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City undermines local business
While I generally support government action to address social needs, I believe there are some areas in which government should respect vital private sector functions.
Small, local shops and other neighborhood businesses are perhaps the most fragile element in the urban livability mix we treasure in Portland. A neighborhood newspaper is not only an example of this type of business, but it is also a catalytic enterprise that promotes other businesses, simultaneously building the local community on which those businesses depend.
A neighborhood newspaper like the Mid-county Memo not only helps build a community, but it also engenders a sense of community that can bring people together for social enrichment and joint action that is the essence of good citizenship.
Emerging neighborhoods that do not have a local newspaper often place this near the top of their “wish lists.”
The East Portland Neighborhood Association News (EPNAN) is a newspaper in form, distribution and advertising practice and now is receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the East Portland Action Plan to increase its reach dramatically, further undercutting our advertising rates.
As such, it competes for scarce advertising dollars with any independent newspaper in its distribution area.
Not only is it a government-funded organ without an independent voice to hold powerful public and private forces accountable, but also EPNAN has an unfair advantage and capacity to spend and generate funds that might otherwise go to a real newspaper like the Memo.
It is not an appropriate role of government to compete with the press, undermine its economic basis or limit its voice.
A government-sponsored press, like a government-sanctioned church, is not in the American tradition and should not be condoned, even if it serves some immediate communication needs of neighborhood associations.
We ask the city's East Portland Neighborhood Office to return to its former model of communication where individual NAs communicate inside their own areas.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
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