Communities across the United States are experiencing a "civic revival" that is reconnecting community members with local decision-making and civic life in their communities. Since the 1980s, academic researchers and local governance reformers have advocated for a shift away from the traditional top-down, expert-driven approach to governance and toward a governance model in which government leaders and staff and community members work as partners to shape the community and make local decisions. Portland, Oregon, since the 1970s, has been known nationally and internationally as a city with a tradition of strong community involvement. Portland's successes and failures offer a valuable case study into what it takes to develop, implement, and sustain policies, structures, and programs that encourage greater participatory democracy. This dissertation reviews the evolution of Portland's community and neighborhood system from its creation in the 1970s through 2013 through an examination of the many reviews of the system over the years supplemented by reviews of newspaper accounts and informal, unstructured interviews with individuals who were involved in different processes and programs. This dissertation investigates which elements are important to the success of a city-wide community and neighborhood involvement system, the factors that help or hinder the adoption and implementation of system reforms, and strategies that help embed system advances to prevent them from being eroded or undone. This dissertation argues that a community that wants to move toward much greater participatory democracy and community governance must develop and implement a comprehensive strategy that accomplishes three goals: involving many more people in the civic life in their community, building community capacity to organize and be involved in local decision making, and significantly improving the willingness and ability of city leaders and staff to work in partnership with community members and organizations. This dissertation also argues that community and neighborhood involvement systems need to include not only traditional geographic-based neighborhood associations but also communities of people who find their community through shared identity.

The Portland metropolitan region has seen unprecedented growth in the last three decades, resulting in both economic expansion and considerable gentrification. While lauded for its commitment to sustainability and a "smart development" ethos, many questions remain for the city with respect to the needs of displaced residents and a burgeoning population of young professionals. This study examines how various levels of government implement growth management policies to accommodate these demographic changes, and aims to assess whether and how the consequences of growth, especially gentrification and displacement, are meaningfully addressed. Qualitative interviews were conducted with staff members and elected officials from city, county, and regional government structures across the Portland metropolitan area to investigate the "regional housing crisis." Inductive analysis of these data considers the implications of Portland's layered government structure for making equitable growth-related decisions. Participants expressed a mismatch in what was expected of them--both from higher levels of government and their constituents--and their perceived capacity to do so. While government officials advocate the need for new development of affordable housing units, they see themselves as limited by a series of technical barriers in the stratified planning process, as well as an unequal distribution of influential power in public involvement processes. Findings are synthesized to offer policy recommendations and consider alternative government responses to public housing issues.