Jayne’s Three-Point Plan For A Flourishing Portland
Portland has strong planning roots that we can rely on to help City Hall become less reactionary and more purposeful in these challenging times.
• Point 1 •
Create A Shared Vision
Portland City Council must focus on crafting a vision and plan for Portland’s future - moving out of reactionary decision making and moving towards a more abundant future. This plan will help the council prioritize services during the inevitable next round of budget cuts.
How I will participate in this important first step:
If elected, on January 1st, I will step forward with funds from my councilor budget to jumpstart a planning process for councilors to craft a more unified vision for Portland’s future and create priorities for addressing budget shortfalls in the next budget cycle.
I will invite all other councilors to allocate their budget to this planning process and form a committee to guide the process.
Portland has strong planning roots that we can rely on to help City Hall become less reactionary and more purposeful in these challenging times.
Oregon & Portland have a history of successful planning:
Land use planning laws resulting in our world renowned public beaches;
Our region’s light-rail system, between 1986-2015, coordinated between all levels of government to securing funding for the 5 Max lines;
Portland’s nationally recognized park system, thanks to the Olmsted plan.
Our current planning challenges:
Economic headwinds are strong; tax revenue is declining;
Downtown has not revived since the pandemic;
People are leaving the city;
The tax burden is high on individuals and businesses;
The federal government is restricting funds.
• Point 2 •
Prosperity Through Living Wage Jobs
The metro-region unemployment rate is nearly 5% compared to 4.1% in the USA. The cost of living in Portland is 19% higher than the national average. Portland citizens need living wage jobs in order to thrive and afford the relatively high cost of living here.
Short-term:
The City of Portland needs to identify large-scale immediate opportunities for living wage job centers. Examples would be:
The Moda Center and Lloyd Center redevelopment creating construction wage jobs;
Assessing Ross Island restoration for green jobs;
Assessing legal action to secure Albina Vision Trust’s Biden $.5 billion administration funds for restorative development resulting in construction jobs.
We will need to strike a balance between supporting this job creation and neighborhood and climate impacts.
Mid-term:
Vacancy in downtown is at 37% - fully twice the surrounding cities. Here are some possible solutions that are already being implemented and could be expanded as part of a revitalization vision:
Prosper Portland’s program to incentivize businesses to occupy empty storefronts has generated a lot of interest. Expand that program;
Arts Destination: Many ideas for venues and private enterprise in the arts and entertainment arena are surfacing. Assess market conditions to help guide the city’s investment in arts destinations.
Longer-term:
Small business owners are an integral, creative force in this City. 99% of all business in Oregon are small. I would undertake a listening strategy to tap into their ideas for growing this city’s economy.
• Point 3 •
Sustained Investment In Safe Parks, Community Centers, Trails, and Shopping Districts
Gathering together is essential in our increasingly technology-oriented world, and we need to continue investing in protecting and enhancing the infrastructure of our gathering place
Portland planned for its parks over 100 years ago with the Olmsted Plan.
That legacy created one of the foundational reasons people move to and stay in Portland. Portlanders love our parks and want to keep them accessible and safe for residents and visitors.
Parks has a $747 million backlog.
I will explore ways that do not overly-burden the taxpayer to reduce that backlog, including:
Stairstepping a meaningful percentage of the Parks budget towards repairing our infrastructure;
This will build trust with voters, which will make future measures more likely to be supported;
This will take some amount of time to accomplish. I will advocate for a ten-year plan to reduce the backlog by 35% with regular reports to citizens updating on progress.
Public Private Partnerships for improving the city.
The City’s work is enormous. Budgets are tight. I support empowering citizens to help do the work of the city, via competitive grant programs through the neighborhood associations;
Citizens are ready to help do the work of the city. Oversight of these programs is essential to ensure the citizens know how their money is being spent.
• Other Immediate Concerns •
Safety:
I’ve been listening to Portland residents. Many do not feel safe in their communities. I have heard some harrowing stories of awaiting arrival of the police in emergent situations.
A city’s ultimate safety comes from a strong social fabric and not a police state. However, response times are high.
I would propose stairstepping our way to increase police officers - currently 1.46 per thousand residents - to 2.2 per thousand, with the requirement that these officers are hired to reduce response times.
Housing/Houselessness:
I hear a lot from constituents about homelessness, and also about the steep cost of housing.
I would start addressing this by working with Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) to hold our nonprofit partners accountable and provide more oversight.
The properties managed by partners such as Home Forward are in crisis. PHB must step in and propose a solution to address the problems posed by challenges.
37% of the office space downtown is vacant. The Bureau of Development Services should explore streamlining permitting to convert those spaces to housing.
Building Trust in elected City Officials through fiscal responsibility/accountability:
I will work to rebuild public trust with elected officials.
According to a recent study by Oregon Values and Belief Center, Portlanders don’t place a high degree of trust in their City Councilors.
If elected, I will provide a one-page, easy-to-read annual report on how I spent the $1.5 million budget each city councilor is allocated. This report will be emailed to folks in my district. Limited printed copies will also be available and upon request.
I will look for ways to utilize my allocated budget to:
Collaborate with others, including other city councilors, the district 4 neighborhood coalition, and business associations, through already-established competitive grant programs;
A strategic planning process by City Council;
Potential budget tracking of staff to help elected officials provide needed oversight to the City Budget.
I will push for more clear reporting from agencies and tax levies that help voters understand where their tax dollars have been spent.
I will create an online guide for people to understand where their property tax dollars go, with links to annual reports for each tax line item updated each year.
I will hiring budget analysts. I will utilize my office budget and collaborate with other interested councilors to review agency budgets & nonprofit partners, and report back so that I have extra eyes on how the money is being spent.