Tom McCall Waterfront Park borders the Willamette River as it flows along downtown Portland. The park opened in 1978, replacing Harbor Drive, a semi-freeway that separated the city from the then severely-polluted river. Waterfront Park was given its name to honor Tom McCall who served two terms as Oregon’s governor, from 1967 to 1975. Gov. McCall’s enduring legacy is his advocacy of land-use planning and his anti-pollution leadership.
Oh, and Tom McCall was a Republican.
Born to Boston Brahmin stock, Tom McCall spent childhood summers on the family estate near Prineville Oregon. He became known to the public via stints as reporter for The Oregonian newspaper, KEX radio and KGW radio and television stations. In 1962, he produced for TV “Pollution in Paradise.” The award-winning documentary called for measures to abate air and water pollution in the Willamette River watershed and throughout the state.
As Oregon’s Republican governor, McCall was an outspoken champion of anti-pollution measures. He visited Cannon Beach where a hotel had fenced off the a portion of the beach as reserved for only their guests and literally drew a line in the sand to increase voter support for the “Beach Bill,” codifying Oregon beaches as open to the public.
During the oil embargo of the 1970s, he concocted the odd-even scheme to alleviate long lines to purchase gasoline: if your license plate ended in an odd number, you could fill up on odd-numbered days, even-numbered plates on even-numbered days.
He pushed the “Bottle Bill” through the Legislature, making Oregon the first to require deposits on beverage containers.
McCall advocated for creation of the Land Conservation and Development Commission and signed it into law. He instigated Urban Growth Boundaries, preserving farmland.
He signed legislation establishing the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (D.E.Q.) and was the agency’s first administrator.
Fast forward to 2020. The Oregon Legislature has convened for a thirty-five-day session. The Democratic majority, as they had promised their constituents, has introduced carbon cap-and-trade legislation to reduce fossil-fuel emissions. The bill was revised from their unsuccessful 2019 version. Republicans, as they did in 2019, are hiding out, absent from the session so as to prevent a quorum. (They still get paid for not showing up for work.) Rather than debate or negotiate, their inaction exhibits the Republican core value of blocking anything that would lengthen earth’s time of hospitality to living things. Of course, this prevents any other business such as the constitution-mandated budget.
One wonders what Governor Tom McCall would think about this.
