I am sorry to announce that as of today May 1st, 2024, I am officially ending my campaign for Portland City Council. I do not have the resources to run an effective campaign against an ever-widening field of committed candidates. I want to thank everyone who supported me, and I hope that Portland will elect strong progressive voices to lead the city to a better place.
The proposed Burnside One would provide 728 units of affordable housing.
The question is what is considered "Affordable" The building would serve those who earn 60% or less of the area’s median income. The median income in Portland is $85,876.
What about those who have little or no income?
More housing units are needed, but some alternatives are less expensive to build and will serve the most needy of our fellow citizens.
Portland's Future
Much of the talk about Portland's future centers around the need for more affordable housing units. Through housing bonds, tax incentives, and the easing of building codes, developers and big banks will continue to thrive at taxpayers' expense, without solving the increasing problem of homelessness. More units are important, but the investment must also serve the city and its residents.
Creating a State Bank is one of the most Progressive and Fiscally responsible ways to make sure that tax revenues benefit the city, and not just the business interests. To better understand this need, please review the testimony in support of the bill in the last legislative session calling for formation of a state public banking study committee, HB2763 https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Measures/Testimony/HB2763
Climate Change is not the only problem facing Portland
“Stop blaming the climate for disasters,” says Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, a climatologist who is co-founder of World Weather Attribution. She is determined to call out climate change where it contributes to disaster but cautions that “disasters occur when hazards [such as climate change] meet vulnerability.” And vulnerability has many causes, including bad forest management, unplanned urbanization, and social injustices that leave the poor and marginalized at risk.
In Portland we face an even more ominous fate. Seismologists say there's about a 37% chance that a 7.1 magnitude or higher earthquake will happen along the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Oregon and Washington coast sometime in the next 50 years. https://temblor.net/earthquake-insights/portland-seismic-hazards-subduction-zones-local-faults-15392/
Whether or not the next earthquake is the big one or a close one, more than 2 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area, many of whom would be at risk. There would be more than 18,000 fatalities in Oregon from the tsunami caused by a subduction zone earthquake alone. The Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup also forecasts direct and indirect economic losses could exceed $70 billion.
We need to support and increase the state-funded seismic rehabilitation grant to help schools and emergency response facilities become seismically safe. In 2019 alone, $200 million was given in grants through the seismic rehabilitation grant program to retrofit schools and emergency buildings.
https://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/courses/geog492s14/Projects/03_ChandlerDonohueEarthquakes_web.pdf
Contact
If you want to know more or share your thoughts please get in touch.
Text or call: 971.346.0062