Commentary David Oates, The Oregonian, November 1, 2007

Something awe-inspiring is happening in Oregon. People all over this state are joining in a common idea of what Oregon is and what we want it to be. Three years ago (on the eve of Measure 37), I finished my project of walking around Portland's urban growth boundary and talking to many who lived and worked there. I felt then that this consensus was possible — but not quite ripe.

It's ripe now. It can happen.

Measure 49 reflects a hard-won compromise. It guarantees fairness for individual property owners. But more than that, it expresses a strong commitment to making land-use decisions as a community (not just allowing isolated developers to make them for us). When the ballots are counted after the Nov. 6 election, my prediction is that we will see a clear majority in both rural and urban parts of the state in favor of continuing — and improving — Gov. Tom McCall's visionary system, our shared project of living together in a way that protects rural areas and strengthens urban ones.

A moment of shared vision like this doesn't happen very often. Most of the time, it seems citizens aren't quite paying attention, responding mostly to hot-button propaganda. Too often, it feels like voters just split into opposing playground cliques and lob mudballs at each other. It's dispiriting and ignoble. Politics.

But once every few decades, everyone's best self shows up. We remember our common humanity and fundamental values, and rediscover our shared identity. In those moments we build the house we will live in together for the following years or decades. Until it's time to remodel it again.

Which is now.

But "now" is interesting. Land-use progressives like me are apt to think that "the other side" has finally come to its senses. I have a file full of newspaper clippings wherein some voter, horrified at newly revealed plans for over-developing his or her corner of the state, says, "Well, I voted for Measure 37, but I never thought...." That 2004 vote was a mistake (we say to ourselves) and now it will be corrected.

There's truth to that, and it's part of my optimism. But what's more interesting to me is that this moment of agreement is equally being created by "progressives" suddenly willing to move from their own too-rigid positions. When we wake up on Nov. 7 we will have a concord forged by two sides that came to their senses.

Today my limited-growth compatriots are promoting Measure 49 in an all-out push for victory. But I'm virtually certain that in, say, 2000 or 2004, these same fervent land-use advocates would have bitterly opposed Measure 49. They would have fought the way it grants concessions for development, allowing some houses to be built on agricultural and non-urban land. They wanted it simple and clear, but it ended up inflexible.

Strange how times change. This is what I mean by "ripeness."

To test my gut feeling about this change in progressives' attitudes, I canvassed four statewide leaders on the progressive land-use side: Two elected regional politicians; one prominent advocate and contributor; and one well-known scholar (you'd probably recognize their names, but I promised to keep them off the record). They unanimously concurred. In the words of one, "I am absolutely certain that a Measure 49-like compromise would never have been embraced by the progressive community if Measure 37 hadn't passed."

Of course, the other side has its rigid hard-cores too — and they are indeed opposing this compromise, preferring a free-market free-for-all. No matter. The rest of us will be joining together in a moment of constructive sanity.

In an almost biblical way, it seems Oregon needed to pass through the destructive agonies of Measure 37 in order to rise to the creative opportunity of Measure 49. It's a strange thing, how communities find themselves. The timing is mysterious, often frustrating or disheartening. But then the season miraculously arrives, people's heads clear, and there's a ripe readiness for making progress together. Let's enjoy it.

David Oates is the author of "City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary."