Full Circle, Part 3

Ashley’s continued explorations of tough lessons learned

In my first post in this series, I mentioned that I’d be writing about my experience working on the Portland region’s economic recovery efforts. It’s an admittedly wonky topic, and yet what worked and didn’t work over the past 2 and a half years affects all of our everyday lives here in the Portland region, whether you realize it or not.

I’ve been told that I tend to bury the lede, so I’ll give you the key take away right here at the top of the story.

Our city’s large corporate players (including the largest downtown commercial real estate firms) and the elected officials they have on speed dial have failed our small business community over the past 2 and half years.

They already were before, but the failures this time around are so stark and the choices so cynical that it will take me more than one post to share what I’ve experienced. But I at least wanted to share some of my learnings today in hopes that folks who might get suckered into yet another committee about yet another initiative will think twice.

It’s with great sadness that I skipped our region’s economic summit this morning. I’m the kind of nerd who loves these kinds of events! I’ve been attending this particular gathering for over a decade in my pursuit of finding ways to support our community. In true economic development nerd fashion, I always made a point to get there as early as possible even though, at this time of year, it was just turning light outside when coffee was first served. This early arrival enabled me to have as many conversations as possible (before the official program began) with business, government and nonprofit leaders all in one room. It was dreamy.

But today, I just can’t stomach it. The inspiring videos about athletes winning against all odds, speeches by elected officials from other cities touting their philanthropic initiatives with no mention of any efforts to change the underlying systems that create the need for philanthropy in the first place. I’ll bet you an $18 artisanal cocktail that after today’s summit, there will be a new committee of some sort looking into how Portland companies need to replicate the Oakland Promise — giving $500 to each kid born in the city of Oakland. Staff from the Mayor’s office will get pulled away from the task they were just assigned 2 weeks ago to focus on some shiny new initiative. You know, the kind of initiative that gets people all excited about something genuinely good but distracts them from the underlying systemic challenges that have created the need.

Today’s Summit was set to “convene hundreds of regional leaders to hear best practices from around the country, learn about our region’s successes and unite around a shared vision for economic prosperity.” Just whose economic prosperity we work on as a region should have been central to that discussion today. I’m not saying that because I’m anti-capitalist or I’m a bleeding heart liberal.

I actually learned about how important inclusive economic growth is from a keynote speaker at the 2020 Greater Portland Economic Summit, held mere weeks before the Covid-19 outbreak.

At that Summit, Texas-based Tracye McDaniel, President of TIP Strategies, spoke to the audience about the power of regionalism, trends in technology and the impact of younger generations on workforce and workplace trends. We could not have possibly imagined what we were on the cusp of.

She also implored the audience to “make sure growth is inclusive or you undermine your success.”

One need only to look outside on our sidewalks to see that we did not heed her warning. When the pandemic hit and there were a lot of statements about how “we’re never going back” and “normal never was,” there was a Window of Opportunity to reverse the ever widening income inequality in our region.

But for the most part, our region dropped the ball.

And now these same economic development actors are focusing their attention on recruiting more high wage jobs to a region that is breaking under the weight of growing income inequality. It didn’t have to be this way.

In my next post, I’ll go back to March 2020 when the economic recovery planning efforts first got underway and will dissect how and when things went wrong, from my vantage point.