PRIORITIES
I am running City Council for District 1 because I believe that Portland needs change in more than just the form of city government, we need new ideas. It’s time to be committed to results, rather than ideology.
Engagement
My most important priority is and will always be to listen to the residents of East Portland and to represent and advocate for them to the best of my ability.
Homelessness
Portland used to be renowned as one of the most livable cities in the nation. However, as the cost of living and taxes have increased, livability has deteriorated, and homelessness has reached a crisis state. We need to hold the City, Counties, and Metro accountable for ensuring that the programs they fund actually end the homeless crisis in Portland by addressing not just the lack of housing, which is extremely important, but also the intersecting issues of mental health, substance use, and trauma.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent and we have more homeless people on the streets than ever. It is time to demand that the programs we fund get results! We need to fight in Salem to remove HB 3115 to allow Oregon cities the freedom they need to regulate camping. We need to create more designated camping areas where we can efficiently provide services, including the basics like clean water, sanitation, garbage cleanup, and security.
Public Safety
Increasing crime is a concern for all of us. We need to insist on transparency and accountability from law enforcement while also supporting and empowering them in performing their difficult job.
Portland has too few officers. We need at least 400 additional officers just to get within the per-capita national average for a city the size of Portland. Portland needs enough officers so that they can respond quickly and appropriately to calls and reduce or eliminate 911 hold times.
I am committed to public safety and will work to address the property crime, vandalism, public drug use, theft, and violence in our city that Is impacting so many. Portland must be safe for all its residents and businesses. I believe we need take so-called “minor” crimes like shoplifting seriously because they affect us all every day, whether through the multiple stores that have closed citing rampant theft, or the reality that everything we want to purchase must now be locked up. In addition, we need to do more traffic enforcement and get unsafe, unregistered, and uninsured vehicles and unlicensed drivers off the streets. We need to continue to aggressively target street takeovers, excessive speeding, and impaired driving.
Transportation
Portland is high on the list of cities with the worst traffic in the nation. We need elected officials who think this is a problem, rather than a goal. I believe that we need to stop punishing people for driving, especially in East Portland where residents are least likely to live close to where they work, have further to go to buy groceries and take their children to school, and where the city has made the least investment in public transportation. Stop removing lanes of traffic on main thoroughfares and impeding the flow of traffic. Restore lanes that have been removed. Fix the potholes.
It is time for City Hall to stop listening exclusively to the special interest groups who believe we all need to get out of our cars. Listen to the neighborhoods around the streets. Listen to the people who use them. Listen to the businesses located on them. People are angry! They hate what is being done! Businesses are suffering! Even bicyclists are complaining that cars are leaving the now congested main streets and using the adjacent “bike boulevards” causing unnecessary and dangerous conflict with riders.
It is time to stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on transportation programs like Vision Zero, that has failed in every single city in the U.S. that has adopted it inducing Portland. PBOT’s own data shows traffic fatalities have doubled since it was introduced! Stop funding what we know doesn’t work!
Support Small Businesses
I am dedicated to returning Portland to a place where small business wants to be located and where they can thrive.
We can’t grow and succeed as a community without a healthy economy, and Portland’s small business community is the foundation of economic life In the city.