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CLF's 2010 Accomplishments,
 please click here.

Building a balanced transportation system that focuses on people instead of cars

In spring, CLF’s report, “Shifting the Balance on Transportation,” spotlighted the disconnect between regional transportation projects designated for funding, and the policy direction that elected officials have set to guide their decision making. These policies support environmental protection, social justice, healthy communities, and economic prosperity, but most of the projects don’t. As a result, Metro instructed Washington County to retool several road expansion projects to better support these goals, and incorporated our recommendations for livable communities in rewriting the rules that guide how local jurisdictions design their long-range transportation plans. Finally, the report also turned up the heat on Metro for adopting a transportation plan that would lead to a 49% increase in greenhouse gas emissions – even worse than building nothing. As a result, Metro strengthened its requirement to address global warming pollution.

In July, CLF and its partners successfully persuaded Metro to reaffirm $15 million for active transportation projects in the face of a campaign by special interests to direct the funds toward projects with few health benefits.  By targeting these resources toward walking, cycling, and public transit projects, people will have more opportunities to be physically active and improve their health. Equally important, Metro is now requiring that all projects assess how fairly they impact different communities, as recommended by CLF.

Promoting a Climate & Community Smart Columbia River Crossing

CLF continues to be the leading voice for a Columbia River Crossing Project that demonstrates our best thinking on healthy community building, smart energy policy, environmental protection, and social equity. The public controversy our work sparked has inspired numerous community-led efforts to define different approaches to the project that better meet current community needs and won’t saddle today’s and future generations with billions of dollars of debt. In addition, due to public outcry, the project sponsors have downsized the official plan. While still far from acceptable, the proposal now has with fewer lanes and community impacts at Hayden Island, with a cost reduction of $650 Million. 

Planning for Equitable Development and Inclusive Communities

CLF members and partners laid the groundwork for fair access to the jobs by groups such as women, people of color and youth. By participating in the development of a new state-wide program known as Clean Energy Works Oregon (CEWO), CLF helped create opportunities for populations that have typically encountered discrimination or hostile work environments within construction trades and related fields. CEWO aims to enhance energy efficiency in Oregon households through what has become a national model to make home energy upgrades accessible and affordable to low-income households while creating local jobs and enriching opportunities for local contractors.   

CLF members and partners broke ground in July at Emerson Garden, Portland’s first neighborhood-lead effort to convert an abandoned, contaminated lot into a community managed asset. The groundbreaking ceremony marks the end of thirteen years of bureaucratic stagnation for the Emerson Garden property and beginning of community organized stewardship there.

In February, CLF helped support new state legislation to create healthy, climate-friendly communities. The new law requires state agencies to develop a statewide transportation strategy on greenhouse gases as well as tools for local communities to help them reduce global warming pollution produced by the transportation sector.

CLF member, Portland Audubon opened a satellite office in East Portland, taking the urban focus of its environmental education and conservation to a new level. This new community presence will allow Portland Audubon and CLF to collaborate with other organizations to renature some of Portland neighborhoods with poor access to parks as identified by the CLF Regional Equity Atlas.

In 2006, CLF’s Regional Equity Atlas inspired Metro Council to create the Nature in the Neighborhoods Capital grant program from the Greenspaces Bond Measure that voters passed that year. This is a $15 million program that supports innovative projects that improve ecological functions in neighborhoods and increase community access to nature, with a focus on those populations who have the least access.  Since creation of the program, Metro has continued to use the Equity Atlas to help determine if a project is in a low-income neighborhood and whether the project will serve people that do not currently have good access to nature. As a result, nearly half of the projects funded to date have benefited low-income communities or communities of color. The most recent grant of this type was made to purchase one acre of land within the Baltimore Woods corridor in North Portland, which will protect rare native oak trees and enhance the nature experience for walkers and bicyclists who will someday use this section of the Willamette River Greenway.

CLF played a key role in forming a 22 member consortium of non-profits and local governments that aims to create a regional housing equity and opportunity strategy that would link affordable housing with available and planned public services and infrastructure, like transit, schools and health clinics, ensuring that historically marginalized populations benefit from public investments.

In recognition of the impact and importance of its work to improve community healthy, CLF was honored with two awards in 2010: a Multnomah County Public Health Hero Award and a Portland Monthly Light a Fire Award Winner.