President Bragdon's 2007 inaugural speech
On Jan. 2, 2007 at the Oregon Zoo, Metro Council President David Bragdon was sworn in for his second term as Council President and delivered his inaugural speech outlining his agenda for the the next four years.
When I stood before you four years ago, I told you we were going to do three things:
- One, that we would reform our agency to make it more responsible, responsive, and agile;
- Two, that we would transform our efforts to protect the environment into practical results, and;
- Three, that we would change regional planning from a litigious exercise in squabbles about the suburban fringe, into the art of nurturing great urban places – by moving from an era of thorough planning into an era of meaningful investment.
Today I can report that, through a lot of hard work, we have largely accomplished those first two objectives. But we are overdue to undertake the hard work of the third.
A brief review of how far we have come:
First, organizational change. I realized four years ago that we could not positively reshape this region unless I first reshaped our agency. Our credibility was low and our relevance was questioned. An amorphous tranquilizing gas, referred to mysteriously as simply "Process," sometimes anesthetized the air in our building's HVAC system. Our financial house was also a shambles. The agency had a habit of spending more money than it took in: we were dipping into financial reserves at a clip that would have exhausted them in four more years. In December 2002 the Metro Council's bond rating was downgraded by the analytic firms who evaluate municipal credit-worthiness.
So, I made changes.
Some of the changes did not win me popularity contests inside the agency; and many of the changes were initially not noticed outside the agency. But a majority of the Council and our dedicated workforce had the courage to change. Now we live within our means, and last year our bond rating was raised. Most importantly we now have a Council and a workforce that works well together, collaborating with other jurisdictions and the community as never before. What looked like an ivory tower from the outside, or a series of silos inside, is being redesigned into a truly representative regional government, ready to engage with a spectrum of people to solve real-world problems. I thank my colleagues and co-workers who made this evolution possible.
Second, we decided to inspire people to protect our natural environment, rather than baffle or threaten them. Four years ago, I vowed that we would re-earn the trust of the voters for a new natural conservation ballot measure. In 2006, the voters answered with a resounding "yes." It was the largest urban natural conservation measure to pass in the United States last year – but is most significant because it showed that people respond positively to a track record of successful results – stewardship and accountability.
- What we accomplished in four years lays a foundation for what we must do now. We have a significant "to do" list:
- We will adopt a new Regional Transportation Plan in 2007, one that for the first time will be supportive of the needs of a 21st century city and consistent with fiscal reality – rather than with 1950s assumptions
- We will help weave together a multi-agency network of neighborhood, local, regional and state parks – from town plazas to pristine nature refuges
- We will update the facilities and programs at this beloved Zoo, and stabilize a Convention Center facing an increasingly competitive marketplace, and freshen up some concert halls that are showing their age
- Within four years I foresee we will switch our region's garbage from the trucks that haul it through the Columbia Gorge, and put it on barges or freight trains instead
Any single one of those tasks would be a major one. But we are going to do them all in the next three to four years – with a lot of help from you and our many partners.
Still, all these challenges are dwarfed by the biggest job we have: the unaccomplished challenge I have spoken about for four years: the need to march forward from an era of sophisticated planning, into an era of shrewd investment.
Quality of life, which includes economic opportunity, is going to accrue in the future to those metropolitan regions who figure out how to make smart public investments – in the basics of transportation, education, infrastructure – that induce the private investments that are the foundation of a productive society. Those regions who figure out how to make the wisest investments will be the regions which enable their citizens to create prosperity and live happy lives. If we play our cards right, the Portland region is positioned to become one of those world leaders: economically resilient and adaptive, engaged in global commerce; an inventive citizenry living lives insulated against dependence on foreign oil. A metropolis of the 21st century.
To succeed, we will need to re-invent how we as a society pay for the things we want, especially as our population grows. The old ways of public finance are done, at least as they relate to land use. In past decades, the federal government and local governments subsidized growth at the edge of town at an unsustainable clip. We can no longer afford that pattern. But we won't build something better only by believing that zoning and dots on government maps make reality without private investment, or by subscribing to the subconscious assumption of some Oregonians that planning is about preventing change rather than leading it.
Planning at its best, or politics at its best, is about making good choices – making good choices together. Choices to make our well-crafted plans become reality. Simple choices like deciding to plant more trees and produce less carbon monoxide, and complex choices about how to actually do it. We can figure it out. Before enlightenment, we chop vegetables and do our laundry; after enlightenment, we chop vegetables and do our laundry.
Optimism is in the air. From the halls of the new Congress, to the conversations I overhear on the number 15 bus, to the remarkable coalition of neighborhood activists and government officials and business leaders and non-profits who passed our ballot measure, there's a sense people are ready to move beyond cynicism and old ideologies to solve problems. And that is what this group of seven will do, with your help. If we are successful, the result will be described simply: this will be the greatest place on earth to live.