The Office of Neighborhood Involvement's Director, Amalia Alarcon deMorris and staff person, Paul Leistner, authored an article for the National Civic Review.  The article is titled From Neighborhood Association System to Participatory Democracy: Broadening and Deepening Public Involvement in Portland, Oregon.  

Citywide neighborhood systems are powerful public involvement tools—but, even the most developed neighborhood systems struggle to involve the full diversity of people in a community. Portland, Oregon has earned a national reputation for its strong tradition of neighborhood involvement and culture of participatory democracy. However, in recent years, many Portlanders, have felt left out or disconnected from civic life and local decision making.

Read the full article here.