"Who gives a rip what you think? We do!" So we can go ahead and do exactly the opposite since you obviously don't know the first thing about defining priorities, guiding investments, and actually setting a course for a city.

AARGHHH!!!!! (Pounding head against nearest wall)

"A city is only as good as it's last plan."

I taste a little vomit in the back of my throat.

I can't believe they convinced Dorothy English to pose for this campaign.

When our town did its last Comprehensive Plan, we had tremendous participation. Huge turnouts at meetings, return of surveys, and public debate. By a huge margin, we said we wanted a greater emphasis on jobs, commercial development, and, in general, a more dynamic economic approach.

We got exactly the opposite. People were turned off and have largely stopped participating in public processes (except for the small anti-growth contingent).

Don't be fooled, folks. They've probably already written most of the plan that will be adopted. Tell them something other than "fewer cars, more boutique retail, denser development" and they'll ignore it anyway.

Just crank up Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" to help you focus on what you're getting yourself in for if you have a different vision for your city.

"Who gives a rip"

What delicious irony.

I have to agree with most of the cynicism expressed in the above comments. Unfortunately cynicism is the most popular form of non-productive expression.
But detractors and cynics should get their facts straight too. That isn't Dorothy English. That's my mother.

"If you go and tell them what they want to hear, you'll be a big hit. If you go and tell them something else, you can bet you'll be ignored."

Bingo. Say something that doesn't agree with the New Portland Orthodoxy and no matter how sensibly or straightforwardly you make you case, the planners in the back of the room will just raise their eyebrows and give a little smirk at each other. "Another crazy conservative. No need to listen to this guy."

Just like the current Metro UGB "planning process". They know what the answer is going to be, so why the farce?

Don't be fooled, folks. They've probably already written most of the plan that will be adopted.

In a way, this is true. Meeting attendees will get a segment to shout out their "ideas", which will be dutifully recorded.

But what really happens is this: City government already has its own priorities and self-imposed constraints, so all that citizen input can really do is slightly--and I mean *slightly*--influence the ranking of City efforts in terms of spending.

And as you probably already know, the Portland Plan update will be touted as one written "by the people of Portland".

And as Jack said, nearly a million dollars has already been spent trying to formulate those priorities. If you need any proof of what "citizen input" is worth, look at the "VisionPDX" nonsense.

Except this time, instead of being cornered at a city park and asked what your "vision of Portland for the next 30 years" is, you'll get to see junior planning woodchucks take it down on a laptop, collate it, and present it on a website.

And as for City Council and Adams: the purpose of electing a city government is to put in place wise leadership, not petulant narcissists who have hair-pulling fights and name-calling with their co-workers and skulk in city bathrooms with teenagers. Unfortunately, that's chiefly what we've got.

Only 63% of our students graduate on time.

"On time." There's a hard and fast schedule? I thought the idea was to graduate them "on task".

Maybe if they stopped bleeding the educational system to build more condo units for those not here yet, they could graduate more students "at all".

And if you go to any of those meetings and express any or all of the above, I can guarantee you that if you have a small business get ready for Fireman Randy's thug inspectors or the sidewalk inspectors or any other inspections you probably haven't heard of yet to appear on your doorstep.

If this effort bores you, go and give your opinion about the Memorial Coliseum:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/11/mayor_adams_wants_your_ideas_f.html

Mayor Facebook would like your opinion.

It's all driven by what gets the planner-crats the next development style pelt to sew on their shields resumes. If the plan-o-sphere is touting high rises, we'll get high rises. If the plan-o-sphere is celebrating skinny cheesy faux-craftsman townhouse infill, we'll get that. But forget about historic preservation and adaptive reuse. Those are the province of other professions, and planners can't do them, they can only stay out of their way. Planners get professional mojo credits by what they get developed. So, by golly, you'll take that and like it.

Interestingly, the 11/17 meeting at Beaumont M.S. is occurring at the exact same time as the PPS high school redesign "input" meeting for the Grant cluster at Grant H.S.

Don't these people ever talk to each other? I'd say that it was a deliberate attempt to water down attendance at one or the other, but usually this sort of thing is due to the human incompetence factor, and, of course, both entities will just go ahead and do whatever they were planning to do in the first place...

They've probably already got their three favorite multiple choice projects all picked out, just as when they asked the public to suggest names for the fareless square area (they already had three city pre-selected names and the public got to chose from those), and when they asked the public to suggest a name for the new baby elephant (already had three names picked out and wouldn't allow the public to nominate any others).

Sure they want to hear from you, but only if you want to designate a preference for one of the already-decided priorities.

Will someone please throw Ethan Seltzer and the PSU Urban Planning Dept. off the Broadway Bridge/ I'm so tired of seeing almost everything this guy says in the local BOREGONIAN. What a complete self-important jerk.