow to happen or choose to create in East Portland, will be a major factor in defining who we are in the immediate future.

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

• Participated in public input process or advisory committee
• Partnered on a key initiative/project
• Provided testimony
• Attended an open house