Portland Mayor Keith Wilson joined Portland State University President Ann Cudd and former U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer for a panel discussion at the PSU Board of Trustees retreat Thursday, discussing their shared vision for Portland, its recovery, and the next big swings PSU and the city should be taking.
“Our motto is Let Knowledge Serve the City and we are all in,” said President Cudd during her introduction of Mayor Wilson. “We believe Portland State rises with the city of Portland, so it’s in our interest and also in our mission and vision to cooperate, enhance and amplify everything that you want to see happen in our city.”
The Mayor discussed the need for Portland to embrace innovation and leadership as it did over the past 50 years in transportation — with innovations including light rail and the city’s downtown transportation mall. Mayor Wilson said he would like to see high-speed rail connecting the Cascadia Corridor from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C. with PSU serving a hub for the megaregion.
He also emphasized his focus on public safety and reducing the number of homeless individuals on city streets, saying that safer and cleaner streets must come first for growth to happen in Portland.
“I’m not going to leave my neighbors on the street to suffer any more,” Mayor Wilson said. “Your mission is my mission. We restore public safety then we really get to talk about the renaissance that all of you want and it’s going to be there, but we have to do the basics well.”
Congressman Blumenauer reflected on his 30 years representing Portland and Oregon in Washington, D.C. and said he was embarrassed by how far Portland has fallen in so many national metrics.
“But I’m quite optimistic about things in the pipeline now,” Congressman Blumenauer said. He described a cultural corridor in the heart of Portland anchored by PSU. “We are posed for a substantial comeback.”
During the question and answer session with the Trustees, President Cudd suggested that the close collaboration between PSU and Portland — one of the imperatives in PSU’s strategic plan is to drive Portland’s economic, social and cultural resurgence — is a model of a new urban university. It’s a model, Cudd said, that was pioneered by her predecessor and current Trustee Judith Ramaley, who served as PSU’s President from 1990-97.
“PSU lives in a way that I have rarely seen in other places and I want to capitalize on that,” Cudd said. “Our brand is engaged scholarship, engaged learning, engagement in the city.”
Mayor Wilson also applauded PSU’s work toward building a Performing Arts and Culture Center, which would anchor a cultural resurgence on campus and provide a stage for traveling Broadway productions. He spoke to PSU and the City’s track record of success in collaborating on important development projects. The City has initiated a market feasibility study to provide data to help the City make decisions about the ecosystem of large-scale performing arts in the city, including whether the regional market can absorb two Broadway-capable venues.
“It’s an economic proposition for me because it’s not just your performing arts center, it’s our cultural ecosystem,” he said.
The results of this work, expected in the coming months, will guide the City’s next steps regarding the potential of a new venue at PSU and the future of the City-owned Keller Auditorium.
Congressman Blumenauer and Mayor Wilson closed the session discussing how Portland can attract more corporate industry to Portland.
“I don’t think people are going to invest in someplace they don’t want to live. So I think the quality of life issues that the Mayor is zeroing in on is integral,” Blumenauer said. “We’ve got to be a participant and do our part.”
“I keep saying, ‘Are we going to be a lion or are we going to be a lamb?’” Wilson said, saying he was backing the effort to get Major League Baseball in Portland because it was a “big swing.”
“We’re a major-league city,” he said. “So let’s start making major league plays.”