Portland’s slogan is ‘The City that Works,” made official by the city council in 1995. The slogan was printed on city vehicles along with a telephone number for people to call if there are any service complaints.
 
The city of Chicago, Illinois has been called “The City that Works” since the 1970s, but neither city has trademarked the slogan.
 
   
Portland.com
City Slogan
“The City That Works”
In 1995 the Portland City Council selected “The City that Works” as a new slogan for City government. The slogan resulted from a contest among City workers for suggestions to make the city more efficient and customer-service oriented. Parks Bureau community relations director came up with the new slogan to go on all city vehicles. The slogan, “The City that Works,” is accompanied by the city/county information and referral line number, 503-823-4000, and the name of the bureau that operates the vehicle.
         
Google Books
Sustaining Urban Excellence:
Learning from the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, 1987-1993
By the Bruner Foundation
Cambridge, MA: Bruner Foundation
1998  
Pg. 82:
Downtown Portland is clean, the public infrastructure is well maintained and the streets feel safe. The slogan on the city trucks is: “the city that works.”
 
theStranger 
August 28, 2006
Seattle’s Hottest New Hood
Why Our Musicians Are Moving to Portland
by Barbara Mitchell
(...)
City vehicles in Portland are outfitted with the motto “Portland—The City That Works.” It’s a popular joke that it should be reworked to “Portland—The City That Works Part-Time.” The cost of living is still low enough to support an incredibly vibrant artistic community. Part-time jobs mean more free time for creative pursuits, and low rents throughout the city put everyone in closer proximity to one another and therefore better able to experience and perhaps to collaborate on others’ art.
 
KATU.com
Storm may challenge Oregon’s ‘city that works’
By MARY HUDETZ Associated Press Writer Published: Dec 12, 2008 at 9:36 PM PDT Last Updated: Dec 13, 2008 at 1:03 AM PDT
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A winter storm bearing down on Oregon may test the slogan of its biggest city, which bills itself as ‘the city that works.’
 
Straight Dope Chicago
What’s the origin of “the city that works”?
September 3, 2009
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The April 5, 1971 issue of Newsweek featured Richard J. Daley on the cover, and inside, spread across two pages, a photo of Daley and his entourage marching eleven abreast on St. Patrick’s Day. Admittedly the headline below this read, “Chicago’s Daley: How to Run a City,” so there my memory had failed me. (It was 38 years ago, sue me.)  However, adjacent to the headline, immediately beneath the photo, the text of the article read as follows:

This is not to suggest, reports Newsweek correspondent Frank Maier, that Daley’s Chicago enraptures every resident or inspires every visitor to leave his heart behind. But it is a demonstrable fact that Chicago is that most wondrous of exceptions — a major American city that actually works.
 
The last bit was repeated in an editor’s note at the front of the magazine. Beyond a doubt this article was the vehicle by which “the city that [actually] works” entered common currency. The phrase began turning up in Chicago newspapers by 1972, first appeared in the Washington Post in 1974 and in the New York Times in 1975, and figured in the lead of obituaries nationwide following Daley’s death in 1976.
   
KOINLocal6.com
Portland to enforce fishing ban on downtown waterfront
Reported by: Sally Showman
Published: 6/13 6:54 pm
(...)
COMMENTS
NoFishingNoFun - 6/15/2012 6:58 AM
WOW. This is how our government serves the people? The City that Works? We need a new crew ASAP if this is where their time and energy is going.