The record · Transcript
Council session — 2026-02-10
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (17,038 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are AI-suggested and editor-reviewed (low confidence — auto-captions garble names); each color marks a speaker.
Good morning. I call the meeting of the arts and economy committee to order. It is Tuesday, February 10th at 9:30 a.m. Diana, will you please call the roll?
Dunphy Smith here. Ryan. Here. Clark. Here. Green here.
Ashley, will you please read the statement of conduct?
Welcome to the meeting of the arts and economy committee. Committee to testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance in committee agenda at w.w.w. Portland council agenda slash arts and economy. Or by calling 311 information and engaging with this committee can be found at this link. Registration for testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard, and if public testimony will be taken, individuals might testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The chair's preserves order disrupts disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee. Deliberation will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject for trespass. Additionally, the committee might take a short recess or reconvene virtually. Your testimony should be should address the matter being considered when testifying and state your name. For the record, if you're a lobbyist, identify your organization. You represent. Official testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls their name. Thank you.
Thank you ashley. Colleagues. Today's meeting of the arts and economy committee will focus on kind of one item, which is kind of the state of play on the storefront support program. And I'm going to have my my co-chair, Ryan, walk us through all that and manage that part of the discussion as this is his baby, and I'm looking forward to seeing this update. But before we get to that, diana, will you read item one.
Item one public comment on arts and economy issues.
Do we have anyone signed up for this item?
No one signed up.
Thank you. Will you please read item two?
Item two. Storefront support program update.
Thank you so much. And at this point, co-chair Ryan, I'm just going to hand it over to you to get us going. Thanks.
Thank you. Co-chair Green. We get to say that for a couple more meetings. Yeah. Okay.
This this one and one more.
Great. Good morning everybody. It's great to have you here. It's with a lot of gratitude that I get to show up today and present this item to all of you. Over the past year I have worked with the many storefront owners whose voices built this legislation. It truly came from them, from their. My office has worked with this council, creating a unanimous vote to move the work to the city administration, who included partners in the community to build the storefront support program. I'm thrilled we will hear about this urgent program that is moving to a digestible action plan, which we will learn more about today. I'm particularly thankful to the heavy load that victor sanders has taken on victor, who you'll hear from soon, was assigned by the city administrator to be the project manager for developing the action plan, and he has done excellent work coalescing the input from the storefront businesses into a cohesive roadmap. In fact, I had the pleasure of listening to victor share the draft of this plan this past Friday at a gathering led by bricks and mortar. Truly, there were about 40 people there, and they were all so engaged. And they went from, I think, frustrated faces to hopeful faces that felt they were part of the plan. The storefront program action plan intends to lay out strategies in which the city will coordinate services to address real issues our storefront businesses are experiencing, and have been at a very high level for the past six years. This includes chronic crime, vandalism, encampments in front of businesses, sanitary issues, and employee and patron safety basically items they never thought would be on their job description and have been quite heavily in the past six seven years. This plan has buy in across the city bureaus and prosper Portland, from public safety and planning to transportation and technology to ensure that there is information sharing and resource coordination with the end goal of responsiveness to community concerns. I'm thankful for the leadership of our former city administrator, jordan, and new city administrator lee, to prioritize this work across the enterprise. This has been and must continue to be a partnership. With that, I will ask victor to come up and I think why they're coming up. I just want to remind why victor and are coming up, that one reason this is so urgent is because currently we're learning so much about our budget and our finances, and our bread and butter revenue streams have been damaged quite heavily, and those are business taxes and property taxes. That's our bread and butter for general services. As you know, we have a lot of targeted taxes which are causing their own fascinating challenges to manage those funds that are targeted from voter initiatives. It's really important that we get back to our bread and butter and make sure those revenue streams increase in the city of Portland, so that we can provide all the services we want for portlanders. Take it away, victor and ann.
Great. Thank you. Councilor. As councilor Ryan mentioned, my name is victor sanders. I'm a project manager with Portland solutions and pmo, and I'm joined today with ann hill, who's the director of the public environments management office, also known as pmo. I'm just going to get my screen set up here in a moment and in front of you. You should also have a copy of the supporting Portland storefronts report that we completed. So today's objective is to run through the final outline of that storefront support program and the proposed pmo lead coordination. We also have, of course, the draft that we can review. And at the end of today, I hope to have your support and endorsing this program approach and the continued work as we look to implement this program on the screen. It might be kind of hard to tell, but there's actually this is every single one of portland's 3500 storefronts. And so when you think about just how much culture and life that brings to the city, this was a really great data point that I'm interested in continuing to kind of build out and and dig into, but I just thought that was an interesting thing to kind of show folks. As we dive into this, each one of these dots represents, you know, a neighborhood employment opportunity. It involves folks that own those businesses that are operating those businesses. And much of our work was around meeting those folks where they were and asking the question of how's it going? What does it look like to operate a business in Portland right now? The work involved a core group of stakeholders, and it also involved work that was already doing, you know, just a few weeks ago, that team delivered 2500, what we call door hangers. So that's the team going out and actually knocking on doors in businesses and handing out information. And it's probably the first time that many of them are hearing from a city in person, right? That might not be knocking on their door asking for something other than to just say, you know, how's it going? And so we got a lot of insight from those team members that are out there just doing that work. And I will say, just from a personal note, growing up, my family had a small business and they just retired recently. And so much of this work we heard from individuals, you know, just obviously we know how hard it is to operate a business. And what we're looking for today when we talk about support is what are those levers that the city can control, right. We know that there's a whole variety of things we can't control, whether it comes to just the larger global economy. But what we're really aiming for is to understand, for those individual items we can control, how can we do it better, do it unified and do it coordinated. So there's five things up on the screen of what we're aiming for. You heard me talk about that first one. The second is reinforcing a culture of real time problem solving. You've heard that from pema already. We've heard about problem solver meetings. Right. And so part of this work is also how do we how do we build out in a way that's going to unify even more the problem solving that needs to happen at each level. And then the third point is reversing poor perceptions of street conditions. So we actually are trending in good directions when it comes to crime generally in the city. Right. We're not where we should be, but that perception of street conditions and what's happening is really impacting businesses and it's impacting visitorship. And you're seeing that with the tourism numbers. There's some interesting data that just came out recently from san francisco. Right. They just hosted the super bowl. And you're hearing from folks saying, wait a minute, this isn't the san francisco I was told was the san francisco. Right. And so we still have that for Portland. We're definitely behind the curve on that front. So much of this work that we're doing is around improving that perception. How can we have more promoters than we have detractors? And that's really about what's happening on those sidewalks right in front of those businesses. And then of course, most important, right, we want to reverse the trends in business tax revenues. That's a key factor in all of this work is what levers can we pull in order to continue to improve the tax revenue. And then finally just laying that building block for continued economic vitality. This is not obviously our economic development plan for the whole city, right. But it is a really impactful piece in order to get us where we needed to go. I'll just run through this really briefly because you heard me talk about it. But we engage with those folks behind the storefronts. We reviewed the program offers across the city, so we had an internal stakeholder group to understand what are those services that we're providing. We have some folks here today from prosper from bureau planning and sustainability. In case there's any questions around their programs, of course, we researched what other cities are doing, and then we explored the data that we have and identified gaps. And then we've also been engaging with Portland state university. And we've had actually have a meeting with them this afternoon as well around the data collection. So we can do some level of vacancies with real estate information. But there's nothing that beats feet on the street data. There's nothing that beats actually going out and understanding what's happening on the streets with vacancies. And the other piece of this we'll talk about today is the nighttime economy piece as well. So one thing we can't get through, data that we that you have to get on the street is how late are our businesses staying open? We heard from many businesses that they're still closing, I should say bars and some restaurants that they're still closing at midnight. They're not ready to go back to the 2 a.m. Economy. And that's a mixture of my staff. Don't feel safe. Well, the neighbors are closing at midnight, and so that's a piece we want to help identify, to understand block by block, what's happening with that nighttime economy piece. And then finally, of course, we'll talk about our immediate fields of action. Inside the report. You'll see just that. We validated what we heard from the community and from business owners with the data. And so of course, we know that trends in in crime are trending in the right direction. But the safety response we heard this over and over again is the safety piece is when folks call police or they call non-emergency, they expect to have a response. As you probably know, those response times have doubled since 2019 and they're not where they should be. And so that's a huge concern for folks. That's a lever that we know is kind of a long term trend. And there's of course some items coming up for council related to police response and and those pieces. But that's a key item that I just want to highlight that we might not be able to control with this work, but it is something that we continue to hear come up is that response time is really key. The data on the retail market. So we're tracking some of that and then permitting data is key also. So understanding what's happening with alterations for storefronts, there's not always a great proxy to understand when somebody submits a permit if it is for a storefront. But we are going to track that data to just understand what those trends are, of course, business license tax trends. That is a lagging indicator. And then tourism and visitor trends. So there are some some good indicators when it comes to tourism and hotel stays. Those are starting to bump back up. They're not where they should be. But again there's some slow recovery happening. So part of the insights I'll go back just one and just kind of tee this up. What we did is we developed five kind of overarching common theme insights that then we validated with our stakeholder group. And then we also validated that with our teams that are out in the field, that we're doing those door knockers that have been going to those problem solving meetings to just say, hey, is this also what you're hearing? And the first thing that we heard is that both the daytime and the night time economy are relying on the Portland vibe. This is not some theoretical concept, right? It's something that we all kind of inherently know that Portland vibe is that kind of grittiness that join us, that safety is a key part that allows for exploration. I think we all probably have maybe a memory of when we first came to Portland, or maybe, you know, that time when you were young and you're like, oh, yeah, this is a really cool city, and it's a great place to be. And that Portland vibe. It might not be tangible, but it's a key element of what we're talking about today. We'll talk a little bit about the nighttime economy, and there's some great sociological work that was done in berlin for their nighttime economy when it came to their night scene and their club scene. And that that is that's a vibe, right? And you talk with folks about that and you read the research, and that really is the vibe that folks are interested in and what brings them there. And so, you know, we might not be able to astroturf the vibe. That's something that just organically is created, but it's created through full blocks and full storefronts. So that was a pretty key element that we heard over and over again, is that the vibe is just change. And not to sound too millennial about it, but it's like, you know, when you hear people say the vibes are off, right? It's like you kind of hear that in certain blocks. The second is that diverse ground floor storefronts are critical to supporting jobs and stability and culture in the city. We heard often about the jobs piece. And so when we're talking about housing and we're talking about jobs and we're talking about homelessness, storefronts really are one of those pieces that are key to ensuring that we do have good jobs in the city, or we have jobs just generally in neighborhoods that are supporting local businesses. There's some great research that recently came out from the brookings institute on how public safety is full storefronts and full blocks and full blocks are public safety. They're one and the same. And so that's a key piece that we wanted to take away from this report as well. Finally, is that number three, I should say sidewalk roots need to feel accessible, well-lit and safe. This isn't about sanitizing the city, right? This is just about making sure when people walk out from that business, one of the levers we can control is that those sidewalks should be accessible. They should feel well lit, and they should feel safe. And the fourth is that when storefronts are filled and blocks are bustling, staff and customers feel confident and safe. There are some blocks in Portland that are doing great. There's other blocks where that confidence has completely fallen, and you hear people talk about that domino effect and they say, yeah, if that next business goes, I know that I'm not going to be able to stay here like that. Confidence starts to really erode. And that was a key piece that we heard. And then finally and we talked quite a bit with our stakeholder group about this, is that storefront owners just don't feel heard or supported. And they asked us to really just, you know, we kind of qualified that. Right. Well when crime occurs or when this occurs and and we heard repeatedly like, no, it really just is full stop when, when, when we reach out we just don't feel heard or supported. So you'll see in some of our fields of action how we're addressing that. So stepping forward into our action plan items we looked at, how can we when we look at our data and we start to work with Portland state, and we start to build what we've talked about in our last meeting, that business health index, how do we know that those or rather, how do we categorize what we're seeing out in the field and what we're seeing in the data? And we looked at developing three elements to an action framework. And this was actually built off work that was previously done by prosper Portland when they started to research different blocks that needed help. And that is a retained reinvigorate and reinvest. Really key for us is that we don't want to lose sight of those districts that might be doing okay. We know that there's some blocks that are doing okay. What we heard over and over again is don't forget about us. Just because we're doing okay doesn't mean we shouldn't have investment or should be able to help retain what's going on there. So that's a key piece of our work as well, is when we're doing this data and this research, we're going to be looking at where do we need to make sure we're still sustaining investment so that we don't lose that those those blocks that are actually doing pretty well, the reinvigorate are areas that might have poor conditions, but they might have stable storefronts. But we really need to invest and provide some energy and resources to focus on reducing any vacancies that might come up because of sidewalk or storefront conditions. And then finally, there's just some areas where we know we have really weak storefront occupancy. We know we drive down the block and you can just see it and you say to yourself, man, this block needs help. And those are those areas that really take a unified reinvestment approach. That's where we really need our partners and prosper. We really need our partners in permitting to help us figure out what can we do to these locations, in addition to the sidewalk work, to help us with those long term headwinds that that block might have? So I'll run through these five fields of action. These are really the elements that pmo is going to take on as the lead agency to create the unified central intake. So through this work, we determined that pmo is really the right agency and the right group to be doing this work. As a coordinating body. We know that prosper Portland, you know, has a great wealth of financial tools, small business tools that we should be helping coordinate through through those businesses. So we want to be able to create that central intake so that when folks reach out to us, whether it's through three, one, one or directly or through problem solver meetings, we are knowledgeable, we're helpful, we're supportive, and we're problem solvers, and we're directing those folks to the right location. The second is to continue the work that we're doing in investing in enhancing basic public space infrastructure work. So that means creating clean sidewalks. That means creating welcoming and accessible districts. You've seen some of the work that we've done just around traffic mural wraps, right. Activations, whatever it might be to help enhance that public space, to create an environment. So when folks step outside of that storefront, they're not having to worry about what's going on on those sidewalk conditions and then increasing the sense of safety. So again, there's some levers we can pull on this, right? We could be helping with some cep, ted, some crime prevention through environmental environmental design work. There's more we could be doing with reaching out to businesses to help them understand what is available to them when it comes to safety infrastructure that they could have access to, whether it's through repair and restore, grant or other measures just to help increase that visitor sense of safety, particularly at night when we talk about the nighttime economy. And then fourth is retaining existing storefronts. So you heard us talk about the domino effect. We want to make sure that we're implementing, expanding, and coordinating those programs that will directly retain and support those storefronts before the vacancies happen. You heard us talk a little bit about the activations. There's a whole variety of things that we have done, and so we want to really kind of supercharge those in those areas that need those reinforcements to hit those activations, to make sure that we're improving all of the conditions on the storefronts, storefront blocks that need it. Something that came up yesterday from one of the folks in the stakeholder group that we really wanted to talk about today, also is just monitoring progress and impacts. It's very easy for us to say with all those fields of action that, yep, we're busy, we're putting wraps up, we're going cleaning sidewalk. Right. But does that actually get us to the key performance indicators that we want. So part of our work with Portland state university is using gis data to help us understand that business health index. So that's looking at you saw those dots right. How are we going to track that over time. We want to see those dots increase or stay steady. We don't want to see those drop those dots drop. We want to make sure the vacant storefronts are going down. We want to make sure that open business hours right. We're tracking that and they're continuing to go up. We want to make sure that 311 reports are actually getting responded to. We want to track that reported crime data. We want to see it going in the right direction. We want to know when our tactics are going out. Is there a nexus between those tactics and these other items? Right. Are we seeing that work actually make a difference in those blocks? And so there's a whole variety. And this is just a really sampling. You'll see in the report. We just kind of have a sample of that data. There's more that we want to get and there's more that we want to do, particularly with PSU to build that model tool so that we can spread that out across the city to help us understand what's going on and the health of those different areas. So I might hand it off to ann just to talk about the nighttime economy, because we didn't want to lose this in our conversations with our stakeholders and just with the city generally on the work that we've done and that we want to do as part of the storefront support work.
Thank you. My name is ann hill. I'm the director of the public environmental management office building. Again, as victor said, off of some of the work that I was privileged to be able to see in berlin, they actually have an organization that tracks the nighttime economy. So how many bars, how many clubs, how many businesses are open after hours? What does it drive in terms of of both? Tourism also work that folks want to come. Residents want to come and enjoy. And then also how much does it bring to the city in terms of revenue or into the region? We haven't tracked that as a set metric, and we're interested in that. When we think about we've got, for example, in old town, they do have a nighttime district. But we also know that mississippi, for example, is another area. We know that Lents right now with the the cherry bombs and the bangers and the pickles and then some of the work out there with the brewery, there's sort of a core right there as well. We know that the central east side. Right. What's going to happen there. And with lloyd being redeveloped, and what can we do to support these different districts? It's really understanding what they need at night. Right. What do they need at night, which might be a little bit different during the day. Or maybe it's the same, but we don't have contractors or we don't have staff that are out at those hours. So more to come on how we can really support and track what that work is. What we found is if you have a district, a corridor that has active storefronts from, let's say, seven in the morning, right, the early morning yoga class, whatever it is in the morning, all the way to midnight or two in the morning, that means you've got activity on that corridor. And that's what we want to see. We want to see positive activity on that corridor. So you really don't have too many hours that are just dead, right? So that's really what we're going to be working on and kind of testing to see how we can build on what's happening in some of these areas. So again, it's not reinventing the wheel. We don't have a lot of resources right, to go out and necessarily launch something new. But we do want to build off of what we're seeing.
Great. So speaking of implementation, what we really want to do, as anne said, is build upon those systems that we already have that are working. So taking these elements of pmo, building them into that unified response lead. We've seen great examples of this at the city already through the street services coordination center, where again, we're bringing together these different. On the right hand side of your screen, these different agencies coordinated through our program so that we can rapidly send them out to solve the problems or rapidly refer them. Right. So for prosper, that might need mean, you know, they're still doing their small business work with grants and loans and technical assistance. We want to be able to connect folks to those on the side of what prosper is doing, while continuing to coordinate the things that we're doing in a way that's going to have us all working together to solve those problems on that individual storefront or on that block, particularly. And then, of course, using that retain, reinvigorate, reinvest framework for all of our work. Right. And so using that health index dashboard to inform our work. So it's not just us saying, yep, we're busy. We're doing all these things. We're really using data to help us understand where these elements are needed, how they're helping, and then continue to hone in on these focus areas. So as we kind of round out this presentation on the back of that report, you're seeing some initial support area selections. So we want to be able to put that framework into action right away. We know that we're going to continue to build out this data model. And we want to have those public dashboards completed sometime later in the summer. But we also want to be able to put this new coordinated approach into action right away. So we're proposing 12 pilot areas where we can begin that focus, support, learn what works, roll out those tools, have PSU come together, and help study some of these areas so that we can kind of understand a little bit more how we can pivot if we need to. So on the back you'll see the screen. I'm not going to run through each of these individually. It's something that we wanted to share today just as part of this initial work. We've shared this also with our with our stakeholder team and with our internal teams as well. So really, the bottom line on this, and I'm not going to run through the implementation plan right now. You'll see that in the report. But really what we're looking to do is go live on many of these action items and focus areas starting July 1st, and build up our unified response and kickoff planning up through starting now. We're already doing some of this work and with PSU, so we're ready to go starting in July. So the bottom line on this is that this program really we've designed it to pair that rapid, visible, visible public realm improvements that pbem or I'm sorry that pmo is already doing with that really centered goal around safety, increasing foot traffic, increasing that overall confidence that folks have to protect that that Portland vibe piece that we talked about initially. So we hope to as part of this work at the end of the at the end of our initial kind of rollout of this is to have that public dashboard ready, show where these investments are happening, where they're working, and show you a data platform that we can start using to help us understand just overall trends in a way that's really digestible and easy to understand. So I will leave it there for any questions.
Thank you very much. Councilor Smith.
Loretta Smith: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I was looking so how much is this going to cost? You're going to start this in 2627. What's the cost of this new effort.
Right now? We can cover this under the budget that pmo currently has. So if the budget if our budget is passed for 20 2627, we will be able to cover these costs.
Is this before the alignment or after the the realignment? Because we're realigning and we're cutting 20%.
Oh after the realignment okay.
So this is after the realignment. You can still do this.
A lot of this. Councilor Smith so much of this work is is one on one, right? It's it's meeting with storefronts. It's figuring out what people need. So as long as we have staff and then we have resources to continue the basic cleaning services across the city, we can continue to maintain and light pedestrian lighting. We can continue with the programs that we're working on, and then leverage what we can with some of these nighttime initiatives, which is really just focusing on that time and and those businesses and figuring out what they need. I think we can deliver. Okay. I'm confident.
And so. Basically this in terms of the business work and the partnership with prosper, you're passing on information to business owners on how they can get some of these things paid for. It's not coming out of your budget.
Correct? I would say when you asked me that question, I don't want to speak for prosper or for baps, right? So I don't want to speak for those two agencies saying they can or can't. They are in a position in terms of us coordinating this and what we can deliver. We can deliver what we what we've laid out here. I don't want to speak for the other two agencies, though.
No, but I mean, it appears in the in the presentation that there's a partnership that you all have. And so that's what I'm trying to figure out. If you're, if you're if you're adding to your budget a new scope of work, which you said, that doesn't cost any more money than you are requesting to be budgeted after realignment, then I'm just trying to figure out what that partnership looks like. And if it's if you're just more so passing on information or you actually spending dollars to help these individual businesses, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Or is it are you passing it on to prosper or another piece of our city operation?
I think right now, depending on what the issue is we're tackling. So, for example, if we run across a business that has a broken window, we have strong relationships with the small business office at prosper and can say is, are they a candidate for the restore repair grant? Or if they're in a we call over a lot to prosper for them as experts to sort of tell us, like, is there a pip or is there another sort of financing model there that can help them? So that's an example of they have programs and then we we partner with them, we connect the dots with them on the reverse side. There are many times when the small business staff will call over to us and say, hey, there's a real problem with this one block. There seems to be a lot of garbage on the street. They're having a really hard time. Is that something that you can work on? And we in turn will go out and see what we can do to tackle that problem. So we are constantly partnering back and forth and triaging, using the resources available from our agencies.
So it's much of what you are already doing.
Yes, in a sense I would say that. I would say that, you know, pmo began three years ago or four years ago. So in some ways, as as we have matured as an office, we really we began by really focusing on business corridors. Right? There's 94 neighborhoods, but as I frequently am, I right. Is there 94, 96? As I frequently say, you know, 90% of the local streets in Portland are fine. I mean, in terms of if you walk out your front door and it's it's okay. It's really when you get to those, those corridors and those business areas that really need that focus across the city. And that's really the work we've been doing. I think that as the works matured, this initiative has dovetailed nicely with what we're doing. For example, the basic sidewalk service cleaning, right, was born out of something that we continued to hear needed to happen. We were able this year to launch that we're monitoring the success of that, the volumes and tons of garbage we're collecting and the feedback we're getting from the local storefronts and communities. So this is just a way to sort of package some of that work, which felt a little disparate because it was a solution to a problem, and now we're kind of formalizing it more into more of a. Actionable item that we can track data and sort of link it to actually economic development.
And. Yeah. And so this is this is good. This is kind of like a cross pollenization, you know, they're doing this whole thing now in, in health care where when you go to a dentist appointment, if they can give you a blood test, they can do they start doing all that stuff that they didn't normally do just so that you get all your normal stuff. But but this is what I think is great. I want to tell you, you all have been doing a great job in parkrose and the parkrose corridor from that 162nd area to 148th. You know, I say from the the red apple down to the mobile home park, it's it's looking like 1,000% better. And I appreciate it. All the work that you've done in that business corridor, because that makes a difference in terms of activity in the evening. So tonight is my normal taco Tuesday night at at the red apple. And you get 99 cent tacos and you don't like to go in there if there's I mean sometimes and this is some weeks ago it was just rvs. And you don't want to go over there to eat because you don't want to be bothered. But it's nice to go over there on Tuesday nights. And you don't have to look at that as you're coming into the parking lot. And so I want to thank you for that, and thank you for trying to figure out how to do this. I just want to make sure that people know that they can go directly to prosper, in addition.
To absolutely.
That that is their their their one stop shopping place to get things done.
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think, you know, as we sort of dug into this, if you think about a lot of the work that you see that the and I don't want to again, speak for the small business office, but so much of their work also is focused on those established, either established businesses that have tenant improvements and have some financing, or they've been vandalized, or really working on figuring out how to get businesses into storefronts. Right. And that's not the work that we focus on as much. We're more focused on that sort of interaction between the public realm and that storefront. And so we we work together nicely around the suite of products and offerings, and that the small business team has. And then the work that we at pmo are doing. So we I would also say that safe blocks, we've been working with safe blocks as well. They do have resources, whether it's septet, assessments, etc. So we partner with them especially to in those neighborhoods. I'm thinking elliott, I'm thinking parkrose at times I'm thinking hazelwood. So when we also partner with them. So we are always looking to leverage those opportunities across the city as, as they're available.
I appreciate it. Thank you, director, and appreciate it.
Thank you, councilor Smith. I'll have to find out more about your taco Tuesday red apple. I might come out and, you know, get some diplomatic immunity out in district one for that one. Councilor Clark.
Olivia Clark: Yeah, I want to go to taco Tuesday, too. Thank you, mr. Co-chair. Thank you, victor and anne, this is really terrific. Great presentation. I have a couple comments and a couple questions. I was in berlin about ten years ago, and when I was there I thought, this feels like Portland. It was kind of amazing. But things have changed. We're going to get back to that. I'm really glad to hear about your PSU relationship, that you're leveraging those resources. Are we paying them for anything or is this.
No, it's an existing class that they have. And so we're going to continue that relationship as long as we can. Yeah.
What's the class called? Victor.
It's their urban and regional planning course. And so it's two courses that they're doing their gis course and then their community economic development course.
Urban regional.
Urban and regional planning. Yes.
Okay. That's great. I'm just curious, you're bringing all these elements together in a coordinated approach. Is there is there like a table where you have a meeting and everybody puts their head together, or you just pick up the phone and say, hey, I need this over here.
I think the model will be more of like a unified meeting on a regular basis, similar to the street services coordination center, where it really will be. Yeah. Hey, we need this. And to anne's point, much of the work with pmo for for the initial years was very reactive, right. It was the phone like, hey, we got to get over here, we got to do this. And this is we're hoping to move into that proactive approach through the data model so that we can sit around a table and say, hey, here's the areas we're looking at. What resources do we need to put into them. And then kind of go and disperse and finish that coordination out in the field.
I would offer that some of the reason we thought about setting up the, the, these areas to focus on in each district is that that would be really helpful with the the table right to table. We don't want to get away from that one on one support that you need for the storefront that's really in trouble, whether that's prosper, you know, answering that call or us answering that call. Collaboratively, though, I think we can work on these these areas. We selected areas that are both focus areas for prosper, whether it's because they're a tif district or they're going to be an esd, but also areas that aren't necessarily one of those. Right. So we want to be able to work with bts, maybe with zoning, etc. And prosper and safe blocks to really be able to see what comes out of looking at some of these areas, nighttime versus daytime, and then what can we leverage from there. So we thought that that sfc model would be helpful having actually areas to focus on. But we can also bring with what we're working on those one on one business relationships. We can bring that information to those meetings as well.
Well, I think you may have answered my next question. That is how you pick those areas in each of the districts. And will you do you eventually think you're going to have a district table?
I think when we I'm just looking at what we picked, I think because we know, for instance, like when we were thinking of district one, because of what we know might be happening in Lents around some of the the recent sports teams and activities at night, that that might be a nice nightlife focus. But we do know that there's been a lot of work and support and gateway and parkrose. I would say that st. Johns is key and hollywood is key in terms of really wanting to make sure that we can store up those storefronts in those areas. But mississippi, that's supposed to say Montavilla, sorry, this is our draft. The Montavilla nightlife in district. Oh, this is yeah, in district two. And then lloyd.
Montavilla is on there. Yeah. For district three.
Oh, it is mississippi. Sorry. My. I'm sorry. Anyway, those are two areas that we wanted to focus on. Right? Because we know what's coming with moda. And the nightlife there is really important with broadway. So again totally flexible. We can change some of these. But we were just looking at basically what we knew, where we knew prosper was spending some time as well to be able to really like pick some areas to start working on.
Well, you've already been working really heavily in district four in stadium, right? Old town.
Right. And then yeah, building off of old town. And then I would say in district three we do a lot with central, central, east side. We know that there's, you know, new venues going in. We know that there's a lot of nighttime economy right there. They really rely on what happens at moda center. And they also really rely on what's happening at the convention center for a lot of their their businesses at night. And then again, Hawthorne is one of those areas that we need to keep thriving, right? We need to we need to keep that thriving and sort of build off of that momentum. And then foster powell is struggling right now with they've got some great anchor areas but they're really struggling with vacancies. So again just another focus area. So again we threw these out. If people have counselors have other ideas or suggestions we're happy to accommodate those as well.
I appreciate that and I appreciate counselor smith's questions about the budget too, because I was concerned about that. But it sounds like if you're that everything is falling into place and that in the next budget, we hopefully will be okay in maintaining this effort because this is so important and it's so important in so many different ways, particularly for me. It's important in the public safety arena, which is a really high priority for me. So thank you. It's great presentation. I really appreciate your work.
Thank you counselor. Great questions. Counselor Ryan, I'm going to let you go next.
Oh, okay. Thank you. Chair I wanted to start off by just saying that I really appreciate that you are talking about sscc in the way that you are. I was here when we built that, and it was similar calls. People were calling, we weren't responding. And as you remember, there were unsanctioned camps everywhere in the city, like so many more than today. And because we did that old work with the ARPA money to build something sustainable, there are really good stories that came out of ARPA money, whether it's permit reform or or or the sscc. I'd like to say for us, villages, like we've built some innovation that wasn't there before. And that's what you do when you have a windfall. And so I'm just grateful that we use those funds to model better practices. And so I have a career where I've done herding of the cats. And it's really hard because as people are talking about, the people are doing some of this work, but they're not coordinated. And it sounds so simple. And if it was simple, it would have been done a long time ago. So the whole reason behind this was to inspire and lift those best practices, those amazing light bulbs that are going off throughout so that you can all meet each other and start coordinating together. So some of my questions are about the sophistication of how you're going to keep implementing that. And just so I understand, when I listened to the in the field of action, this create the central intake. That's pmo. So that's similar to say what nate is with sscc. Nothing's exactly the same. But is it relatively similar to that. Yes. In that pole position if you will.
Yeah. So right now I mean between 311 your offices the problem solver network business associations prosper. You know our partners we get we have a pmo mailbox. We get things referred through 311 or our own emails. And then we work through those different issues. I would say that, yes, we want to have a central place, but we don't want to stop the context and the pipelines. Let's say the prosper has through their small business office either. Right. So I think that's the key to that table. Right? So it doesn't matter who you contact, you should get an answer that's answering your question and not an I don't know. Or you get sent to some mailbox that you can't get an answer out of. Right. So whether prosper takes the call because they have a relationship with prosper or we take the call or safe box takes the call, or you all take the call that you know, you can send it somewhere and it will be tracked. Right? There will be they will get an answer, might not always solve their problem, but they will get an answer. So that's what we're working towards.
And that's fair to to talk about it like that because the public doesn't want as I'm taking my fingers and pointing them like this, they don't want this. They don't want to see, say, we can't help you, but you can go to this bureau or you can go to that bureau. Sorry. And so that's what we heard with the unsanctioned camps. No one was on first. And so what does that mean? It means we lacked accountability to the public. Right. So what we're doing with this is we're showing that we're going to be accountable and transparent. And here's the team. Yes. And you shouldn't have to have so many headaches when you're trying to figure out who that is. Allow this system to provide you some aspirin to that headache and get you a response. Yes. And then you're working as a team. And so that's what I'm experienced by listening to this report. Where I started to get confused was, is pmo in that same accountability position to ensure that when you looked at the other elements. So enhancing public safety and even the, the, the environment of those areas. And I didn't hear PBOT and PBOT is a big deal when it comes to a lot of the flow when it comes to those neighborhoods. And PBOT comes up in every conversation. When you're with a storefront, they bring up a few bureaus, but that one comes up. This isn't about saying they're doing anything wrong as much as they. They explain that they're experiencing this. Pbot said this, and then this one said this, and I give up.
Yeah.
So we just started doing it ourselves. Never a good idea. Yeah.
So we pmo my staff, we meet with PBOT and we meet with parks. Except now victor is joined. So victor meets with parks and we meet with pmd once a week. So I have a tracker with.
You said that because. Victor was just in parks. Okay. Just for anyone watching.
So we work, I work with PBOT and we send requests. Right. So we'll say there's a request to put a school bus stop between lawn garden and the japanese American school so school bus kids can get off, and they have a designated dedicated bus stop. Is that something you can look at? And then we'll just sort of track as it goes through there, and they'll come back and they'll say, well, we can't do it here. And we'll say, well, can you do it here? So we that's how we collaborate with PBOT. We do the same thing with pnd. Not I know that prosper does it. We do it when it comes to let's say someone wants an alcove gate. They're we've been helping the can can right now are the paris theater. Their show is can can on some of their issues. Right. Just to keep things moving so they don't get frustrated. So we meet weekly see if we can help remove roadblocks. So happy I'm sure we would PBOT would be part of this table. We haven't sort of set up the sscc version of a table yet, but they they would absolutely be participating. And that when it comes to things like I know we did hear from the storefronts things about why can't parking kitty be validated? Why can't staff have, you know, like ways to park, etc. So, I mean, there's a bunch of different issues depending on the block. So I'm always when I took this job four years ago, I wanted to actually be very protective of the bureaus and of the city in terms of as we changed to a more solving of a problem, recognizing that there are large organizations here that have systems and processes in place that may or may not be as ready right then to be able to answer the question. So I don't want to set them up in a room where they're going to say, I don't know, I'm not sure. So I always say, I'm going to take it back to the family table and then let those conversations happen internally, right. And then when the solution is come to, we bring the solution back to the community. So I think that we absolutely will have PBOT at the table when it comes.
This is culture change work. So it doesn't happen overnight.
Sure, sure.
The the cat herder, which I think is pmo in this case is important to help nudge that along because we must look for efficiencies in how we deliver our services. And you're getting towards something that is about efficiencies when you do that. And that's why when you're doing this collective impact type work, which we have, that's been all since I've been here for since 2020. Everything that's good that's happened that I've been involved with has been when we break down the silos and we start to see this, the soil get looser and we start to not care so much about the brand of our bureau. But the service that we provide for the people who are paying the taxes and that live here, and that's what portlanders want. And so you're giving us that hope today. I'll just the backbone is necessary, though, if you don't have a person and an organization that is accountable to be the backbone of building that system, it doesn't work. And so that's where I think sscc it wasn't pretty the first year. It was really hard started to gain traction because we kept the professional that was in charge. They kept building the trust, kept building trust across bureaus. And you really saw that start to take off in year two and three. And so I just want to explain that I've witnessed this. And another one, I know it's not the exact same thing, but it became less about money and it became more about the fact that, oh, the rangers, park rangers actually had a meeting in one of those meetings and they were working with police and fire and chat in a conversation, and now they're handling that situation. Directors park so much better than they would have three months ago. That's what we're trying to get at. So my question was really at increasing sense of safety. Is pmo that backbone of those systems that are being built, or is another bureau going to take on some of those mini backbone moments?
I think currently it's it's pmo. Okay. I would say with safety we work we work closely with both community safety and then also with pbb. Pbb comes to all the problem solver meetings. I think for them they appreciate it too because they can solve something right on the ground. So when a storefront owner says there's someone right now, like I've had a few officers just say, excuse me and they'll like they'll be in the car and they'll say, yep, we just went and we just went and, you know, approached whoever the individual was, right, and got them help or arrested, whatever the issue needed to be addressed. So I think they find satisfaction in, in some of that work. And also it's helpful for them because when they come in they're like, oh, maybe they were working on, I don't know, a mission or something. And it's like, oh, it moved. Like now there's sort of shenanigans over here. Maybe that's because something that we did here moved it. So I think they they've appreciated it. We don't as you all know. You know there's a pbb I mean the budget, their staffing levels, we really work hard to work with them and make sure that we're using them as appropriately right as possible so that we don't tax them. So they're not spending, let's say a lot of times in meetings with us, but they're actually out out in the field. So I can't necessarily I don't feel comfortable necessarily answering the question. We've said that's a storefront like, we we can't get you patrol. I mean, I'm not going to promise you you're going to have a patrol in front of, you know, your business. I can't I can't do that. I can't guarantee call times on a burglary, right? I can't I can't do that. But we continue to work with PPB. And then, of course, with the city in terms of how to.
I would never expect you to say you can do that. I do expect us as a team to say we can do that. Yep. There are two more questions that I have have to do with this monitoring progress and the impacts and including therefore, research and data from PSU is really important. Is there? Please tell me there's going to be quantitative data not not just qualitative from PSU.
For sure. Yeah. No. That's part of our business health index is to help us. And that's again is what we're building off. That reinvest reinvigorate framework is so that we can we can literally bring you a map right. And say, hey, here's the here's the data that's telling us what's happening in these districts. That's something that we need to build over time so we can monitor those trends. But yes, that is our goal. Is that again, to anne's point, right. We're moving from a very reactive program to a very proactive program. Right. We're using data to help us understand and inform what's happening in these districts. And then to your point, councilor, we can start to see. Yeah, the one indicator that's still not working is maybe response time. Right. And like we need to really hone in on what that is.
And not be afraid of when you're doing that type of work, when you have unified goals, when you have transparent metrics. A lot of government and social service and nonprofit sector is sometimes queasy about that, and everyone's done with that. Get over it. It's like we need to see results, we need accountability, and it's okay to say where we're failing because that's why we have problems to solve. Back to what this is about. And so it's more important to see that and then notice that that's an area that we need more investment and more focus. I really do appreciate that. And I think that the transparency that zach brought don't underestimate when lucas I always give lucas some love here because he deserves it. He and his team, when they created the map across the city of where the unsanctioned camps are, we heard you. It's in this phase. It was a big game changer. We didn't have anything like that until a few years ago, trust me. And it was nuts. And so when at least the public can see what we're up to, it helps a lot. Would you agree with that?
For sure.
So providing that type of visibility on as we're building this like here's our pilot areas, here's where we have the no vacancies. Here's where we've had some incidents of late. Then the people in Portland that are from this lobby, which are just such an amazing, passionate group of portlanders, they'll see that they're being listened to and that we're responding. And so I just hope that that becomes a part of the early building of this. My last one is when when we're looking at the night time economy, we really do need data for that. I think that you bringing that up was so important. And we know that the police used to do do they still do the entertainment area. They focus on fridays and saturdays. Are we have enough staffing for that still?
They do it. I mean the, the real. And when we say these nighttime focus areas, it's not necessarily to go shut off streets and have a police detail there. I think part of that police work was.
The old town model that we had for.
A while, because.
Of all the clubs down there.
And the solution, I mean, the problem was that there was people would get in altercations and then rent cars and in the cars that were guns, and then things happened. So it was a way to sort of make it a safe area for pedestrians to walk and make it a little bit harder. So again, that's one tool in the toolbox, but it's also just looking at, yes, other districts and seeing what they need. What does mississippi need to stay thriving at night, which might be different than what Montavilla needs to stay thriving at night? So it's really looking at the different areas.
And I'm so glad you brought this up, because when you're talking to people who have been here lately that used to come here, say ten years ago, they bring this up a lot. They said, well, I went to this wonderful ballet, but then there was nowhere to go. Afterwards, I went to this blazer game and then it was like a ghost town around there. So I felt like I had to scatter to my car and get out. So we have to figure out how we build the traffic, the foot traffic. So it actually goes up. Let's hang out for an hour and, and, and have some joy with other portlanders and spend some money in our storefronts. So I think that you're hitting on something really important. And that vibe was a part of Portland when they came here in 2015. And then when they came here last summer, they didn't experience that, and they said it was so odd to still, you know, how it stays light here very late. Whereas summertown and so they get out of something at 930 it's still light out. It's like, okay why is Portland at home? Like what's going on. So I really think we're on to something when we try to reinvigorate the nighttime economy. Thanks for making that a big part of your presentation. Very pleased with how this is coming along. Thank you.
Thank you, co-chair Ryan. Councilor Clark, it looks like you're back in the queue. I'm going to let you go. I'll just take the last, you know.
Thank you, mr. Co-chair. Just a couple of really specific things in reading through the the brochure report, whatever it is, the footnotes can't read them.
So good to know.
Please change the ink, the font, something. They're just almost invisible, specific question about the paris theater. That fence that's around there. I went to one of the openings. Is that our fence or. It's their fence.
Their fence.
Okay.
They we worked with we worked with PBOT. So they worked with PBOT and prosper. And what they're going to do in the summertime is they're going to have that. It's going to be outdoor eating. So in the summer when it gets warmer, there will be tables and they will be able to do more dining outside there. The reason for the fences, I believe through the olc, they will be able to have have people be able to have a dinner and and have cocktails. So that's what the fence is going to be. So it's going to be lush.
They'll have a new fence when they do the outdoor dining.
That's no they'll be that. But there will be. My understanding is there's going to have like foliage and lights and it's going to look lovely.
I'm sure it will. I've seen the interior. I don't know if you guys have been there yet, but it's bringing burlesque back to Portland and the paris theater, and that whole area is going to benefit from that. I wanted to somehow delicately get into the impact of the shelters, which you're intimately concerned with. And I noticed that the pearl district is not on here, and it seems like I hear a lot about the impact of northrop, and you hear it from other neighborhoods as well. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that fits in with this work?
Sure. We can. Absolutely. I mean, downtown, we were just we just sort of picked the old town. But we can definitely downtown geographically is so small that in terms of the staff time involved, it. You're walking. I mean, to walk from old town to the stadium, you have to walk through the pearl, right? So we can absolutely include the pearl in that work. One of the things that's great is because they have and as we have the isds, it actually means that there's actually some staff that can help. So we can there. They become the center. In some ways they become and then they then can triage and say, oh, I'm sending these people, let's say, to the small business office at prosper, these folks are going to pmo. We end up sort of taking everything that people don't necessarily know what to do with, which is great. And then we can figure out where that goes again, so people don't get the know. But we're happy to work with the pearl as well. I will say with the shelters, you know, two of the businesses that councilor Ryan included in the stakeholder group, the slow bar was one of them, which has been impacted from a shelter across the street, and we're really working with them on that opening. We've seen the same thing at Montavilla. There's a county shelter that's just adjacent. Foster has a shelter, that's a county shelter, so most of these areas have some shelter. Day center, safe rest village that is run by. Sometimes they're private, sometimes it's the county or us. And so yes, we do have sort of a kit of tools just in terms of what we can do and how we can work with those providers to sort of help mitigate some of the problems that might occur.
I think that all needs to be integrated into your coordinated plan, because there are relationships with all of the issues that the small business people have identified.
Absolutely.
Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thanks for changing the footnotes.
Yes.
Thank you, councilor Clarke. I get to ask some questions. Thank you so much, victor and anne, for presenting this today. I really seeing the development go from the inception to this kind of mature state. So I really appreciate that. Councilor Smith already asked a number of the questions that I was going to ask related to some of the budget. So what I'm hearing is at this time, you're not seeing an incremental new budget need, but rather this is work that can be absorbed by Portland solutions. Is that is that a correct characterization?
So again, I want to make sure that I'm not talking for my partners at bts or prosper. I'm not sure what their budget situations are, but in terms of when we look at when we say what we can take on coordination, we can say we can staff and lead the round table. When we say we can work with the capstone programs over at PSU to collect data where we can, we have the capacity to do that. So the budget, the big elements that the storefronts are asking and thanking us directly for are things like they want to make sure that they have contacts, either with the problem solver meetings, or that they can call whoever one of us they know to get their their problem solved. They want the sidewalk cleaning to continue. They want the pedestrian lighting to continue. They appreciate depending on what area and when we have activations, or when we are able to put a mural on a small storefront that has been sort of plagued with nuisances. Right? So that's that's what we're already doing. The what we're adding to this is the, the table where we have focus areas. But again, that's what my team does sort of de facto in our team meetings every week is we're looking at each area now. We're just more robustly formalizing some of those areas and having a table to really bring together the tools that Portland that prosper Portland has, the tools that bts has, the tools that safe blocks has, PPB, PBOT, etc. To figure out how we can sort of elevate and further leverage those resources and programs. So I don't I wouldn't need me if you want to give me more, but I'm just saying we wouldn't need additional resources beyond what we're asking for in our budget. And that is taking into account the the reduction as well. So just for this year, just so you know, for example, this year we did quite a bit of fencing, you know, on 14th. And so some of that we would not be doing. Right. So that's where those resources we would not be allocating there. Right. So we could continue those those other programs that we have. Right.
So yeah I appreciate that. Thank you. I think as we get closer to the the budget discussions, sure, we'll need to you guys will need to be prepared to say for the broader council to answer questions like, okay, if we are prioritizing this work, is there something we're not going to do that we used to do? Right. So those will be those will be important questions. I think for what it's worth, as I think about what pmo and Portland does, it's a flexible strike team type of approach to things. And I think in this stage of development that's squarely in your wheelhouse. I do I do have a question for prosper. I don't know if maybe Mitch or andrew wants to come up. Help me kind of tie some stuff together. Sorry to put you on the spot, but you're back there. I am seeing an interesting interplay between the work that this, this kind of new team will do, just sort of as, as a, a clearinghouse, a touch point, a sort of one stop shop for business support. But how do you envision that connecting with the work that you're doing, Mitch? And then also to the extent that there are learnings based particularly on the business health index that's being developed, do you see opportunities to matrix in your current work and then have that maybe impact prosper's own budget development process and kind of forward looking strategic work?
Yeah. Thank you. Co-chair Mitch dougherty, the manager of the office of small business. I am also looking forward to taco Tuesday tonight because, you know, might as well support a small business somewhere. I think that like as this plan over the past two months, I just want to give victor and ann tons of credit for all of, you know, herding the cats. It's been said many times, but like all the bureaus, when we launched office of small business, it was air traffic control for small businesses like navigating the city is hard, bureaucracies, all that stuff. So as this thing's developed, what we've heard over the past year since launching is what I see. This is it's like a smaller airport that we're coordinating the towers between, because right now we're still doing air traffic control for everything. But the storefronts in general, like at the top of their priority list. I'm sure all of you hear it at every town hall is public safety livability. So having this focus run through pmo and then coordinating amongst all of us, I think just makes a lot of sense for especially this core group of people.
That's appreciate hearing that. That's that's helpful for me. Thank you. And thanks for the work that you're doing. I've heard positive feedback from folks who have been engaging with the office. They're starting to feel like, hey, folks are paying attention to us. So that's credit to your team. I do want to come back to the victor. You said something that really resonates with me, which is full blocks are public safety. I really appreciate that. I agree wholeheartedly. I'm actually quite interested in the data aspect of this. So just want to come back to the health index for a second. I think I raised this the last time we had a council discussion on this, but is there going to be an effort to integrate kind of leasing cost data like rent data? Because when I, when I read colliers on the quarterly report, I see that asking rents continue to go up in the face of these vacancies. And I know that that's not necessarily what people end up paying through the sort of post negotiation discounts, but really getting a sense that there's a lot of different drivers that create health issues for for small businesses. But surely a, you know, the rent that you pay to the landlord is one of them.
Yeah. No, absolutely. It's something that we can include because that data is available and it is publicly available. And we did hear that at last week's session was with a larger group of folks. Is the leasing cost right. Is that when you have some of these facilities where the the landlord is out of state, right. They might be a larger conglomerate. There's not really an interest potentially in renting that space at a rate that's going to be as competitive as if you were locally owned. And so that is something that continues to come up. You know, there's kind of a balance. We want to make sure we're keeping on levers that the city can manage versus not. And so we definitely will include it. And, you know might just be on a yeah, maybe kind of talk about what that looks like.
Yeah I think that's you know, in the interest of evidence based policy making and, and data, I mean, the whole point of dashboards is to sort of make sure that we all have a clear eyed understanding of what the full picture of data is. I think that'd be really important. And while there may not be much council can do about it, I think it's important when we kind of ground, what are the broad set of challenges that we, we face there? I know that I've heard from some small business owners who rent in a building, and then there's a vacancy right next to them, and they have an opportunity to maybe purchase the whole building and then activate that space. But they don't know how to access the capital to do it. And that's those are opportunities for prosper to engage as well as the city to see if, you know. And so I think this piece of data could help inform whether we would make a like a wise strategic investment or something like that. So just wanted to to raise that up again. The nighttime economy. I'm glad we had some discussion on this. I'm glad you asked about old town and the kind of kind of public safety, sort of street shutdown approach that's very important in my district. Our district, one of the things that I and I'm just an idea guy right now because you guys have got me thinking, but, you know, when I talk to the folks who run those nightclubs, they said that that intervention was really helpful for them getting that safety back so folks would come back down to places like the dixie and and others. But it's also very costly to sort of store and mobilize all of those kind of temporary barriers. And so, you know, as we're kind of thinking through things like the west side tif in particular, which those resources can be for infrastructure as well as sticks and bricks, I mean, it might it might be worthwhile considering like maybe a more permanent investment in like hydraulic bollards that we can then deploy over over the course of like a four day weekend, like a Thursday through through kind of Sunday event to make sure that we've taken one set of costs on an ongoing maintenance basis off the table. We've capitalized that, and then we can target our interventions much more appropriately. So that could be something that we might want to consider there. Because I used to go to the clubs too, but I don't anymore. But I also I don't I don't think I'm, you know, I'm getting a little long in the tooth for that kind of lifestyle. But no, I really appreciate the work. Guys, this is really great. I'm looking forward to considering this in the broad set of kind of priorities that we do when we make our budgets. I want to thank you for leading on this. Councilor Ryan, this is this is one of those areas that I support. I'm sure I'll have other questions as we get through with this, but at this point, I'll just I think councilor Smith was after me originally. Do you have something or do you want to jump in? How do we want to do this? Go ahead. Councilor Smith okay.
Loretta Smith: Thank you. So and before I was going to ask is prosper a partner in this? And you asked that question. You answered that question because I want to make sure that you weren't coordinating something that they because you preface everything by saying, I don't want to speak for them, but it sounds like you can speak for them because they're in a partnership with you, right? Yeah. That that you all are agreeing to this roundtable and all of these things. So that's what I wanted to make sure that the other stakeholders that you mentioned, that they know that you're doing this now and that this is a coordinated effort that everyone is agreeing to, is.
Yeah, I mean, we're clearly a partner in all this work, right? Yes. And bts is right behind us too. Like everybody's been involved since the start of this, the victor. So this is a coordinated cross bureau partnership.
Yes. So but to be clear for the public, what you do is Portland solutions is a housing bureau.
You Portland solutions is not a we're not a housing bureau.
You do clean up for homeless. Well explain that to me.
Okay. There. And councilor Ryan might be able to jump in to just clarify because he was also here on council, but there were initially under the former administration, there were a series of emergency declarations that were signed. One of them was for the what became the ssc. One of them was for shelters, and then pmo was for actually cleaning up for cleaning. But it wasn't cleaning up the camps necessarily. It was really looking at the storefronts and the corridors and saying, what can we do to bring these back? And when I was charged with sort of designing the public environmental management office, it was really around corridors versus neighborhoods, right? Because as I said, most local streets were fine. And so it was really setting up those problem solver meetings across the city, having them be 30 minutes, having them be not about making presentations. You bring us our problems will solve them. So yes, we Portland solutions then under when charter when the charter reform passed and we had a new form of government, we were then under the city administrator because we kind of work across all service areas. Right. So I my team works across sometimes we might be talking to public safety, sometimes we might be talking to economic development, sometimes we might be talking to public works. Right. So we were housed under the city administrative vertical I don't know.
Bureau, but it's a bureau, right?
No, we're we're an office. We're not a bureau office.
No, but that office has in in the materials and services budget. It has all the money for the for the shelters.
Correct. So there's four verticals. There's the shelter team, which is one vertical. There's an eight takara for the ssc, which is one vertical.
What's that?
Scc with the street services coordination center. So they're the folks that do the assessments and go out and provide outreach for.
And do the cleanups.
The campsites. There's the impact reduction program. That's lucas hillyer. They're the ones that once people have been posted, they clean the garbage up and they make sure that they. Produced belongings. Right. And then there's my vertical. So there's four verticals, four teams under Portland solutions.
But all of this, the strand that goes through all of this is about homeless folks, right? I mean, that's that's.
The strand that goes through all four of those, I would say, is the impacts of the pandemic, decriminalizing drugs and the rising. Yeah. The rising community on the street would be the three different pieces.
Okay. So I just thank you for doing that vertical because that's I'm going to keep that in my head in what you do, because it's very interesting that it is under the city administrator's office. What you do this seems like this needs to be under housing and community services and economic development. It seems like that's where it should be. Yeah. Thank you.
Of course. And I would say just councilor Clark, our awkwardness is probably we we've worked collaboratively. It just hasn't been formalized. And so this is providing an opportunity to formalize what we're doing. So I think that's part of councilor Green. We're already doing the work. We're just it's like we're doing work to stabilize the exteriors of affordable housing. Right. So we're doing that work anyway. We're just now being able to kind of call it something, that piece of that work, we're able to call it something, but we would be doing the work. We might not be doing a dashboard, but we would be doing the work. Whether there was the this initiative or not, this is just given us an opportunity to really think more thoughtfully about the reactive business that we've been in, and making it a little more formalized and intentional.
Councilor can we just get the four verticals again? Sure.
So there's a shelter services team that's directed by brandy westerman. There's the so that's the safe rest villages and the shelters and then the day center, the oasis. They manage those contracts. And then there's the sscc. So that's the street services coordination center, that's nate takara. They're the ones that check on folks that are out living on the streets. They're the ones that go before, during and after folks are posted. They're the ones that help with reunification. Their team is also working on that work around the shelters, in terms of supporting those folks to get them to their next place in the day. From the shelter, there's lucas hillier, which is the impact reduction program. So they're the ones that do the once a site's been posted, they're the ones that do the cleanup. The so they don't they're not the ones they don't really touch humans. Right. They're the ones that are dealing with the garbage. And then all of the people's belongings and helping with that piece. And then there's my my vertical. So in some ways my vertical is a little different because we actually I don't work with the homeless community. Right. And I don't work with camps. Right? I mean, but we work with both the impacts and then we want to make sure that they're also part of the community and that we're doing what we can to support them as well. So those are the four verticals. So sky nap is the director of those four verticals of Portland solutions.
I appreciate that they're they're all related. They're all integrated. Yeah they are they're that and the and the impact on small businesses in all of these areas.
Correct.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Dan Ryan: So thanks for asking those questions. It's important that we clarify those organizational aspects. I think I'm going to pass it to co-chair Ryan. But I just want to thank you guys all for for coming today and giving us this update. And then after your comments, we'll move to public testimony.
As we transition from this conversation about the four verticals. I just think it's really important that we know that we lifted these up and they become operable. It took about two years for them to really get operable. Things don't happen overnight, but they are now. And when people say Portland looks better, you can look at this investment and see how methodical and responsive it was. And so it's the one thing that those that are trying to hang in there are lifting right now is that innovation. And that's what Portland back when people say things look better. So I just want to make sure that we we lift what we did with those investments. And thank you so much for hanging in there to build that. You mentioned something that's come up a lot about landlords. And I think that it's important to distinguish what you did between the local landlord and the ones that don't live here sometimes are quite far away, I've discovered, and I really noticed the big difference when I talked to a local landlord. They're laugh like, the last thing I want to do is have an empty storefront, and they are more adaptable to work with the client to, to to to adjust to reality. I think some of us that I had a rent cam as an organization in 2008, remember 2008, there was a lot of cash then. So the local landlord that I had a lease with was a minimal to lowering that by a significant amount. So we were able to survive like everyone was trying to do in 2008 and nine. And again, there was no cash. And so just know that I think we have to be careful in how we distinguish between the two. And I hope that you seek a local elected officials like ourselves to meet with them, and those are from the ones from afar to do phone calls with them, because we want them to be all in with this strategy. And I think we're facing a time that's similar to 2008, where we need to come together and look at the long term, not just the profit margin of today. I think that the budget conversation was a little clunky, and I think it's because it was premature. I think that we should just level set that today was about the presentation of the plan. And yes, this will take resources. Yes, I expect the mayor and mr. Raymond lee to have those resources in this budget, because this is a priority for portlanders first and hopefully for this council, too. And so I think that we'll keep looping on that. But I just wanted to put a pin in that, that that's a different conversation. And I think when you're doing your presentation, it's really great that you daylight this is what the vision is for the program. And yes, it'll take resources and maybe you're in a unique position. And because you've kind of been built in this manner anyway, but you're dealing with bureaus and agencies that have cultures that have been more rooted in their budgets that they're used to. And incorporating this will be some change for them. And so we have to be on that journey together. So I just wanted to give that feedback. I also want to lift this. This is based on feedback. The parking for employees keeps coming up over and over and over again. And I think when we were together there, victor last Friday and Mitch, you were there too. We heard some really good concrete examples of what that looks like. And especially restaurants, especially restaurants in areas that have meters. And so we're in a labor challenge. And my friends who own restaurants tell me how tough it is to keep good help. I think everyone can say that. And they've heard so many employees explain that the fact that they could work at another place where they had free parking, they didn't have to worry about parking. Kitty every two hours was a difference maker. And so it's one of those moments where, okay, so maybe PBOT would lose that little nickel and dime fee, but portland's budget would be more prosperous because it would get us to those vibes we want, if you will. So I think we have to think out of the box when we're making some of these decisions and provide some of that aspirin relief for these small businesses, and then knowing that on the bigger picture, if it generates more foot traffic, if it generates leases, stain, sound. Because we do need to take care of who's here first. I think sometimes we spend too much money luring and building when we need to. First and foremost focus on on those small business owners, like victor's parents, who were able to sustain the many decades that they were in in business here in Portland. I think that the next steps also needs to be lifted right now. This was such a wonderful presentation. I wish everybody, I hope everyone in the council actually watches it. And that's my point right now, is I think what we'll need to do is this could have been received today as a report, and we just didn't knit that together. So I'm asking that co-chair Green that we not we can't do that today because we'll get in trouble from the auditor. But we can have an item on the next meeting of this committee where you won't have to get the presentation. But four of us were very engaged. I hope you noticed that. And we could vote on this as a report. Then it can formally lift it to the entire council, because this is something I think it's important for the entire body to listen to. So as we go into the priority setting conversations, as we go into the priorities of our budget, we have this presentation in our mind. So we can actually so we can actualize this councilor Smith was getting to that and more. And I just want to make sure that that we figure out how to that was a compliment and how we move this forward. And so I just want to say that and I'll end with something a little fun. You realize the gays in the 70s and 80s built the club culture of Portland.
Okay.
There were no instagram photos back in that day. Thanks.
We're all standing on the shoulders of giants. No, I think that we can accommodate, like, just a quick turn voting item to formalize the receipt of the report. I know that we're going to have a lot of stuff to pack into our last committee. So like it could be quick. It could be quick because we've had this presentation, this rich conversation. I think at this point, diana, can you read the next agenda item? Because I do think we have some public comment on this issue. Okay.
Yes. Item number three, public comment on the storefront support program presentation. We have one person signed up for testimony, sarah shaw, who is online. Sarah, you can unmute and begin your testimony any time.
Hello. Hello, counselors. Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify in support of providing adequate resources and funding for the storefront support program. My name is sarah shawl, and I have owned and operated retail storefronts in Portland in three different districts over 30 years. I currently operate bricks and mortar, an organization born from the pandemic, to support portland's brick and mortar small business community, which faces unique challenges to other other businesses, small and large. You might actually see behind me notes from the meeting on Friday that we hosted at the downtown central library, and I really want to thank councilor Ryan for taking the time and victor for presenting last Friday. I think I really appreciate two things that councilor Ryan shared. One is addressing parking is really crucial for our small businesses. They they are really struggling. They need all the support they can get. And yes, the money will flow back in when we support them in the the most simplest of ways. And we really do need to take care of those businesses who have, who have already that are already here, that have been here for years. We take care of them. Everything will fill in. Rather than focusing on how do we recruit, how do we recruit? I have some prepared notes I'd like to share with the time I have. Portland's small businesses are the face of our city. They are the measure of our vibrancy and our culture. Every day, our small businesses are actively doing the work of economic development just by showing up, even in their resiliency and with their nimble pivots, our small businesses are struggling. For all their significance as economic as the economic engine of the city and the state, they do not feel seen or heard. They feel overlooked and they feel underserved. I do want to point out I've worked with ann hill over the last few years. Efforts like pima are making a difference in addressing safety, and we need to do more. I'm happy to see this coordination more formalized. Our small business community continues to take hits from reduced international travel, inconsistent federal economic policy that is eroding consumer confidence and layers of other challenges. In this moment, there is an opportunity to shore up our existing brick and mortar when we help to make them stronger again. The empty storefronts will fill in. Supporting our brick and mortars will help them. Stories I do want to say that we do have data. We do. We've been conducting data for the last six years, and I'm happy to share that data with any and all of you. And seems like I'm at a time and I miss sharing other things, but I'm happy.
You can take a little more time.
May I thank you so much. We have an incredible maker retail community here who depend on small retail to get their products to market. These makers are creating jobs and many are scaling. This is the tax revenue that we need to keep our city functioning, supporting our small businesses. And brick and mortars help tell stories that will draw people back downtown and to our wonderful neighborhood business districts. Bricks and mortar, as I said, conducts surveys. We capture sales data, lease rates, triple nets, crime impact data, and more. For too long, Portland has taken our small brick and mortar businesses for granted the community, and that's how they feel. That may not be how you all feel, but that's how they feel. The community has been the goose laying golden eggs to give Portland its unique, enviable vibe. I'm using that word to victor, and you may see few small business owners here, and that's because they have virtually no additional bandwidth. They don't have government affairs. Thank you for your time.
Thank you so much, sarah. I feel validated because I think early on I said some of our chief duty is to be vibe cultivators when we think about economic development. So here we are. Any other testifiers signed up.
That completes public testimony.
Mr. Chairman, can I just add one comment to that? I was at a meeting in district four where there was someone just riffing off of what sarah said. There was someone who said, we need positive trollers. We need people on their social media to be telling positive stories about Portland, which I thought was pretty cool.
Couldn't agree more. Okay. Thank you colleagues, I think this brings us to the end of our formal agenda here. I'll just give you I just want to take a moment of privilege to say that the parking for employees conversation came up during my participation in the Portland mercury's wing week. I went to nom nom wings in my district. That's on 14th avenue, northwest 14th avenue. And not only was the best hot dog actually, did I say wing week? I meant hot dog week. I think that's no surprise. I was all up on some hot dogs and hands down the best I've ever had. But I did talk to the owner. And, you know, I told him about this storefront program. He was very excited about it. But also he said, you know, if there's any way to provide some flexibility on creating space for my employees to to park down here, I understand the broader transit frame. We get that. But also these are these are workers who don't necessarily live close enough to get to the location in a reasonable amount of commuting time. And so I said that's something that I think this council, or at least this committee, would be interested in engaging on. So I'm really grateful that it came up in this conversation here. So I can then go back, get another hot dog, because now he's going to have it on the menu and tell him that we talked about this. So thanks for that. At our next, our next meeting of the arts and economy committee is going to be February 24th. And we've we've got kind of a packed agenda here. We we might hear an update and a presentation, not a voting item from councilor. Novick on. He's pursuing some legislation around making it easier to get your sandwich boards that, you know, those those kind of advertising devices that exist on a sidewalk. That's something he's been working on. I don't think he's going to be at the stage at this point to bring something forward for consideration and adoption in this committee, but he wants to daylight a little bit of that. And then we have a number of prosper Portland items. There is a request to hear a nomination to the board of commissioners at prosper Portland, and we'll need to take that up. So that way he can be seated in time and confirmed by the full council. And I think there were still tentative on some of the cully tiff aspects, but we're trying to hold a little space there. And then finally, based upon the discussion today, we'll want to see if we can shoehorn in just a very quick voting item to accept this presentation today as a formal report. So don't bring any new items to the committee because we won't be able to accommodate for February. But we're really trying to not need to have one in March just because of the the resources that we have before council ops.
Can I just say one?
Yeah, please.
I want to acknowledge that prosper Portland is the agency that does the partner that does the repair grants. So that's already a concrete service that's provided. And I think now working with ann and her team, the nimbleness, the response to our consumers, to our storefronts, I've heard that it's gotten better. So I don't know why, but thank you. And so I just want to acknowledge that I also acknowledge bts is here. And it just shows that there is there are a lot of different bureaus that are represented. I'm sure some are watching as well. And it's really delightful to see this all in this all in effort that's taking place within the city for the storefront program. Thank you so much. I hope that we can vote on it, like at the very beginning of the meeting, just to get it done quickly, like remember everything we just experienced and vote.
I think we can pull that off. Thank you so much, colleagues. At this moment, at this time, I will now adjourn the meeting. The arts economy committee.
That's where you get your business.