Progress Portland

Ballots are here, it's time to vote! Here's our guide to voting in District 3. If you've listened to our previous endorsement episodes, you might want to scan forward 7 min 30 to skip the general endorsement information we featured in previous episodes. 

Hey everyone. We're releasing a series of quick check-ins with some of the candidates we've endorsed, starting with this confab with Chris Flanary running in D3. Our D3 Voter Guide is coming soon, followed by D4. Now's the time to get involved and tell all your friends who you're voting for. And remember, don't rank Rene!    

Hey everyone, if you listened to our last episode, the D1 Voter Guide, skip ahead in this episode to 7:30. The first half is the same as a briefing to voters in each district.  North Portlanders, this is for you! District 2 stretches from St. Johns to 82nd in the north and down to Highway 84 in the south. There are 22 candidates running in the district, and we've selected our top 3 and discuss a f...

Kip and Tim review everything you need to know about the upcoming election, and why they are supporting Steph Routh, Candace Avalos, and Timur Ender for the District 1 City Council positions. 

“When you’re thinking about City Councilors that would work really well in this new model, you want people who really are focused on relationship-building, and listening to each other, building a culture of collaboration.” - Tiffany Koyama Lane, D3 candidate   Tiffany Koyama Lane joins us. Back when she was campaigning for the Preschool for All campaign, she picked up the nickname Teacher Tiffany....

Kip and Tim are back with District 4 candidate Mitch Green.  It's looking like District 4 is where things get serious in the upcoming election. The more conservative candidates (and the big money) are focused on D4 because it encompasses downtown. Mitch Green is one of a handful of progressive candidates, and many of the other candidates told us we had to talk to him. He has a unique perspective a...

“Growing up here, I always had something to go to late. Coming back during the beginning of Covid, the biggest shock to me was how many of the places I used to go no longer exist or are replaced by businesses that closed at 7 or 8 instead of 10 or 11… I want to support the idea that staying open late is an economic benefit thing AND it’s a safety thing. And we can temporarily incentivize those bus...

“One of the things I’d really like to see the new City Council do is be more of a leader in the collaboration and the coordination of things, instead of saying, “Here’s a bucket of money that we want to do this, go and do it!”, actually being a leader in how this is going to be done, (…) following through on making sure that we are(…) getting those outcomes that we were intending to get when we se...

"I would like to see a rent freeze for at least the next two years. That's a very controversial statement, unfortunately. That might get me some scrutiny from some groups, but we can't catch up right now." - Jeremy Beausoleil Smith At 27, Jeremy Beausoleil Smith is one of the youngest candidates running for City Council, and is the youngest running in District 4. Like his fellow Gen Zers, climate...

You can’t really understand a problem until you start to interact with it…In complex environments, your analysis will never be complete until you start doing something It’s better to be 80% right at the right time than 100% right too late.” - Lisa Freeman Lisa Freeman has a very particular set of skills, and she's not afraid to use them (sorry, couldn't help myself). She's an expert at managing po...

Allison Gilliland joins Tim for a conversation over the internets from Ireland, where she is currently a City Councilor. Allison was a speaker at a recent event hosted by North Star Civic Foundation to talk about Ireland's switchover to ranked-choice voting and their long history of district representation (they have SIXTY-THREE City Councilors!) One correction, Gilliland misstates that we have 13...

Hey everyone, we're back without a guest this week to talk about what we're seeing so far this election, what traits we think make good candidates, and efforts underway to save Portland Street Response. Check out our website for more information, and tell your friends about the podcast! 

"I've had a lot of conversations since I started thinking about running, and part of the joy of being a part-time bus driver is that I full up all my other time with meetings, and talking to people in the community...I think it's really all about the authenticity about what I learned over the years at Reverend Nat's: do things I want to do, make ciders I want to make, talk about business, talk abo...

"When we end somebody's homelessness, we don't end their poverty. So we really need to continue to look at ways to keep people inside once they are there, and increase their economic income whether they are on a permanent subsidy like Social Security or disability income. How do we insure that they are in a subsidized place so that they can stay for the long term?"  - Shannon Singleton Did you kno...

"The way [City Council] is structured, it allows them to disregard the community's voice. And so I'm hoping that now, with this new form of government, not only will you have your representative in your backyard, you'll have a much closer connection to them. But also they're going to be more policy-driven, and so that's where the community's voice is most important." - Candace Avalos Candace Avalo...

"This old idea of, 'We'll just double the penalty, triple the penalty - one time you're out." Nobody knows what the penalties are, much less the people who we're prosecuting for a lot of these crimes. They're not tracking the decisions being made in the Legislative session. So we fool ourselves into thinking, "oh, I'm going to say these tough on crime things, they'll read the papers and sit down a...

“Working people, average Portlanders, are left to wonder who exactly our government is working for when certain politicians seem to be listening more to the largest corporations or the wealthy few who are really accustomed to dominating politics through their campaign contributions…we deserve a government that works for all of us, no matter how far we live from City Hall.” – Robin Ye   Robin Ye wa...

Hey everyone, this is a re-play of our interview with Steph Routh, City Council candidate for District 1. She was our very first interview, and with her campaign launch happening today we thought it was worth a re-listen. We talk about what makes the East Side different, building consensus when things are contentious, and, of course, housing and houselessness. 

"I'm not sure if people realize this, but East Portlanders have about 10 years lower life expectancy than the rest of the city. And that's due to traffic crashes, gun violence, historic disinvestment. And one of the reasons I jumped in this race is this is the first time we will have politically drawn boundries that are accountable to those health outcomes." - Timur Ender Through his experience wo...

"What I want to do is bring a new attitude to how we think about government. It starts with who we are, who the people are we're electing. Ideas are great, but ideas don't always pan out. Definitely come with practical ideas that can make a real difference, please do and I want to offer those, but it depends on who you are as a person too. That really matters. I want to make sure we're electing pe...

"What I want to do is represent those in our community that need it the most. The folks that are in the tents, the folks that are in the throes of their addiction, folks that are having a mental health crisis. We don't have the resources we need as a community, and it's a shame because we have the resources financially to do what we need to do. We've had leadership that has not performed at a leve...

"This shelter is opening, that shelter is opening, is this the answer, is that the answer?' My answer is always "Yes, and." There are so many different needs out there. There are people struggling with substance abuse, there are people who are struggling with mental health, there are some people who just aren't making enough money. And if we're trying to throw a one-size-fits-all solution on any o...

"When you have more people living in a place, it has this huge lift. The small businesses downtown are struggling. It is so hard. And a lot of it is a perception issue. If you go to the Park Blocks District and it is empty except for six people who all look like they are probably suffering from addiction and probably don't have a place to live. Now you think this is a city under distress. If those...

We thought it would be good to sit down without a guest this week and check in. We hash out the latest news, like the current City Council's recent decision to gut the Independent Police Commission. Tim asks the tough question: why is Portland's current government such a mess? We also put out the call to Mike Schmidt to come on the podcast...

Kip and Tim welcome Chris Flanary to the podcast. Chris is uniquely strong on the intricacies of housing policy in Portland, as they work for the city as a Housing Program Specialist.  "One of the things that I've learned in my time in both the non-profit world and government service for low income folks: The number one intervention for poverty is cash. Give people money, they will spend it wisely...