New Geography

Author: Ilie Mitaru

  • “Art, Design, Portland” District Offers Opportunities To Work, Play, and Profit in Portland’s New Economy

    In a dreary economy, with record numbers of Portlanders unemployed and underemployed, the shared work space is hoping to tap into the city’s DIY sensibility to foster innovation, creativity and a new connection to work. But similar projects have tried here before — and failed. Will ADX’s new approach pencil out?

    Located on the edge of Portland’s eastside industrial district, ADX (Art Design Portland) occupies a 10,000-square-foot warehouse once filled by Apex Manufacturing. The warehouse has since been gutted and renovated, with the letters ADX printed across its façade.

    Inside, the bright space smells of new paint and freshly cut wood. “It’s our first day” says founder Kelley Roy as we walk to the makeshift interview area — three wooden chairs set in front of the company’s gallery space. A slow-moving Labrador trails us and lies down at Kelley’s feet.

    Kelley ticks through her professional history as if one gig could only have led to the next: Program Manager for Metro, green building developer, founder of food source and prep company Get Fresh NYC, author of Cartopia: Portland’s Food Cart Revolution, and now founder of ADX. “Everything I’ve done is about bringing people together over something I cared about,” she says. “Bringing people back together and giving them a place to work, to make their own jobs, do meaningful work. It’s just important to me.”

    Her business partner, Eric Black, joins us a minute later. Trained as an architect, Eric spent the past seven years at the architecture firm Yost Grube Hall in downtown Portland. From there he moved on to found the first iteration of ADX, located in a 3,000-square-foot building on southeast 9th avenue. This first version of ADX was a shared workspace and shop for architects, with 1,000 square feet of gallery space.

    The pair met when Kelly needed space to show work for a visiting artist friend, and ended up leasing the ADX gallery. It was then that they began re-envisioning ADX as a true cross-disciplinary work space.  “We started to prototype the idea of what it could really mean within that space,” says Eric. “It was a nice test.”

    The pair secured a $145,000 loan from Albina Opportunities Corporation and Mercy Corps Northwest to lease, renovate and equip their new building. The nonprofit lenders stepped in to support ADX because they saw its potential as a jobs catalyst, an objective not lost on Kelley: “We’d really feel that sense of success in what we’re trying to create if those jobs really thrive here in Portland. Take the bad economy and the lack of jobs and turn it into an opportunity.”

    Shared builder spaces have popped up around the country throughout the last decade. 3rd Ward, a shared work space in New York’s Williamsburg’s neighborhood, was founded in 2006 by Jason Goodman and Jeremy Lovitt as a response to the city’s prohibitively expensive artist studio rates. The company has more than doubled membership in the past year, reaching1,250 members and bringing in over 200 instructors to teach everything from studio lighting to welding. It employs 20 full and part-time staff. 3rd Ward is currently expanding to the second floor of their building, adding 10,000 square feet of classrooms, a wood shop, tech and photo studios and more shared work space. The company has been growing throughout the recession, wrote Jessica Tom, director of marketing, “As people lose their jobs, we pick them up as freelancers who use our space as their company structure.”

    ***

    Early interest in ADX, to the pairs’ surprise, came largely from local creative firms, as opposed to the casual hobbyist. The firms signed up for ADX membership include The Official Manufacturing Company, Factory North, Hand Eye Supply, Build Design and Kate Bingaman Burt.

    The success of these firms largely hinges on the fact that they actually make what they design. “I think people are so tired of the plastic nature of the way things are made” says Eric, “they want something better, and they see it can be better if people actually put their hand to it than if a machine makes it.”

    The Official Manufacturing Company was in the process of tooling up their own shop when they stumbled across ADX and decided to lease the attached office. For Official Manufacturing, the access to space and tools made sense. “If we weren’t subleasing from them we definitely would have a business membership, and use the tools we wouldn’t be able to afford on our own,” says founder Fritz Mesenbrink.

    For the weekend hobbyist or entrepreneur needing a little help realizing his or her concept, ADX has assembled a cohort of experts — designers, videographers, architects — dubbed the “Gang of Ten.” This group of experts pays for desks and access, and offers their consulting services at a 10 percent discount to other members.

    The model has allowed ADX to diversity revenue streams: one third from memberships, one third from classes and workshops, and one third from the Gang of Ten fees. Once the space has a healthy community of builders, says Kelley, they’ll begin selling pieces from individual members under the ADX label. “Sort of like Ikea,” she laughs.

    The numbers haven’t always penciled out for similar operations, however. TechShop, founded out of the Bay Area in 2006, opened several franchises across the country. One of these locations on the outskirts of Portland, in Beaverton, was forced to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2010 after low membership turnout.

    But, Kelley notes, TechShop was in the wrong location (suburban Beaverton) and with memberships starting at $99 a month, was too expensive for the casual hobbyist. Kelley hopes ADX, with its multiple revenue streams, central location and affordable rates (starting at $25 a month) can be profitable within a year.

    Rather than franchising, says Kelley, ADX is interested in partnering with existing maker spaces like 3rd Ward. “They did a lot of research to figure out what their community needs were, and they’re serving the needs of their community — that’s what we did here.”

    In a dreary economic climate, the community seems to be responding well: ADX’s open houses enjoyed healthy turnouts, and Kelley and Eric report they are on track to meet their yearly subscription goals. “I don’t know if it’s tied to the recession, but I do think that people are getting over modernism, from a design standpoint,” says Eric “People are actually recognizing high craft.”

    Kelley relates the rising consciousness around manufacturing to the organic and local food movement: “I think it’s the same thing with objects. It’s not mainstream yet, but there’s a certain sector of people who care, and care about the people who are making and designing things.”

    “Think about it,” says Eric “A hundred and fifty years ago, everything in your life was made by somebody that you knew; that wasn’t that long ago.”

    Written by Ilie Mitaru for Stake, a new business magazine set to launch this fall. You can read more and support thepremier issue here.

  • The New Business Ethos

    My only post-graduate employment lasted 3 months. I worked for a small political consulting firm drafting online strategy for a well-funded land-use initiative. After the success of the measure, the firm’s founder sat me down, told me he loved my work but that the firm was not interested in continuing its web-based consulting. He had to let me go. It was in that same meeting that I decided to start – and pitched to my boss – my own business.

    Without a business degree, experience, funding or family support I started WebRoots Campaigns. It seems insane in retrospect. But at the time, the process was so thrilling, so life-changing, that I would not trade those initial months for all the know-how in the world.

    Being in consulting, I’ve encountered entrepreneurs from a broad array of industries. Some were as expected: those who wanted money and would do anything for it. Less expected however was the number of business owners who worked to a different beat – running their companies for wildly different reasons – all less motivated by the bottom line.

    This group for the most part hailed from the ranks of new, young business owners. Some started their business fresh out of school, not even dipping into the employment pot for a taste of the promised land. Others, like myself, had a taste, spat it out, and went on to create our own soup.

    While the intrigue of entrepreneurship is nothing new, the current economic and cultural climate has fostered a wave of young, untraditional businessmen (and women) never seen before.

    The New Business
    The emerging business class recognizes various motivations for their work and builds their companies to reflect these motivations.

    This new business is in part a reaction to the shortfalls of traditional business epitomized by disregard for the environment, social equality and family. Once widely viewed as intelligent, lean and mobile, the corporation of the past century maneuvered unquestioned through our economic, cultural and political landscapes.

    The new business reaction to this is to view business not as an end unto itself, but as a means toward something greater. Such a model does not insist that profits are bad, or that one requires world-changing ambition to succeed.

    Profits are celebrated if the business creates value beyond the bottom line. A boutique furniture company which employs locals at good wages, buys from ethically sound foresters, and re-invests some capital back into the community is an exemplary model.

    The entrepreneur may have founded the store because of love for his craft, to be near his family, or because he wanted to support his community. In any of these motivations, the pursuit of profit is inherent and accepted, but is balanced against other factors. It is only when the pursuit of capital becomes exclusionary, when it becomes absolute, that business begins to degrade the quality of both our environment and our lives.

    The new model recognizes various practices, motivations and responsibilities throughout the business process. Such factors as the environment, social mobility, cooperation, community and family are not simply strewn aside in a dash for quick profits, but are strategically considered throughout the life of the business.

    An Emptying Promise
    An additional factor in the emergence of the young entrepreneur is the emptying promise of the traditional employment path, both economically and psychologically.

    Forty years ago, relative wages were higher, health insurance more accessible, and mobility more lubricated; it was not uncommon to stay with a company for one’s entire professional life. However, real wages have been stagnant since the 1970s, while average working hours have increased over the same period.

    Young Americans’ wages were already in retreat before the downturn. They appear to be suffering more since they lack seniority, contacts and, in part, because older Americans – their nest eggs now cracked – cannot retire and not make room for newer workers.

    The young American psyche has also become weary of the traditional path. We are accused of laziness, of unwillingness to pay our dues. But when our dues lead only to more hours in a cubicle in an insatiable rat race to increase corporate profits for an illusionary beneficiary…well, the repulsion becomes understandable.

    The emptiness of such a path has been understood by many over the years. Many have chosen to be musicians, artists, or activists. But as this realization spreads – not just to potential entrepreneurs but to consumers who are also increasingly weary of traditional business – the notion of “rebelling” against business through business itself is becoming a real option. A critical mass is being reached, both as a consumer base large enough to support this new business ethos, and as new entrepreneurs seeking to work with the “untraditional” businessmen.

    The New Business as a Response to the Recession
    The current economic crisis is obviously hurting traditional business and entrepreneurship. However, it will have a mixed effect on the emergence of new business.

    On the down side, business loans or other investments are more difficult to obtain, consumer spending has plummeted, and the majority of all industries have stripped to their bare necessities in an attempt to weather the storm.

    On the up side, the new business ethos provides a model that becomes a response to the roaring chaos. Many are losing their jobs after years of hard work for large enterprises. They are not only venturing out on their own out of economic necessity, but because of newfound realizations of the hollow promises of old business.

    In many ways, the new business ethos is better suited for tough times than the old inflated, dog-eat-dog system because it recognizes the value of cooperation and remains more flexible than older models. In the face of a recession, those who are starting new companies are finding supportive communities where expertise, connections and even business is shared.

    Consumers are also increasingly aware of the difficulties that smaller, local business are facing and are adjusting their behavior to help these local business stay afloat throughout the recession.

    The risks are higher than ever, but the recession may provide a wakeup call for many Americans, and a crucial shift in how business is started and run.

    Much praise has been given to new business models centered on community, philanthropy, environmental sustainability and cooperation. But we are only on the crest of the wave. Scan any business district and it becomes clear that old business still very much dominates the scene. MANY old companies are launching expensive PR campaigns to align themselves with the wave, but they still remain fundamentally flawed.

    As consumers become increasingly sophisticated in this respect, opportunities will arise for business to be built on this new model. More likely than not, these businesses will be built not by the businessmen of the past, but by a new generation, with new rules, and hopefully new results.

    Ilie Mitaru is the founder and director of WebRoots Campaigns, based in Portland, OR, the company offers web and New Media strategy solutions to non-profits, political campaigns and market-driven clients.

  • Oregon’s Immigration Question: Addressing the Surge in the Face of Recession

    The men huddle outside the trailer, eyeing the passing traffic. Handmade signs stapled to telephone posts speak for them: “Hire a Day Worker!” The site, a fenced-in lot at Northeast MLK and Everett Street, was launched in 2007, a testament both to Oregon’s recent immigration boom and lack of federal reform.

    Since then, Obama’s historic campaign, several wars and a global recession have pushed the immigration question from the national headlines. But in Oregon – where the surging migrant population is on a crash course with a withering economy – the issue is bound to reignite.

    Oregon’s economic boom, which started later than that in the rest of country, has ended. Unemployment has risen considerably. Oregon’s 9.0 percent unemployment rate was the nation’s 6th worst in December 2008 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    At the eye of the storm have been losses in the construction industry, a major employer of immigrants. The hard times there will put new pressure on local legislators and law officials to “clean out immigrants”. Oregonians should not give in to such misguided temptations. Oregon’s immigrants have played a historic role in enriching the state’s economy and can continue to do so if given the opportunity.

    Oregon’s immigration explosion is relatively new. The state’s foreign-born make up 9.5 percent of the population, with more than 60 percent of the immigrant population arriving after 1990, according to 2005 census data.

    The influx of Latinos to the state is even more recent. Estimates place 75 percent of Latinos coming between 1995 and 2005. Unlike other immigrants who tend to concentrate to urban and suburban areas, Latinos are dispersing across Oregon. Between 1990 and 2000, the Latino population doubled in 21 of Oregon’s 36 mostly-rural counties. Agriculture employment, cheap housing, and existing Latino communities attract the rural migration.

    Within the Portland metro area, the largest concentrations of foreign-born population live in Southeast Portland (Ukrainians, Russians, Romanians), Northeast Portland (Vietnamese, Africans), and Central Portland (Asians, Eastern Europeans), according to a study by the Urban Institute. Notably, more Russians and Ukrainians moved to Oregon’s suburbs between 2000 and 2005 than to any other region in the nation, according to a recent University of Oregon study.

    Currently, immigrants total over 11 percent of the state’s labor force, up from 5.4 percent in 1990. Yet native unemployment did not increase during this time period.

    One reason for this, argues MIT’s Tamar Jacoby in a recent Foreign Affairs article, is that the immigrant workforce should be viewed as complementary rather than competitive to the native workforce. For example, the business owner who can hire housekeepers and landscapers can devote more time to growing his business, and to leisurely expenditures that support other local businesses.

    Oregon’s diverse agricultural industries – ranking third nationally for labor-intensive crops – offer a more concrete example of the complimentary nature of immigrants.

    The state is home to a $325 million dairy and cattle milk production industry, a $778 million nursery and greenhouse industry, a $380 million fruit and nut industry, and a $200 million wine industry. All are primarily staffed by immigrants. In this case, immigrant labor allows Oregon’s agricultural sectors to thrive in the face of fierce import competition.

    Immigrants have historically had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Nationwide, 25.3 percent of technology and engineering companies had at least one foreign born key founder, based on a Duke University study. Often with few resources or formal education, immigrant entrepreneurship can foster new kinds of services. The abundance of landscaping businesses and nail salons is a testament to such ingenuity. In 2005, over 6,000 Latino and 400 Slavic entrepreneurs operated throughout the Portland metro area, according to one University of Oregon study.

    Beyond providing jobs and fueling local economies, immigrant entrepreneurs bring the benefits of globalization to places like Oregon. They encourage trade and investment from their connections abroad.

    Immigrants pay taxes, buy houses, food, cars, and clothes just like native residents. Even illegal immigrants – which many immigration-demagogues label as the real problem – have taxes withheld from their paychecks. They also otherwise bring money to the state through sales taxes on local purchases. A study by the Oregon Center for Public Policy found that undocumented immigrants contribute between $134 million and $187 million in taxes annually to Oregon’s economy. These numbers represent only those coming from undocumented workers and exclude the significant investments made through entrepreneurship, agricultural support and the continual purchase of goods and services.

    Yet serious immigration reform is needed. A large portion of immigrants spends only stints working in the states, frequently sending money back home. The consequences of this go beyond the obvious fiscal drain. The stint worker will invest minimally in learning English, will often share rent in decrepit neighborhoods, and spend as little as possible in order to maximize savings for abroad.

    The problem facing Oregonians is not immigration per se – or even illegal immigration, which constitutes only 10 percent of the migration to the state. The real problem is stint immigrants, who invest little in the long-term health of their new communities and the economy of the state.

    The curious delusion about this point is that current federal legislation includes temporary-worker permits as key to reform. By giving only temporary permits to immigrants who might otherwise be coaxed into permanent stay, Washington is explicitly discouraging acculturation and encouraging capital drains.

    In large part, the real solution to the downsides of immigration lies in the permanent integration of Oregon’s new residents. When these residents feel they may be here permanently – without constant threat of deportation – they will be more likely to invest in their new communities and futures.

    Even the state’s recent job-shedding should not derail Oregonians’ historic acceptance of foreign residents. Oregon’s immigrants will stabilize agriculture and other service industries by providing cheap labor through hard times.

    If the incoming administration manages the recession correctly, Oregon’s economy will soon recover. To rebound quickly, the state will need to employ thousands – natives and immigrants – in the infrastructure and Green packages coming from Washington. Oregon’s post-recession economy, like its pre-recession economy, will depend on immigrant labor.

    A comprehensive understanding of Oregon’s immigration question must go beyond viewing the huddle of men on MLK and Everett every morning as mere numbers, bodies for pay.

    A true understanding of the issue will surface only by looking beyond the numbers to recognize these men’s potential, resourcefulness and culture as indispensable components that once shaped our nation’s identity and will continue to mold its future.

    Ilie Mitaru is the founder and director of WebRoots Campaigns, based in Portland, OR, the company offers web and New Media strategy solutions to non-profits, political campaigns and market-driven clients.

  • Current Policy Overlooks the New Homeless

    San Francisco: A Chevron employee is forced to move his family of four into their Mitsubishi Gallant after being laid off…

    Atlanta: Jeniece Richards moved from Michigan to Atlanta a year ago, but despite her best efforts, and two college degrees, remains homeless. She is living in temporary housing with her two children and younger brother…

    Denver: As Carrie Hinkle’s hours dwindled, she was forced to choose between paying rent or buying food for her daughter. The two are now working with local agencies towards permanent housing, again…

    These stories, plucked from the headlines of the past months are more than the typical holiday coverage. They show faces of the newly homeless, growing as the economy crumbles and opportunities fade.

    Facing layoffs and deep cuts in working hours, many in fragile circumstances could no longer afford their mortgage. More commonly, they were renting from a landlord who foreclosed on their residence. Healthy, hardworking and addiction-free, the new homeless are closer in demeanor and behavior to our neighbors than the overly-typified street drunk.

    Homeless resource programs across the country have been reporting record requests for assistance. A recent report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that, of 21 cities surveyed, 20 reported an increase in requests for food, with 59 percent coming from families. Nationwide, increased food stamps claims – a clear indicator of rising poverty – reached a record 31.6 million in September, up more than four million in a year according to the New York Times.

    California, which has had a homeless problem for decades, has become the epicenter for the newly homeless. The state’s unemployment rate rose to 8.4 percent in November from 5.4 percent in 2007, making it the third highest in the nation. Compounding the homeless problem is the state’s high foreclosure rates (third in the country, according to RealtyTrac data). Homeless programs from San Francisco to San Diego are reporting record numbers, mostly from newly homeless residents impacted by the housing crises or falling economy.

    Sadly this surge in homelessness comes just after a period when the problem was finally getting under control. One study by the Interagency Council on Homelessness found a 12 percent decrease in overall homelessness when comparing 2005 to 2007 data. That same time period also reveals a staggering 30 percent decrease in chronic homelessness (defined as being homeless for either over a year or for multiple stints).

    In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness crafted their landmark Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. With successful bipartisan funding, 355 Ten Year Plans have been put into action nationwide.

    Such plans, and a strong economy, accelerated the recent gains in the fight against homelessness. But the surge in newly homeless and shrinking budgets now threatens to reverse the progress.

    New York City’s municipal shelter systems have seen record-setting increases over the past three months, according to the City’s Department of Homeless Services, but deep cuts loom ahead. Already, the city’s current budget includes a 3 million dollar decrease in outreach funding.

    Denver plans to slash nearly a fourth of its funding for homeless initiatives at a time when the city reports a 38-percent increase in homelessness over the past year (Denver Post).

    This situation will get much worse. A 20 percent increase of urban homelessness has been projected by the Interagency Council on Homelessness for 2009. Escalating homelessness and looming funding cuts create conditions for a renewed homeless crisis.

    In the past debate has focused on the mentally ill and substance abusers, but the new homeless represent different phenomena. President-elect Obama has the responsibility to increase assistance to the degree that reflects the expanding problem. Washington seems all too willing to prop up the corporate players of the American economy, but let us not forget about the hardest hit by these times. Swift action must be taken to assure that the problem of the new homeless becomes no more than a historical footnote – to assure that we as Americans can look back with pride knowing that even during our hardest hour, all were cared for.

    Ilie Mitaru is the founder and director of WebRoots Campaigns, based in Portland, OR, the company offers web and New Media strategy solutions to non-profits, political campaigns and market-driven clients.

  • Oregon’s Fringes: A New Rural Alternative

    Once the bastion of a thriving rural middle class, Oregon’s rural communities are now barely scraping by. The state’s timber industry employed 81,400 residents at its peak in 1978. At the time, the industry made up 49% of all manufacturing jobs in the state according to the Oregon Employment Department.

    Since then, the recessions of the early eighties and nineties, increased land-use restriction, decreased timber supply, global competition and automation of the timber industry have devastated rural communities that relied on once-plentiful timber jobs. Total timber industry employment has dropped to barely 11,000. Long term forestry prospects are glum. The benefits of carbon sequestration, endangered species protections, growing green building industry and the desire to protect Oregon’s forests for recreation will continue to hamper extraction and employment opportunities.

    Meanwhile, residents of such places as the southwest town of Oakridge (pop, 4,000) are left with few options. As the last mill went in the early nineties, so did the jobs. Many left for employment in surrounding cities. Those who stay often work multiple minimum-wage retail shifts; a trailer or shared space is many times their only living option.

    Oregon’s rural places were wrecked not just because of the necessary industry shift (away from logging) but because of the lack of long-term planning required to accommodate that shift.

    The obvious decline in timber employment called for a multi-generational plan to re-invent the state’s rural communities. Instead, towns like Oakridge were allowed to sink until the situation became bleak enough to gain state attention. What followed was reactionary policy that mandated mostly welfare and other band-aid solutions.

    The current situation calls for a more drastic plan that will once again restore Oregon’s proud rural tradition. The initial step is recognizing that rural Oregon – if the state is to preserve its natural resources and provide healthy communities for its residents – must transition from a rural layout to denser small town formations. The state lacks the resources, population density and geographic appeal to allow all of rural Oregon to make this change.

    Instead, select areas with the potential for turn-around should be identified across the state and given special attention in making the transition. At best, this should come from the ground up: through the initiative of local communities. These “New Towns” will be allotted state resources and special legislation to reinvent themselves as more compact and sustainable communities with the capacity of attracting skilled workers and business alike.

    Rather than attempt to wrestle with every factor in the discussion of the New Town model, what follows is a broad outline of the more crucial considerations suggested by such an approach . This leaves much open to discussion, to which the reader is invited to contribute.

    First, Oregon’s historically strict land-use regulations need to be re-evaluated. Instead of discouraging development, it should be encouraged within the New Town boundaries by incentive packages to developers who add an element of “community value” to their projects. Projects that are built sustainably, offer employment, scenic access, cultural attractions, restaurants, and/or retail options will qualify for the incentives.

    Of course many oppose almost any further development across rural Oregon. But in reality we really have two options: either accept a future of rural disenfranchisement and resource extraction; or concentrate resources, re-zone, and intelligently build new, economically as well as environmentally sustainable towns across Oregon.

    Alternative energy companies such as SolarWorld, Vestas and Solaicx, Inc. are just a handful of the dozens of renewable energy companies running or planning new facilities in Oregon.

    Initially, these firms have clustered around Portland or its surrounding suburbs. But factors such as dwindling space and access to workers could drive these firms further outwards. The right incentives package, inexpensive land and labor would make the New Towns an attractive option for the green industry in the coming years.

    Green business could provide one foundation for these places. Once the green industry demonstrates confidence in the New Town model, other economic players would likely follow. These include industries – such as food processing, data centers and specialized services – that could also be nurtured successfully, as has occurred in smaller communities elsewhere in the region.

    The New Town proposal also offers a viable solution to Oregon’s expected population growth. Between 1980 and 2006, the Oregon population grew from 2.6 million to 3.7 million, an increase of 40.5 percent. By 2050 population growth for the state is projected at 5.8 million according to the Northwest Rural Development Center using U.S. Census data.

    The state’s population growth – mainly from immigration and domestic migrants – will be attracted to locales with affordable housing and job opportunities. So far this has translated into a largely urban migration. Growth within cities or in their surrounding suburbs increased by as much as 50%, while non-metro growth increased by only 19%.

    As long as jobs remain in or near the handful of cities Oregon has to offer, these trends will continue. Fortunately, the majority of newcomers are not drawn primarily by urban amenities. Inexpensive housing, job opportunities, and scenic attractions could compensate nicely for the increasing cost and congestion that accompanies urban living.

    The development of the suburbs stemmed from the desire to escape the urban core’s problems. The suburbs continue to surround our cities because of the resources and job availability. However, there is little reason that with the digital revolution and the coming green revolution, once-isolated towns cannot become self sustainable and very desirable.

    Many readers will feel uneasy by the suggestion of deliberately spurring growth in particular places while allowing others to wane. It seems to go against free market ideology and even to be unauthentic.

    Yet a change is needed. These places initially thrived because they were located near natural resources. By shifting from extraction industries, the basis of the local economy has shifted. The whole approach to town development needs to be readjusted to meet these new realities.

    Without a complete shift in how planners view and design for the spaces across the entire state, the rural poor will continue to struggle, while population increases will make our metropolitan areas less and less attractive. The New Town model could present a viable option to the contemporary problems Oregonians face and perhaps to other problems now only on the horizon.

    Ilie Mitaru is the founder and director of WebRoots Campaigns, based in Portland, OR, the company offers web and New Media strategy solutions.