Many voters in Portland rely on quality media coverage of the proposed Charter Reform measure. To support in-depth and data-driven analysis, we created The Fact Book as a resource of journalists. It includes simple, cited data points from peer-reviewed academic journals and publicly available data.

In March, we partnered with the Portland Business Alliance and other partners in the business community to research Portlanders’ attitudes concerning our city government. The “topline” results are available, as is the presentation we developed to share with business groups, community leaders, and civic organizations in early May 2022.

We scanned almost 200 cities to better understand how form of government — and particularly executive and administrative roles — might impact regional economic strength, equity of outcomes, growth, and poverty levels.

Ranking candidates for a legislative seat with multiple winners — sometimes called Single Transferable Vote — was popular in the US Progressive Era, and has been used in major cities around the world throughout the last century.

As Portland shifts from at-large to district representation, there are many opportunities and risks to consider, including the role of “public assets” like cultural centers and business districts. With this in mind, North Star completed a quick analysis on what public assets are and why they matter in districting representation and governance.

North Star sends out weekly(ish) emails to community members rounding up media coverage and key updates related to the implementation of charter reform. Sign up here to stay up to date.