Francesconi Says It's, "A Done Deal" 11/12/02

A Conspiracy of Silence
Tired after a long day Portland City Commissioner Jim Francesconi let slip to a recent meeting of neighborhood leaders that the $200 million Housing Authority of Portland's Villa remodel was already decided by the Portland City Council. Never mind that the issue will not come before them until the Spring or Summer of 2003. This is an excellent example of what newly elected City Commissioner Randy Leonard calls "city think." In a Portland Tribune article, Leonard slams ‘city think’*, Leonard says, “The decisions are made before the public is asked about them.” Randy Leonard certainly got that right.

"City Commissioner Jim Francesconi thinks Leonard has a point. Although Francesconi denies the council makes decisions behind closed doors, he agrees the public is not fully consulted. 'I’d say the door is open, but no one is reaching out to the public,' said Francesconi. City Commissioner Dan Saltzman says, 'I think there are issues where we have plenty of public input, and some where it is not sufficient,' he said. 'Of course, some people will always accuse of us of making up our minds in advance no matter what we do.' "

Francesconi is certainly right when he says, "the public is not fully consulted." But whose fault is that Jim? Saltzman says sometimes there isn't sufficient public input. OK Dan, when did anyone stop you or Vera or Jim or Erik or anyone on your staffs from doing public outreach? I don't recall seeing anyone from City Hall at a well attended public talk on the HAP project I gave recently at the Kenton Firehouse sponsored by both the Arbor Lodge and Kenton neighborhood associations. There are students at Portland State University in the Urban Studies program that know more of the details and have a better understanding about the policy issues involved in HAP's $200 neighborhood renewal project than any member of the Portland City Council except Randy Leonard.

HAP Agrees With Francesconi's "Done Deal"
When asked what contingency plans the Housing Authority of Portland had should funding be withdrawn from various contributors or HAP's plans rejected by the Portland City Council, HAP's PR Director, Shelley Marchesi said, "The City expressed support for this project in April, 2001 and more recently in June, 2002. In addition, we continue to work with various City departments and bureaus in planning and implementation." This is the response of an organization that is convinced that it Already Has Three Votes on the Portland City Council.

A Fork In The Road
The Portland City Council, the Portland Planning Commission, every financial contributor, especially the state of Oregon by the Governor-elect the state Treasurer and the 2003 Legislature, as well as every organization participating in HAP's Citizens Advisory Committee, from the American Institute of Architects to the Audubon Society, and businesses like the Bank of America, MUST come to grips with the two competing public policy positions relevant to this $200 million tax payer funded government project.

The first is the policy inherent in the $200 million Villa project which is:
A. Low income clients are best served by gathering as many of them as possible into a single compound of government owned buildings. This policy supports the herding of an overwhelming number of low-income people into the single neighborhood which already has the highest number of HAP low-income clients in the city of Portland, Multnomah county and the state of Oregon. It acknowledges that neighborhood stability and community balance are irrelevant to its purposes.

The second, which I believe is a better idea, is a public housing policy which I propose for state, county and city:
B. The following public policy shall provide a touchstone for all decisions regarding government support for Oregonians seeking housing assistance in this political jurisdiction.

1. Suitable shelter must be made available to every homeless person in this political jurisdiction before funds or support can be allocated to any other public housing program.

2. Providing rental vouchers directly to clients shall be the preferred method of housing. The development or use of government owned buildings for client housing shall be discouraged especially those that would create a large compound of structures which could be identified with the stigmatizing term “ghetto.”

3. In order to achieve neighborhood stability and community balance every effort will be made to create and employ financial, tax and other incentives or disincentives which will have the effect of evenly distributing the client base throughout every neighborhood in this political jurisdiction

Every government, elected public official, institution or business related to this project MUST publicly adopt one of these policy alternatives BEFORE they provide support to this project. And they must start asking their members or constituents or boards of directors NOW for their votes.

I cast my ballot against ghettos and for neighborhood stability and community balance.

* http://www.portlandtribune.com/viewcurr.cgi?id=14873