Good article, Angel. Appreciate your perspective and voice at a time when the city desperately needs honest discussion about where we’re headed and what’s not working right now.
Thanks for the candid view. The other issue I struggle with is how budgets keep increasing without accountability or results. Mismanagement, graft or just a lack of execution where money is raised and not put to the use it was intended for. When does the city start to run like a business?
The city is not a business, though. It’s government. The idea that government should run like a business is just flat wrong. And for what it’s worth, more businesses fail than governments fail. Now, if you want to be more specific and say there are aspects of business operations that generally apply to a well run organization, then yes. And I think there’s room for more of that in Portland’s case.
Fam, the organized management of resources to produce outcomes for stakeholders is very much a business... but this is more a philosophical take rather than one we can build on.
Nonetheless, say that it shouldn't be run like one in the profit-maximization sense.
The point I was trying to make is about systems, not balance sheets. Doom loops show up in governments, nonprofits, universities; any organization that loses the ability to honestly assess outcomes and course-correct.
Where business thinking becomes useful isn’t in chasing profit, but in understanding feedback loops, incentives, and accountability. When inputs stop matching outcomes, and activity becomes a substitute for results, any system (public or private) starts to stagnate.
My concern isn’t that Portland isn’t “business-like” enough. It’s that we’ve built structures where it’s increasingly hard to tell what’s actually working, and even harder to admit when something isn’t.
well, i disagree with "the organized management of resources to produce outcomes for stakeholders is very much a business," but we're getting into semantics. not everything is a business just because they meet the criteria you mentioned. governments manage resources to produce outcomes for stakeholders, yet they are not a business. like i said, there is overlap between well run organizations and businesses, but that doesn't make every organization a business. businesses make money. that's their job. they can do other things, too, but their main function is to make money. agree or no? obviously, the answer is yes. then we move to the second question, which is, is a government's main function to make money? obviously, the answer is no. my point is that there is overlap, but they are different, and should be treated differently and understood differently.
and just so i'm clear, my first comment wasn't in reaction to your article. i think you did a great job of explaining things that made sense without coming across as like, oh we need to go all in on a corporate model for local government. my concern was from a different person's comment who wondered when the city would be run more like a business. you didn't say that directly, the commenter did, and that's who i was responding to. i'm not sure if you thought my comment was about your article.
but onto the rest of your comment. yes, i like your point about systems, not balance sheets. there is a lot of room for improvement from all levels of local government that cover Portland, of which there are many. my favorite thing you said was "when... activity becomes a substitute for results, any system starts to stagnate." that really resonates with me and i hear that from people i talk to, but they say it in different words. people feel like we're chasing the wrong things, spending money on things that aren't working, as evidenced by more people being homeless this year compared to last year despite all the money being spent on this issue.
Trust and accountability are so important. We aren’t overachieving on either category. I try to explain this to my government folks in my network, all the time.
Good article, Angel. Appreciate your perspective and voice at a time when the city desperately needs honest discussion about where we’re headed and what’s not working right now.
Thanks for the candid view. The other issue I struggle with is how budgets keep increasing without accountability or results. Mismanagement, graft or just a lack of execution where money is raised and not put to the use it was intended for. When does the city start to run like a business?
The city is not a business, though. It’s government. The idea that government should run like a business is just flat wrong. And for what it’s worth, more businesses fail than governments fail. Now, if you want to be more specific and say there are aspects of business operations that generally apply to a well run organization, then yes. And I think there’s room for more of that in Portland’s case.
Fam, the organized management of resources to produce outcomes for stakeholders is very much a business... but this is more a philosophical take rather than one we can build on.
Nonetheless, say that it shouldn't be run like one in the profit-maximization sense.
The point I was trying to make is about systems, not balance sheets. Doom loops show up in governments, nonprofits, universities; any organization that loses the ability to honestly assess outcomes and course-correct.
Where business thinking becomes useful isn’t in chasing profit, but in understanding feedback loops, incentives, and accountability. When inputs stop matching outcomes, and activity becomes a substitute for results, any system (public or private) starts to stagnate.
My concern isn’t that Portland isn’t “business-like” enough. It’s that we’ve built structures where it’s increasingly hard to tell what’s actually working, and even harder to admit when something isn’t.
well, i disagree with "the organized management of resources to produce outcomes for stakeholders is very much a business," but we're getting into semantics. not everything is a business just because they meet the criteria you mentioned. governments manage resources to produce outcomes for stakeholders, yet they are not a business. like i said, there is overlap between well run organizations and businesses, but that doesn't make every organization a business. businesses make money. that's their job. they can do other things, too, but their main function is to make money. agree or no? obviously, the answer is yes. then we move to the second question, which is, is a government's main function to make money? obviously, the answer is no. my point is that there is overlap, but they are different, and should be treated differently and understood differently.
and just so i'm clear, my first comment wasn't in reaction to your article. i think you did a great job of explaining things that made sense without coming across as like, oh we need to go all in on a corporate model for local government. my concern was from a different person's comment who wondered when the city would be run more like a business. you didn't say that directly, the commenter did, and that's who i was responding to. i'm not sure if you thought my comment was about your article.
but onto the rest of your comment. yes, i like your point about systems, not balance sheets. there is a lot of room for improvement from all levels of local government that cover Portland, of which there are many. my favorite thing you said was "when... activity becomes a substitute for results, any system starts to stagnate." that really resonates with me and i hear that from people i talk to, but they say it in different words. people feel like we're chasing the wrong things, spending money on things that aren't working, as evidenced by more people being homeless this year compared to last year despite all the money being spent on this issue.
This is great. Have you seen the latest with Mitch Green's foie gras ban? What a joke.
Lol. Had to google it.
Incredible. Just incredible.
Trust and accountability are so important. We aren’t overachieving on either category. I try to explain this to my government folks in my network, all the time.
Brave and principled post. Thanks for speaking up. Portland is an amazing place, but that's not guaranteed to last.