Parking with diversity

Parking advisers screened for DEI attributes

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is continually looking for citizens to serve on the Northwest Parking Stakeholders Advisory Committee, which advises the bureau on how parking meter revenue generated in the Northwest District should be spent. Until recently, four of the five at-large seats on the committee were vacant.

Some interested people reconsidered applying after reading some of the favored qualifications:

• You are passionate about parking and transportation, reducing carbon emissions and reducing reliance on single-occupancy vehicles.

• You are an advocate for racial equity: you want positive and long-lasting outcomes for racial and ethnic communities who have been left out before. You can bring discussion about racial and ethnic communities who need it the most.

• You have lived experience or identify as being a part of a marginalized community or group (for example, BIPOC—Black Indigenous people of color, LGBTQ, houseless).

Todd Zarnitz, vice-chair of the committee, sat in the PBOT’s screening and selection of applicants.

“I was pretty disturbed by the whole thing,” Zarnitz told members of the Northwest District Association, of which he is president. “The process is intentionally designed to find activists. They’re passing it off as if [they are looking for] the voice of the community, but they’re really not.”

For instance, “they prioritized trans activists,” while he thought they should be seeking “residents who know what it’s like to live here.”