Portland, like all major US cities, is run NOT by the city council, but by powerful business interests such as the Portland Business Alliance, regional chambers of commerce and the disgustingly renamed Portland Prosper-ity for the already prosperous Development Commission. Every current member of Portland City Council is only interested in public acquiescence to their secretive decrees, bolstered by empty promises, that primarily benefit these business interests. Public participation is a pretense. Portland is near to reaching Seattle's long held and much worse level of rank corruption.