PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Portland City Council unanimously adopted a resolution this week to make Lviv, Ukraine Portland’s newest “friendship city.”
Tatiana Terdal, a representative of the Ukrainian Foundation, the Ukrainian-American Cultural Association of Oregon and Southwest Washington, and a resident of Portland for almost 20 years, spoke about Lviv’s culture at Wednesday’s meeting.
“I have lived, worked and volunteered in both Portland and Lviv and I love both of these cities,” Terdal said. “They are very different, at the same time, they share a lot of things in common and I think there’s a really good background for a strong, mutually beneficial city city relationship.”
Located in Western Ukraine near the Polish border, Lviv was founded in the 13th century. Derived from the Ukrainian word for lion, “lev,” Lviv is known as “The City of Lions.” Lviv, Terdal said, is also a major political, cultural, economic and educational hub for Western Ukraine. The city’s population is comparable to Portland’s, with a baseline population of more than 700,000 people. However, the city’s population has reportedly grown by another 200,000 people in the past year, as the Russian invasion continues to push refugees into the city.
Sister city and friendship city relationships were established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 as a way to kindle friendships between U.S. citizens and people of foerign nations through direct contact. Sister city status is considered for approval after an interested nonprofit made up of Portland citizens demonstrates to the City of Portland that it can maintain an active city-to-city relationship.
Portland currently has nine sister cities, including Sapporo, Japan; Guadalajara, Mexico; Ulsan, South Korea; Ashkelon, Israel; Suzhou, China; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Khabarovsk, Russia; Mutare, Zimbabwe; and Bologna, Italy. Following Wednesday’s meeting, Portland currently has two friendship cities: Utrecht, Netherlands and Lviv, Ukraine.
After a friendship city status is approved, the involved nonprofit must periodically submit reports to Portland’s Director of International Relations to show that financial and staffing requirements are consistently met. After a year of friendship status, the city council can vote to make the city an official sister city of Portland.
Following the passage of the resolution, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said that sister city relationships are more important now than ever before.
“I believe fundamentally that sister city relationships are critically important, because this is how we reduce conflict between nations,” Wheeler said. “It’s familiarity, and sharing, and exchange — whether its educational opportunities, cultural opportunities, economic opportunities, or other personal ties and connections — that bind us. When things get tough, for example, when somebody decides they want to start a war, then it’s up to people to intervene, and we do so more passionately when we know [the people involved].”