“Why a Planning Commissioner Blog?… Because public policy can be complicated and three minutes at a hearing is a pretty limited opportunity to engage in a substantive conversation.”
— Chris Smith
If you care about bike policy or planning in Portland, chances are you’ve heard of Chris Smith. Smith is a consummate citizen activist who sits on a number of committees (including the Bike Master Plan Steering Committee), runs the Portland Transport blog, has made a run for City Council, and much more.
Most recently, Smith made news for his appointment to the Portland Planning Commission. Smith’s trademark has always been transparency of bureaucratic processes and encouragement of citizens to learn and get involved in them.
On that note, he’s just launched PDXPlanningCommissioner.com. Here’s a snip from Smith’s introductory post:
“Just figuring out what the Planning Commission is doing can be a daunting challenge, even before you attempt to influence the decisions. It’s not uncommon to have a staff report of over a hundred pages on a topic. Not that staff reports aren’t useful (we have some of the most talented planning staff around). But finding the key issues in that 100 page report may not be easy.
My goal with this blog is to make the process more accessible to citizens. This will be a learning experience, but I think I’ll be able to do this in several ways:
* Highlight upcoming topics
* Give my view on what the key issues are on a given topic
* Provide a forum for discussion on these topics, including asking provocative questions when helpful”
If he can keep it maintained and current, this new blog will become an invaluable resource. Planning Commission is not very well-known to everyday Portlanders (understatement), but it should be. Portland is a city that lives and dies by its planning documents and policies and we’re currently in the midst of several (Climate Action Plan, Streetcar Plan, Portland Plan, Bike Master Plan) that will reshape our city well into the future.
Check out PDXPlanningCommissioner.com to stay abreast of important meeting agendas, issues, and to contribute to the conversation.
If Chris can bring to the planning commission what he’s brought to transportation via portlandtransport (in-depth, informed, progressive coverage), we’re in for a treat…and probably a better city, too. Chris Smith, how DO you do it?