Mayor Sam Adams

Our city’s most recent comprehensive plan was crafted in 1980, when almost half of us weren’t even here yet. Portland has successfully reduced carbon emissions to one percent below 1990 levels, but climate change is still a looming crisis. Our region is growing and changing, and we need to make bold decisions on what our city will look like and how we will live in the coming decades. We receive accolades for how sustainable Portland already is—but we know it’s high praise on a very low standard.

From City Hall’s new food-not-lawns veggie garden to David Douglas High School, site of one of seven standing-room-only Portland Plan workshops, Mayor Sam Adams spent 2009 laying the groundwork for Portland’s more sustainable future. Together, we can show what’s possible when we seek to truly address our community’s needs—like health and safety, local food, affordable housing and transportation, and access to quality education, the things Portlanders care about that affect our daily lives.

In 2009, we merged the Office of Sustainable Development and the Bureau of Planning, to infuse sustainability into everything we plan and do. We adopted the City of Portland and Multnomah County Climate Action Plan, and set tough targets for reducing our carbon emissions. We started the conversation around the Portland Plan, engaging Portlanders in every corner of the city. We ripped out City Hall’s lawn, kicked off a pilot home energy retrofit program, advocated for no expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary, jump started planning in the Rose Quarter, and hosted the National League of Cities’ Green Cities Conference. Here’s to 2010, and to a thriving, prosperous, and sustainable Portland.  

Planning & Sustainability in 2009: