Kudos to Todd for starting a healthy conversation about the role of District Coalitions. I’ve been a strong supporter of Neighborhood Associations throughout my career and will continue to be.
I've been asked to give examples of the differing approaches in action. The creation of coalition-wide committees on policy topics such as land-use, public safety, etc., reflects centralization and can diminish the role of each neighborhood association to act independently and on its unique concerns and circumstances. Coalition-wide policy committees were not part of the Westside coalition before charter reform was enacted.
For those trying to make sense of this debate, my understanding is that D4C is something of an outlier among Portland's coalition organizations. SE Uplift, the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (NECN), and Central Northeast Neighbors (CNN) all operate in more of a support role, focused on building up each neighborhood's capacity to speak for itself, rather than speaking on its behalf.
I caught a presentation from an SE Uplift rep at the 3/4 Woodstock meeting. They walked through how the coalition helps NAs run elections, record documents, fund small grants, and access umbrella liability insurance for events. Unglamorous stuff, but valuable because there's an economy of scale in handling it centrally.
(I don't want to speak for Todd, though — that would be ironic, considering!)
Kudos to Todd for starting a healthy conversation about the role of District Coalitions. I’ve been a strong supporter of Neighborhood Associations throughout my career and will continue to be.
I've been asked to give examples of the differing approaches in action. The creation of coalition-wide committees on policy topics such as land-use, public safety, etc., reflects centralization and can diminish the role of each neighborhood association to act independently and on its unique concerns and circumstances. Coalition-wide policy committees were not part of the Westside coalition before charter reform was enacted.
This is all very opaque to me so I appreciate comments. Maybe I'll learn something.
For those trying to make sense of this debate, my understanding is that D4C is something of an outlier among Portland's coalition organizations. SE Uplift, the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (NECN), and Central Northeast Neighbors (CNN) all operate in more of a support role, focused on building up each neighborhood's capacity to speak for itself, rather than speaking on its behalf.
I caught a presentation from an SE Uplift rep at the 3/4 Woodstock meeting. They walked through how the coalition helps NAs run elections, record documents, fund small grants, and access umbrella liability insurance for events. Unglamorous stuff, but valuable because there's an economy of scale in handling it centrally.
(I don't want to speak for Todd, though — that would be ironic, considering!)