The world is a complicated place. Of course, you don’t need
me to tell you that.
On my way home from work this week I stopped and talked to
an elderly woman sleeping on the streets in Old Town. “Besides my aching back
all I really need is a long, hot bath and a nice quiet place to read,” the
woman told me. “I really don’t need a lot.”
Her attitude, all things considered, was still optimistic.
Nothing about her life was simple. “Nothing ever is,” she told me. “This storm
will pass.”
There’s been a storm brewing in Portland over the recent
proposed transportation street fee. The fee, proposed by transportation
commissioner Steve Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales, has been met with some
fierce resistance among both the business community and poverty advocates,
including Street Roots. There’s been a great deal of civic debate. There’s also
been a lot of mudslinging.
It’s a complicated debate and easy to get caught up in the
rhetoric. Saying that, it’s also important to put things into perspective.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that this city council
worked together to pass a balanced budget that supports Portland’s community,
including allocating an additional $2.2 million toward our most vulnerable
citizens.
Steve Novick, yes, that Steve Novick, the one you think
doesn’t care about Portlanders right now because he wants to pass the street
fee, has been leading a committee for the past year charged with advising City
Hall about how to implement its socially responsible investment principles.
What does that mean?
It means rolling back the city’s investments in businesses
such as Wal-Mart, and other socially irresponsible corporations. The committee
is specifically looking at health and environmental concerns, abusive labor
practices, corrupt corporate ethic and governance, among others. The City of
Portland’s entire investment portfolio currently ranges from $940 million to
$1.29 billion and averages about $1.08 billion during the year. We’re not
talking about a commissioner that isn’t thinking in very smart ways on how to
improve the lives of poor and working Oregonians. We’re talking about an
elected official working to create real social change.
We also can’t forget both Charlie Hales and Amanda Fritz’s
work to stand by Portland’s Right 2 Dream Too, one of Portland’s two tent
cities. Talk about political risk. Name me another mayor and a city council in
the United States supporting homeless people in their effort to purchase their
own land and I’ll eat my words.
Saying that, nothing is black and white when it comes to
equality.
That’s why housing advocates, who on one hand work with the
city, will also be protesting laws targeting people experiencing homelessness
this weekend during the Rose Festival. Homeless people will soon be swept out
of Waterfront Park for the month of June during the festival. Homeless folks in
turn, will reclaim the streets for a day during the parade.
Then there’s the Airbnb and the short-term rental debate.
Some believe that expanding the short-term rental industry will further spur
gentrification.
Companies such as Airbnb and VRBO help facilitate renting
thousands of homes, or dwellings to visitors for 30 days or less. Many of those
rentals are for very short periods of time, like an extended weekend.
Street Roots and a growing coalition of folks think any
lodging tax collected from the short-term rentals should go right back into
affordable housing. It’s complicated.
Concerning the street fee — well, we have until November to
figure it out. Like it or not, I think we can. Aren’t you for better
streetlights, sidewalks and safe roads? I am. The devil will be in the details
and if we come together as a community we can get there.
After that Portland, it’s easy breezy. All we have to do is
get the Feds to adequately fund local governments, to challenge Oregon
legislatures to take on real tax reform, raise the minimum wage, adequately
fund our mental health and housing system, end childhood poverty, reform our
drug laws and immigration policy, create real police oversight and tackle that
thing called climate change. Did I mention equity for all, as in everyone? I’m
sure I missed something, or someone.
My point is, both Portland residents and elected officials
are working to make our city the best it can be. Do we always get it right? Of
course not, but who among us has a track record of always getting things right?
Like our friend on the street says: Nothing is simple,
nothing ever is. This storm will pass.
This article appears in 2014-06-06.