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Jun 24, 2025
Reflections from a study trip with some of Portland's most innovative leaders
I just wrapped up an incredible ten-day trip with a group of Portland’s most innovative leaders visiting six cities in Netherlands and Norway, learning from our global peers about how they’re building their cities to thrive.
Portland: let’s aim high. Here are my top three systems-level and actionable takeaways. What do you think?
Read to the end for more info about my new urban strategy studio!
SYSTEMS LEVEL
1. Make Portland a multilingual city within 30 years.
The single most powerful civic decision Portland could make right now would be to require every PPS student to start learning a second language in elementary school and a third in middle school. Multilingual education is the standard among our global peers. It’s a foundation for cultural trust, cognitive flexibility, and leadership that’s prepared for complexity and ready to build a city that sees beyond itself. Making Portland a multilingual city would be a huge investment in our future as national and global leaders.
2. Plan 30 years ahead and then just do it.
Portland is a city of visionary plans that get lost in exhaustive public engagement, shifting political priorities and opaque decision making. In the Netherlands and Norway, we saw a different model. Public consensus is earned through trust in civic institutions and experts that work transparently and get things done. I’d like to live in a city where we hire and elect people aligned with our shared values and then get out of the way and let them do their job.
3. Prototype, test, refine, innovate.
Innovation happens when we can test ideas and adapt them in the real world. In the Netherlands, Norway, and Paris, you see radical transformation happening quickly because they can pilot new ideas, test and refine and then scale up. Portland has the knowledge, talent and people ready to start transforming our city, if only we’d let them.
ACTIONABLE NOW
1. Fill all our urban spaces with all the cultural creativity we can squeeze into them. Have I mentioned SKATETOWN? 😉
2. Permanently activate the waterfront. It can be so much more than an expanse of dust and mud!
3. Your idea here.
I’d love to work with you on urban strategy, art, placemaking, and bringing cool ideas to life quickly. Get in touch with me at margaux@skatetownpdx.com.