Understand the Impact of Experts

Portland has changed over the last ten years in many ways. The particular change I would like to frame out is how Portland has been gentrified. Portland used to cost very little to live in and housed many poor people who were happy to be skirting the poverty line. It was a game. How little can I work without impacting the amount of comfort I have? The answer for me in 1998 was 26 to 28 hours. It was grand, I made good money doing work for Goodwill and had plenty of time and money for fun. Times have changed, realestate values have inflated(I have a family). Condos have been built and families have left. No longer are the days of living near poverty for 28 hours of work a week. The job market has not improved, the number of affordable spots to crash are minimal. Portland loses its flavor. I am making less now doing similarly skilled work than I was eight years ago.
Over the last ten years we have had experts guiding our city. They have told us to value their knowledge of policy. They have told us there is nothing they can do to bring down the prices of housing and everything relative to the payrates in Portland. They have done little to bring in good employers unless it was in the form of construction work for condo conversions.
I personally think it is time for the wolves to be exposed as wolves and replaced with proper responsive altruistic shepard types. No more relying on experts to tell us what our diverse city's people need. A good representative knows how to use the resources already existing in the city of Portland. The resourses are the people of Portland. Their experiance, thier frustrations should be heard. Myopic candidates who seeing Portland through only their own lens distort what it takes to fufill thier pubilc service role. The key for success at any of the elected positions is the ability to know how to ask the right questions, take that information, turn it into sound policy, and get the community behind it.
There has been a whole lot public debate going on about many issues in Portland's schools. Public meetings of school committee members, the role of class rank in Portland's schools, AP classes futures, and the funding of specialized sex education. Only one of these debated items was solved in a completely productive way. The sex ed question. I plan to approach all potentially devisive problems in this manner. Keep all debate civil and productive always. Make sure everyone wishing to speak has been heard. In an organized way find out how other communities have responded using reasearch methods and personal interviews. Form policy which is minimal, flexible, and ammendable. Have experts on Portland public policy review the policy then present it to constituents. This may sound time consuming but it is really quite natural. It is just a better way of making sure constituents have input in the governing process when they want to provide some. I am running for school committee because I enjoy the fruits of collaboration: truly visionary policy which will involve and enhance our community and their schools.
Experts are not always the best collaborators. The way they are most easily spotted is by thier lack of listening skills. I have never voted for someone who spoke of their vision without asking me for mine.