Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Promising Practices For Long-Term Community Engagement, Meg Merrick, Andrée Tremoulet, Tina Dippert

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Washington County has initiated a planning process to rethink the structure and support system for its ongoing, long-term community participation program. The impetus for this planning process began with a fall 2014 announcement by the service provider that had supported the county’s Citizen Participation Organizations (CPOs) and the Committee for Citizen Involvement (CCI) for several decades, Oregon State University Extension, that it would no longer continue this role effective fall 2015. The planning process has since evolved into an opportunity to take a thorough look at the program and plan a system of engagement for the 21st century.

Washington County …

The Equity Baseline Report: A Framework For Regional Equity, Jared Franz, Cat Goughnour, Duncan Hwang, Kayse Jama, Meg Merrick, Andre Riley, Gerardo Vergara-Monroy

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

The Equity Baseline Report: A Framework for Regional Equity is an authentic community-led report resulting from a yearlong collaborative effort conducted by six local community based organizations (CBOs). The organizations were selected competitively to work under contract with Metro staff to identify, inventory, classify and recommend quantitative and qualitative evidence-based indicators and corresponding data sets that measure the varying degrees by which people experience equity in our region.

Informing The Plan - Incorporating Stakeholder Hopes, Dreams, And Concerns: An Assessment Of The Creekside District Master Plan, Meg Merrick

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

In April 2011, the City of Beaverton adopted its Civic Plan Central City Strategy (“the Civic Plan”). The Civic Plan provided a new understanding of the Central City. One of the Civic Plan’s most important strategic goals was the transformation of the Creekside District (an underutilized 50-acre site situated at the heart of the Central City) into a vibrant, sustainable, mixed-use community. The Creekside District master planning effort (that was supported by a HUD Community Challenge Grant) has built on the Civic Plan, Beaverton’s Community Vision (2010), the Beaverton Urban Renewal Plan (2011), and Metro’s 2040 Growth Concept.

The Creekside …

Business Owner Outreach: Creekside District Master Plan, Meg Merrick, Brenda Martin

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

In April 2011, the City of Beaverton adopted its Civic Plan Central City Strategy (“the Civic Plan”). The Civic Plan provides a new understanding of the Central City. One of the Civic Plan’s most important strategic goals is the transformation of the Creekside District (an underutilized 50-acre site situated at the heart of the Central City) into a vibrant, sustainable, mixed-use community. The Creekside District master planning effort (that is supported by a HUD Community Challenge Grant) will produce a development program that integrates: suitable and affordable housing for existing and future populations; increased efficiency and connectivity of existing public …

Using Indicators Projects As Prompts For Exploring Equity: A Case Study Of Greater Portland Pulse, Meg Merrick, Diane Besser, Shelia A. Martin

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

This paper describes the process that the Greater Portland Pulse (GPP) initiated to incorporate the measurement of progress toward social equity into the project. While equity may appear to be a widely accepted priority for communities, the GPP process created a dialogue that was sometimes contentious but also profoundly educational for the participants revealing some of the complexities, not only of the issue of equity, but the challenges (particularly the inadequacy of available data) and trade-offs that are inescapable when using conventional data sets.

Additionally, this paper discusses some of the consequences of a process that, while incorporating equity values …

Defining, Tracking, And Displaying Regional Equity Conditions: Two Approaches From The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Region, Meg Merrick

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report explores the strengths and weaknesses of two significant regional indicator projects for the Portland‐Vancouver metropolitan area. Specifically, this paper focuses on the measurement of equity conditions at a regional scale. In 2003, the Coalition for a Livable Future (CLF), in partnership with Portland State University (PSU), launched the nation's first regional equity atlas endeavor that pushed the notion of equity to the forefront of regional discourse. Defined primarily in terms of access to opportunities, especially in spatial terms, the atlas took advantage of the analytical capabilities and graphic power of mapping and maps to convey its findings. Published …

Environment, Economy, And Equity: Can We Find A Language For Fairness In Regional Planning?, John Provo, Jill Fuglister

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Metropolitan Portland is often cited as a model for regional planning and growth management. In the 19905, both academics and the popular press "discovered" the Portland region, connecting our quality of life--vibrant urban places, natural beauty, and healthy economy--with our unique forms of regional cooperation and land use planning. Metropolitan Portland became the avatar of an emerging New Regionalism, a movement characterized not only by its spatial nature, but also by an interest in holistic solutions integrating a variety of issue areas. One central tenant of this movement is the ability of regional policies to address growing inequities and inefficiencies …

Indicators Of The Metroscape: Emissions, Michael Burnham

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Brief article outlining transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions in the Portland Metropolitan Area.

Periodic Atlas Of The Metroscape: Planning For Our Aging Society, Alan Kenneth Delatorre, Tomoko Delatorre, Margaret Neal, Paula C. Carder, Jenny Weinstein, Michael Deshane, Keren Brown Wilson

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

The fact that the U.S. is aging is not new; many headlines in 2011, while not heralding the coming of the Boomers, were related to the demographic phenomenon of population aging, including those concerning the government's failed efforts to find solutions to budget deficits, questions pertaining to the future solvency of Social Security, and the extended debate over our nation's health care system. The aging population presents both challenges and opportunities for our region, state, and country in the coming years. The challenge for leaders and policymakers now is to better understand the dynamics that we are facing and to …

Built Environment And Its Influences On Walking Among Older Women: Use Of Standardized Geographic Units To Define Urban Forms, Vivian Siu, William E. Lambert, Rongwei Fu, Teresa A. Hillier, Mark Bosworth, Yvonne L. Michael

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Consensus is lacking on specific and policy-relevant measures of neighborhood attributes that may affect health outcomes. To address this limitation, we created small standardized geographic units measuring the transit, commercial, and park area access, intersection, and population density for the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Cluster analysis was used to identify six unique urban forms: central city, city periphery, suburb, urban fringe with poor commercial access, urban fringe with pool park access, and satellite city. The urban form information was linkable to the detailed physical activity, health, and socio-demographic data of 2,005 older women without the use of administrative boundaries. Evaluation …

Environmental Migrants And The Future Of The Willamette Valley: A Preliminary Exploration, Alison Wicks

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report reviews existing data and research on predicted impacts of climate change in the Northwestern United States, and specifically focuses on the level of preparedness to accommodate new population growth due to climate migration in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Climate change impacts in Oregon are predicted to be less severe than in other areas of the country. Generally, models project warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers in the Willamette Valley and other areas west of the Cascade Range. This will likely make the Willamette Valley a more desirable place for environmentally displaced people to locate. This report considers how …

Photovoice As Authentic Civic Engagement: Lessons Learned In One Immigrant Community, Meg Merrick, Angie Mejia

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

It is widely acknowledged that equitable and sustainable public policy can only be achieved when it is informed by the concerns, hopes, and experiences of those who are affected. Public agencies wishing to engage recent immigrants can find this to be challenging, however. Effective public participation and civic engagement can be difficult when community members cannot speak English and/or come from very different cultural and political environments. The Chronic Disease Prevention Program (CDPP) of the Multnomah County Health Department and Metro, two public agencies serving the Portland, Oregon region, have actively sought to learn from the experiences of immigrant community …

Housing Needs Study For The Portland Metropolitan Area Final Report, George C. Hough Jr., Sheila A. Martin, Gerard C. Mildner, Risa Proehl

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

The purpose of this report is to respond to the recommendations of the Regional Housing Choice Task Force by providing information to guide housing choice policy for the Metro Council. In particular, the objectives of this project were to: Estimate current and future affordable housing need for the Metro region; Describe the distribution of households by income, age, and size across the metro region; Describe the tenure of these households and the type of housing they will choose; Identify and describe those household types that are most likely to struggle to meet the cost of housing based on their income; …

Population Outlook For The Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Region, George C. Hough Jr., Amy Koski

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

While many people both inside and outside Oregon envision the state as a place of picturesque coastal bluffs, mountain ranges, the Columbia River Gorge, and oldgrowth forests, the population is primarily urban. It has been for many decades. In 2000, three-quarters of Oregon’s 3.4 million residents lived in towns and cities. Almost one-half of Oregon’s population lived in the metropolitan Portland area. This paper offers an overview of population dynamics in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, which includes five of Oregon’s thirty-six counties–Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill–and Clark County in the state of Washington. It refers to the “metropolitan Portland-Vancouver …

Market Forces: Reviving The Public Market, Matthew Kauffman Smith

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Ron Paul worked in the restaurant business for 18 years, including 15 as the owner of Ron Paul Charcuterie . Then, as chief of staff in Commissioner Charlie Hales' office in 2000, Paul assembled a citizens group that began to explore the feasibility of a public market in the city. He now leads the effort for the Portland Public Market, drawing upon both of his career paths from the last 20 years. Paul, who works in the Bureau of Planning, talked to Metroscape about the history of public markets in Portland, the ongoing effort to build the year-round market, and …

A Pathway To Sustainability, Patricia Scruggs, Ethan Seltzer, Portland State University. Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

This workbook is meant to provide basic information and options for developing a strategy within your own community. Since economic, environmental, social, and political aspects differ from town to town, there is no magic wand for developing a sustainable community effort. There are, however, common processes which have been used by communities across the country that can provide a foundation for local efforts.