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Spitting the coffee

Maybe I’m giddy after being up at 4:45 am this morning for yet another trip to the airport, but I find the Oregonian‘s editorial today hilarious and tragic at the same time. It lauds Commissioner Dan Saltzman for proposing to rename SW 4th Avenue for César Chávez instead of Interstate. “Once again, Saltzman has come through for the city….. He has engineered a compromise that honors everyone in this debate.”

Except not. The newspaper’s own article quotes Carolyn Leonard, a member of the renaming committee, saying, “My concern is that people who came up with this don’t understand how disrespectful this is to the people who worked so hard,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s ignorant or malicious.” That sure doesn’t sound like someone who feels honored at the end of the debate.

For crying out loud, City Council! Announcing you have four votes for a proposal announced in the newspaper this morning (but not at a meeting last night… showing again who is inside the circle of power here in Portland, and who is not) is still more contempt for public process. Now, you expect everyone living or doing business on SW 4th to drop everything to attend City Hall this afternoon, in the faint hope their opinion might matter? SW 4th wasn’t even on the list of five being proposed for consideration in the compromise on the table this afternoon.

Renaming SW 4th has the merit of changing the address of City Hall, the Development Services building at 1900 SW 4th, and the new PSU Engineering building adjacent to it, which would honor the hero’s name. It’s less obvious whether having the County Courthouse address linked with Chávez is a neat association desirable to foster. And what about the small businesses on 4th? Shouldn’t the latest suggestion be reviewed thoughtfully, instead of with less than twelve hours’ notice?

If this is a proposal three or more members of the Council want considered, the Council should announce a time certain hearing in four weeks to discuss and vote on it. Or do I hear any advance on SW 4th Avenue? Going once, going twice… hey, there are still several hours until the agenda item is called at 3 p.m.! Public process in Portland has apparently degenerated to a point that seems more like the end of a football game in overtime, than a reasoned, civilized, adult discussion.

“It’s amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease. When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will give a damn.” ~ César E. Chávez

I think it’s sad the way the editorial announces a last-day, top-down suggestion with no public review, as a brilliant solution that is good for the city. That’s not how I believe important decisions that honor history and citizen participation should be made.