Making our voice heard.
In 2023 Westside Economic Alliance hosted eight in person forums, two online forums plus countless committees. We sat at the Metro Freight and Commodity study table, the Statewide Toll Rulemaking Advisory Committee and continue to sit at Metro's Urban Growth Report Stakeholder table. We have worked hard to convene important and meaningful conversations about what it takes to lead our own growth as a region, what it looks like to build truly innovative public-private partnerships, and have asked questions about how we realize a vibrant future for our region.
One of the challenges we face is ensuring that when "regional" conversations are convened, voices from Washington and Clackamas counties (we represent both), are not just at the table, but are at the table in a meaningful and equal way as those from the central city. In 2023, we worked hard to make sure that we got to the tables where we thought that voice needed to be heard.
In 2024 we will continue this work.
We truly believe that in our role as convenor we can bring together the public, private and non-profit sector to have the hard conversations. Let's talk about what it would take to have meaningful tax reform. Let's lean into a conversation about finding some fixes for our land use system. Let's bring together folks who want to invest in the middle class by building smart and clean manufacturing in our region. And let's have the critical conversation about what it looks like to have true investment in our infrastructure - which includes roads and bridges - and water - and broadband... and more.
We can't get any of these big things done until we have these conversations - openly - honestly - and in public forums. That's the sort of work we will be doing at WEA in 2024 and beyond, and I hope you'll join us.
In the meantime, I hope you take a minute to review our newsletter all the way to the bottom where we share some highlights from our 2023.
Happy holidays to you and yours.
Elizabeth
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