 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
MEMO BLOG | |
Memo Calendar | Memo Pad | Business Memos | Loaves & Fishes | Letters | Home |
LEE PERLMAN
The Mid-county Memo
 |
| Mayoral candidate Jefferson Smith. COURTESY JEFFERSON SMITH FOR MAYOR |
Yet, he is up against one opponent who boasts two former terms on the Portland City Council, and another whose financial base includes the New Seasons Market chain she co-founded. The office blackboard says that among Smith's credentials are that he is “honest” and “realistic”. Honestly, the Memo asked the candidate, does he have a realistic chance in this race?
“I do,” Smith told the Memo. “We've gathered over 1,000 donors in four months, faster than any campaign in city history except for [those waged under the now-defunct] Voter Owned Elections. We have 700 volunteers.” As for the long green, “It's not just a matter of what we've raised, but what we've spent.” By being frugal, Smith says, he now has “about the same amount of money as any of the other candidates. We're spending carefully, in part because we want to win, but also in part because elections should not be auctions. We've received the endorsement of the strongest union in the city: AFSME [American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees]. We have a chance to build one of the most robust campaigns in the history of the city.”
Compared to his rivals, Smith says, “I have some advantages as a candidate. I am the only current elected official in the race with current political experience; not from the 1990s, but this decade.” (This is aimed at Charlie Hales.) As for Eileen Bradley, who has touted her experience at New Seasons, Smith counters that he started the Oregon Bus Project. “I was the chief executive, I met payrolls, I hired the staff, and I grew it from nothing to a going concern operating in four states.”
He adds, “It's not the most important fact that I'd be the first mayor elected from east of 82nd Avenue.”
Moreover, that area lags behind the rest of the city in many respects, with a lack of standard streets (or any at all), sidewalks, parks, and other resources. How can the city close the gap at a time when, due to budget cuts, it is struggling to maintain the services it already has?
“We need to be honest,” Smith says. “We can't immediately close the gap. But we can do better.” If federal stimulus dollars continue to flow, Mid-Multnomah County can expect to get more than the 0.5 percent of such funds they have received until now, Smith says. “We will have a broad-based transportation package that will include money for paving streets in east Portland. I will strongly support the efforts of the Parks Bureau to give us more investment. I will leverage my relations in state government to push [the Oregon Department of Transportation] to help us with Gateway Green. Most importantly, when public safety or planning issues are discussed, I will focus attention on east Portland.”
The Gateway Regional Center Urban Renewal Area has been in a conundrum from its inception. Experts from the consulting firm Parametrix and elsewhere say investment in the area, especially its heart, the old Prunedale District, (bounded by I-205 and 102nd Avenue, and Northeast Glisan and Southeast Stark streets), will lag until it is spruced up and has at least some of the amenities found elsewhere.
However, the district lacks the funds for such improvements because increases in property values due to improvements, the source of urban renewal tax increment funds, have not happened due to the reasons stated above. How do you jump-start this process?
“Businesses need customers, and that means we need jobs for Portlanders, specifically east Portlanders,” Smith says. He calls for community service agreements with new businesses to ensure they benefit their neighborhoods; nevertheless, how to get them here to begin with? “As Target closes,” Smith went on, “and the property owners are hunting for their next tenant, the next tenant will ask, 'Who are our customers?' They're moving to east Portland. The Gateway Education Center would be a big piece. The Elks Club site and the area around it give a big opportunity. So is the area around the new park on Halsey. We should be pushing [the Portland Development Commission] for more main street projects so that we can improve some of our local business districts. We should be making our neighborhood streets nice, safe places to live. We should be using smart community policing. We would push my plan to help avoid foreclosures, require banks and mortgage lenders to keep up their properties or pay their fair share for the foreclosures they do. I will make sure there are people on advisory boards who know east Portland well; I will bring people.
“But big picture first: We need to shift the economic development attention from just business recruitment to business development in Portland. Startups have been mostly in downtown Portland and the Pearl; we need to work aggressively to make east Portland an option.”
At times, urban renewal funds - in Gateway and elsewhere - were used for what many consider City Council members' pet projects that have little to do with the district's stated mission. How would Smith deal with this situation?
“We should use urban renewal funds based on focused priorities,” he says. “We should keep in mind the realities of east Portland and the economics of the districts.” He adds, “Segregating poverty doesn't separate us from its problems; it exacerbates them. We need to be sure that east Portland works for the families of children on free and reduced-price lunches “which are given to students below the poverty line,” for middle class seniors, middle class families looking for housing that they can afford.”
Still later, he added, “In the '90s people pushed a bunch of low-income housing on east Portland. Having gentrified inner North and Northeast Portland, the city is hastening the migration of the minority population that was displaced without a commitment or plan for neighborhood basics: sidewalks, streets, school facilities. I love the Gateway Community Center, but it's not the only thing needed.”
Among the missing facilities in Gateway are through streets. The city has developed a master street plan calling for property owners to dedicate land for through streets as they subdivide properties prior to development. Some property owners claim this could discourage development.
“We've got to make new streets, and make them more affordable,” Smith says. “We need a broad base that focuses on the basics of transportation systems so we don't have to rely on local landowners paying for street improvements. We do need a variety of options. If we're to pave 59 miles of unpaved streets, they can't all meet city standards. We shouldn't waste money building streets that people don't want, but a lot of people want streets.”
And some people want bike paths, but not all. There are plans for many new bike routes through east Portland. Some say this is long overdue. Others consider it a frivolous waste of money that should be spent on more important priorities. How does Mr. Smith feel about this?
He feels there is a need to ensure bicycle and walking safety, and notes that three people were killed trying to walk on 122nd Avenue. Moreover, he says, “If we can help separate the bikes from the cars, it's good not just for the bikes, but for the cars as well.” He adds that he worked on the MAX action project to make things “safer on and around MAX platforms, which would help both commuters and local businesses.”
When most Portlanders speak of public schools, they mean the Portland School District. What would Smith do for the city's other public school districts?
“Had I been mayor, we wouldn't have closed Marshall High School without a robust effort to make an agreement with east Portland school districts for its use,” he says. “There were $11 million made available for loans for subsidized energy efficiency retrofitting last year, and this time we'd make sure that Parkrose, David Douglas, Centennial and Reynolds got to apply; that didn't happen last time. While the mayor and I agree on some things, one thing we disagree on was the city's failure to include the east Portland districts in this program.”
Smith continues, “I served on the Ways and Means subcommittee for the general government, which oversees the budget for the general treasuries of the state. I get what's going on. Not everyone in the city drives an expensive car or buys $4 tomatoes. We need a city that works for everyone.” He said he had supported legislation to have public funds deposited in local banks and credit unions “so that we can be a little freer from the whims of Wall Street. I get what's going on, and I can get it done”.
“But you need to not just vote for me, but participate. I don't think the City Commissioners are bad, I don't think they don't care. But most of the lobbying is not focused on east Portland. I urge people to get involved. Go to your neighborhood association, come to City Hall, come to the meetings I'll hold in east Portland on issues and problems they care about.”
This raised another question for us: With all this east Portland focus, is there a reason for the rest of the city to vote for Smith?
“When I got into this race, there were a couple of smart people who suggested I not talk about east Portland too much,” Smith replied. “The neighborhoods here have less money and are less powerful, they said. It sounded smart at first, but then it started to sound false. I have made my case in parties and forums across the city. Southwest Portland, say, will always have the ears of all four commissioners and the mayor. There are unpaved roads in east Portland and Southwest. MAX lines stretch the breadth of the city. The tax base and economics are all linked. It's not east Portland versus west Portland; it's that for Portland to work, all of Portland needs to work, and that includes east Portland.
“And the Mid-county Memo will continue to have access to me when I'm mayor.”
We were not worried.
There is an old debater's strategy that goes, “If you're not comfortable answering the question you've been asked, find one you are comfortable with and answer that instead.” At times, notably in response to the “conundrum” of the Gateway Urban Renewal District, Smith seems to stray a bit from the question at hand. He also volunteers much that he was not asked. This last could be ascribed to his eagerness to get his point across. Perhaps he heeds singer Phil Ochs' advice, “So I'd like to make a promise, and I'd like to make a vow/That if I have something to say, sir, I'm gonna say it now.”
 |
 |
 |
MEMO Advertising | MEMO Archives | MEMO Web Neighbors | MEMO Staff | Home