November 13th, 2024 - Portland City Council Voted to approve the proposal to amend the Clean & Safe Contract
Over 600 people and organizations signed onto our open letter urging Portland City Council to table the vote to expand the fee rate and service area of Clean & Safe. Even with this substantial public outcry, the contract was approved.
Our campaign was always a longshot. They caught us by surprise, short-circuiting the public process and putting us all on such short notice. What’s no surprise is the push to get this contract passed well ahead of schedule. The outgoing Council has long been sympathetic to the demands of big business; we’ve seen signs that many of them enjoy close relationships with Clean & Safe’s stakeholders at the Portland Business Alliance (PBA).
We’re not gonna stop! No doubt you noticed the four incoming City Council members who joined our call for transparency and accountability. We now look to them to carry on the fight in City Hall.
There’s a lot to think through and a lot of work ahead: wondering what public benefit this ESD provides that couldn’t be better provided by the City itself; reimagining what our city’s urban and commercial areas could look like without it. There are challenges ahead. Look for more updates soon, and consider signing up for our newsletter.
Portland for All’s Presentation:
“Demistifying Downtown Portland Clean & Safe: How it works, what it’s funding, and how it buoys the Portland Metro Chamber’s budget”
What is Clean & Safe?
Downtown Clean & Safe is an Enhanced Service District, or ESD. ESDs are sometimes called Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). Clean & Safe is one of three ESDs in Portland, and it has an annual budget of $5 million.
ESDs use public resources to privatize functions of local government. An ESD is a private sector initiative that requires all business and property owners in an area to pay into a fund. The ESD uses this fund to pay for services traditionally provided by local governments.
The Clean & Safe ESD covers 213 blocks primarily in downtown Portland and the Pearl District. The money Clean & Safe collects from the area’s businesses and property owners is typically spent on cleaning services and armed private security.
Clean & Safe is managed by the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) and has no community oversight. In recent years, PBA has used funding intended for the district to pay its own staffing and administrative costs, and an audit revealed that the City has not fulfilled its oversight requirements for Clean & Safe.
Why is Clean & Safe bad for Portland?
Downtown Clean & Safe is bad for Portland because it’s undemocratic and harms community members who have the fewest resources.
Clean & Safe targets houseless individuals trying to survive, criminalizing them instead of providing them with the services they need.
There is no accountability over how Clean & Safe spends its funds, since regular Portlanders don’t have access to Portland Business Alliance’s decision-making, and the City has failed to provide any oversight.
It uses public resources to fund a service that business or property owners might not want, but there is no way to opt out.
Clean & Safe privately funds four police officers who serve the business owners while on duty instead of the public.