Time was, the Portland Business Alliance was called the
Association for Portland Progress.

It’s a good thing they changed their name; otherwise, judging by the
group’s reaction to a plan that would drag the city kicking and
screaming into the 21st century, the cognitive dissonance coming from
the PBA’s headquarters would have flattened downtown’s skyscrapers.

In the past couple of years, City Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s office
has been working on an idea that would bring a fiber-optic
network to the city, which would provide unprecedented broadband
access to homes and businesses. It would give Portland a chance to
compete with other cities for businesses that have massive broadband
needs—which the city is currently unable to meet—instead of
sending those companies to other, more tech-friendly cities. Plus, it
would open up the market to a ton of internet service providers, who
would compete with each other for customers.

But in an ironic twist you might have already seen coming, the
Portland Business Alliance (PBA) has come out swinging against
the idea. At a PBA meeting a couple of weeks ago, Saltzman and his
chief of staff, Brendan Finn, presented the $500 million plan, only to
be strenuously shot down.

“Their argument was that government shouldn’t get involved in
building a fiber-optic network, that this isn’t a place for government
to work,” says Finn.

And yet? Modern government has always been in on this kind of work,
building roads, regulating (and sometimes running) utilities, and even
building and operating airports.

So if a fiber network would lead to more, better, and higher-tech
businesses coming to—and staying in—the city, why would the
PBA, the one organization most dedicated to advancing business,
vehemently oppose the plan? Could it be that the organization is
heavily influenced by representatives from Qwest and Comcast, who are
more concerned about maintaining their own broadband monopolies than
advancing the pro-business cause?

Their knee-jerk opposition to the idea highlights an increasing
belief among many city leaders and politicos that the PBA has largely
grown as irrelevant as their only unwavering supporter on city
council—Tom Potter—claims to be. Does it matter that the
PBA hates the idea of a city-sponsored fiber network? Probably not.

In mostly unrelated news, this will be my last column for the
Mercury, as I’m leaving to take on An Exciting New
Challenge™. This space will be taken over by my talented,
soon-to-be-former colleague, Amy J. Ruiz. I’m extraordinarily proud of
the work we’ve done here, but, as they say, all good things must
come to an end.