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Dear Fellow Portlanders,
Welcome. We are pleased that thousands of you have
taken up the invitation to participate with us in
creating visionPDX. Through this process we have
been privileged to hear the wishes, the challenges,
the wisdom and the excitement of what it means to
be a Portlander – in what we desire and believe
Portland can be in the next quarter century.
Many of us believe that our natural environment
and our unique history have produced a quality of
life that is second to none. The current generations
have been given many gifts, including the beauty
of our setting, a vibrant central city and thriving
neighborhoods, a creative and entrepreneurial spirit
and a commitment to the common good. These gifts
bestow on us an even greater responsibility to be
stewards for the generations to come. Knowing that
our population will grow and become more diverse
and that energy availability and climate change
will challenge us, we come together, not only to
maintain, but to improve our quality of life and
to build on the gifts given us.
We thank all of you who have given your time, your
insights and your love of this place we call our
home to create a shared vision for our future. We
were joined in this effort by an amazing group of
volunteers, community organizations, and a talented
staff. The 50+ member volunteer committee defined
the visioning process, developed the key questions,
and reached out to all corners of our community.
We then read every word that was written in surveys
or spoken during interviews and shaped those ideas
into the vision described in this booklet.
This process was not simple. We struggled with
the realities of the trends facing our city. How
do we realize our dreams while adjusting to the
changes facing our city and the world? We also debated
the inevitable conflict we found in the responses.
In the end, we decided to highlight those challenges
for further discussion, rather than neglect them
(see page 38).
While as a community we don’t agree on everything,
we do have a great deal in common. The core values
described on pages 9-12 were found in responses
from people of all backgrounds, income levels, and
occupations. These values – as well as the investments
and accomplishments of our predecessors – provide
a solid foundation for defining and creating the
future we want for ourselves and those generations
that will follow us.
We welcome and ask all Portlanders to join us in
turning our shared vision into a reality. A group
of leaders from a variety of government, businesses
and community organizations have signed on to craft
policies, plans and programs that will get us there.
Please join us in this next and most vital stage
of our journey for our city, our home.
Sincerely,
Marvin Kaiser and Sheila
Martin
visionPDX Committee Co-Chairs
September, 2007
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