Collaboration PDX
Portland, OR
One of the instincts a person develops in a grassroots organization is initiative. There’s no reason to wait for a directive to act if you know there isn’t a directive coming. Our friend and Local Conversation regular Will traveled to Portland, Oregon recently, not explicitly to collaborate with StrongTownsPDX, but knowing there’s always something to learn from other communities, he contributed some of his free time.
“We had a very productive and fun conversation for a couple hours. We talked about a number of things: working with other local organizations, [lack of] diversity in our LCs (I identified that we have a very white middle class group with similar political leanings, which they also experienced, and we both discussed how to reach the less represented neighborhoods….they noted that they have had a lot of success with hyper local neighborhood actions. I passed on some bench knowledge and I think they're going to emulate a bit of our bench building!”
Observations about Portland:
Biking felt a lot safer than Milwaukee for a number of reasons: there is generally better and more interconnected infrastructure for bikes and their drivers are less crazy.
Driving felt slower because their roads are not as wide as ours are, which is a good thing.
Their bike rental system is better - you don't have to park their BikeTown bikes in specific docks like you do with Bublr bikes, which made them feel more versatile. Also, they are all e-bikes.
…and Milwaukee:
“I did a lot of reflection on Milwaukee over the trip - I think we're in a similar spot to Portland of 20-30 years ago. With climate change, a lot of people are going to come here as a refuge, and we need to prepare in a bunch of ways [so as] to not gentrify the whole city. To round out the diversity thoughts - I think we agreed that to reach other neighborhoods (specifically north and south sides), is a good way to do it and [be visible when we do]. To that point, we should see if we can get some local news orgs on the bus bench project.”
Will’s final thought: Highly recommend reaching out to a local conversation next time you travel domestically.