From Multnomah County to Union County, Mending the East/West Divide One Visit at a Time
By Garrett Christensen on Tuesday, July 18th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE — It should go without saying that Oregon is divided along cultural boundaries as much as it is geographic ones. Misunderstandings between East and West and incompatibilities between Urban and Rural have, in many ways, created an atmosphere of animosity between the state’s different populations. Whether grievances are justified or not is another discussion altogether, but the state of mutual mistrust within the state doesn’t have to persist. Recently, local leadership from both Multnomah and Union Counties took a mutual step toward rectifying this.
The commissioner exchange, as Union County Commissioner Paul Anderes dubbed it, is an effort to bridge the gap between East and West via casual cooperation and mutual curiosity. The brainchild of Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal, the exchange involves both Commissioner Jayapal and Commissioner Anderes visiting Union and Multnomah Counties respectively, taking in the local culture and history as well as studying mutual issues. Commissioner Jayapal visited Union County July 13 through 15 with Anderes slated to visit Multnomah County later this year.
For those unfamiliar with Commissioner Jayapal, Elkhorn Media Group had the opportunity to speak with her early in her visit. Jayapal is in her second term as Multnomah County Commissioner for North and Northeast Portland. Beyond her regular duties as commissioner, her primary focus has been on homelessness and housing accessibility. In her own words:
“I got into politics because what I saw in Multnomah County and in my district was that, for too many people, it was really hard to survive. The cost of housing in particular is too high. People who lived in my district for decades, generations, getting pushed out because they just couldn’t survive there anymore.”
As for her interest in Union County, Jayapal and Anderes met back in 2019 through the Association of Oregon Counties while they were first year commissioners. Both had similar thoughts and concerns on the ever-present gap between Eastern and Western Oregon, with Jayapal remembering:
“We said to each other, ‘you know, there’s a lot of divides in the state, but we might be able to bridge at least some of them if we’re actually curious about each other and learn about each other’s counties and about the work that you do.”
Now, five years and one pandemic later, that’s exactly what they’re doing. When Elkhorn Media Group spoke with Jayapal, she was only a few hours into her visit but still had plenty to say about the county. At the time, she and Anderes had just finished a visit to a local farm owned by Brett Rudd. As Jayapal described the visit:
“I really learned a lot. I was struck by the beauty when I was driving in from the airport, and then driving around the farm…just the heritage, the traditions, and the complexity of farming at a time when agriculture is getting more and more consolidated.”
Keeping on a similar theme, Jayapal also mentioned how the environment stood out to her and that she was, “very, very struck by the landscape being the whole of the valley with the mountains around.” Other planned highlights of the trip included a farmers market visit, an examination of local firefighting and preparedness strategies, and a visit to new affordable housing developments.
It should be noted that Jayapal’s visit was far more than a simple sightseeing tour, but an opportunity to learn and compare between the counties and identify mutual issues that could be solved cooperatively. Two points that were brought up included housing/homelessness and opportunities for youth. While Multnomah County operates on a much larger population scale compared to Union County, homelessness exists and causes its own set of problems in both.
Regarding youth opportunity, Jayapal explained it best, “Commissioner Anderes talked about the fact that one of his concerns coming into office was the fact that young people are moving away because there’s no opportunity. We don’t have the issue of young people moving away but we do have an issue about lack of opportunity for young people. What might we be able to agree on there?”
The point is not to say that Union and Multnomah counties are identical in their needs and concerns, far from it, but that some overlap may exist between the two in some capacity. Learning about this overlap in conjunction with what makes both counties unique from each other, and doing so casually in a way that isn’t tied to something else, is the goal. It’s hoped by Jayapal and Anderes that identifying and comparing these attributes could, in theory, help lessen the divide in the long term.
Going forward, Commissioner Anderes will visit Multnomah County later this year as the second part to the exchange. His itinerary may include a tour of a local jail or juvenile facility to learn about public safety and an examination of Multnomah County’s work with the homeless, including shelter programs. Jayapal also expressed an interest in showing Anderes more diverse aspects of the county, such as the Eastern, more rural, portion away from the Portland metro district. As Jayapal briefly described the area, “you’ve got Portland, but we’ve also got East Multnomah County where there are no sidewalks and there are gravel roads. It doesn’t actually feel that Urban where there are neighborhoods, and I have constituents who are very under-resourced in terms of their built environment.”
In the longer term, the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) recently concluded 2023-2024 registration for its Membership Exchange Program. Initially launched in 2021, the program is, as described by the AOC, “designed to provide commissioners, judges, and chairs the opportunity to connect with their peers, build relationships, and learn best practices and innovative solutions from counties throughout the state. ” Participants are organized into small groups and encouraged to visit other Oregon counties, studying various projects and programs along the way. For more information, including the 2023 timeline, visit https://oregoncounties.org/members/membership-exchange-program/
For now, only time will tell Whether or not this first exchange ends up being a one-off effort or the start of rejuvenated correspondence between the two halves of Oregon. At the moment though, both commissioners are enthusiastic about the project. Jayapal best summarizes the current scope of things:
“Everything is so politicized right now, so I don’t mean to suggest that it’s easy or that one visit from me to Union County or from Commissioner Anderes to Portland is going to solve it, but it could take us a tiny step forward to identifying some things that we could work on.”
