150 Reasons to be Optimistic about Oregon City

This is my 7th State of the City address. Each has required its own unique personality to capture the changes, issues and character of The City within the community. This year’s theme should be obvious.

As we sit in the midst of the worst recession in 70 years, facing an uncertain future, all anyone wants to know is: How is Oregon City holding up? What is Oregon City doing to cope with these tough economic times? Are people still Taking Another Look?

Yes, we do have some negative news. Since the recession began nearly a year ago, new home construction decreased dramatically from 2007, down 59%, which reflects the trend in the construction industry. Home remodels and additions did not decline as drastically, and total permits issued were down 25%. Because of an anticipated large housing development, we expect 2009 numbers to be close to 2007 levels.

Another negative: To date, we have not received needed state or federal money to fix our #1 transportation priority, the I 205- Hwy 213 interchange.

And of course when one entity suffers, such as our school district, we all suffer. High unemployment affects all of us.

But what about our City?

If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily. Ben Bernanke

The fact is that Oregon City has been dealing with less, coping with a financial black hole, and finding ways to adjust since 2003. We’ve learned how to manage scarce resources, because we HAD to. Because of those troubles and the actions we took, the City is more stable than many jurisdictions throughout our state and local area.

Appreciate the Past, Celebrate the Present, Imagine the Future

So, on the eve of Oregon’s 150th birthday, four days from now, what is the State of the City? We spend a lot of time and energy appreciating the past in Oregon City. In fact, we celebrate 165 years as Oregon’s first city in December. Everyone knows the significant role that Oregon City played in Oregon’s 150 year history -- as the first capital and original regional center for industry, commerce, transportation, tourism and culture. We’ve drawn on the lessons of the past to help us imagine the Future.

In these challenging times, I hope you believe it is possible to ‘imagine the future with hope,’ as I present 150 Reasons to be Optimistic about Oregon City:

1. It’s safer to live in Oregon City today. Because South End Fire Station is open! After sitting vacant for 5 ½ years, and owned now by Clackamas Fire District due to our successful fire annexation vote, our newest station has come to life. But more importantly, four people are alive today as a direct result of the fire district’s decision to open the Station in July rather than now in February, as was originally projected. On behalf of these four citizens in particular and the 30,000 citizens of Oregon City, I thank the paramedic firefighters at Station 17! Response times have improved by about 2 minutes per call and cardiac arrest save rates by our fire district are some of the best in the nation.

2. We know how to reuse and recycle to save taxpayer dollars. Oregon City will have a new City Hall this summer. By recycling a wonderful space, renovating it ‘green’ and giving our staff adequate room in which to work and surroundings that spur creative and clear thinking, we will have climbed another step on the ladder to Oregon City’s revitalization. If the appearance of City Hall is the measure of what the community thinks about itself (as many tell us), then we will have gone from an inferiority complex to a new sense of community pride.

3. Our library is finally on stable financial footing. Because you approved the new library district in November, our library will once again be open seven days a week for at least 50 hours starting July 1st ! Way better than our current 5 day, 35 hour operation. As I speak, we are beginning the process to hire a full-time library director and buy more magazines, books, and audiovisual materials. Our library has been setting circulation records and our hourly use is up 13% over last year. Now let’s find a location for our new library!

4. We are continuing the commitment of past leaders to preserve and protect our waterfront. We did the Ground-breaking and found full funding for three very important projects: The Willamette River Trail, Jon Storm Park, and our McLoughlin Blvd Enhancement project – all creating community connections. All three are physically connected to each other, none would have happened without community partners, and each provides connections to the Willamette River.

Jon Storm Park is completed but not yet dedicated --and has one of the best overlooks on the River. It also has interpretive areas, a plaza and picnic shelter.

The Willamette River Trail will eventually link the Clackamas River all the way to Willamette Falls. For non-motorized use, this first segment also included significant restoration and protection of the riparian habitat.

The seeds of the McLoughlin Blvd project were planted over 10 years ago when our community created the Downtown Community Plan. This summer we will celebrate our success in delivering a long-desired reconnection between our downtown and the River. Look for safe pedestrian crossings, landscaped medians, a multi-use riverside pathway, a remarkable plaza overlooking the river with three large and lighted public art pieces, and lots of green: 465 new trees, 992 shrubs, 2991 groundcover plantings. (and jobs)

5. We have new stewards of Main Street, one of the areas of the city that needs help. On Sept 26, Oregon Governor Kulongoski was here at Abernethy Center and selected Oregon City for the Main Street program, one of only four ‘performing’ Oregon Main Streets, the highest category for Downtown Commercial district revitalization. Commissioner Daphne Wuest has been our point person on the active Main Street Board. What an honor to have our new Main Street manager with us today: Lloyd Purdy.

6. Our City is more financially stable today. Our bond rating has gone up! Oregon City is more financially healthy today because of excellent management of our bottom line by staff, approval of the fire annexation vote, and good planning for a rainy day.

7. We have brought more citizens into the decision-making process. By adding five new members to our Urban Renewal Commission, we have broadened our dialogue and expertise. Our revived Citizen Involvement Council has elected officers and Chris Taylor from OCPD is staffing this group of neighborhood leaders.

8. We’ve been preparing for the future. We’re ready. Oregon City was the second city government in Oregon to fund and install a plug-in electric vehicle charging station. Free of charge, it runs on 100% renewable power. Through a partnership with PGE, our city is now part of a regional charging station infrastructure, ready to support fuel efficiency and lowered carbon emissions.

9. We now communicate better with you. In another future-oriented move, under the leadership of Nancy Ide, our city recorder, we now web-stream our meetings. Since we began last September, there have been 976 hits from the public (not staff) on the videos for meetings and events. (The internal benefits are surprisingly helpful for staff to review action items, critique presentation skills, and gain instant access to meetings to keep the flow of business going.)

10. We are getting more efficient. Each year we conduct a Grateful Shred Day as we move to a more paperless city operation. For every box we do not move to the new city hall, we will save $10. So the clean-up day is saving moving costs. But you never know what you’ll find when you do Spring Cleaning. This year’s Grateful Shred found 9 boxes of 25-year old wine: Oregon Trail Wine from Henry Endres Winery.

11. We protected our ratepayers (that’s you) at our Tri-City Sewer plant. We persisted through tough negotiations and joined our partners, West Linn and Gladstone, along with Clackamas County and communities to the north to help solve a regional problem. But despite nearly doubling the capacity of the plant, Tri-City ratepayers will be responsible only to pay for capacity needed for our own growth. (adds jobs)

12. Our staff is good at getting grants. Meaning we can reduce pressure on the General Fund. $330,000 for Jon Storm Park, $30,000 to reduce youth access to alcohol. Another $30,000 for renewable energy feasibility, hydroelectricity recovery from our water transmission and distribution system. (job growth)

13. We are a city that looks better. Our city has purposefully and thoughtfully enhanced some of its unattractive spots and boasts new and innovative improvements:

a. Our municipal Elevator is now filled with public art: unique and distinctive. Photographic lenticular prints by artist Michael Asbill. Thanks go to the work of our art selection committee headed by Chuck Clemans, our 2009 Citizen of the Year. And to public works for redoing the tile, lighting and paint inside the elevator. Next up will be upgrading the exterior. (Donations here?)

b. We are dependent on volunteers to keep our cemetery looking beautiful. Did you know that the best view of Mt Hood in Oregon City is from the cemetery?

14. We keep our promises. Along with the fire annexation, we pledged to maintain current services and not levy our full permanent tax rate for 5 years. We are in Year 1 – and we are actually levying a rate 6 cents per thousand lower than we promised. Being prudent and conservative with tax dollars is imperative.

15. We are innovative. We will launch a new city logo this year that links our pioneering heritage with our new vision of a sustainable future. It signals our community aspiration to maintain a strong economic base, while maintaining our uniqueness and small town friendliness. What do you think?

16. We are a City focused on achieving our Goals. In 2003, every single department and nearly every program in the city had problems or was financially challenged. With annexation to the fire district, new city hall, new library district, new water reservoir, stringent budget controls, focused economic development strategy, and traffic safety improvements (such as 7th Street, Washington Street, McLoughlin, the Beavercreek Rd /213 intersection), reduction of our crime rate, and first new park in 23 years, Oregon City has experienced an unprecedented turnaround! We have fixed all but three trouble spots. One of them is understaffing in the Police Department.

17. We have a strategy in place for building our Police Department. With the addition of one more sworn officer this year and at least 3 more in the next 4 years, we now have 35 in the department. We’ll add a 2nd Community Service officer to give us 8 non-sworn personnel. We now have two K-9 units, with the swearing in of Officer Jagger. This is the end of an era for OCPD, as Chief Gordon Huiras retires at the end of the month. He oversaw the dramatic reduction in our crime rate. The good news is that our crime rate holds steady. But as the national trend is showing, we expect the economic downturn to drive up burglaries, theft, domestic violence and alcohol abuse.

18. We provide meaningful activities for families: 90,000 visits to our swimming pool annually; a waiting list for our Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance; 5,000 for our 4th of July fireworks show, and 31,000 meals on wheels delivered to the homebound elderly in our area (even during the record snow fall in December).

19. We take care of what you cannot see: over 130 miles of gravity sewer collection pipes, 100 miles of storm water collection pipes, 4,303 catch basins, 5,200 water valve boxes.

20. We also take care of what you can see: 250 acres of parks and open space in 47 parks and city properties. However, maintenance of our park system is one of remaining challenges. When we adopted the Parks Master Plan update in the fall, the consultant told us our Parks and Recreation department may be one of the most understaffed departments in the northwest, if not the nation!

21. We can better fix our deteriorating streets. With the new Pavement Management Utility fee implemented last summer, Public Works pulled together a large slurry seal project and covered over 6.8 miles of local streets last year. This compares to the one mile we were able to maintain under the old funding model. We have 172 miles of streets, so we should be surface treating about 7 miles annually to avoid major reconstruction costs.

22. We have fulfilled a long-standing priority of our residents for park and open space acquisition in an underserved area. Using Parks SDCs and the Metro Natural Areas Bond Local Share funding, your City purchased 9-acres near the high school and Glen Oak Road with excellent opportunity to serve nearby neighborhoods.

23. We are secure for long-term water service in Oregon City due to good planning for the future. South Fork Water board has banked SDC money to pay for an additional 2 million gallons of storage at the South Fork plant. Not one dime of ratepayer money. Another example of good stewardship of our resources. (and jobs)

24. We are prepared to be at the front of the line for any economic stimulus package, whether for our I205/ 213 interchange project, historic restoration to the 1938 walkway and stone walls on the McLoughlin Promenade, or safety improvements at Warner Milne intersections. (jobs)

25. We learned a lot about snow removal from December’s Arctic Blast. Our public works crews put in six 24-hour shifts to deal with a foot of snow and ice, flooding, downed trees, washed out streets, and plugged up pipes. We even had staff who had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our dedicated Public Works department distributed about 60 yards of sand and mixed it with deicer for better effect, while other cities put out thousands of yards of sand. The result was less sand in our catch basins and waterways, plus fewer hours of clean-up. Environmental savings and cost savings. The result? Well, in my State of the City in 2007, I told you that we put down 275 yards of sand and picked it up in a record 9 days. After December’s snowstorms, our crews had swept up street sand within 2 days of the snow melting! The bill for this unusual winter event was $80,000 above our regular costs, much of that in staff overtime. And yes, we do have some lessons learned: we need plows on larger trucks, and steel cutting blades instead of rubber. We need to bring on contract road graders sooner to better control the rutting we all loved so much. But all in all, we were better taken care of than most cities …and we thank you, public works.

Then there was the New Year’s Day flood event…

26. Oregon City is on the brink of transformation. Within days, the Urban Renewal Commission will make a major decision on whether to move forward on The Cove, a 109-acre mixed use, waterfront village. Last Night, the Planning Commission supported it 5-0 (unanimously). As now planned, the phased development includes a 80,000 sq ft Kaiser Permanente medical office, 224 waterfront condominiums, up to 4 waterside restaurants, a marina, and 78 acres of parks, open space and trails. ( 600 jobs)

27. Because we are turning severely degraded property into public/ private partnerships that will restore and enhance the north entrance to the City. We are still working to bring the Rivers mixed use development to reality. Fred Bruning and CenterCal continue to believe Oregon City is a good retail market. They continue to maintain a good relationship with many commercial would-be tenants. Our development team continues to resolve issues and is working hard to bring this project forward for a decision, but it remains a difficult path. The cost of the I205/213 interchange makes it doubly difficult to put the financing in place, but no one has given up. The difficult economy does not help, but we hope to have an answer one way or another before the end of the year. (1600 jobs)

Each year we show photos of gorgeous city scenery, great city projects, machines at work, and myriad city activities. But I finally noticed that the photos were missing something? They were missing the most important reason that Oregon City can be Optimistic about the Future. You. The people who live and work here. So reasons # 28 to #149 are shown on the next slides, some of the amazing volunteers, residents, and City staff that contribute to the quality of life we expect in Oregon City. I call this segment the True Face of the City.

While I’m talking about People, and as we ‘imagine the future,’ we can’t forget that a majority of our voters in November voted against three large annexations in the Beavercreek and Park Place areas. Because we need to determine together how we want Oregon City to grow and accommodate the million new residents that Metro predicts will be coming in the next 30 years, the City will launch a series of opportunities for residents to talk about our aspirations, with questions such as:

1. Where do we want population growth to occur?

2. If we don’t want to grow out toward our urban growth boundary, then do we want more density along our transit corridors and in the regional center?

3. Do you like the green job-producing concepts in the Beavercreek Road concept plan? And the village concepts in the Park Place concept plan?

4. What kind of community are we planning for?

These Town Hall meetings and focus groups will help us to plan our future together. Metro is expecting us to produce our Local Aspirations for Making the Greatest Place in a very short time.

#150. The final and most important reason we have to be optimistic about Oregon City, is because of the initiative of everyday citizens who care about their corner of the world…literally.

a. Because of citizen initiative, we have TriMet’s most unusual bus stop: Cob Bench on Division Street

b. Because a high school student saw the need and raised funds, Jagger now has a bullet-proof vest.

c. Because of people such as local historians Rolla and Marge Harding, who took the initiative to bring people to Oregon City to show off our rich cultural assets. The national Civil War conference brought 300 from across the country to bask in our unique history.

d. Because of the dream of three citizens, Aaron Breniman, Andy Busch, and Ryan Smith, Liberty Plaza was jam-packed for summer concerts.

e. Because of citizen initiative we have a pesticide-free park: Atkinson Park. Join the volunteers to pull ivy on the 1st Saturday of each month.

f. Because some volunteers saw an opportunity, we have a slate of activities in Oregon City for Oregon’s 150th birthday, including our 150 Things to Do in Oregon City brochure, hot off the press. Thanks to Lynda Orzen, Karin Morey and Ingrid Aubrey and the OC150 committee.

Although we expect the next two years to offer significant challenges (believe me, we do not underestimate the spiral of state and federal financing), your city government is continuing toward the vision we created together –to build on our uniqueness and be the best Oregon City we can be. We now have a lot of experience in hard times. But we’ve hung together, put our shoulder to the wheel and created a solid base for not just imagining our future, but for taking charge of our future. Because we have entered uncharted territory, it has never been more important to collaborate, integrate and cooperate. My colleagues and I look forward to continuing our dialogue and our work toward creating a community that we can call The Greatest Place.

Take Another Look at Oregon City. I think you’ll find that we have more than 150 reasons to be optimistic about our town. I thank the Chamber and all of you for being part of those reasons!