My biggest takeaway from visiting Seattle and learning about the Duwamish river and the cleanup efforts there is the idea of equity planning in city government. The Pacific Northwest in particular has made strides in appointing people to local government as equity advisors and so far, Seattle and Portland have committed to the idea of equity in city planning. When we headed up to Seattle, we first visited the longhouse next to the Duwamish River and learned about the Natives who had inhabited the area for many years before western expansion brought settlers. The river is very sacred in Native traditions and values but they have been largely excluded from the process of deciding what happens to the river. After we visited the longhouse We met the man who is Seattle's equity advisor and we asked him about the role of the native population in Seattle's equity plan. He didn't have much to say on the subject of Native traditions and incorporating Native values in the cleanup process of the river. In America we don't easily embrace spirituality and it can be especially hard to find a balance between the bureaucracy of city planning and the profound respect for nature that is the backbone of the native way of life. All said, Seattle seemed to have approached the cleanup of the river with a lot of grace and it showed in the people with whom we spoke while we were there. It was not perfect but the lessons that we (Portland) can learn from their experience are many. Hopefully we can get an active citizen group to be present and help keep the city and the Lower Willamette Group accountable in the cleanup process like Seattle had. Also, we can learn a lot from their mistakes during the cleanup, like the open containers that spilled contaminated waste as it was being pulled up from the bottom of the river resulting in a more expensive and time consuming cleanup. As for equity, hopefully Seattle can fine tune it's efforts and start including the voices of the native population in their planning, but for now it seems as though they have a long way to go. Portland can learn from that as well as we start to include equity planning into our local government. Unfortunately, equity seems to be a buzz word these days but it isn't enough to talk about equity, something needs to be done. The Pacific Northwest has the right idea in beginning the process to include equity into city planning and the local government, but we have a long way to go.
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AuthorsWe are Portland State students who care about the urban rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Archives
May 2018
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