if the idiots that run this state are interested in HOW to grow business in Oregon, why don't they call these guys:

Oregon's Inc 5000

Portland Mayor Sam Adams has recognized the shortcomings of banking on the Creative Class to create wealth and has pushed the City Council to adopt a new economic development strategy that targets specific clusters of businesses, including software manufacturers and outdoor apparel design firms.

I'd say that's not true at all. Adams not only "banks" on the mythical creative class, he's explicitly made it the foundation of much of his "effort" as "Mayor". He mentioned it in speeches in the past month, for example.

With Adams, you need to use a lot of "quotes" to describe him and his actions.

12 questions? What is this, a test?

You missed the last page of the survey with the following question.

Portland's mayor, Sam Adams:

A) Rocks so hard
B) Is massively awesome
C) Puts other mayors to shame
D) Really has his sh-t together
E) Needs to spend more time in overseas bath houses.

Those are the results from the
"electronic clicker" exercise at the "Portland Plan" kickoff meeting held downtown about a week ago.

If you feel the urge, you can take the survey as many times as you want and skew the results anyway you want, on line, at the Portland Plan page on the City website.

See, http://www.portlandonline.com/portlandplan/index.cfm?c=49008

You only have until 31 January 2010 to stuff the "ballot box"!

chicago rules apply: VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN!

Garage Wine, that was my reaction exactly. Those are the most leading choices of answers I've ever seen.

Do you think the awesomest form of transport is:

a) Light rail
b) Street car
c) Monorail
d) MagLev train
e) Some sort of totally sweet new future train that we haven't even invented yet!

How much should Portland spend on these?:

a) One billion dollars
b) Two billion dollars
c) A quadgillion dollars

Who should pay for these improvements?:

a) Rich people
b) Wealthy people
c) People with lots of money
d) Aristocrats
e) Republicans

Don't you think Portland wishes they had those 500 white-collar Wilshire Financial (now IBM) jobs right about now? Instead, they all moved to Beaverton.

Lets not talk about the 200 some odd IT jobs that are being outsourced from Con-way to an outside vendor (possibly IBM, Widpro or EDS)

Basically, it is a tough time to be in IT.

Thanks Nonny for the link! I put in some less than welcome comments to the Adams Peanut gallery. Who dreams up these "choices" in this survey? Are they on drugs?

Snards,

You left out Aerial Tram [rimshot].

It's Wipro not Widpro. And it's more likely Infosys or TCS and not IBM or EDS. Offshore, baby, offshore. And there's a lot more than 200 outsourced jobs in the metro area but Jack seems to be a lot more about govt. than the private sector.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams has recognized the shortcomings of banking on the Creative Class to create wealth and has pushed the City Council to adopt a new economic development strategy that targets specific clusters of businesses, including software manufacturers and outdoor apparel design firms.

Read: Since central planning that chose the Creative Class as the next big thing was completely wrong, now the planners have chosen other "emerging" sectors as the next big thing.

Trust us, we are right this time.

Since central planning that chose the Creative Class as the next big thing was completely wrong, now the planners have chosen other "emerging" sectors as the next big thing.

Now I'm confused, I thought the new centrally planned transit mall was the Next Big Thing.

BTW, the "Free Rail Zone" starts Jan. 3rd (i.e. no more free bus service in the former Fareless Square).

Folks, Adams crafts his "message" about the creative class to fit whatever audience he's talking to. Here's one example of what I mean:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=10&ved=0CBsQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheartscan.org%2Ffiles%2Fpdfs%2FColemanSpeech.pdf&rct=j&q=vera+katz+creative+class&ei=OlIxS5WGDIjUsgP_7NC7BA&usg=AFQjCNFW7ROPVp_AEWp74b3aXPMUInUXtg

The first was a study by the city’s four Major Performing Arts Organizations (Ballet, Symphony, Opera and Theater) about the long range need for new facilities – and how that need tied to their future viability. The study laid out many of the fundamental challenges faced by arts organizations in Portland – and a week after it had landed on his boss’s desk (former Mayor Vera Katz) – Sam was asking me questions about it. Around the same time, he ran across Richard Florida’s book The Rise
of the Creative Class, which set out in bright colors, the link between a thriving cultural scene and a region’s ability to compete economically in a world increasingly driven by innovation. Sam and Vera Katz began thinking
in 2002 about how to make some kind of systemic difference in the future of
Portland’s arts scene – and when, after being elected to City Council, Sam
was handed responsibility for the Arts Portfolio, he began to dig more
deeper into the idea. During his first two years in office, I heard Sam talk about conversations he had had with the Arts Commissioner in New York (other
examples) – and about the weaknesses he observed in our infrastructure. He
also began to see the opportunities to grow the city’s competitive advantage
by investing more substantially in the arts.

Another example, from a recent Oregonian story about the Memorial Coliseum:

"It was surreal," says designer Randy Higgins, another vocal figure in the fight to save the coliseum. "What day is he? On Monday he said creative communities were essential to the city. Then, on Tuesday, he engaged in a process that involved no process at all. One day discredited the other."

These are just small windows into the Mayor Facebook world. When you begin to piece these together, one by one, you get the strong feeling that Adams actually has no idea what he's doing.

The subject about the Portland Plan farce has been posted by Jack two times in the past two weeks. The best one is Dec 15- "Bureaucratic Mind @ Work".

Nonny is right about the potential skewed results about no controls on how many times one can participate as a citizen. I've commented about the questionable-leading questions.

In regards to None's comment about 12 questions-there are really 22 questions in the survey. All these questions combined only scratches the surface of the most important issues that concern citizens. Read them-totally biased without giving a choice of obvious answers many citizens would want to check off.

In reading the attached Tribune article that is the bases of Jack's post, it is interesting that Portland's Medium Family Income is 25% less than the surrounding suburbs. Then even more surprising is that Portland MFI is 42% less than Seattle's.

I laugh at some of the explanations that some give in the comments in the Tribune article for these differences-like more people from suburbs work in Portland than the reverse which is contrary from Portland State Urban Studies data-the incomes made in Portland are counted in the suburbs. There is simply more lower payed, more unemployed in Portland. But even if one is to manipulate data, how do you make up these huge percentage differences?

Wev'e been through High Tech, Bio Tech, Creative Class, Nano Tech, Enviro Tech, Green, Sustainable, Movieland.....every kind of "cluster" Adams can think of. It's okay to recognize the fads, but why do the taxpayers have to subsidize them by close to 35% or more?

Lee, we're now combining these "clusters" to create new paradigms. Like:

Sustainable Creative Class Biotechnology Enviro-Tram Clusters

or

Creative Biotechnology Envirotech Sustainable Class Clusters

or even

Tram Clusters.

See? It's so easy, Richard Forida could do it.

I think we are too hard on them. They have been very good at creating one type of cluster......

hint: it ends in -uck.

I cringe every time The Powers That Be single out one "class" or "economic segment" as the savior of Portland. The reality is, as always, you need a broad mix to create a broad-based economy.

What someone should do is gather the data on where the growth of family wage jobs has occurred within the last 10 or 20 years within the Portland Vancouver Metropolitan area. Where were those jobs in 1980? Where are they now? The City of Portland considers itself the "economic engine" of the region. So does Hillsboro. What we all need to know is what local government policies and investments have actually worked over the last 20 years to create the jobs we seek.

Here I sit, 15 years of busting my balls in Portland because it sucks less than other places, reading some fancy prose from people with crust in their underwear. Actually guys, the creative class thing is for real. Not that we don't need truck drivers, forklift operators and bank tellers, cuz that's part of the puzzle. However, if you want to live somewhere that's totally generic and just like every other place, LA is always there for you. Call ahead and preorder your Happy Meal now!

Actually guys, the creative class thing is for real.

Just like Santa Claus, man. Just like Santa Claus.

Not that we don't need truck drivers, forklift operators and bank tellers, cuz that's part of the puzzle.

You'd better read your Richard Florida, my man, because *all* of those jobs can be considered part of the Creative Class (tm). In fact, Florida himself has referred to electricians, schoolteachers, and cab drivers as potential members of the Creative Class(tm).

Still think it's "for real"? Good for you.

However, if you want to live somewhere that's totally generic and just like every other place, LA is always there for you. Call ahead and preorder your Happy Meal now!

...and Richard Florida has lauded LA as one of the best examples of where the Creative Class (tm) thrives.

You know, I'm just gonna have to send you a copy of Florida's book. I don't think you got past the cover page.

82% of the respondents are self-reporting an income of $100,000+...Wow, I suspect that a lot of those are just reporting $100,000 and really do not make $100,000.

Furthermore, an equal percentage want road repairs and mass transit (19%), that further confirms where and who is taking this poll.

They are polling people in the Pearl District, probably off the streets. I further suspect that many of these respondents may either live in the Pearl and are embarassed to admit it and/or they live near Gresham, Clackamas, Beaverton, etc. and have Pearl envy.

If the results are true that 82% of your respondents make $100,000/year, yet roughly a third live "outside of Portland," then Mayor Sam Handy better put his hands to use writing and encouraging for policies that bring those $100k/year taxpayers back into Portland city limits.

Remember, the City has Police and Fire pensions to pay. Coffee Baristas will go broke trying to creatively support those pensions.

Honestly, I would make nothing of this poll other than someone can use it in a private sector interview to highlight their work experience once the City of Portland goes broke playing with it's grown up toy train set and pensions.

I predict in the next few months, Joe Cortright will retreat to Brookings and come back with a shiny new cluster that's going linchpin us to utopia.

linchpin us to utopia

Kudos for the use of "linchpin" as a verb. I like it.

RyanLeo, you're right that we shouldn't "make nothing" of this, but you're wrong to call it a "poll". You do a disservice to the poll industry.

This is merely a poorly, biased, leading survey that only gets .05% or less of the populations response. But Sam, METRO, Portland Planning, PSU Urban Planners and others can frame it any which way they want.

It's like asking a PTA meeting crowd, "How many of you believe in Education, please raise your hands?"

I went to look at the survey site (I took the pen-and-paper version earlier this month)and from there I found a link to Sam's Public Persona page.

http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm

"2009 By The Numbers" is, I think, supposed to be entertaining, but I found it a bit surreal. How many square feet of grass turned into garden space at City Hall (700), how many pounds of produce from said garden given to Loaves and Fishes (250), how many crayons collected by Saltzman's school supply drive, how many international delegations hosted by Mayor Adams, and more. Who kept track of how many trains he took while in Japan recently? Where does the funding come from for this drivel?