After more than a century, Portland is transitioning away from a commission form of government. Compared to other major cities, it’s been an unusual method of governance, with each member of the Portland City Council running for at-large positions and then taking on roles as the head of different city bureaus.
But it wasn’t always this way. Portland adopted its current form of government in 1913. Before that, the city government was very different. The city was divided into different representative districts known as wards, and each ward sent a representative to the City Council. Portland also elected a mayor who acted as its chief executive. The way wards were drawn and representatives were allocated tended to favor some parts of the city more than others. “It was historically weighted to the west side, where the original population was,” says Carl Abbott, professor emeritus at Portland State University and author of several books on Portland history.
In the early 20th century the lopsided ward system buckled under two pressure points: changing population, and widespread corruption. During that time Portland’s population grew primarily on the east side. However, the boundaries of wards and the number of representatives for those wards didn’t change to reflect the changes. “The east side of the city wasn’t adequately represented,” says Abbott. “The east side was the rising middle class neighborhoods… the system hadn’t caught up with the changing demographics of the city.”
