Levee Ready Columbia

In summer 2019, Levee Ready Columbia (LRC), in partnership with Oregon’s Kitchen Table (OKT), conducted a public engagement process to hear from people who work in, live in, or own a business in Multnomah County and its surrounding areas about their knowledge of and values, and beliefs about the Columbia River levee system from North Portland to the Sandy River in Troutdale. The goals of this project were multi-fold: 1. to hear from as many people as possible who work in, live in, or own a business in the Multnomah County area; 2. to gauge what interests or concerns people most about the levee system; and 3. to ask people to begin considering trade-offs among competing values.  In addition, a final goal was to lay the groundwork for LRC to then engage more deeply around strategies, solutions, and trade-offs in the future, particularly with historically under-represented communities. Over 1,000 people participated in various forms of enagement, including in-person discussions in Spanish, Russian, and Somali.