Portland is a major music city. But we’re the only music city in America where the government and business community have completely ignored that identity. For decades, business and government leaders in our community have viewed the music industry as part of the arts, and treated the arts as a “nice to have” but never a necessity. At the same time, the arts have viewed music as a business, and excluded musicians from any form of public art dollars. A State of Oregon’s economic impact study showed that the music industry in Portland is worth over $3billion annually and provides jobs for more people and contributes more in taxes than salmon, timber, or cannabis.

The City of Austin is the “Live Music Capital of the World” only because their City Council voted to call it that and put a little music note on their street signs. We have more music venues and performing musicians than Austin or Nashville, all without any recognition.  

If we discovered a $3billion lithium mine in downtown Portland, we’d be a lithium city very quickly, and yet our music industry is largely ignored. It’s past time that we leverage this existing natural resource to help with economic development, community safety, tourism, investment, and a sense of public identity. This is about jobs, economic development, and public safety. This is about our identity as a city, and how we use that identity to lead to our shared prosperous future.