City of Portland Shame on You

							Lizzy Caston
S t r a t e g i c , I n t e r a c t i v e , & C r e a t i v e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s

July 13, 2009 To: Jeremy Van Keuren City of Portland, PortlandOnline Contest Coordinator CC: Mayor Sam Adams

Dear City of Portland, Shame on You. Your recently launched “contest” to “refresh” (read reconfigure and redesign) the Portlandonline website for free is probably one of the most unethical and idiotic ideas I‟ve seen come out of the City. At least this week. Portland is filled with serious professional design talent. Yet we are also a city with extremely high unemployment in a local economy where these same talented professional designers and their firms are currently struggling to get by on a basic business level. This is bad for the City, it is bad for the tax base and it is bad for individuals and families. It is unconscionable then, that the City is asking for free work for a government website within a city bureau that has a budget of close to $90 million dollars annually (over $10 million earmarked for internal business improvements, including web improvements in the „09 budget alone). You have the money and budget to pay professionals. You are asking for work that requires professional technical skills and abilities. The City needs to pony up and pay. Portlandonline, as managed by the Bureau of Technology Services isn‟t some small struggling nonprofit. You aren‟t a “community organization” like an underfunded school group or recreation center. It is unfair and a slap in the face to Portland‟s creative professionals to ask them to work for free. And for what? Credit? Page views? Give me a break. People in Portland want to save their mortgages and rent, pay their staff, and be recognized and respected as professionals. Not treated like they are in an elementary school coloring contest. The City talks quite a bit about supporting the creative class, attracting and retaining talent and businesses, and supporting much needed economic recovery. Yet the city‟s actions speak otherwise, once again illustrating a government out of touch with the needs of the citizens and city they are paid to serve. I urge you to stop this nonsense and put your well budgeted money where your mouth is. Sincerely, Lizzy Caston, concerned creative and economic development professional
813 SW Alder, Mezzanine B. Portland, OR 97205 1718 Philip St. New Orleans, LA 70113 PH: 503.803-3326  EMAIL:Lizzy.Caston@gmail.com