Tensions are high in the Southwest neighborhood of Southwood Park, centered on a number of issues familiar to those acquainted with Portland politics: water quality, neighborhood organizations, and the fear of displacement by newer, wealthier homeowners.
But Southwood Park isn’t exactly a Portland neighborhood, and if residents vote in favor of an annexation proposal on September 17th, they will soon trade their Portland addresses for Lake Oswego.
The neighborhood is currently in municipal limbo. While its residents have Portland addresses, the neighborhood is in unincorporated Clackamas County, which administers services like street repair, lighting, and zoning. Residents attend and pay taxes toward Lake Oswego schools.
The small neighborhood of 298 houses also operates its own independent water district. The district’s ex-chairman, Phil Kubischta, was the first to ask Lake Oswego to annex his neighborhood; in November 2018, Kubischta sent a mailing to Southwood residents arguing that due to a lack of volunteers, the water board should dissolve and the neighborhood should be annexed.
After Kubischta announced the annexation proposal, the board and the Southwood Park Community Planning Organization (CPO) began holding regular meetings to discuss the proposal. Southwood CPO president Helen Young did not respond to the Mercury’s requests for comment.
It was at these—and other local meetings—that the anti-annexation campaign came together.
The Anti-Annexation Campaign
Southwood resident Grant Howell didn’t know his neighbors, and had never been involved in politics before Lake Oswego proposed annexing his neighborhood.
“Pretty much how it was presented to us is that our neighborhood water board was dissolving [and] there was no one that was going to run it,” says Howell.
Howell and other Southwood residents began attending water board and CPO meetings more regularly. “We kind of recognized that we had the same concerns, and we felt like we weren’t being provided the whole story,” Howell says.
“A group of us coalesced together,” says Whit Middlecoff, a spokesperson for the anti-annexation group. “We thought we could at least do something to get our thoughts out to the neighborhood, our opinions, and at least inform people that this is not as rosy and shiny as Lake Oswego was making it seem.”
“And so that really kind of led to us getting together as a group—meeting at each other’s houses, having conversations,” says Howell. “The idea sprung up to have a fact-finding mission, [and] that kind of grew into a website.”
Beyond creating a website, the unnamed anti-annexation campaign produced fliers, postcards, and yard signs. Members canvassed the neighborhood, keeping meticulous notes on how they expected each household to vote.
A Lake Oswego City Council report notes that they expect to make “anywhere between the mid $200,000s to the mid $500,000s” in yearly profit from the annexation.
The anti-annexation campaign argues that annexation would mean higher costs for residents with little to show for the expense. They estimate that, on average, each household will pay $1,342.28 more in annual property taxes. Lake Oswego would phase-in the taxes over five years, but almost three-fourths of those taxes would be applied in the first year. A Lake Oswego City Council report notes that they expect to make “anywhere between the mid $200,000s to the mid $500,000s” in yearly profit from the annexation.
“We’re pretty much a totally self-sufficient neighborhood,” says Middlecoff, “which I think is why we’re so attractive to Lake Oswego in the first place.”
Middlecoff argues that, if annexed, the voices of Southwood residents would be drowned out by more monied Lake Oswego residents. “We’ve got our own thing going, and a lot of these people are can-do, hard-working folks that don’t have the giant homes and the boats on the lake and that kind of stuff,” says Middlecoff.
Although the neighborhood receives emergency response from the Lake Oswego Police Department (LOPD), that department doesn’t patrol the neighborhood. Campaign flyers from the pro-annexation group stress that annexation would mean “regular police patrols.”
Middlecoff argues the neighborhood doesn’t have much crime in the first place. “We don’t have that kind of stuff around here. People aren’t going into backyards and stealing lawn mowers, and that kind of stuff that happens on the east side,” says Middlecoff.
“People in this neighborhood really would like [the LOPD] to complain to when the neighbors behind them trim their overgrown hedges, or perhaps your neighbor says something truthful that you view as unkind,” says Howell. “I think there’s a propensity of certain individuals in this neighborhood who want to have that security of a police force—not for protection from crime, but protection from imaginary crime or personal affronts.”
The Pro-Annexation Campaign
“I think most of the people who are concerned about the police or whatever, they have junker cars in their yard,” sats Diane Daybreak, a Southwood resident who supports annexation. “I don’t know what they think. But pretty much those who maintain home are less inclined to worry about the LO police.”
Daybreak says the pro-annexation campaign doesn’t have a core group like the anti-annexation group. Her campaign passed out flyers to houses in the neighborhood, but their lobbying is mostly visible on the neighborhood-centric social network Nextdoor.
Daybreak only started posting on the site regularly following an August 26th CPO meeting. She says the anti-annexation group has been uncivil, and alleges anti-annexation campaigners have told her to leave the neighborhood.
“There are lots of people in the neighborhood who are very much pro-annexation, and they have seen flagrant intimidation that has gone on with the ‘no’ group,” says Daybreak. “I view it as sort of the neighborhood needing to mature. I think, in a word, I would call some of the opposition to it a form of hysteria.”
“There are lots of people in the neighborhood who are very much pro-annexation, and they have seen flagrant intimidation that has gone on with the ‘no’ group. I view it as sort of the neighborhood needing to mature. I think, in a word, I would call some of the opposition to it a form of hysteria.” —Diane Daybreak, Southwood resident
Southwood’s Nextdoor page is moderated by Phil Kubischta, who was the first to propose annexation to the neighborhood.
“We clearly have a group of leaders that are simply spamming the hell out of Nextdoor Southwood to promote their own political views,” says anti-annexation campaigner Howell, replying to a post by Kubischta.
Both campaigns remain unnamed and only loosely organized, and both have maintained their campaigns have simply presented the facts. As such, each campaign alleges the other side has spread misinformation.
“I think there’s a lot of tension, because we have some passionate people on our side that want the truth out there,” says Middlecoff. “And there’s a lot of fear mongering and somewhat-untruths on the ‘yes’ side.”
Southwood residents have already received their ballots to vote on the annexation, and Clackamas County will announce the results on Tuesday, September 17. If approved, the Lake Oswego City Council will move to annex the neighborhood within 90 days.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been edited since its original publication due to several disputed quotations. The quotations in question have been removed, and the Mercury regrets the error.
A map would be super helpful to go with this article.