By Bruce Stephenson

In a historic pronouncement, the Portland City Council asked voters to approve a $258.4 million bond measure for affordable housing. If passed, it will set the foundation for a systematic response to the housing crisis.

Since declaring a "housing state of emergency" in October, the City Council has allocated over $100 million to stay the emergency, and this final investment should still critics such as Joel Kotkin, who claims that the gentrification of minority neighborhoods is a racist mark against the "achingly politically correct city."

Limiting suburban sprawl and investing in sustainability is Portland's downfall, Kotkin contends. His new book, "The Human City," offers affordable, laissez-faire Houston as a prototype, but it fails to mention that the displacement rate of African Americans in the historic Third Ward matches Portland's. Thousands of Houstonians also inhabit gated subdivisions on low-lying flood-prone land, an exclusionary, unsustainable landscape foreign to Portland.

Portland is a definitive "knowledge city," according to analyst Richard Florida, where clustering population in urban centers is a key factor in innovation and economic growth. The booming high-tech sector exemplifies how specialized skills, creativity and abstract thinking can fuel profits. The good news is that capital is flowing into Portland; the problem is that markets do not respect equity.

City planning is a paradoxical enterprise. In a capitalist society, where property rights and free enterprise are sacred, planners must set controls on development to procure the common welfare. Portland, as much as any city in the United States, balances private interests and the public good to productive ends. Yet, even here, housing a diverse range of incomes is a challenge.

Gentrification, which is the opposite of the lethal dis-investment that eviscerates cities, is a product of urban revitalization. In Portland, investment in pedestrian-scaled urbanism with access to transit has increased the demand for new development in older neighborhoods with disadvantaged populations.

Lisa Bates, a Portland State University professor, identified areas prime for gentrification and found that renters occupied 44 percent of households. There are no easy solutions, but ensuring that 45 percent of housing is affordable (the urban renewal requirement) in these areas is step one.

Of course, homeowners will still sell their property to reap windfall prices. In the real estate market, the profit motive is a Darwinian force that drives cycles of boom and bust. Thus, even the best-planned city will grapple with gentrification until housing is defined as a public utility.

Allocating $258 million for affordable housing will move Portland in that direction. The bond measure vote, then, is not only a test for the city but the nation.

When Ronald Reagan severed funding for the department of Housing and Urban Development, he claimed municipal governments should solve urban problems. His mantra still holds sway, and Portland stands at the nexus of progressive and conservative values.

In November, property owners will be asked to help their less-fortunate neighbors, and their decision will reveal the virtue of a free people and Portland's standing as a model city.

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Bruce Stephenson serves on the Pearl District Planning and Transportation Committee.