A great place to live, not work

New strategy says economy needs more than quality of life

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Oct 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (18 Reader comments)

ADAMS

Portland’s new economic development strategy includes a shocking admission for this city: Livability alone does not create jobs.

“The city and region have long assumed that investments in quality of life would result in job growth in the city. These investments have succeeded in generating an unprecedented influx of creative talent to the city, but that alone has not created new jobs,” according to the strategy approved Oct. 8 by the City Council.

On top of that, Mayor Sam Adams, the driving force behind the new strategy, says the city has not even promoted its livability too effectively.

“We haven’t marketed ourselves very well,” says Adams, who initiated work on the latest strategy shortly after taking office.

The admission runs contrary to the mantra, repeated for years by city leaders, that the region’s quality of life gives Portland an economic advantage over other metropolitan areas. Millions of public dollars have been spent to maintain and improve regional livability through mixed-use developments, transit connections and open spaces. One result has been an influx of talented young people, dubbed the “Creative Class.”

But, according to the strategy written by the Portland Development Commission and various public and private partners, economic dividends have not appeared. Even during periods of strong employment growth, the city has consistently lagged behind the surrounding region in job growth, the strategy says. Between 1998 and 2006, the percent of jobs located more than 10 miles from downtown increased from 23.8 percent to 29.4 percent. In comparison, the percent of jobs within three miles of downtown decreased from 27.4 percent to 23.4 percent during that same period of time.

The recession is hitting Portland harder than much of the rest of the country. The city’s unemployment rate is hovering at around 12 percent, well above the national average of 9.8 percent. The strategy says regional employment peaked in May 2008. Around 44,000 jobs have been lost over the past 12 months or so – a decline of 4.3 percent.

A recent report from the Portland Business Alliance confirms that trend, with 3,000 downtown jobs disappearing between 2007 and 2008. According to the organization’s most recent Downtown Business Census and Survey, the number of jobs in the area between Interstate 5 and Interstate 405 fell from 86,000 to 83,000 between those years – the lowest number of downtown jobs since 2002, shortly after the start of the last recession.

“I’ve heard it said that Portland is a great place to be unemployed, but sooner or later you’ve got to get off the couch and get a job,” says Bill Reid, an economist with the downtown firm of Johnson Gardner LLC.

10,000 jobs in five years?

After acknowledging the economic situation, the new strategy calls for a transformation in the city’s job-creation efforts.

“Continued emphasis on investments in transit infrastructure, housing and social service at the expensive of economic development will not grow the local economy. Job growth requires explicit investments in retaining and growing firms, training workers, funding innovation and developing catalytic projects,” the strategy reads.

The strategy calls for creating 10,000 new jobs in five years. They would be concentrated in the following four industrial fields, called clusters:

• Clean tech and sustainable industries, which include firms in the renewable energy, green building, environmental services and recycling fields.

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