Future Portland: District 1 Candidates
Sunday August 25th @ Von Ebert Brewing
Future Portland: District 1 Candidates
Here we are at last. It’s Part 4 of the Future Portland candidate events. This week we met candidates for District 1 at Von Ebert Brewing’s Glendoveer Location. East Portland finally gets a voice on the city council and they are ready for it. Here are the notes with bonus illustrations from a special guest, but you’ll need to read all the way to the end:
Mayoral candidate Rene Gonzalez opened the event. He’s a current city commissioner and a 5th generation Portlander. His big pitch was “creating an environment that honors our past but also focuses on our future.”
His portfolio in City Hall includes the “Safety Bureaus” during our fentanyl crisis.
He acknowledges overdoses are “crushing our safety systems” and having so many unsanctioned campsites is a large part of that.
He wants to move people from camps into shelters as fast as possible to ease some of that burden.
He wants to “return joy to the city” while “holding the line on our core values” and making a “safe city for all Portlanders.”
He wants to bring more private capital to East Portland instead of government subsidies. He plans on “selling the story of Portland,” making us more attractive through livability improvements.
When asked how he views the new office of the Mayor, Gonzalez explained there are “much clearer responsibilities and divisions now.” He sees the changes not so much as a reduction of power but an increase in clarity and accountability.
He admitted public safety is “currently a failure” and cheered for Nathan Vasquez. He also said something that stuck out to me:
“Homeowners and business owners are stakeholders in decisions about homelessness.”
It often feels like the government, non-profits, and homeless advocates have been the only voices at the table. We pay taxes, that money goes to non-profits, and we need to shut up about it and let the “experts” do their jobs. Years later, nothing has improved, and none of these groups are accountable to us. We don’t know where the money went, or even worse, we do…
Gonzalez had a lot of support in the room. Speaking to East Portlanders, I’ve met a lot of his supporters and a number of Keith Wilson fans. Mapps and Rubio have not been part of the conversation.
The Candidates
We had a similar situation to District 4. The candidates had a lot in common and seem clear on their vision.
Here are the common callouts mentioned by almost everyone:
Safety and Livability
Bringing private investment and industry to East Portland.
Coalition building and “getting stuff done.”
Being available and accountable to the public.
The unique problems of East Portland and making sure to address these at the city level and listening to East Portlanders.
Noah Ernst was first up, so he got to hit the public safety and livability issues early. He wants a 33% increase in police officers, which is close to the 1200 Mapps asked for. He wants to listen to business owners to find out what will bring them back to Portland. He cited the current homeless population at around 11,000. He also referenced a $62,000 cost per homeless Portlander, joking that it would be cheaper to put them on a Carnival Cruise year-round. He wants more accountability and results for our homeless programs. If we’re paying this much, the problem should be getting better, not worse.
Cayle Tern is a civic engagement manager for APANO. His speech was “community” forward. He’s the only candidate I’ve met calling out specific needs of Asian American communities in East Portland. A lot of what he had to say about homeless services echoed Eli Arnold of District 4. For example, giving people an address (sanctioned campsite, tiny home, shelter, etc) will help with follow up services. He pushed for expanded mental health services, community policing, and funding Portland Street Response to 24hrs. Tern was the least comfortable of the speakers, although he found his stride toward the end. He didn’t wow me, but he has a lot of overlap with great candidates (Arnold for example) and could work well with them.
Deian Salazar brings autism and foster care representation to the race. His rapid fire speaking style allowed him to squeeze a lot of ideas into a tiny speaking window. Attracting more medical and mental health professionals, creating a one stop shop for homeless services instead of a confusing web of different offices/non-profits, and a consolidated non-profit info hub were some highlights. He also brought up changing Portland’s image as a “college town” by pushing for more alternative career pathways.
Steph Routh is a nice progressive from a blue collar background. She’s lived in East Portland her whole life. She’s all about face-to-face conversations with neighbors. She wants more hyper-local small economic districts and much easier permitting for small business owners. I got a lot of “neighborhood main streets” vibes from her, which I love. She’s easy to talk to, and I got a genuine first impression. She also canvassed for Angelita Morillo, endorsed Chad Lykins, and her instagram shows more. Nice ain’t everything, and in this case, it’s nothing at all.
Jamie Dunphy worried me going in. He felt like the same flavor of progressive that Routh is. He was a teacher, specializing in gang and violence prevention. He left that career because the system was “too broken.” He did disability benefits work in Nick Fish’s office. He also works for the American Cancer Society. He’s running because he’s tired of watching East Portlanders “vote for great things only to watch them fail.” That’s the part of the speech where he started to shine. He’s a progressive who admits Portland is terrible at “progressive” policies. He wants to “hit the ground running and show meaningful results” because Portlanders have lost trust in these policies. I hit him up for a follow up question on the Portland DSA and he replied with this gem:
I have not been endorsed by nor have I sought the endorsement of DSA. I'm unapologetically a progressive, but I believe that my record and campaign demonstrate that I'm exceptionally reasonable and laser focused on real, tangible, results that actually make people's lives better.
I'm deeply disinterested in performative politics, and have built my career on coalition building and solving problems and delivering results.
So he's not my first choice, but if you identify as a “progressive District 1 voter,” or have friends who do, he’s worth a look.
Loretta Smith is known to most of East Portland already. She’s a former county commissioner and her family has lived in East Portland forever. She’s a career politician and it shows. The speech was solid. All the major points above were covered. She’s pro police and public safety and she led the Wapato Shelter push along with Eric Zimmerman from District 4. Kafoury helped squash that and part of me wants to get Zimmerman and Smith on the council as revenge for what could have been. The leadership of Kafoury, and later JVP, at the county level has been disastrous, but there were voices fighting them. We should keep that context in mind.
Terrence Hayes is my favorite candidate in the entire race. I won’t hide it. He didn’t rehearse his speech. He came out swinging - no microphone needed.
We need to hold Portland police accountable for issue in Portland, not punish them over bad actors in other cities.
We are 400-500 officers short of where we need to be.
“[East Portlanders] are tired. We just want peace.”
“We have to fight to regain the narrative of this community.”
He told a story about a mother whose son was involved in a shooting, the effort to get him out of town for his safety, and the distrust toward those trying to help. “What’s the catch?”
“You need leadership that is going to care for East Portland the way you all have been doing on your own for years.”
A commitment to listening to Portlanders, not “bringing his own nonsense” into every situation.
It was short, loud, and punchy. He’s committed to representing East Portland, not running it. He has heavy support from Rene Gonzalez, many council candidates, and pockets of people around the city who can’t even vote for him (myself included). He’s everywhere. Only Bob Weinstein covers more ground than this guy. Terrence is the sort of candidate who makes a political race exciting.
My Post-Event Ranking:
Mayor
City Council - District 1
It’s gonna be a “no” from me.
The DSA List - what’s worse than “no”?
The End
That’s it! Thanks for reading all four of these. I’ll be meeting with more Portlanders over the next few weeks as I put together my endorsements and anti-endorsements. We’ll also need to see who drops out as November draws near.
And now, your bonus illustrations from my anonymous freelance illustrator:
