Community Building
Business thrives when we help each other succeed.
What we achieved:
BBPDX hosted a series of three lively B2B workgroup sessions in February, May, and September, designed to facilitate access between members.
Our Summer Social in July was our biggest yet with more than 400 people in attendance including many key partner organizations and elected officials.
We ended the year with six new BBPDX Board Members and a total board of remarkable community leaders that grew in size from five members to 10. New board members include Hillary Barbour of Bugerville, Amy Jeffers of Boly Welch, Tamara Kennedy-Hill of Kennedy-Hill Strategies, Pamela Kislak of LEVER Architecture, Lev Tsypin of ThinkShout, and Tyler Bump of ECONorthwest.
Our Associate Board also experienced growth, bringing leadership training to the future leaders of our movement. Shannon Rasimas of Alchemy Code Lab and Patrick Ranspot of Heritage Bank serve as co-chairs of the nine-member Associate Board.
What we learned:
Portland is ready for a new kind of business organization and there are more opportunities for connection and growth than BBPDX has staff to handle.
What’s next:
BBPDX added a full-time operations and communications manager and part-time civic engagement manager in 2019 and are looking to bring on a full-time membership and engagement director early in 2020.
Further reading:
Economic Opportunity
Business thrives when people from all backgrounds have economic opportunity.
What we achieved:
In early 2019, BBPDX stepped up to support revenue reform, education investments, and The Student Success Act (HB 3427). We published thoughtful op-eds and sent both sign-on letters and individual members to Salem to voice their concerns about the deterioration of education across the state and making the business case for the comprehensive revenue reform to address it.
In March, BBPDX was proud to join with other multicultural chambers to advocate for Prosper Portland’s launch of Portland Means Progress, an initiative to encourage businesses to hire local underrepresented students, purchase from businesses owned by people of color and contribute to a thriving and more diverse business community and a more just economy. We continue to participate in the stakeholder group monitoring this initiative to make sure that it has meaningful outcomes and that the businesses who join up are supported in operationalizing the values that Portland Means Progress promotes.
In June, we joined with the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) to rally 87 businesses in less than 24 hours to reach out to the Oregon Legislature in support of funding for the Oregon Growth Fund. This fund provides early stage support for traditionally underrepresented entrepreneurs.
This fall, BBPDX members and others from around the state testified before the House Economic Development Committee about challenges they’ve faced accessing capital to grow their businesses. That action led to BBPDX participation in a series of meetings convened by legislative leaders and, in November, and the unexpected opportunity to propose a framework for legislation to address barriers to capital access.
What we learned:
BBPDX learned that we can welcome in new initiatives, but unless we stay at the table and monitor implementation, we can’t count on the intended outcomes. Long-term engagement is arduous and time consuming but necessary to ensure success.
We also learned that the legislative process is cumbersome and unpredictable and that sometimes, fast action is needed to take advantage of a window of opportunity — be it mobilizing businesses to speak up or proposing a plan for action. When we move quickly, it is never our intention to leave partners behind and it is incumbent upon BBPDX to provide opportunities for collaboration in all of our efforts.
What’s next:
BBPDX hits the ground running in 2020, coordinating with the growing coalition of organizations and businesses that are lining up to support HB 4033. Learn more and get involved here.
Further reading:
This important op-ed in the Portland Business Journal helped set the stage for action in Salem
Housing and homelessness
Business thrives when everyone has housing options.
What we achieved:
BBPDX started the year by inviting members to work evening shifts at a shelter for families experiencing homelessness — a profound experience for many that informed a year of activism.
BBPDX members signed a letter to Legislators advocating for rental assistance funding, and BBPDX provided strong support for the Portland Street Response. BBPDX also stood up to back residential infill measures including HB 2001.
In October, BBPDX hosted a forum focused on residential infill, how housing options affect affordability, the interplay between the current crisis of homelessness and the overall housing shortage.
Following that forum and in tandem with the formation of the Housing Policy Roundtable that engaged progressive members from the real estate industry, BBPDX stepped up to support Residential Infill in Portland. Residential Infill allows for more housing options in residential neighborhoods, adding to the pool of moderately affordable housing and addressing the problem of the “missing middle” in the Portland market.
In November after nearly a year’s worth of behind-the-scenes engagement, the board voted to sign on with the Here Together effort to find a more permanent funding stream to pay for supportive services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
At the close of 2019, BBPDX staff and the Associate Board continued the annual tradition of signing up member companies to host “kit parties,” assembling care packages for Portland’s Street Roots vendors. It’s all about providing comfort to those currently living outside while we continue to work on comprehensive policies to address the systemic issues that lead to homelessness.
What we learned:
While we’ve known all along that there is no single answer when it comes to addressing the issues affordable housing and homelessness, 2019 underlined that truth in bold. The passage of statewide residential infill measures on the last day of the legislative session in June was great news, but we quickly learned that dynamics on the ground in Portland made the near-term outcome of Residential Infill policy far from certain.
We also learned that having a strong voice from the real estate industry is effective in steering the conversation. We are grateful to our Housing Policy Roundtable and to BBPDX member Hope Beraka of Think Real Estate who is lending her voice by serving on the rulemaking committee for HB 2001.
What’s next:
BBPDX members showed up for Portland City Council hearings on residential infill in January, and we will continue to provide a business perspective to lawmakers wrestling with housing policy. We’re thrilled to be new members of the Oregon Housing Alliance and look forward to that collaboration. We’ll also remain at the HereTogether table and will engage our members in the campaign for a regional funding solution to address the region’s homelessness crisis.
Further reading:
Op-Ed for the Portland Tribune: Teamwork Key to Solving Housing Crisis
Transportation
Business thrives when transportation is safe, equitable, and efficient.
What we achieved:
In 2018, BBPDX began important advocacy work on expedited transit lanes and the Central City in Motion initiative that focuses on improvements to transportation in downtown Portland. The results of this work started to come to fruition this year, and we remain a stalwart liaison between the business community, transportation planners and advocates.
During Portland’s Design Week in April, BBPDX gathered more than 200 business leaders at a Transportation as Liberation event that invited broad-thinking conversations of what better transportation might look like.
The event galvanized a workgroup of 30 members who spent time over the summer digging deeper into emerging policies such as congestion pricing and comprehensive transit investment spearheaded by Metro.
Two BBPDX members — Stephen Gomez of Project PDX and Leslie Carlson of Brink Communications — spent much of the year serving on Metro’s T2020 transportation investment task force and in December, that group voted to advance a project package to Metro Council for their consideration. We see this package as a positive start, especially as it contains major investments in safety and transit mobility in our most dangerous and congested corridors.
In December, we applauded the work of Commissioner Chloe Eudaly (already recognized for her advocacy of Vision Zero) and the Portland Bureau of Transportation on the Rose Lane Project roll out. The city hosted a series of workshops and open houses to gather input on the plan which will develop dedicated, expedited bus lanes around Portland. We look forward to seeing the first of these Rose Lanes start to appear in late 2020.
What we learned:
We learned this year that transportation advocacy requires stamina and compromise. Our experience with the T2020 transportation investment task force underscores the need to keep pushing for the kinds of ambitious investments that will move the needle on more efficient, equitable, safe, and climate resilient systems.
Transportation planning requires planning for the future, not the present. It’s crucial for a business voice to be at the table advocating for a better future — not just parroting the climate, equity, and safety values we champion, but also presenting the economic rationale of how better transportation is vital to all sectors of our community.
What’s next:
BBPDX members testified to Metro in January 2020 to register their support of transportation investments that support a more resilient future. Our representatives on the Task Force will continue to serve as the committee refines the investment package in advance of a referral to the ballot expected this summer. Meanwhile, BBPDX will continue to look for ways to advocate for smart transportation policy around Portland and statewide.