2014 National Convening Skills Presenations Portland Plan | Page 9
Introduction
How is the Portland Plan different?
The Portland Plan is strategic and practical
with measurable objectives. With an eye toward
the year 2035, the Portland Plan sets short- and longrange goals for the city. It focuses on a core set of
priorities:
Prosperity
Education
Health
Equity
This plan will help all of us work smarter and more
efficiently toward these priorities. It does not assume
there will be significantly more resources in the
future. To get more from existing budgets, the
Portland Plan emphasizes actions that can benefit
more than one of our priorities.
Working smarter also requires effective partnerships
among government, private and nonprofit sectors,
and communities. The plan focuses on developing
shared priorities and acting in coordination to
get more from existing resources. That is why the
Portland Plan is a strategic plan, not just for city
government, but also for more than 20 public
agency partners.
The plan directs city government and partners to be
flexible and nimble, while working toward identified
priorities. It sets the framework for near-term action
in a Five-Year Action Plan and provides a foundation
for more innovation in the future as circumstances,
challenges and technologies change. New and
better approaches to achieve our goals will be
created. That’s why the Portland Plan also calls for
future updates to the Five-Year Action Plan.
www.pdxplan.com | April 2012
The Portland Plan is a plan for people. Past
plans often focused mostly on infrastructure with
questions like: Which is the best route for new streets
or a train? Where should housing go? Where do we
need more parks?
The Portland Plan’s approach is different. It started
with Portland’s people: How are Portlanders faring
today and how can we improve their lives and
businesses over the next 25 years? What do (and will)
Portland residents and businesses need? What kind
of place do Portlanders want to live in today and in
2035? Then we asked: How do we get there?
Through outreach to each Portland household and
business, Portlanders helped answer these questions
and responded with more than 20,000 comments
and ideas for the plan.
Creating the Portland Plan challenged many
assumptions. After more than two years of research
on Portland’s history and existing conditions, as well
as local, national and global trends, we created a
plan based on facts, with objective measures and
numerical targets for evaluating progress.
These facts and targets were discussed among
thousands of Portlanders. Local and national
experts provided additional perspective. City staff
and partners scoured the world for the best ideas,
ultimately challenging the comfortable businessas-usual culture of some public agencies by instead
focusing on ways to unite and share resources on the
most important drivers of change.
3