Portland is the Big Dog.
Most of the time Medford resents it. Today we should be grateful.
Portland is big; we are small. Portland is dense; we are spread out. Portland has the headquarters; we have the branches. Portland is liberal and Democratic; Medford leans Republican. On statewide issues, Portland outvotes Medford. Portland gets its way.
Medford has a tradition of local pride in this one-sided rivalry. Eighty years ago Medford-area politicians flirted with a renegade movement to split off from the upstate population center and join the State of Jefferson movement. A few people in Southern Oregon and Northern California staged a temporary blockade on Highway 99 to draw attention to our supposedly being neglected, and certainly being outvoted, in our state capitols. The movement fizzled when its big inauguration event coincided with the death of its chief promoter and the attack on Pearl Harbor.
My first childhood consciousness of Medford's rivalry with Portland came in the 1959-60 school year. Portland's Jefferson High School football team had a 34-game winning streak, led by Terry Baker, who later won the Heisman Trophy, and Mel Renfro, later an all-pro NFL cornerback. Our family joined caravans of cars driving up to Portland's Municipal Stadium to watch the state championship game. Medford High won 7-6. Medford then went on to win the state basketball championship and state baseball championship. It was Medford athletics' finest hour and year, and it became an enduring part of Medford's sense of identity. We could punch above our weight. We could take on Portland and win. To continue this took constant effort and unconventional tactics, but we were willing to do it. The Medford School Board arranged our school system in a 6-2-2-2 system to keep a single very large class, the better to field teams that could compete with Portland.
Portland resentment is in the air Medford residents breathe. It doesn't need to be explained or argued. Portland is the big bully and they will push us around--because they can. That sense of local victimization is available on the political shelf to be used when necessary. It saved my brief political career.
I was a Jackson County Commissioner during the 1982 recession when the Federal Reserve worked to end inflation expectations by raising interest rates into the high teens. Building stopped. Timber harvests stopped. Jackson County's general fund income collapsed since it came almost entirely from receipts from federal timber sales. We suddenly needed to lay off half of county employees. The public was furious about closed parks and libraries and slow service generally. County employees started a recall campaign against me, the complaint being that I was "out of touch" with what local people wanted, i.e. services we had no money to pay for. While recall petitions circulated, the county learned that the powers that be in the State of Oregon--people in Portland, Salem, somewhere up north--had purchased an option to buy several hundred acres of land to site a state prison on county land just outside Medford. It was the first anyone here had heard of it. I had my opportunity to stand up for Medford against the big, bad bullies upstate--the familiar complaint. I rushed to the TV cameras and said, "Eugene and Corvallis get universities, Salem gets the Capitol, and Portland gets all the money, and the people upstate tell us that we get a big state prison to contend with. No way." Local citizens loved it. I got fan mail and phone calls of congratulations. I was in touch with my constituents after all. The recall fizzled.
Medford residents grouse about the big Multnomah County vote, as if it is somehow odd and unfair that a county of 830,000 should have more political power than a county of 223,000. We hear the comment a lot: "Portland gets what Portland wants." It is true that in the statewide vote Democrat Kate Brown soundly defeated Republican Knute Buehler, with 934,000 votes to 815,000--a margin of 119,000. The results in Multnomah County were 279,000 to 84,000 for Brown, a margin of 195,000. Knute Buehler won the state, except for Multnomah County, but of course it is ridiculous to say "except for Multnomah County." They are Oregonians, too. But so is Medford, and Jackson County voted 51%-42% for Buehler. We are in this together, and Portland gets what Portland wants.
The disturbances in Portland and Governor Brown's COVID policies both exacerbated downstate people's sense of alienation from Portland. Whatever nuances people in Portland might feel about policing the rock-throwing, arson, and looting that took place are largely lost on people here. The continued violence seemed incomprehensible to people I spoke with, including people like myself who generally vote Democratic and who voted for Kate Brown.
A much larger percentage of people here in Southern Oregon are "vaccine hesitant," and oppose wearing masks and observing social distancing rules. More people here watch Fox. Trump's views matter and so does local leadership. The County Commissioners here lobbied for fewer restrictions. I hear it commonly among local residents, including health care workers in close contact with dozens of people a day: They don't think COVID is very serious, they don't think masks do any good, they don't think the COVID vaccines are safe, and they resent a Democratic governor from Portland metro telling them what to do. It is yet another iteration of the Big Dog pushing us around.
(I think that attitude is crazy. I am thrilled to be vaccinated. But these are my fellow Medford residents, and I report what I see and hear.)
That attitude shows up in Jackson County vaccination rates well below the statewide average. The low rates--barely 50% of eligible people--mean Jackson County businesses remain under more COVID restrictions than are businesses in the Portland metro area. The price of COVID denial and resistance for Medford-area residents is more regulation, not less, and we are way behind the curve to meet the 65% county threshold that would drop us into a less restrictive category. Happily for Jackson County, the state as a whole will likely meet the goal of 70% vaccination for vaccine-eligible people, no help from Jackson County. This is because of the very high margin in Portland metro vaccinations. We ride on their coattails. They will save us from ourselves.
They outvoted us, like always. This time, Medford should thank them.
5 comments:
I recently was in downtown Ashland and Jacksonville on the same day. You wouldn't know we were in a pandemic. People were sitting outside the restaurants, in and out of the shops, traffic was brisk.
Then I came back through Medford downtown...lifeless. I know why. All the restaurants are North of town out along 62, with similar development South off Barnett. You can't park downtown anyway. It's as if they purposely are discouraging business.
What's the difference? Simple. Money. But change is coming. The valley is growing, but a lot of newcomers are priced out of Jville and Ashland, hence a real estate bubble in Medford which is a drag for locals but means a whole new population who will want services and entertainment and the politics will follow.
2022 may be too soon, but I think Medford's new residents will eventually change the voting in the county.
One more example of the Pogo Syndrome: We have met the enemy and he is us.
On the other hand, Gov. Brown was violating our right to infect others, and who wants to have a microchip injected in their arm?
Downtown Medford has been an area of walking dead as far back as I can remember, I think because of poor planning and shortsighted City Councils, none of whom seem to have figured out tha urban sprawl is a death sentence for core downtown areas. I was recently in Coos Bay, and the differences are stark; the whole downtown has WiFi available, there is parking and foot traffic galore, and the whole aura is one of anticipation and happiness.
In Josephine county there is a new “newspaper” called, ta da “THE EAGLE” which has now been popped into every mail box, twice.. Here are the titles of the articles: On COVID and the Vaccine” which claims to be well known facts encouraging everyone to wait , don’t take the vaccine until you know more “science”. “….the tragedy of childhood transgenderism” kids who cross over may never be able to come back .”Get Woke, Go Broke”LGBTQIA2s+folxs in the classroom!!!CRT! and you know what! Parents are going to withdraw their children from public school and the school district will go broke! Finally a JO CO commissioner brags how he voted against mask wearing .
Fake news from the “Plucked Eagle.”
I hope the Josephine County Eagle is being mailed.
It's a federal offense to use mailboxes for anything that isn't mailed (such as newspapers).
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