By Andrew Riley, Contributing Columnist
Over the past 10 years, dozens of studies have highlighted the growing disparities between Portland’s increasingly diverse communities: rental discrimination on the basis of national origin, disproportionate levels of violence suffered by our city’s LGBT community, a startling number of “food deserts” east of 82nd Avenue and many more. It’s time to tackle these significant issues head-on, and aggressively, and the proposed Office of Equity ordinance is an important first step.
The ordinance proposing the Office is simple, yet powerful. Broadly, it affirms the city’s commitment to eliminating disparities based on race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion, geography, socioeconomic status. It then establishes that the Office of Equity will work within and across other bureaus and offices, both internally and externally, to combat those disparities. Led by Commissioner Amand Fritz and a yet-to-be-hired director, the new office would begin developing strategies and accountability targets to achieve the goal of an equitable Portland, with regular reports to the City Council.
The city’s past efforts toward diversity and inclusion have a basic shortcoming: those efforts haven’t historically been coordinated between bureaus and offices. Discrimination in housing, disparities in access to urban renewal funds, and gentrification may at first glance look like separate issues. Tackling those problems requires more than just a piecemeal approach, since the root causes are often the same, or at least linked. In the same vein, disparities experienced by immigrants and refugees, the LGBT community, and low-income communities are not divorced from one another either, and exploring those links is an important step toward combating inequities.
The proposed office isn’t a cure-all for all of Portland’s woes; but it is a bold, important, progressive way to begin to tackle the issues facing our community. By situating itself within and with existing city bureaus, this office will give the city the tools is needs to begin eliminating disparities and making sure Portland’s livability is available to all of us. Such an Office will also be able to provide concrete accountability goals to the city’s work on equity, so that we can measure the progress we are making and identify gaps in our efforts.
This office would also be a natural companion to, not a replacement for the work of social justice advocates. As advocates, we often push government to adopt policies that better the lives of our communities. Having an Office of Equity is fundamentally different: such an Office can open the door to public participation and provide public, internal leadership on equity issues.
An Office of Equity, and equity itself, are critical because we have a shared fate. Equity is both a means to a healthy, resilient community and an end that we all benefit from. Building prosperity for all Portlanders means than we can achieve more, together. If we don’t tackle the disparities in our communities now, we run the risk of marginalizing and disenfranchising people.
The Center for Intercultural Organizing urges Portland’s City Council to take a bold stand for equity and social justice, and pass the Office of Equity ordinance and work plan.
About the author: Andrew Riley is the Public Policy Director at the Center for Intercultural Organizing, a diverse, grassroots organization working to build a multi-racial, multicultural movement for immigrant and refugee rights.