Keeping the Money in Our Neighborhoods, by Carter

January 1, 2020

Several Portland neighborhood associations—Multnomah Village, Kenton, and Mississippi—have received approval from Oregon State Governor Inca Gonzalez and Portland Mayor Sheila Sims to print their own money to use in selected businesses within their own neighborhood boundaries here in the city. "These initiatives will help keep money in our communities," Mayor Sims said, "while also helping to employ local people in local businesses, and helping us to track where people are spending their money." State and local officials have decided to partner together to stabilize Oregon economies after a recently-published multiyear study from the University of Oregon found that much of our state's earnings are being spent out of state with online businesses such as Amazon.com. Furthermore, online shopping was also found to be ecologically-damaging. "These online purchases, part of the world economy's 'globalization' movement for the past several decades," the report states, "have been proven to be environmentally destructive—as air, truck, and marine transport are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and therefore global warming." In response to these threats, the U of O report recommends that "customers try to buy locally in order to think globally."

This use of local currency is not unprecedented, of course. Governor Gonzalez points out that, "During the Great Depression in this country, many local currencies helped communities survive tough economic times." Local currencies have also been used for decades in places like Totnes, England, and Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

The Portland local currencies must be purchased at participating Oregon state banks and credit unions at a 1 = 1 rate, meaning that one U.S. dollar will buy one Multnomah Village Golden Ticket, one Kenton Greenback, or one Mississippi Moneybit. The local currencies can only be used at participating businesses, and most, though not all, businesses in the Multnomah Village, Kenton, and Mississippi neighborhoods are part of the programs. The neighborhood associations are cautioning customers to be mindful of the participating lists of businesses, easily found online, and to look for the "Accepted Here" logos hung in store windows and posted next to registers. So-called "big box stores," such as Home Depot, Best Buy, and Walmart as a rule of thumb do not participate in this program. All local coops such as Food Front Cooperative Grocery and Equal Exchange do participate, and have been vocal advocates of these local currency programs for years.

Mayor Sims does not want the public to be scared off by this new initiative. "People will immediately recognize how this works," she said. "The local currencies, in effect, act like gift certificates that people are used to buying." Once customers have the local currencies, they can easily purchase online from participating local Portland businesses or by using the QR Code Readers on their mobile devices.