We accomplished so much together
As my term comes to an end, I want to thank everyone who engaged with my office over these past four years: residents, neighbors, staff, and advocates.
Each and every voice matters, and I truly hope each person who engaged with my team and me at City Hall felt represented, respected, and seen, even in times of disagreement.
This has been a pivotal time in Portland’s history for all of us – and for so many reasons. When I started this job, the world was shut down during the critical days of the pandemic and everything was remote – including my first several City Council meetings. Portland was in the face of an economic slowdown, a housing and homelessness crisis, extreme weather related to climate change, a reckoning for racial justice, a devastating fentanyl epidemic, and other challenges hitting our small businesses and arts community hard.
But we are a resilient city, and we are already making progress on several fronts – like public and community safety, alternative shelters, and permitting reform to spur housing production – and on the road to healing and recovery. On others – like housing availability, homelessness, and climate crises – we still have significant work before us.
I have every confidence that our newly elected City leadership is deeply committed and up to the task in the coming years. They are entering into fundamentally different roles, and they are setting the stage for the next chapter in the City’s history.
It will not be easy. In some instances, they might wish they had the resources or authority or time to do more, but in so many other instances they will do much more – and maybe even more than they ever imagined was possible for our city. Those moments where things come together for an impactful change make it all worthwhile.
I hope that each of them will bring into their new roles and a spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and determination – and, most of all, love for this city and community. This is my sincere wish for them.
I am humbled by all that I have learned and contributed to in my time here and proud of the things that my office accomplished over the past four years, which are highlighted below.
First, I want to give my deep appreciation to the dedicated bureau staff who show up every day doing their part to make Portland good – to make sure our residents get the services they need, and to take tangible steps toward a more just future.
I am deeply grateful for the partnership and work of each of our bureau directors and Deputy City Administrators – especially Helmi Hisserich, Eric Engstrom, Sam Baraso, David Kuhnhausen, Kimberly Branam, Chief Day, and Donnie Oliveira, who have extremely hard jobs. But both individually and as a team, together we were able to establish a strong partnership and deliver the forward progress that Portlanders expect from their government.
I want to especially appreciate Mayor Wheeler for his leadership and integrity during these challenging times.
Finally, I want to particularly thank my outstanding staff for the dedication, brilliance, creativity, brain power, and humility that each of them brings to their work. Thank you to my team for stepping up for Portland over these four years – Adelina Cano, Megan Beyer, Christina Ghan, Jillian Schoene, Byron Beck, Jimmy Radosta, Angela Rico, Meeseon Kwon, Rico Lujan Valerio, Stephan Herrera, Julian Hanlon-Austin, Will Howell, Adriana Miranda, Michelle DePass, and Mona Schwartz.
The call to public service is not for everyone, but each of them responded to that call with honor and a deep respect for our community. And Portland is better for it.
I also want to thank the community organizations, neighborhood groups, and so many others who believe in Portland’s potential: Thank you for holding us accountable and reminding us about our values.
I truly believe we have a new Mayor and Council who believe in the very best of our city and an involved community. I know Portland is in great hands with our new Mayor and Councilors – and on its way to becoming a safer, more prosperous, and more inclusive place for everyone who calls this beautiful city home.
This job has been the honor of my life, and I am proud of all the work, heart, and love we are leaving on the field today.
At your side,
Carmen
Community and Public Safety
Secured more than $4 million in funds for community efforts to reduce gun violence through prevention and intervention efforts. Since that time, gun violence has dropped by 28%.
Fought to expand and stabilize Portland Street Response to provide emergency support for people in crisis.
Played a pivotal role in finally breaking the impasse and getting the Portland Police Association to agree to body-worn cameras.
Led the charge to grow the public safety support specialist program for unarmed officers, with the goal of freeing up sworn officers to respond to critical public safety issues.
Housing and Homelessness
Ended more than two decades of dysfunction by consolidating our fragmented permitting services into one team under one authority to build housing faster and less expensively.
Amended code to build out our Shelter to Housing Continuum, making it possible to expedite the shelters and transitional housing we need to reduce homelessness. This action made Safe Rest Villages possible and ensures unhoused Portlanders are treated with dignity and compassion in their transitional housing spaces.
Passed numerous pieces of legislation to catalyze housing production, including office-to-housing conversion in our downtown core and ensuring more market-rate apartment buildings include a minimum number of deeply affordable rental units.
Pushed Multnomah County to increase the amount of money given to Permanent Supportive Housing rental units to see that more people would get the services they need for long-term success.
Oversaw completion of the City’s first Housing Production Strategy to guide the work to build more than 120,000 new homes needed for Portlanders.
Economic and Small-Business Recovery
Passed legislation for graffiti removal on private property in the most egregious cases, saving the City time and money by expediting the legal process.
Established the first-ever Office of Small Business, consolidating all of the City’s programs for small-business owners in one place.
Created the City’s Business Incentive Tax Credit to encourage businesses to lease new or renewed office and retail space throughout the Central City.
Oversaw millions in federal Restore and Repair funds for small businesses that are struggling with economic recovery, broken windows, or extreme weather.
Passed an updated economic development strategy, guiding the City’s economic development work for the next five years. Advance Portland will spur inclusive growth by advancing economic competitiveness, racial equity efforts, and essential climate action.
Climate, Sustainability, and Natural Areas
Reformed the Portland Clean Energy Fund to invest in bigger and bolder carbon reduction and climate resilience projects, like planting thousands of trees, subsidizing e-bikes for low-income families and making affordable housing more climate-friendly. More than $750 million will be invested in our local economy.
Updated the City’s Renewable Fuels Standard to facilitate the transition away from traditional fossil fuels – the most ambitious plan in the country – and fought for zoning code amendments to limit the expansion of traditional fossil fuels at the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub to do what we can to influence the market and transition to lower-carbon fuels.
Established the first-ever Climate and Sustainability Commission, which will oversee all of the City’s climate programs and investments.
Brought Portland’s industrial sector together to design a Clean Industry Hub, which will identify innovative and achievable carbon reduction investments with an additional goal of creating new jobs.
Passed legislation to phase out the use of gas-powered leaf blowers that create air pollution and endanger landscape workers’ health.
Increased funding to hire more Park Rangers and expand their coverage citywide, ensuring that our parks and natural areas can continue to be welcoming community spaces.
Since the start of the pandemic my husband and I have been living almost full-time at the coast, visiting Portland for a few day each month.
When I returned to Portland earlier this month, the quality of life was finally so poor that I found myself questioning whether the city in general and Downtown in particular would ever recover.
I have never seen homelessness and public addiction so rampant. The stretch of S.W. 3rd Avenue between the Steel Bridge and Burnside looks like the third world after the zombie apocalypse. The filth, the broken people and the rampant drug use were nightmarishly dystopian. For the first time ever, I saw three people in single day in different parts of town who were doubled over with fentanyl paralysis or alternating between staggering around upright and standing bent over at the waist.
This is not an abstract matter. The Portland Clinic's Downtown location, which has been a fixture of my life since I moved here in the late 1970s, was forced to close when the City was unable to deal with the open-air drug market across the street that was making its clients and employees unsafe.
The streets of Downtown were practically deserted during mid-afternoon on a weekday with dry weather and mild temperatures. Having lived in Portland for going on 50 years and lived and worked in the central city in the 80s and 90s, I have lived experience of a vibrant Downtown where business people, workers, shoppers and visitors crowded the sidewalks. I see vacant storefronts and think back to when they were occupied by thriving businesses. I wonder how much longer the few remaining legacy businesses can hold on.
Commissioner Rubio, do you know that many retailers now employ private security officers to screen out undesirables and deal with criminal behavior when it arises? There were so many uniformed personnel at Pioneer Place that someone might have thought a high-powered VIP was on the premises. No, it was just business as usual in an increasingly lawless downtown. I wish I knew how to insert pictures into comments on Substack, because I would like you to feel the same gut punch I did when, standing near an interior Gucci display window at Pioneer Place, I spied nearby an official store sign with a head shot of an alert police dog and the following text:
"Pup Patrol"
"These furry friends are trained to detect firearms and here to keep you safe."
Over on the east side of the river, I encountered a padlocked ICE CREAM FREEZER at the Walgreens at the west end of N.E. Broadway. The very polite South Asian employee who unlocked the nearly empty case for me said something to the effect of "you see, people have really been enjoying FREE ice cream." The condo where we live a little farther east has recently had to replace its front door at a cost of $20,000 because, for the first time in the building's 50+ year history, thieves were entering through the old front doors in the middle of the night to steal bicycles from the basement. The residents are on such high alert because of the threat of intruders that someone actually challenged me at the door to the parking lot, saying "HEY, I don't know you!"
Suffice it to say that I can't agree with the rosy picture you paint of Portland today. Just get in your car and drive around the inner east and west sides of Portland and you will see what I mean. Just be sure to feed the meter!!!
In closing, I am grateful to the voters of Portland for not having handed you the keys to the mayor's office. Your failure to take responsibility for your horrendous record of parking violations was the last straw. Perhaps you will land on your feet somewhere in the world of nonprofits that feed off taxpayer-funded social programs. There, nobody will take you to task for using the frankenwords "Latinx" and "Latine."
What a piece of comedic, self congratulatory bull! We're where we are because of YOU Rubio, Wheeler and "I Hate the POlice" Hardesty. Glad you lost, go find a job outside politics. See if you can bamboozle your new boss