Isaac Laquedem

It's time to Peel off the military trappings of our police force

On June 11 Governor Kate Brown signed HB 2481, which restricts police departments from acquiring certain types of surplus federal military equipment, including armed drones, grenades and grenade launchers, and firearms silencers.  City police departments must obtain written approval from the city council before acquiring any other military surplus equipment.  County sheriffs must notify the board of county commissioners at least 5 days before asking the federal government for surplus property, but don't have to get the county commission's approval.  The bill as introduced would also have prohibited police departments from acquiring surplus "militarized combat, assault or armored vehicles," a provision that the legislature dropped.

To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  To the police department with combat gear, everything looks like a battlefield.  HB 2481 is a fine start toward restoring the distinction between the United States military and local law enforcement.  Let's continue the work.

One quirk of many American municipal police departments, including Portland's, is that they are structured on military lines, from chain of command down to the titles of the officers: sergeants report to lieutenants, who report to captains.  Compare our fondness for organizing police forces as paramilitary operations with the titles that the British chose for their police officers:  from lowest to highest they are Constable, Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, and Chief Superintendent.  Only one of those ranks, Sergeant, is drawn from a military title, and above the Chief Superintendents the titles revert to variations on the entry-level position:  Assistant Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable, and Chief Constable.  Sir Robert Peel chose the names of those ranks deliberately, to avoid the constabulary being seen in the image of an additional military force, consistent with the nine policing principles that he set to paper in 1829.  His first principle of policing was "To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment."  The second, relevant in Portland today, was "To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect."

I don't intend to suggest that Portland could cure its policing ills with a change of name, though it would be a good start.  I do believe that if we assign military ranks to our police officers, train them in military thinking, and give them military equipment, we should not be surprised when they occasionally act like a military force.

 

 

Where City Hall should stick the South Park Blocks

Portland Parks & Recreation (what old-timers call the "Parks Bureau") has proposed a master plan for the twelve South Park Blocks, the strip of greenery that stretches from Jackson Street north to Salmon Street, where the Mausoleum Club stops further northward progress.  The plan calls for replacing the stately elm trees that now define the Park Blocks with a mix of other trees. 

Critics (and there are many, including former Parks Commissioner Mike Lindberg, and Professor Bogdanski) differ on whether the Bureau wants to replace the elms over the next several decades as they age out, or intends to cut them down in short order and then replant.  The Bureau says that "many of them are reaching the end of their designed lifespans" (Master Plan, page 9), and it proposes a new design for the Park Blocks that it says "improves the park's resiliency to impacts of climate change; adds art, design elements, and planting treatments that reflect more diverse cultural histories and identities; addresses existing accessibility challenges; creates more flexible, safe, and inclusive spaces; and converts underused street space for park users."  (Master Plan, page 11).

The plan has drawn most of its fire for its proposal to remove many of the elms, whether by normal aging or with mechanical assistance.  The plan has two other failings, either of which will justify the City Council in sending the plan back to the Parks Bureau with an earnest plea to do better.  

The first failing is that under the guise of addressing "existing accessibility challenges" to what is, after all, a collection of flat and nearly level parks (the average grade from north to south is only 3%), all wheelchair-accessible, the Bureau proposes to add hardscape and reduce the earthen area.  The second failing, related to the first, is that the Bureau proposes to add clutter to the blocks.  I'm using "clutter" broadly to mean things that aren't related to any function of a greenspace park.  For example, the Bureau wants to add an interpretive display about Vanport (the temporary wartime city that occupied a site near Delta Park until the Vanport Flood of 1948) to the Park Blocks because Portland State University began in 1946 as the Vanport Extension Center in Vanport, moving to the former Lincoln High School building in 1952.  It's history worth commemorating, and Portland State University has done so on campus, but it doesn't have anything to do with the Park Blocks.

The Bureau estimates the project to cost $2 million to $4 million per block.  Consider whether the Bureau could do more to make greenery accessible to Portland, and resolve some equity issues that have festered for decades, if it devoted the money for even one block to adding street trees in the least-shaded and most neglected areas of Portland, for example, in St. Johns and outer Northeast.  If the Parks Bureau wants to be woke, it should start in the areas that need its help the most.

Portland's streets - the question the council should be asking voters

The Portland City Council, having awakened to find that the city's streets are falling apart, has scheduled an advisory vote for May to solicit the public's opinion on how to best tax homeowners to pay for repairing the streets.  The council will then adopt the winning proposal and move on to determine how to tax nonresidential property.  Options include an income tax, a property tax, a gasoline tax, and others yet to be named.

The particular history is that in 1988 when the City Council first realized that Portland's streets were deteriorating, the council considered allocating 28% of the utility franchise fees that it receives to street maintenance and repair.  At the time, the city needed $38 million to catch up on street repairs.  The council set 28% as a target, but never achieved that target; in the first 8 years the council sent 12% of the utility fees ($29 million) to the transportation department for street repairs, instead of the 28% ($67 million) that the target called for.  The amount of money that the council chose not to send would have caught the city completely up on street repairs and the city would not now be facing a cost of $200 million or more to catch up.

I like the idea of the council asking the voters for their thoughts, except that the council is asking one question too few.  Instead of merely asking how the voters prefer to be taxed -- rather like the choice that Utah used to offer to condemned criminals, asking whether they would prefer to be shot or hanged -- the council should also ask the voters whether they agree or disagree with the choices of twenty years of city councils to divert money from street repair to other projects -- that is, whether the voters agree or disagree with the council's view that it's more important for the city to subsidize the Portland Public Schools and the Regional Arts Coordinating Council than to maintain the streets.

Isaac for mayor, redivivus

Unwilling to be deterred by the twin handicaps of living outside the city limits and being a fictive personality, I had announced my willingness to serve as Portland's mayor back when Mayor Adams's continued tenure seemed uncertain.  I proposed an eight-point transportation platform:

1.  Replacing the Sellwood Bridge is the highest transportation priority in the City, and we will not contribute toward any other new transportation facilities until the Sellwood Bridge is replaced.  We will help Multnomah County pay to replace the bridge in its current location with a four-lane bridge capable of handling today's level of traffic.  This means that the City will not contribute money toward any new tram, trains, or other toys until we have a new bridge in place. 

2.  The City will not sell its parking meters as a tax shelter, nor will it change them out for even cooler meters until they become actually obsolete.

3.  The City will not build any bike paths that it can't commit to sweep regularly.

4.  NW Lovejoy and Marshall will be returned to one-way operation forthwith.  NW 14th and 16th Avenues will be returned to two-lane operation, with bicyclists encouraged to use NW 18th and 19th in their place.

5.  For those properties in North Macadam / South Waterfront that aren't already under construction, the maximum allowable density will be reduced to the level that the existing street system can support.

6.  Provisions in the zoning code that assume that if you prohibit people from building garages and parking areas, they will cease to own cars, will all be repealed.  The City will understand the difference between owning a car (and needing somewhere at home to park it) and using a car for a trip that could be done on mass transit.

7.  The City will support a tri-county gasoline tax of five cents a gallon, to be allocated among the cities in proportion to their population, which the cities may use only to improve dirt and gravel roads.  The City of Portland will use its share of the tax to curb and pave any unimproved or underimproved street in the City which 50% of the residential property owners want to have improved, and will pay 75% of the cost to improve the street.  Because the City has for so long shorted its most eastern residents, the City will start paving at its eastern border and work its way west, not using any of this fund on streets west of the Willamette until everyone on the east side who wants a paved street has one.  (I'm throwing this in to get Commissioner Leonard's vote.)

8.  The City will redesign and rebuild the intersection of E. Burnside and Sandy Boulevard so that all lanes go in the direction they're pointed in, instead of their current Peter Max-like slaloms.

Point 8 and a portion of point 4 have already come to pass, so unlike the other announced candidates I'm already in the enviable position of having accomplished nearly 20% of my transportation program, without even taking office.  I'll be offering my take on some other city policies in the next few months.  And in the unlikely event that one of the candidates with a physical presence wants some advice, I'm always happy to provide it.

The Laquedem High-Test Plan to Evaluate Politicos

Let's expand the idea of testing our high school students (and by inference, their teachers) and give the same test to candidates for paying public office.  There would be no passing grade, but the candidates' scores would appear on the ballot next to their names, much like the octane ratings on gasoline pumps.  For the reading comprehension portion of the test, I'd use a public-private partnership agreement (such as the one that is bringing a change of soccer league to Civic Stadium).  For the mathematics portion of the test, I'd use a recent school district budget.  One advantage of using standardized high school tests is that we've already paid the consultants who designed the test, and the marginal cost would be simply to print a few more copies and hire some impartial graders.  In fairness the candidates who take the test should be given their scores privately first, and a chance to withdraw from the competition without their scores being published.  And voters might cast a warier eye on a prospective Solon's promises of fiscal responsibility if they come from someone who scored only 24% on the math test.  If the plan works out, we could later on hire Consumer Reports to rate our legislators.

Isaac on the campaign trail II

My next campaign pledge is that the bureaux under my control will hire no consultants to assist them, except as necessary to comply with federal or state law, unless the bureau that wishes to hire the consultant first identifies (a) the expertise the consultant provides, (b) the City employees who already have that expertise, and (c) why those City employees cannot provide the service.  I will grant a blanket exemption for the hiring of outside actuaries to evaluate the City's liabilities under its pension and disability plans.

Isaac gets a mild case of the campaign bug

In the unlikely event that I should ever run for Portland office, I thought of a campaign pledge I would like to make:  "In the first four years of the Laquedem administration, the city will build no buildings and buy no property.  We will figure out how to get by with what we own already."  I'm prepared to make an exception to replace buildings that are destroyed by fire, earthquake, or public dissatisfaction with my administration.

Isaac seeks a new job, in case the incumbent steps down

I'm taking this opportunity to announce my candidacy for Mayor of Portland, if Mayor Adams should step down next month, and if I can overcome one small legal impediment, which is that I don't live in the City.  I am, however, prepared to serve anyway, and as a non-resident I can make decisions unaffected by bias toward one part of the City or another.  I'd be happy to commit to serve only as Isaac.  City Hall wouldn't have to endure me in person, only in persona.  That way, Portland would have a mayor along the lines of Garry Trudeau's creation Ron Headrest.

Every candidate needs a platform.  I'm starting with my transportation platform, not as a complete statement of what I think the City needs but as a guide to my thinking on the subject.  The key points:

1.  Replacing the Sellwood Bridge is the highest transportation priority in the City, and we will not contribute toward any other new transportation facilities until the Sellwood Bridge is replaced.  We will help Multnomah County pay to replace the bridge in its current location with a four-lane bridge capable of handling today's level of traffic.  This means that the City will not contribute money toward any new tram, trains, or other toys until we have a new bridge in place. 

2.  The City will not sell its parking meters as a tax shelter, nor will it change them out for even cooler meters until they become actually obsolete.

3.  The City will not build any bike paths that it can't commit to sweep regularly.

4.  NW Lovejoy and Marshall will be returned to one-way operation forthwith.  NW 14th and 16th Avenues will be returned to two-lane operation, with bicyclists encouraged to use NW 18th and 19th in their place.

5.  For those properties in North Macadam / South Waterfront that aren't already under construction, the maximum allowable density will be reduced to the level that the existing street system can support.

6.  Provisions in the zoning code that assume that if you prohibit people from building garages and parking areas, they will cease to own cars, will all be repealed.  The City will understand the difference between owning a car (and needing somewhere at home to park it) and using a car for a trip that could be done on mass transit.

7.  The City will support a tri-county gasoline tax of five cents a gallon, to be allocated among the cities in proportion to their population, which the cities may use only to improve dirt and gravel roads.  The City of Portland will use its share of the tax to curb and pave any unimproved or underimproved street in the City which 50% of the residential property owners want to have improved, and will pay 75% of the cost to improve the street.  Because the City has for so long shorted its most eastern residents, the City will start paving at its eastern border and work its way west, not using any of this fund on streets west of the Willamette until everyone on the east side who wants a paved street has one.  (I'm throwing this in to get Commissioner Leonard's vote.)

8.  The City will redesign and rebuild the intersection of E. Burnside and Sandy Boulevard so that all lanes go in the direction they're pointed in, instead of their current Peter Max-like slaloms.

There's more to my transportation platform, but I think that's enough for one day.