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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 2000)
1 " —-— -— -(Ctye Jlortkxnh (ßböeruer 1"*~T October 4, 2000 National Minority Business We ek X yr — Sil " 1 ft > _ ___ F ■ ¿ T i- Jf * Michelle Albert o f One Stop ’ 1 Music Inc i X * X P i i / f l , r tv . ' Choosing Between Project Planning or Urban Husbandry B y R o berta G ratz for the P urtlaab Under Project Planning, a project must be big to be mean ingful. Big projects require big, experienced developers, big contractors, big government a g e n c ie s, big public financial su p p o rt, and lots o f invest m ent banking and legal fees. U nder this P ro je c t-b a s e d P la n n in g , the new is added at a large enough scale to over whelm and alter w hat e x ists. What exists may be wiped out en tirely, as with ur ban ren ew al. Something radi cally replaces it. Few clues are left as to what has been lost and what alter native strategy has been used. Project Plan ners dom inate the citadels of power. Planning p ro fe ssio n a ls, d e v e lo p e rs , Wall Street in vestors, and the like co n sid er Project Planning the only ap proach worth talking about, the only one requiring complicated financial packages. Only Project Planning, of course, is depen dent on them. Project Planners dismiss anything else as irrel evant, anything that places more confidence in the judgment of citizen users. Downtowns are pockmarked with their accom plishments. Only Project Plan ners, their followers, and the pub stead o f replacing them. Plan ning is meant to be about prob lem solving, relying heavily on the expertise of citizen users, the accumulated experience and wis dom of the commu nity. Building on resources to di m inish or o v er come problems is the chosen route, instead of projects that o b lite ra te those worthy re so u rces. U rban Husbanders advo cate introducing change incremen tally and monitor ing it carefully, providing a great o p p o rtu n ity to learn from each step. Proponents of Urban Husbandry strengthen what exists before add ing anything new. They involve many entrepreneurs of various sizes, not just one big devel oper. Urban Hus banders rely only on modest doses o f governm ent support, if any. Ur ban H usbanders are the most frequent opponents of Project Planners. They work to add a layer o f organic urban growth, rather than replace what has taken decades to grow. This layer may look and feel in many ways radically different from what was there before but, fundamen tally, the connection between be- lic persuaded by their rhetoric define these downtowns as re born. R ebuilt, y e s; reborn, hardly. Urban H usbanders assum e that assets are already in place to be reinvigorated and built onto in order to stimulate a place-based The Housing Authority salutes minority business and supports creating business opportunities. Watch for our advertisements for bids in the Portland Observer and other community newspapers. As part of our business of housing, we develop, redevelop and rehabilitate throughout Portland, Gresham and Multnomah County. The Urban League of Portland Joins with to celebmte 'Minwity Business Week Z&? valuable contribution car community bp the people ran these businesses. ■ » SAFEWAY FOOD & DRUG Exciting Career Opportunities Safeway offers immediate career and job opportunities for those who are commmitted to providing superior customer service. Learn about our excellent training programs, benefit packages & competitive wages. For current employment information, cal, the Safeway Job Line at eng then African Americans and all ive toward economic self-relidifa ial equality." The Urban league of Portland jssell Street “M i I | • V (503) 657-6400 Equal Opportunity Employ« •'WgL » __________________________________ I HMA I
