Text of Chris Smith's Campaign Announcement at Skidmore Fountain

I came to Oregon 20 years ago. I came here for a job, planning to stay for a couple of years.

Instead I fell in love with Oregon, and I fell in love with Portland, for all the same reasons that I know all of you love Portland. For the things that set us apart from other cities.

I love the 200-foot blocks that make Portland so walkable and always keep the sky in view.

I love that a lot of us leave our cars at home and take transit – by choice, not by necessity.

I love that we killed a freeway project and build a light rail system instead. And ripped out another freeway to re-connect our downtown to the river.

I love that when other cities saw their centers hollowed out with flight to the suburbs, that Portlanders reinvested in places like Northwest and Irvington and birthed a movement of neighborhood activism that blossomed all over the city and swept into City Hall. Now we’re seeing a second generation of revitalization in places like Mississippi, Alberta and Interstate.

I love that we realized that the transportation system that originally spawned so many of those neighborhoods that we love, the Streetcar, could build new neighborhoods and add even more vitality to our city.

I love our farmers markets and that some of our school kids grow what they eat at lunch.

I love that we drive more hybrid vehicles per capita by far than another other U.S. city. I love that our bikeways sometimes have congestion and that once a year we close our bridges so that tens of thousands of us can swarm over them on bikes and on foot.

I love that we built a living room for our city at Pioneer Courthouse Square brick-by-brick with contributions from citizens.

I even love our unique form of government that promotes consensus and cooperation over top-down decision making.

And I love that the fountain we’re standing in front of bears the quote “Good citizens are the riches of a city.” That is exactly the spirit that has propelled my own path as a citizen activist. Not every citizen spends as much time at it as I do, but that spirit is what makes Portland special.

All these things that we love about Portland are the result of citizens and leaders making distinctive choices for Portland. Sometimes this is about individual decisions that have a collective impact (like our adoption of hybrid automobiles), but most often it the result of citizen activism – people who banded together, had a better idea and had the vision and persistence to cajole or convince our leaders to see the light.

I’ve been practicing that kind of citizen activism for more than a decade, whether it’s very visible and controversial, like trying to create a neighborhood parking plan that doesn’t require tearing down houses to build garages, or dry and detailed, like fine-tuning the lobbyist reporting system at City Hall. Whether it’s transformative, like creating a new campaign finance system to take the big money out of our politics – or even wonky, but critical, like redefining the criteria by which we expand – or don’t expand – our urban growth boundary.

But I’m not satisfied! I want to do more! The Portland Tribune labeled me “Citizen Smith” a few months ago, and with apologies to that fine newspaper, I’m announcing today that I’m running for City Council under the banner of Citizen Smith.

I’m campaigning to bring the skills that I’ve developed as a citizen activist to City Hall. The ability to talk and work with folks from diverse groups and interests. The ability to look at all sides of an issue and understand the nuances, integrating the best ideas from each perspective. The ability to build coalitions and patiently create consensus, or when necessary take a decisive position and stand by it. Even the ability to run a blog where the conversation stays (mostly) civil and constructive while encouraging a diverse set of perspectives. Coupled with the management and problem solving skills I’ve learned in a 25-year career in Fortune 500 technology industries, I believe these skills will allow me to help effectively lead Portland through the challenges and opportunities that face us.

But most of all the recognition that the best of what we are as a city comes not from our leaders but from our citizens.

Over the next 14 months, our campaign is going to talk about Portland’s future. A lot of that conversation will focus on sustainability – not just the environmental sustainability that is such a critical issue to our whole planet, but also social sustainability – keeping the fabric of our society here in Portland whole and healthy. And very importantly, we’ll be talking about how we sustain the citizen involvement that makes Portland the place we love.

Our conversation is going to engage the whole City. Because it’s not enough that we have great neighborhoods in some parts of the city. We need to have investment and vitality in Cully, in Gateway, in Lents and ALL of our neighborhoods. Portland doesn’t end at 82nd Avenue.

But the first job of our campaign is to reach out to the citizens of Portland and seek their support to get into this race. I’ve been a firm and vocal supporter of Voter Owned Elections and I’m looking forward to campaigning under it.

When Voter Owned Elections was adopted, we pledged that it would be referred to the voters in 2010 after they had seen it in operation. I want to reaffirm that pledge. I’m committed to letting voters have their say.

Which makes it very important that in this election cycle voters have the opportunity to see Voter Owned Elections at work as intended. In its first election cycle, Voter Owned Elections had a dramatic effect on reducing spending levels, but a less apparent effect on election dynamics. I think that will be very different in this cycle with an open seat race. I’m delighted that the other declared candidate in this race has also embraced the system, and that many prospective candidates have signaled their intent to use Voter Owned Elections.

I’m looking forward to a race where we can talk to voters, not to contributors – and a campaign that will be about ideas, not sound bites. Our campaign will work to be an example of how Voter Owned Elections should be used: honestly, transparently, and as an invitation to participation by voters.

So thank you again for coming out this morning.

Video Clip of Announcement Event