The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-09-23
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (19,418 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are not yet identified (colors just separate consecutive turns). Auto-captions can contain errors — check the recording for anything that matters.
Session summaryEditor-reviewed
On September 23, 2025, the Arts and Economy Committee met with roll call confirming member presence and a statement of conduct read into the record. The session addressed a resolution directing the city administrator to develop a storefront support plan, prompted partly by that morning's explosion at a food cart pod. Discussion covered vacant storefront tracking, coordination among city bureaus on crime and livability issues, and a January 31, 2026 plan deadline. Public testimony described break-ins, vandalism, violence, insurance costs, and business closures across several districts, with figures on business tax revenue declines and tax increases since 2019 stated inconsistently across speakers. A second item introduced a proposed ordinance amending sidewalk vendor code to ease restrictions near existing businesses and in the central city; testimony was mixed, with support citing entrepreneurship and opposition citing safety, liability, and property owner concerns. That item was referred back to committee for further revision rather than advanced. The committee also considered reappointment of a Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners member, with discussion of tax increment financing districts and equity considerations. Votes occurred on the storefront resolution and the reappointment, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. The meeting adjourned with the next session scheduled for October 10.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
0 Good morning. I call the meeting of the arts and economy committee to order. It is Tuesday, September 23rd at 9:30 a.m. Let's see who we have clerking today. Is rebecca? Yes. Okay. Rebecca, will you please call the roll?
1 Yes. Good morning. Clerk. Here.
2 Dunfee.
3 Here. Smith.
4 Here.
5 Ryan Green here.
6 Craig, will you please read the statement of conduct?
7 Welcome to this meeting of the arts and economy committee to testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at wwe. Agenda and economy committee. Or by calling 311. Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for two minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone will be muted when your time is over, the chair preserves order. Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations 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 to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
8 Thank you, craig, and thank you, colleagues, for being here today. Today we will first consider a resolution that would require the city administrator to develop a plan that establishes a storefront support program. This is something my colleague, co-chair Ryan, has been very passionate about since, I think probably long before you've been inaugurated into this current term. This has been on your book of business for a long time, so we're excited to hear that. Then we will introduce a first conversation around an ordinance that I'm bringing forward to promote free enterprise in the downtown core and, frankly, anywhere in the city to allow for sidewalk vendors. And then finally, we will consider the reappointment of serena stoudemire wesley to the prosper Portland board of commissioners. Rebecca, will you please read the first item?
9 Item one require city administrator to develop a plan that establishes a storefront support program.
10 Thank you so much. And at this point, I'm going to hand it over to my colleague here to to kick us off.
11 Thank you. Co-chair Green and cassie, are you going to magically be doing the slides over there, or are you going to scoot up to do it? All right. Great. Thank you. Good morning everyone. Thanks for those of you that are here in person and those listening in, I want to take a moment this morning to first recognize a really unfortunate incident that occurred early this morning. There was a large explosion at the landia food cart pod in southeast Portland. It destroyed and damaged many carts. I'm relieved that to share that no one was injured in the explosion as it happened enough hours, this explosion this morning will set back many of the small business owners in those in the cart landia. And although I'm hopeful they have insurance, I know that many businesses can't get adequate insurance. It's with a heaviness and reinforcement that to resolve that, I present this resolution today that can have a real positive impact for public facing storefront merchants. It's been a long road. As co-chair, Green said, to get here today, it actually started when I was in office as a commissioner, and my staff would listen to the stories facing our storefronts, trying to serve the public. After they were finally allowed back into reopen after the COVID pandemic, I would take visits all across the city, and I would report those stories to the mayor and to my colleagues with bureaus directly connected. There was compassion in the listening, and yet there were so many urgent priorities that would take over. And the response became more of a reaction to isolated incidents. Since elected to this community facing elected public servant role, I was eager to go out and listen more in the neighborhoods of north and northeast Portland, and I heard the same stories as I did downtown in old town and pearl, old inner east side, Hawthorne, you name it. Deep pain about not making profit while spending money on security issues. Here's just some of the thoughts that would come at me in reflections. It seems like the only time I hear from the city is to nudge me on a new fee or regulation. The city is asking for more money from me, as I am receiving less service from them. This happens a lot. I love Portland, I'm a deep, deep liberal and it pains me to complain about these conditions. I'm very compassionate about these conditions, but I need help. The streets conditions are bad and sadly we are a target. I don't want to quit. I just can't survive much longer. The point is, this impacts all of us. Our our storefront owners, our merchants that rent those leases are renters. Their homeowners, their parents, their single people. And a lot of them are just very creative and motivated to bring forward a business that their heart desires. And they really, truly are. What's made Portland special over the years. Portland, you have a revenue problem. We are losing business licenses and taxes at alarming rates, and we will notice that pain point in the upcoming conversations in the fall bump, I submitted storefront support amendments in the budget process, which were unfortunately not brought forward for a vote because the budget process ran out the clock. So today, I'm back with fundamental and impactful ways that we can help the local public facing storefronts. Now is the time to act, it says slide two here because you're probably following along better than me. Here we go. From a grassroots engagement perspective, one of the best things about a job of councilor is that you get to spend as much time as possible out in the community, visiting the people in your district, and the heart and soul of that is often our storefronts in our neighborhoods, throughout our districts. We have, again, an incredibly diverse network of folks. The local businesses define the the identity and vitality of our neighborhoods. This is unique. And if you travel to other cities, other cities, you notice we have a unique and special system here that must be protected, protected and preserved. It's kind of like where the whole portlandia thing came from is, is running around and seeing these vibrant storefront neighborhoods. It's no surprise to anyone that our economy is struggling here in Portland. And to put a fine point on it, the city economist this month shared that our business license taxes coming in more than 12 million below last year's forecast. The decline in business license tax is confirmed by my experience in the community over the last nine months. So again, this is not a surprise. The input from business owners has changed and it's alarming. They are experiencing chronic crime, vandalism and livability problems. These cut into their ability to make a living. Many small businesses are having an increasingly difficult time staying afloat just from the higher cost of employees. The supplies and products. Many of the businesses talk to one to 1 or 2 months before they might have to close shop. Their fixed costs are rising. Next slide. Foot traffic has been somewhat consistent, but overall still down from pre-covid. Repairs from vandalism and crime are costly and often not insured. The streets and sidewalks are littered with trash and human waste, and there is a visible drug use and dealing, and individuals and mental health crises and active addiction on our streets has been increasing. Frankly, we haven't figured out how to manage the humanitarian crisis on our streets, and we need to be intellectually honest that our neighborhoods and businesses are negatively impacted as well. We can and should acknowledge the differing needs of our community at the same time. Next slide. The storefront support resolution can address the concerns in our business community that I hear most about. They ask for representative responsiveness from police, for investigation of crime and acts of vandalism. They want PBOT to clear out the tents and lived in vehicles from the city's streets and sidewalks in front of their businesses. They want to have more proactive engagement from the city bureaus so they not feel alone and vulnerable to organized crime. And mostly, they want to know that the city is paying attention to their issues, and they're taking that. We're taking them seriously. Next slide. This resolution does three concrete things to help our local businesses. First of all, we need real information. It'll track vacant storefronts and businesses across the city mapping them so we can identify in real time concentrations of vacant spaces which become targets of crime. It will gather data from business owners who leave the city or close in. This will provide useful data to our city councilors, the mayor and the administration. This will inform smarter strategic decisions to retain businesses. Lastly, the resolution looks to formalize and streamline the service model between our city bureaus who work on crime and livability issues. This includes pmo, police, PBOT, Portland solutions, prosper Portland, and others. We need to build a structure and systems for the shared and intersecting responsibilities in terms of next steps. This resolution is looking to our city administrators to pull the right people from the administrative branch together to develop a plan for these deliverables. The plan will include resources needed to support it. Timeline is to have the resolution move out of committee into full council this fall. The plan is then the plan will be due on January 31st, 2026 and we expect more discussion regarding this plan in the 2627 budget process. I remain dedicated to fighting for storefronts, the vitality of a city. It is incumbent upon us as an elected body to make sure we are listening to our local storefront owners and responding to their pleas for help. I appreciate the time today and look forward to working on this with all of my city council colleagues. I'm happy to answer any of the questions that you may have at this time. And we also have some partners. Thank you all for being here this morning from city bureaus who can help with questions in their area of expertise. Now is the time to focus on this issue. The numbers don't lie. This is a priority. We must come together across bureaus and across offices and make this a priority for this city council. This government focusing on our city to improve at this time. Thank you.
12 Thank you, co-chair Ryan. I think we have a couple. Do you want to do public testimony before moving into the broader discussion?
13 I think it's usually a good idea because it allows all of us to have a sense of the voice that's here to represent this issue. Yeah.
14 Rebecca, can you please. Yeah. You're welcome. Can you please call up the first, maybe call them up in a pair or something? Testimony for this item.
15 First up we have shelly bigley. Shelly is joining us online followed by deborah field. Shelly, you can go ahead and unmute and begin when you're ready.
16 Can you hear me?
17 Yes, we can hear you.
18 Okay, great. Hi. Good morning. I've spoken on behalf of small business in Portland to the city council recently, and I was excited to hear that Dan had come up with this idea for a program. So I wanted to speak about it. And as I've said in the past, I've never had a such a lack of support, beginning with the pandemic, as we all know. And I understand the city and the police hands are tied with the reductions of funds and staffing. However, after experiencing multiple break ins, multiple broken windows, and my team experiencing violence from unhoused mentally ill people just walking in from off the street and threatening them to the point of having to close my doors just for the evening. There's got to be a better solution for support for small businesses. Yes, I believe of course, this should also include outreach for those individuals. I do feel that there's a lot of seemingly ridiculous requirements, like having to move my dumpster that's been in the same spot for 18 years. Apparently, the city started this program about composting food waste, and I felt like it was maybe more of a requirement than cleaning up human waste. And then, of course, the incredible cost of labor supplies, utility insurance. The insurance is so high that I don't bother filing claims. There are other many other things, but I'd like to suggest that maybe within this program, it would be wonderful if there was a help line, or a person in a small business owner can go to and express their concerns, and then they can be directed to the appropriate program in a short period of time to get a faster response. Like like was is proposed. And for what it's worth, I will say that I love Portland, I've grown up in Portland, I've raised a family in Portland. I've owned and operated several businesses in Portland, and I don't want to see the opportunity of this great city and small business dreamers wither away under the burden of high taxes and low support. And that's all. Thank you for listening.
19 Thank you. Shelly.
20 Deborah field. And deborah will be followed by brian orndorf if you want to come to the table.
21 Good morning. Can you hear me? I haven't been in this building for quite a while and I forgot how beautiful it is. I love that area where all the sculptures are hanging down. It must be fun to work here every day. Anyhow, I'm deborah field. I'm one of the many small business owners, storefront owners in this wonderful city of ours. I've been in business for 30 years. It's all within the arena of digital printing and design. And I own it with my husband, and my son is now taking over, so we're going to be passing it on. So being in business for 30 years, I have seen a lot of situations and I have a lot of stories, but I only have 2 to 3 minutes. So I'm going to be bullet point and talk about the current things that I think are the biggest problems for us. And I know that you don't always want to hear problems, and I'll do my best to offer maybe some suggestions to it as well. I think I'm going to read the rest of it just so I don't leave anything out. And I also, to start, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak. It's always important to have our voices in front of you. And also, I want to thank you for your service. I know it's not always an easy job, but thank you for serving the city of Portland. This has been my home for years. I'm actually a native Oregonian and I come from an Oregon trail pioneer family, so I'm very entrenched in Oregon and in Portland. And like the last woman said, shelly, I don't want to see our city go to a place that's not healthy for all of us. So let me tell you some of my things. I like this idea that mr. Ryan has brought forth about supporting us. I'm going to use the word small business storefront. I know that's not in front of storefront, but I do think that that's an important distinction that we might really want to get clear what we mean by storefront, because there are some very large businesses that have storefronts. So the the definition I think is important. And I think really the true definition of a small business is 50 or fewer people. And you can look at nationwide statistics and even city statistics. Portland, I believe, is made up to 80 to 90% of small businesses. That's a large percentage in our city. So and these businesses had so much charm to our city, these independent creative. That's why a lot of tourists come to our city. So it's a really important economic issue I think, for us. Oh, I'm not talking fast enough. Okay. I want to say that the restore grants that you guys put into place was very, very helpful for us. And I'd like to see that part of the permanent storefront program. Okay. So there's a suggestion. Right now, we have a lot of problems with bottle and can returns, believe it or not, in our lovely little beaumont market in beaumont village, where my business is on northeast fremont, do I have to end?
22 You do. But if you if you just want to wrap up your thought, I'll allow that.
23 Okay, so I'm wrapping up my thought. Let's support small businesses. We make up the majority in this city and we support our communities. We support our schools. We give back to our community. I'd like to say that we also support you, the economic sense to this. It just makes sense. It's just a really win win for all of us. Thank you so much.
24 Thank you so much, deborah.
25 Deborah, thank you. And just know that the restore grants were the first part of this. And we passed those in may. So this is part two. Oh it's connected.
26 Good to know. Do you want me to sit here.
27 You can just.
28 Yeah. Okay.
29 Onward. Sorry.
30 Good morning. Councilors brian orndorf live and work in district four have been involved in extensive development in the city of Portland over the past 18 years, including several retail developments, ground floor retail, as well as bridgeport village. I'm just going to throw some facts out for a reality check right now. So downtown employment is currently at a 59% of its 2019 levels. This represents a massive shift in the core economic engine. Without daily foot traffic, it's no surprise retail, restaurants and even office valuations are suffering. The shift to remote and hybrid work has stuck, and the decline in office demand is triggering a domino effect across multiple sectors. Right now, there's 134 properties that are appealing their downtown property taxes, and they're still five five months left from when this was this number came out. The appeals are expected to result in $200 million in lost taxable revenue. Another 270 properties, including the 132 ritz-carlton condos, are estimated to account for another $300 million drop. That's a half billion dollars in eroded tax base already on the books, with more likely to come. This is in a real estate issue. It's a looming budget crisis. Losing the level of taxable value means less funding for city services, public safety, homelessness programs, transit and more. The feedback loop is dangerous. Declining services lead to further economic erosion, which leads to more vacancy and more loss of value. Portland needs a coordinated, bold comeback strategy that incentivizes a return to office, supports small businesses and retail tenants, makes downtown feel safe, clean and vibrant once again, and restructures planning around long term realities of hybrid work. This is not a temporary dip. We're at risk of a structural transformation downtown with permanently smaller economic footprint unless we act decisively. I fully support this resolution to develop a plan for storefront activations programs. However, I will be vehemently opposed to councilor Greene's proposal to amend sidewalk vendors code. There is not enough demand to sustain existing food vendors, and allowing hot dog carts to operate directly in front of bricks and mortar restaurants without consent could be the final blow from any existing food and beverage operators already struggling to survive. One other point to make one of the last institutional owners of retail space in the pearl district has put their entire portfolio of 44 ground floor retail leases on the market for sale. That is another vote of no confidence by wall street and international investors that we need the capital to be able to do new projects for in the city of Portland. Thank you.
31 Next, we have sarah drescher and tanya hartnett.
32 Tall chair. My feet don't touch the ground. Good morning. My name is sarah drescher. I'm the president of the northeast broadway business association. We have a large business district. It runs all the way from northeast third to northeast 37th on broadway and weidler. I'm a resident of district two, and I have my own small business on northeast broadway. I'm here today to testify in support of the resolution to create the storefront support program. If you go into the middle of our business district right now, northeast 15th, you'll see capitol bar. It's empty, and it's been empty for over a year. If you turn around and you look at the other side of the street, you're going to see aztec willy's with a closed sign in the window. 31 years and they closed six days ago. They're going to be another empty storefront in our business district, across the street from each other. I walked the business district. It's where I live to. There's one empty storefront per block in the northeast broadway business district. This is a huge swath of our city, and it is all small local business owners. The truth is that it just doesn't make sense for these people to do business in Portland right now, and I hate saying that, but that is what they will tell you. They're under crushing taxes and they're under threat from graffiti, retail theft and threats to the security and safety of their employees. They're taking it elsewhere to the suburbs, where they can make a profit and have a decent living and better conditions. These vacant storefronts are not just empty spaces. They're visible markers of economic decline in this city of lost opportunity, diminished community life. Every small business that closes its doors leaves behind more than an empty building. It leaves a gap in portland's identity, a missing connection point for our neighbors, and a loss of character that has long defined our city. Small businesses are the lifeblood of portland's economy and culture. They provide jobs, they activate our streets, and they create welcoming spaces where our community happens. And yet we have no coordinated support from the city, and too many of our small businesses are going to continue to struggle or disappear entirely. If this trend continues, we risk losing not only businesses, but the very sense of place that makes Portland distinctive and livable. The northeast broadway business association urges the council to adopt this program without delay. Our future depends on it. Thank you.
33 Good morning. Thank you for having me. My name is tanya hartnett and I am the executive director of working waterfront coalition. Thank you for putting this important issue to the forefront. I will be addressing the point on empty storefronts, which is a huge issue for almost all small business districts in Portland. In the over three years of working as district manager for Portland, I was able to see and hear firsthand the issues the empty storefronts have on the entire business district. Every time there was a staff meeting to discuss the challenges that a business district faced, the amount of empty storefronts was always at the top of the list. For everyone concerned. Having an abundance of empty storefronts, do the following. Without a business in a building, more nefarious activities like camping, drug use, and fires and doorways occur. With these activities, there is always trash and debris left behind, making the area and sidewalk look messy. With the attraction of the above said nefarious activities, this tends to lead to crime and vandalism to the nearby businesses. Empty storefronts usually have no lighting, making the area darker and unwelcoming so people avoid the area, detracting from businesses that are there with less foot traffic and community. If there is crime, vandalism and an empty building, police response seems to be slower when a potential business comes to the area to look at a space, they see all the above and it tends to detract from them wanting to set up shop there. And honestly, it feels that empty storefronts begets empty storefronts. If a larger space has a business move out, it also feels like it's not too long before the rest of the businesses on that block leave. I noticed a lot of pictures from councilor. Ryan's presentation was in saint john's, and two years ago in saint john's salty teacup left, and just a month ago, huck labs left, leaving an entire block of large, empty storefronts that is dark. And I noticed that when I walk that street, I walk on the other side. There are. These are just a few examples of how empty storefronts affect entire business districts. The way Portland is made up with neighborhoods built around and dependent upon the vitality of the business district they live in, it is vital that something is done to motivate, activating the spaces for the safety and livability of all. Thank you.
34 Next we have justin jungers and john isaacs.
35 Good morning. My name is justin jungers. I'd like to thank Dan Ryan for bringing this resolution to the table. My wife and I opened binks bar on northeast alberta street in 2001. We've seen a lot, and I would say that the past couple of years have been the worst by far. The the neighborhood in general, and specifically our blocks have gone bananas with street parties, open drinking and weed smoking, booming music, drunken street racing, arguing confrontations, flashing guns, sometimes shooting guns, harassing, intimidating and scaring off our customers, hospitalizing our customers. At some point there's been brawls and these people are not our customers. They're just people on the street. They're just having a street party. My bartenders have been punched, robbed at gunpoint, called every name in the book trying to solve this problem. We have hired lawyers. We've hired security. Like, you know, security companies, doormen, security advisors to the tune of almost $10,000 just this month alone. This is not sustainable for a small business. On top of that, you know how many of you keep a baseball bat in your car? How many people, how many of you? Okay, yeah, you know what I'm talking about. How many people, how many of you keep a, like a golf golf club at your front door? Like, I. I can't solve the problem alone. Small business can't solve the problem alone. We need bigger help. We need more police bodies. That's. There's a lot of bottom lines here, but that's one of them. All those things that I'm doing that we're doing, we're spending that money. We're pouring over camera footage. We're we're, you know, getting called every name in the book to try to fix the problem. We're doing them temporarily. We can't do it sustainably. We can't do it forever. We need help. I'm doing them temporarily because I want to be part of the rebirth of the city. I'm doing them because I'm a lifelong Oregonian. I don't want to leave Portland worse than when I found it. But we need to make the security and safety of small businesses a priority. If I go away, the street will be dark and the bad guys won't go away. Though they'll come to the next business, they'll come to somebody's house, they'll come to maybe your house. We had a brawl inside the bar recently when part of the group that has been terrorizing us just stormed in and started using the bar like a ufc ring. I have a video of them, a color, color camera, video of them attempting murder on each other. And I've sent it out to. I've spent the last couple of weeks sending it to the police, sounding the alarm with liquor regulatory, trying to have my lawyer get the attention of the da, trying to get the noise ordinance people to come down on on these things, and I'm getting nothing in return. So after one second. So after that experience, I don't want to hear that there's more that I need to do that maybe I need to install a few more cameras or hire a second or third or fourth security guard. I don't want to be told to keep trying to call 911. I want to know that the city cares. So do you care this this cares. This resolution cares. Please help me. Thanks.
36 Thank you. Go ahead. John.
37 Okay.
38 Good morning council.
39 Thanks for having us here. My name is john isaacs. I'm the executive vice president of public affairs for the Portland metro chamber. I am a resident of district three in southeast Portland, and I'm happy to be here today. The Portland metro chamber is the largest business association in the state with over 2300 members. 81% of our members are small businesses, which was defined as businesses with ten or fewer employees. So very small. So I just want to share a few facts with you this morning in support of this resolution, 35.1% of all workers in Multnomah county are employed by small businesses, and 94% of establishments in Multnomah county are small businesses, 94%. These facts are in the 2023 state of small business report, which was published by the chamber and formally accepted by the city, and it was accepted in advance of the first action to establish the office of small business services about a year and a half ago, pre-pandemic, downtown vacancy rates were 4 to 6%. Retail vacancy. The latest available stats are now 26.8%. And it's not a surprise because, as you've heard, storefront businesses have been literally on the front line of facing every single negative impact of the challenges our cities face, primarily since 2020. Break ins, theft, vandalism, gun violence, and open drug activity around an in their businesses. As you just heard, pandemic, pandemic driven shift to the digital economy, one thing we don't talk about very much is Portland saw one of the largest shifts of any large city in the nation from in-person economic experiences to the digital economy. We we can all understand why. But pre-pandemic, Portland had a huge our culture of going and shopping in stores is one of the things that drives our small business culture. And because of the pandemic and shutting down the economy, we saw one of the largest shifts in the nation to digital parking and transportation policies that literally drive out existing businesses, seemingly sometimes on purpose, to replace them political doxing. And now we have tariffs and the elimination of federal programs to support small businesses. The governor's central city task force tax committee published 19 shared fiscal facts last year, and it found that business taxes in Portland have increased 81% since 2019. So with all of this, it should not be a surprise that we face such high retail vacancy rates and the city will continue to fill this pain with further declines in business tax revenue. If we don't make supporting private employers with payrolls the singular priority of the city over the next several years. With this in mind, we're grateful for this resolution. And let's talk about one point of optimism. We have the largest number of small businesses per capita of the top 50 metros in the nation, meaning we have in our city right now. If we adopt the right culture and philosophies of growing, retaining our businesses, we have the next nike, we have the next columbia sportswear here. Right now, we just need to shift to a philosophy of supporting and retaining our businesses. Last thing I'd offer is a place to start in our small business report in 2023, we also published what we call a chutes and ladders slide, which shows all of the regulatory hurdles of small business has to go through just to open and stay open. It offers a roadmap for this plan councilor and that I would offer, and we're here to offer our partnership as this plans developed. Thank you.
40 Thank you, mr. Isaacson.
41 Bianca youngers and karen cherry.
42 Hi.
43 Thank you, council.
44 Members, for letting me be here today. My name is bianca youngers. My husband and I have been small business owners in Portland for over 25 years, and we've raised our children here and built build deep roots in this community and poured everything we have into making this city thrive. But I need to be honest, right now, it feels harder than ever. Even during COVID. Justin shared some things about safety, but I want to speak about my recent experience as I tried to lease a space for my art business. For the last six months, I've been searching downtown spaces and they are unbelievably affordable. Right now. $0.75 to a dollar per square foot with huge common areas included. And I tried to get people to come with me and nobody wants them. That's insane. Not just because of the cost, but because they are afraid. The building owners were practically begging me to sign a lease, and still no one bites because downtown feels unsafe. Meanwhile, small business taxes in the city Portland have gone up 82%, as we have heard, and we are just being squeezed from every side. My family has built our lives here, and it would feel like cutting off a limb to leave Portland, but we're really close to making that decision and I know many others are too. As a business owner, I'm active on instagram as we all have to be now, and I speak with local shop owners all the time, and every week I see posts and have personal messages about break ins, grayling jewelry on alberta, urbanite, so many others being spar, we've had the same experience. Video footage of thieves. We have reports to the city and the police and nothing happens. And it feels like business owners are being held hostage. This is not just an inconvenience. Recently, a group that we didn't serve, justin, spoke about. It, had a violent fight outside of our business, and we had to shut down. And we watched on video. We were in bend on our cameras as young women were stabbing each other with broken glass, trying to kill each other. It was horrifying. We reported it to the da like justin said, the mayor, oc, the police and the only agency that tried to help was olcc. But their hands are tied. We need more ideas and thank you Dan. We need response, we need enforcement and we need police. When problem individuals are identified, they must be prosecuted. The lack of resources is no longer acceptable excuse. It just isn't. Businesses are closing every day while we wait. Council member Dan Ryan has been a consistent listener with realistic action plans, and we need more leadership like that. Leaders who move quickly and not years too late. We need it now like we need it yesterday in the building where I just signed my art studio lease, 94 spaces total are there and I've already watched a coffee shop leave. I've been there for two weeks. Several more tenants are preparing to vacate. When our bartenders quit, they don't find another job in Portland. They leave altogether. This is urgent. Please act now to support our small businesses and restore safety so we can survive. We don't need more idealistic plans. We need boots on the ground. We need accountability and we need our city back. Thank you.
45 Thank you. Bianca.
46 Karen's online. You can go ahead. Karen.
47 I don't have a prepared statement. I just want to speak freely. But I have been testifying. My name is karen ray. I am a business owner in district four and a member of stadium hood, and a lifelong portlander and a veteran, and I have been a business owner for five years now, speaking the last two years in in support of small businesses and testifying constantly about the livability and the safety of our, our area. And the 23 stores that have are businesses that have closed within a four block radius of my store. And councilor Dan Ryan, I applaud you for coming up with this idea, and I really want to be involved in it. I will volunteer to to be a part of the program and to give my insights and my suggestions. Just since April, I have had 19 people arrested from my store. I've had three. Just last week I spent Saturday tracking down a a shoplifter and spent five hours following him until police were freed up from the officer involved shooting. But I was determined to make sure that this man was held accountable for taking from my store and from my kids who were working that day. And so I have, like I said, a lot of insight and a lot of. Tenacity to make sure that we have no more businesses leave Portland. And so that's all I wanted to say. So please reach out. I would really like to be involved. Thank you.
48 Thank you karen.
49 Heidi and vanessa preston.
50 Hi, I'm heidi, I don't have anything.
51 Prepared, but last night, around 1:00 in the morning, I saw the news story and thought that this is something that I needed to attend. I own the star bar on seventh and southeast morrison, and in just the last month, slow bar has closed. Hit the spot, has closed. Lollipop has a gofundme happening, home bar has closed. And I'm really concerned about my bar. I already pulled $10,000 out of my 401 k to float payroll, and I'm just kind of concerned about the area in general. Parking is now being enforced until 10 p.m. You know, we don't have a lot of police presence, but we have a lot of homeless people. I've had somebody try to burn down the bar. I've had defecations at the bar, I've had fights and all sorts of altercations, either outside of the bar. And just two weeks ago, somebody died after having a fentanyl overdose in front of the bar. I'm just. I'm just scared, that's all. I mean, I appreciate the storefront initiative. Like I said, I heard it after work last night around 1:00 in the morning, so excuse me if I'm tired, but I really appreciate the efforts. And please don't neglect the center city. Thank.
52 Thank you so much.
53 Vanessa preston. Our last testifier is Steve herring. Steve's online. You can go ahead.
54 Good morning everyone. I apologize for having to appear virtually. I just found out about the agenda from this morning, this morning. And I want to thank councilor Ryan for putting forth some additional efforts to help small businesses with the storefront proposal. And I kind of feel like between councilor Greene, I appreciate the idea behind your proposal, which I know is next. I just want to tell a story about my history here in Portland, going all the way back. Early in my career, I worked for downstream, which was a high end post-production facility that used to be located on naito parkway or northwest first, and I was among a group that was put forth to work with the pdc. At the time, there was a bunch of money the city had to supposedly support creative arts and the creative services industry in Portland, and at the time, will vinton studios was over in northwest. All of us agreed on what we needed in the creative services industry, which was dark fiber. We needed a connection between existing creative services, buildings and companies, and the pdc, for whatever reason, did not hear us and all they wanted to do was create a creative services building. And that building actually got funded and renovated and seismically upgraded, and has since ceased to serve as that particular purpose. It was at two two, two northwest fifth, and the pdc moved into that building at a certain point. And I tell this story just to say that like when we put proposals forth as far as the city and we're trying to help businesses, we need to listen to those businesses as to what they need. A lot of times what I see happening is people wanting to do something, but not really hearing what the impacts would be for those businesses. This past weekend, scandals closed on southwest harvey milk. That for me started in that neighborhood, which is where living room theaters, the company that I represent is within the west end. That started really to snowball into worse and worse circumstances when the city funded redevelopment of the fairfield apartments closed. The roxy, you know, it, it had a negative impact on the nightlife of that area. And we see now another business leaving west end, and it's imperative that we sort of stop the decline. And if you look throughout the neighborhoods that are around, many of the people testifying today, you can hear, you know, they're they're all struggling. We need to find those areas where there we can get together with the businesses that are left, and to try to revitalize the particular aspects of the neighborhood that is there. And councilor Green specific to offering street vendors the opportunity to to work without the permission of property owners. It's sort of counterintuitive because the street vendors are going to appear where all the traffic is, which is where the successful businesses are, and they're going to detract from those businesses, make it more difficult. So thank you all for the time this morning.
55 Thank you so much, Steve.
56 That concludes testimony.
57 Thank you rebecca. So we've heard some great testimony today. At this time I'd like to just give it back over to councilor Ryan to sort of move us, transition this into the part where we deliberate and take any kind of questions.
58 Thank you. Co-chair Green, I want to first of all, thank everyone who took the time to testify this morning. I know we've also received some written testimony that I hope all of the committee will receive. And I also need to mention that I had long conversations the last couple days with people that didn't feel safe to testify. And so I think it's important just to let that to offer that, because it's true, because of some of the testimony that was offered about doxxing and bullying and intimidation. So I want to also acknowledge the that you were brave and you had a lot of courage to fight for your city this morning. I'd like to have the experts come up. I see that we have members of our police force. I see ann here. I think it would be good if you were up here on the panel, so that when colleagues have direct questions, we can knit this together with your insight. This is a resolution, not an ordinance for a reason. We will have more teeth into this when we have the when we have more findings on January 31st. So this is about signaling that the city wants to focus on something that gets to the heart of the matter of what we must do as a as an enterprise at this time. And so I turn it over to my colleagues for questions, and I hope that we can move this out of committee into the council eventually so we can get moving on what will be a more robust plan on January 31st? Thank you.
59 A question.
60 Thank you. I just wanted them to come up. Councilor Clark asked me a good question. I'm going to daylight it. I'm not going to ask them questions right now. I had more opportunity to do that than some of you. So I want to get out of the way right now and allow my colleagues to ask questions. Thank you. Thanks for being here.
61 Thank you. Co-chair Ryan. Councilor Dunphy.
62 Thank you colleagues. Well, first of all, councilor Ryan, thank you for bringing this forward and for continuing to champion this and ring this bell. As I think many of you know, I myself am a former brick and mortar storefront owner. My wife and I owned and operated a coffee shop in the Sellwood neighborhood for over five years. I have a unique understanding of how hard that job is in the best of times, and we are not in the best of times. I also got the opportunity to serve as the city council, small business liaison and the liaison to venture Portland for five years when I worked for commissioner Nick fish. I have heard. I've seen this body take it very serious or say things very seriously about supporting small businesses, and we've taken some meaningful actions. Additionally, in a year where we were filling the largest structural budget gap in the last 50 years, this council also invested in a storefront activation program where we are connecting artists to vacant storefronts in order to try and minimize the feeling of of disinvestment and abandonment. I also had an amendment that I will be pursuing again in the future, to double the rate at which we are taxing, or double the rate double the exemption for businesses on the business license tax. Currently, if you earn $50,000 in gross revenue, you are subject to the business license tax. I think that at the very least, we should double that and make it 100,000. I'm I'm I understand, but I am disappointed that we didn't hear anybody from east Portland, any of the small business owners who are struggling every day. I am hearing from business owners in parkrose, in midway, in Lents, and in gateway about the not only the. Scary situations that are happening in the community, but the general feeling of disinvestment from the community or from the city. And also, lastly, I'll just say that we watched as a venture, Portland was closed and defunded by prosper Portland this year for a number of good reasons, but I worry that we have now left many of our struggling east Portland and north Portland businesses without the district liaison program that they have had. The midway business alliance, for example, has really thrived with this extra capacity. And I hope that the office of small business at prosper Portland is able to supplement that and find ways to bring additional capacity to those businesses. My question, though, is for councilor Ryan, the resolution obviously, we keep resolutions relatively high level, but the first where at or the first therefore on it is a little circular reference. It's it's referencing what financial you know, that the storefront support program will include staff and financial, identifying staff and financial resources to ensure that the storefront support program initiatives are successful. Can you maybe say a little bit more for me, what you hope this will and will not do? For example, I know I've heard from storefront owners that are or potential storefront owners that access to capital right now is an enormous challenge. And if even if you can get those cheap $0.75 a square foot rents, you can't necessarily get the loans to be able to convert it into your coffee shop. What do you what do you. See this as being and what do you see it not being?
63 It's responsive to much of the testimony that you heard today. We currently don't have a response that's adequate to anyone that testified today. And to the many other people that you talked to in district one that I hope will show up. When we bring this to the council. We need to be more responsive. We the city has been reactionary, kind of in isolated incidents. There's a lot of empathy for our staff struggles in this regard. But we have to work smarter. So we it's not just police, it's the it's the groups that we called out. There's no reason why they can't get together and figure out a better coordinated response. We've done this with other incidents in the city, and it's time to focus on our storefronts that face the public.
64 But specifically through the lens of permitting or through permitting.
65 Another category, councilor That's we worked on that quite a bit. It's still in motion. We've had a lot of meetings on that. We will stay focused on permitting. That's an issue. We heard about regulatory challenges. What we're going to know is if we include the people that are up here today and we have community voice that is a part of this building, we will have a plan on January 31st that's responsive, creative, innovative and helps us actually respond with a in a more strategic manner than we currently are. Sometimes you have to bring it up to this level to make it that. It's a focus for the city. I have been yapping about this for three years and been blocked, and so this is my example of being a public servant that says, I'm tired of being told that maybe in six more months, maybe in a year. No, it's red alert time now. The city must come together and make this a priority.
66 Do you I mean again, is it do you envision it primarily being through the responding to negative things that happened, or do you envision it also incorporating the work that we're doing on the artists connecting to public space activation or reinstating the small business liaison at the bureau of planning and development, or permitting and development? I'm just I've heard some really compelling testimony of horrifying situations. And so I'm wondering if this is just specific to responding to the bad, or proactively finding tenants or helping navigating internal services. I'm just I want to know what you envision this being as a successful program.
67 The bottom line, councilor Dunphy, is that we want to avert businesses from leaving, and this is not a resolution that meets the universe of the needs for businesses, much that you're starting to get into some other categories. I think that that makes sense for you to take up those proposals. But on this one, we just need to focus on what we're listening to today. These are urgent needs. These are people that are ready to give up, and these are people that don't want to give up. They have immense love for their city, for their state, and for also being an entrepreneur doing the creative work that they enjoy doing as a storefront owner. And so it's being responsive to what we listen to today, you bringing up some other items that are necessary, but I want to stay focused on the urgent need of today.
68 So just to be totally.
69 And I don't think they're negative. It's about reality, but this is reality.
70 It is responding to the failure of our system to respond to the fentanyl and homelessness crisis broadly, and trying to bring additional capacity and resources and responsiveness to that. Or is it, I mean, is that that seems to be because since police are here and pmo are up here, that is sort of the vibe I'm getting is that it's.
71 Absolutely connected. And I think that's a longer debate about the denial of local government, about our issues on the ground, on the street, our fentanyl, all of our drug crisis. So that's a debate we'll continue to have. And if this daylight's that reality, so be it. Because I think all of us can get behind our small business owners, our storefronts. You were one in the past. It's something I think we can all get behind. And if it's inconvenient that we start to hear about those deeper realities, then that's what we need to tackle. This is truth telling. This is daylighting, something that's killing our city. It's killing our coffers of our budget. And if we don't treat it as a red alert, I fear we're will be in two more years.
72 Thank you.
73 Councilor Clark.
74 Thank you, mr. Chair. And thank you so much to councilor Ryan for your long term commitment to small business and for this opportunity today. And I want to thank all of the people who came to testify today. It was incredibly compelling testimony, if not depressing. I grew up in a small family business where everybody worked together and we had no vacations, and it was hard work, but I don't think we ever confronted the kinds of problems that people, small business people in Portland, are confronting today. It's a whole different world that we're in today. And as a newly elected official, I'm regularly meeting with the small businesses and being contacted by business owners in in district four. I just have a couple of specific things I want to appreciate. Mr. Oldendorf's testimony about property taxes. In fact, because of the decline in the downtown, I've been asking our council president if we can't have a special session on what's happening with the downtown property values and how that's going to affect our tax base. I also want to mention I don't remember who brought up parking, but we're going to be revisiting the parking ordinance and another couple of weeks re reexamining the 7 to 10 extension. So that's going to be on the docket. Just so people know, I also found that john isaacs testimony from the chamber on the regulatory hurdles. I think that we need to examine that further. But I appreciate that what councilor Ryan's trying to do here is really come up with a coordinated city response. And, and to these issues, as long as we have our friends at the dais. I wanted to ask you a question about what are the impediments to having a greater police response? We've we've heard some really horrible stories that some of these small business people are confronting. Can you address that? I'm not sure who's the most appropriate one. Or maybe all of you have a response. And then I have a follow up question to that.
75 Thanks, councilor Clark. For the record, my name is rob simon. I'm the detective of the command. I'm the commander of the detective division with the Portland police bureau. I was formerly the north precinct commander just up until July. I think the biggest challenge that we do face in the police bureau, and this has been repeated several times, but it's the staffing levels within each of the divisions. We're looking at a significant set of retirements coming in may. The flip side of that is our hiring is going very well, but the attrition to get those folks up to speed to counteract retirements is going to create some shortfalls for us. So staffing is definitely one of the biggest challenges we face as far as response times and certain levels of engagement that unfortunately have to be brought back in. And some of that is in our patrol division, some of that's in our detective division. So definitely staffing is the biggest challenge we face.
76 Thank you for that answer. As I understand it, we have something like 1.2 officers per 1000 people in Portland and that the national average is something like 2 to 3 somewhere in that range that we're far, far behind for a city of our size. And having a fully staffed police departments. I appreciate those comments. I wanted to ask ann to to weigh in on this. You confront these issues every single day in my district and throughout, and I'd like to hear your observations about this as well, because you're you come face to face with this every single day.
77 Thank you, councilor Clark. For the record, my name is ann hill. I'm the director of the public environment management office, pmo. We run problem solver meetings across the city there every two weeks. They're designed like flood response. So people come with their issues and we track the issues and then we work internally to solve them. They're very pragmatic. They're what you heard today as a response, for example, to people seeing defecation like right in front of their street fronts. We have a contract now and a dispatch to be able to pick up. We call it the dookie sheet so that we can go out and pick up poop across the city or or needles. We are launching a sidewalk cleaning program. You know, we've in the city have never paid money to clean sidewalks. That's the adjacent property owner. So we are going to be working to do corridor cleans across the city. So you'll be rolling that out in every district in the business districts. I would also say that one of the issues we've seen is that many of our corridors in every district in the city is usually between, we call them, they're stitched between neighborhoods. So if you think about broadway, if you think about mlk, if you think about sandy boulevard, those are in like, let's say, 10 or 15 different neighborhoods. And the boundary tends to be at sandy or at lombard or at mlk. So they end up being kind of no man's land in terms of what we're doing on that street. Unless there's a long term plan or there's a transportation based master plan coming. And that's where we see a lot of the issues. So if you're not in a tif district, if you're not in a business district with many of the city's not they're not division. Clinton hasn't had an organized business district since I've been working at pmo rate. Those are really left. Those folks are really left out there on their own. And so I think that there is a need to integrate closely. We work very closely with prosper so that we can leverage resources and come up with a plan that we can solve these problems. I think what councilor Dunphy was talking about, I think there's immediate short term that we have to triage and stabilize, and then there's those longer term initiatives. I see it as a swimming pool. We can work all the swim lanes, but we have to address these issues on the street. And when it comes, I'm going to go meet with actually all these businesses. I my business card here and I will go stand on the street with them and say like, what can we do today? Do you know that you can call me? I mean, it's it's reactionary, right? But they have nobody and that's what they respond to. Portland music putting a mural on the side where it's been chronically tagged brought him hope. And he actually did a community event. So there isn't one answer. In closing, I would just say that everything you're talking about is really important and it's complex.
78 Thank you. Anne and I have.
79 One more question.
80 Can I have one more question? Just I know it's silver buckshot is what you're talking about. And I really appreciate you're here and I appreciate what you do. I just want to ask one other question to everybody on the panel. I've been thinking it might be a value to bring back a neighborhood based crime prevention program. We have little bits and pieces here and there, safe blocks or whatever and what you do and but is it is it worthwhile to try to bring back a neighborhood crime prevention program?
81 I could take this. For the record, my name is matt jacobson. I'm a sergeant within the detective division. Prior to going to the detective division, I spent five years at the central neighborhood response team, working primarily around community safety and chronic issues and working within the neighborhood crime prevention program. From what we heard today. And what Portland solutions does is a very immediate reaction. I think the role that we used to have, crime prevention, phil, is that that follow up from that immediate acute issue, whether it be a crime event, whether it be a livability event, having that follow up ability that maybe in a week, two weeks or whatever it may be to follow up with that business that has either been victimized or impacted in some way, to then work through solving some of those problems, working through a safety or security evaluation, that part of of the holistic view of this, I think, is incredibly important, whether it's in crime prevention or some other function to fill that role, I think is very comforting to those businesses that they just get some sort of follow up from somebody in the city.
82 I would agree. We've been setting up a model that we used to have at the city. We've been going in and meeting actually with affordable housing. So meeting with the residents, meeting with the managers, meeting with the providers, really to develop community and for them to know that they have resources and that they know who the police are, they know who to call. They they know that they're part of the solution. We've started there because we see so many of those vulnerable populations surrounded by a hotspot that then affects businesses. Et cetera. And other communities. It's been very successful. We'd like to be able to branch further, whether that's with small businesses. Et cetera. And the police and safe blocks, resources. And of course, time with law enforcement is an issue. So anything we can do to support them, we do that along with safe blocks.
83 Thank you. Anne councilor Smith.
84 Thank you. Thank you, co-chair. Thank you all for coming today. I think, counselor Ryan, what you brought forward was was great. It was a framework. But I think we need to also put a finer point on it and give the city administrator some options on how we can add additional access to capital. I was reading a story in the new york times this morning, and they said they had 150,000 homeless shelter beds, and I thought, wow, that's a lot of beds. And they had 4500 unsheltered folks on the street. Now, if we compare that to Portland, we don't really have 150,000 beds, but we got about 7000 unsheltered folks, am I right? And so if, if, if they can control their homeless through the shelter beds, we may need to change our system of doing business because we spend a lot of money on rent assistance. And if you look at the renaissance models on the federal level, they're cutting down section 8 to 2 years. Our president signed a executive order two weeks ago to limit section 8 to 2 years and two years only. So you know what that means. Those folks are going to come back to us. So I would like to add a friendly amendment or a suggestion to this councilor Ryan, to give them to give the city administrator a little bit more direction. And that direction may look like bonding to give access to capital for businesses in our community, and bonding those dollars out. Because if if we're looking to the future and the business licensing tax is being reduced, we're constantly going to be reducing our our budget. So we have to find another source of income. That's one thing. And we need to be courageous and we need to cut out of our budget new programs that were paid with ARPA dollars and make sure that we can pay for our main programs in our book of business, because if we don't, it is not sustainable where we're at right now. And the third thing, mr. Chair, we we constantly are saying that we're $12 million down until they show me the dollar amount. It's not real. So you put up on one of your first slides that we're 12 million, down from 189 until they actually show me what that is. I'm not believing it. We just had September 15th and that was the third quarter of business licensing tax. And that was not put into the calculation. So I want those numbers put into the calculation so I can see what the real number is. Thank you.
85 So so council do you are you introducing an amendment.
86 Well I want to do something that that gives them a little bit more direction. Because we didn't give them direction on how we you didn't put a dollar amount or where it's going to come from to help these businesses. And we want to help businesses, but we have to give him a little bit or her a little bit more direction.
87 I want to I have a friendly response.
88 Okay.
89 I think that what we're talking about today is, is not a direct service program. It is to herd these cats to come up with a plan, and then we'll hear back from them on January 31st. I know our office will be very involved in that focus. I think what you and councilor Dunphy have brought up are sound ideas, but it's taking us down a different path. I think you're coming up with a different resolution or a different ordinance. And so I think that I would love to talk to you about that.
90 I can talk to you about that more.
91 But not to move this forward.
92 Because just language and rhetoric to me, everybody knows we need to have more access to capital, but unless we give them direction on where that capital should come from, there is no way for us to do this. This is just another conversation piece.
93 I, I respectfully disagree that it's very important for us as leaders to help guide the enterprise, to focus on something that's urgent. And working smarter is very important for the city right now, because there isn't a lot of new money. So I think today we should focus on the testimony that was reflective of this resolution.
94 I bought in.
95 And then I would be all in for having a separate ordinance about what you and councilor.
96 I am totally bought into everything that all your folks have said and what we need, and I'm there. I agree with councilor Dunphy. I started this coffee with a cop on the third Friday of the month of every month, and lieutenant wells came and we talked about bottle drop. We do an issue every month, and we had small businesses, doctor's offices. We had a pediatric office on 122nd, and everybody was saying the same thing, that they're being trashed, that they're having folks come, you know, they'll be using your dookie bag. So, I mean, it is just out of control by the bottle drop area out in our district. So we do know that there needs to be access to capital. I have a guy, max told me his his deaf and hearing operation. He's had to spend $100,000 just for security in the last year. So we need to have some rent assistance for our businesses. But we also need to give our folks direction because they're going to come back and say, we don't have no money, but we need to give them some ideas on how to get the money, on where to where the money is at.
97 Councilor I need to move us on in this. Okay, I appreciate this. So what I'm hearing is let's focus on the the action as it is today.
98 Yes. The coordination of.
99 This coordination. I agree with my colleague that I think this is a distinct bundle of, of, of guidance that we need to pass. And I agree with what you all are saying over here. I've had my own views on, you know, access to capital and democratizing that a little bit further. And I'll, we'll program an entire block of agenda space for that. You know, I put myself in the stack just to express my support, my, you know, appreciation for you bringing this forward. I heard from business leaders that they felt confused about how the city is going to respond. I heard that today as well. So I think what your resolution does is, is give the city administrator some guidance on how we can get to a better place. So what I would encourage us to do at this point is if there's no further discussion or debate, can we? I would entertain a motion.
100 So move second.
101 Okay. We have councilor Ryan has. Moved to. Let's see I think there's formal language here. Councilor. Councilor Ryan moves the resolution document number 2025 370 be sent to the full council with a recommendation it be adopted. And councilor Clark has seconded. Rebecca, can you please call the roll?
102 Clerk? Hi,
103 Dunphy,
104 Hi.
105 Smith.
106 I.
107 Ryan. I Green. Hi motion to refer the resolution document number 2025 370 to city council with the recommendation be adopted is approved.
108 Great. Congrats.
109 Thank you council.
110 Colleagues. I appreciate this discussion. Rebecca, can you please call the next agenda item?
111 Item two amend sidewalk vendors code to promote free enterprise.
112 Okay, colleagues, this is my item. When I. Oh my gosh, what is.
113 There you go. It's the Green.
114 And where did you. Where'd you get this hot dog? Yeah, because we don't have a cart outside to get one from. Okay, colleagues, I introduced an amendment titled amend sidewalk vendors code to promote free enterprise. And, you know, my motivation on this is, is to, you know, to recognize that we are in a pretty dire straits financially in the city and that what we are hearing is that there's not enough economic activity downtown and that it's really too hard to do business in this town. And having been a person who's had some experience trying to open a sidewalk vending cart in this city and running into a series of really high, really high cost burdens, I had some intimacy with this code. And so the code itself is designed not to not to sort of take anything away in terms of our health and safety regulations, not to take anything away in terms of the city administrator's discretion on what an appropriate use of the public right of way is, not to take away anything away about legal liability, but rather to lower the veto power of adjacent property owners for that new entrepreneur who wants to get their first start in business, it removes anti-trade, restrictive trade practices based upon the proximity of an existing business. It removes the restriction that it's be restricted to only commercial only zones. And also, there's another part of the code that says you can't have a sidewalk vending cart in any part of the central city, which is which is wild to me like any other, any other city in the united states that has a vibrant downtown doesn't have that requirement. And then finally, the the ordinance removes the design review requirements of this ordinance. So again, what remains is the requirement to comply with health regulations with the county. Nothing is changing there. The city administrator in this code makes final determination on what an appropriate place is for a vendor, and it retains the penalties for noncompliance and nuisance. So all that remains in place. And so I'm not going to move this forward to a vote today, because I have heard some feedback from some stakeholders in our community. And also I have some colleagues who I think might I think councilor Dunphy might bring an amendment to strengthen the the code, but what I wanted to use this time today to do was to hear some public testimony on what this means for our city, whether there's a support or oppose, and then have some initial conversation at this committee to tee up a future conversation on the final passage of this ordinance. So at this time, what I'd like to do is call forward our our public testimony.
115 Sorry, we're queuing it up. First up, we have brian orndorf. And before we get started, are we doing two minutes? Yes. Thank you.
116 Brian I live and work in d4. I'm here today because portland's small business, especially food carts and restaurants, are in serious trouble. The issue isn't lack of vendors. The issue is lack of people. It's the demand side. We don't need more supply. We need more demand. And demand comes from safety, stability and living wage jobs. Right now, Portland has the lowest return to office rate in the country. Sidewalks that used to be bustling with office workers and tourists are now largely empty. Many of our iconic food carts, the cultural heart of our city, are hanging on by a thread some close every month. I see it firsthand, and while we focus on attracting new vendors, we're ignoring the core problem. People can't afford to live here, and those that can't afford avoid areas that they no longer feel safe in. Most new jobs, especially in food service, don't pay enough to live in Portland. Housing costs continue to rise. Too many portlanders are just one paycheck away from disaster. I urge the committee to stop focusing on supply side effects like food vendor permit expansions and branding campaigns. What we need instead is a real plan to bring people back downtown, including office workers and tourists. Immediate improvements to public safety and street level conditions, strategic support for living wage created jobs, especially in trades, infrastructure and Green economy. Look around the country. San francisco is doubling down on ai. Austin is investing in robotics. My hometown of cleveland is expanding medical tourism and expanding their fortune 500 companies. And Portland, we're focused on hot dog urbanism, which simply does not cut the mustard. With our city's economy on the brink, this is not enough demand to support the vendors we already have, allowing new sidewalk vendors, especially in front of existing brick and mortar restaurants without their consent, could be the final death blow to food and beverage operators already struggling to survive. I strongly oppose councilor Proposal to amend the sidewalk vendor code. I love this city. I want to see it thrive. But we can't keep pretending everything is fine. While more small businesses close and more portlanders fall through the cracks. Thank you for your time. I'm very happy to speak further and help craft real solutions based on reality. Thank you.
117 Thank you brian. Well, I disagree with you. I appreciate the pun. Can you please call up the next person to testimony?
118 Next we have Ryan hashagen followed by jesse burke. Ryan is online. Ryan, you can go ahead.
119 Hello, council. My name is Ryan hashagen and I run a manufacturing business in old town for the last 18 years. I'm joining you today from Washington, dc at the international downtown association conference. Thank you all for your time and leadership in fostering a welcoming business environment in Portland. I appreciate all of your work and especially appreciate both. Councilor ryan's proposal for storefront business support, the restore grant, and for councilor Green sidewalk vending ordinance. Sidewalk vending is the most approachable and lowest barrier form of entrepreneurship. Street vending, street side vending enlivened streets from downtown and old town to neighborhoods through activation and eyes on the street, countless businesses started sidewalk vendors and grow into brick and mortar establishments. Our business, icicle tricycles, is one example. As we started 25 years ago, vending ice cream and flowers on the sidewalks and streets of the northwest. These businesses employ people, brought activation to otherwise dormant streets, led us to lease multiple locations in the central city of Portland, and ultimately purchase multiple properties in the central city, including buildings that have retail storefronts. All of this from vending ice cream and flowers, and then later manufacturing vending carts and tricycles for businesses and organizations around the world. I have heard concerns from neighboring businesses and organizations that are worth addressing. Other jurisdictions around the us and canada have embraced sidewalk vending and a more welcoming business environment. I believe that following precedent and best practices from other cities could lead to livelier streetscapes and more approachable ladders to business success. Portland has always been a leader in public space innovation. I feel this ordinance paves the way for Portland to create a more fertile business environment for the next generation of entrepreneurship. Thank you for your time.
120 Thank you Ryan, and go ahead jessie.
121 Good morning council. My name is jessie burke and I own the society hotel with my husband, jonathan cohen. I'm here today in opposition to councilor Green's proposal this past March, as chair of the old town community association, I was asked by residents and landscape gardens to help address the twice a week issue of unpermitted street closures and sidewalk use by the community free store. I informed law enforcement who tried to intervene on several occasions, but the group refused permits and even threatened one of the police officers children should they not leave them alone. Police then asked me to step in, thinking the group might respond to a community voice for simply asking them to follow your laws. I was threatened, called a fascist and criticized by members of this very council. No one corrected the record or acknowledged. I was only there at the city's request because your own enforcement had failed. The consequences to us were devastating. Our business was targeted by antifa. While I was out of town, a mob surrounded our hotel, punched one of my pregnant staff, attacked our customers, vandalized the building, and assaulted security guards. Upon my return, my car was broken into repeatedly and someone spent 20 minutes trying to break into my home while I and my children slept. Stickers were made and put all over downtown saying, and I quote, you, jesse burke and your permit, all because of a permit. Meanwhile, Portland still suffers from some of the worst foot traffic in the nation post-pandemic. Downtown and neighborhood businesses remain fragile, with empty storefronts and fewer customers than ever. This ordinance will not bring shoppers back, make streets safer, or reduce the cost crushing small businesses. The reality is rampant open air drug use, untreated mental illness and widespread homelessness in our commercial corridors. This is not an environment where any business can thrive, much less outdoor vending. Enforcement against illegal vending is already nearly impossible. Why are we creating another loophole to without proof of real demand? In my ten years of property ownership, I have never received nor denied a permit to request a vendor in front of my business. Adding insult to injury, you may not realize that we property owners are legally responsible for maintaining the sidewalks and trees in front of our properties. If a vendor damages them, we will be left footing the bill. That's not fair to those of us who are already struggling to keep our businesses alive. This feels rooted in an economist's fantasy, not a business owner's reality. Thank you.
122 Thank you jessie. Next up.
123 Connor lennon and tyler fellini.
124 Hi, council. For the record, my name is connor lennon and I'm a resident in district four. I'm here today speaking in favor of councilor Greene's resolution to amend sidewalk code to promote free enterprise. I'm well aware of the concerns people have, but as someone that grew up in new york and moved here four years ago, I know how much joy community and community street vending can bring to our city. Jane jacobs eyes on the street theory tells us that having people on our streets will deter crime. Therefore, having street vendors will bring more people out and help deter crime. To me, this is a direct, actionable solution to a few problems. This will help us increase our tax revenue, which not for nothing. I think we all know our city needs during this ongoing budget crisis. Imagine walking down the street and being able to stop at a fruit stand or pretzel stand. How about a hot dog? Maybe falafel, even a bouquet of flowers for your loved ones? The point is, anything you may want to have, you will have the opportunity to get out on the sidewalks. The free market encourages and allows competition. To be frank, I don't think this will raise competition between food carts and food stands or even restaurants and food stands. Someone going to a food stand isn't looking to spend the money. You may spend somewhere else. A 4 to $6 pretzel is not the equivalent of a $15 sandwich or anything of the like. The competition between food stands will leave us with great food right on the corner of our streets, on the corner of my own street, 21st in gleason, silver dollar pizza just opened a small window operated business called falafel street cafe. Not only are people still patrons of the silver dollar, but the falafel street cafe is now my favorite spot and many of my neighbors feel the same. It brings me great joy to be able to do this, and it brings my new york past and my Portland present together. In new york. You can have anything you want, and I want that here in Portland, too. I'm a season ticket holder with the trailblazers, and I have a dream of walking home from a trailblazers game and on my way home, stopping to get a pretzel, a lemonade, or anything of the like. I'm in favor of supporting our community and building our economy up while keeping our streets safe, and I firmly believe that street vending will help that. Thank you.
125 Thank you. Connor.
126 Good morning councilors. My name is tyler fellini. I'm a renter in district three, and I'm the executive director of and a registered lobbyist for Portland jobs with justice. And I'm here to speak in support of the proposed change to our city code on street vending. Testifiers for the previous agenda item depicted a rather dystopian vision of Portland. And while that doesn't align with my experience in the city that I still love, I think the agenda item brought forth by councilor Greene offers a solution. I'm here for hot dog urbanism. We heard a lot about market conditions impacting our downtown and small businesses around the city, and this is all part of a larger economic recession. Certainly, there are issues unique to Portland, but this downturn is being felt everywhere. In 2008, we were in the midst of another economic recession, and out of that, our world renowned food cart scene was born. Today, with many neighborhoods still struggling to rebound from the double whammy of the pandemic and the ongoing economic downturn, we have the same opportunity. Street vendors bring people out, especially at night. They make our city livelier, safer and more welcoming. For proof, just take a look at seattle's capitol hill or la's koreatown neighborhoods or new york city. I have to ask, who does the current code really protect and who does it shut out requirements like getting permission from adjacent property owners or submitting redundant plans don't keep us safe. They're just barriers. And because so many vendors are immigrants, these rules too often function as coded racism. And let's be honest, if we take the current logic seriously, are we going to outlaw lemonade stands next? I'd also like to point out that the language under the current code description of items for sale prohibits offensive odors, and similarly vague language led to the closure of gabo in northeast Portland last year, and I would encourage this committee to amend that as well. Street vending is one of the most accessible paths to making a living, especially for immigrants and working class families. It also make makes our neighborhoods come alive. Councilors. This is a common sense change. Cutting red tape will help small vendors thrive, support neighborhood revitalization, and make Portland stronger. I urge you to pass it. Thank you.
127 Thank you tyler.
128 Next is jeremy bosley Smith. Jeremy's online. You can go ahead. Jeremy.
129 Good morning councilors. My name is jeremy Smith and I'm a resident of district four. This resolution lowers the market barrier of entry, which will result in more working class portlanders starting small businesses. Many street vendors are immigrants, young people, and older folks who are historically marginalized and would materially benefit from less restrictions on where they can do business. This is a creative solution to take on the socalled doom loop, and it will stimulate portland's economy. I fully support this resolution also to address an earlier comment from mr. Ohlendorf. We don't serve wall street and frankly, I could not care less what they think of us. We serve portlanders and portlanders only. So let's invest in our community and our ideas. That is what builds our culture and will ensure prosperity for all portlanders. Thanks y'all.
130 Jordan lewis jordan is also online. Jordan, you can go ahead.
131 Sorry, sorry, sorry I can't testify today. Apologies.
132 Okay.
133 Thank you. Skylar crews and karen shirey. Skylar is also online. We're going to open up their ability to testify.
134 Any luck?
135 Hi, skyler. Hello. You're good to go. You're good to go.
136 You can hear me.
137 We can.
138 Hi there. My name is skyler crews. I am a resident of district four here in Portland. I live in the goose hollow neighborhood. Sorry, I'm a little winded. I was planning on wearing this and was not at my desk. Okay, so my name is skyler crews. I'm a resident and also my name is riley. I'm a furry, very active in our local community. I am happy to be a representative for our community. We have a lot of local events, including a pretty large convention that for the first year will be moving downtown. Now that's important to me because before we were at the airport and that just wasn't a conducive environment. The latest, the the closest food was about 15 minute walk walking distance. And that was not acceptable. I actually did not like that very much. But now that we're moving downtown, I'm super excited. There's another convention that I really love in san jose called further confusion it. San jose doesn't have a vibrant nightlife. It's kind of a downtown business sort of location, and the convention space kind of shuts down around 10:00. But thankfully, hotdog vendors get to sit outside of the convention center running all night long as drunk partying furries come up and enjoy a little tasty treat. And that just is a huge part of the experience for me. I think a lot of us in the community enjoy that as opportunity. I want to be able to go to the convention center and know that there's going to be a variety of food for me. They'll be popping up. And the thing about these hot dog stands or any other food stand, they don't really exist in this sort of, oh, I'm going to plant myself in front of the biggest business. They're sort of a mushroom where when there's big events like trailblazers games or soccer games, I live next to providence park. That's where it's going to be. It's not going to be disrupting like owls. It's not going to be disrupting other businesses. People want to go to those businesses. If your business is good, the people will go. A hot dog stand is not going to stop them. Also, as a mexican woman, it's really difficult seeing all the rhetoric around the kinds of people who are hosting these stands. I don't like any claims of human trafficking. It's really disgusting and I highly disapprove of that rhetoric. Thank you.
139 Thank you frank. For furries.
140 Then next is karen. Karen, you can go ahead.
141 My name is karen. I'm a business owner in district four, and I am directly impacted by the hot dog vendors that are at providence park. I they are all around my business and recently they were on my sidewalk and I got two of them to leave of the three. And the last one wouldn't leave until I had called police, which apparently police cannot enforce. The unpermitted hot dog vendors that are surrounding providence park. So this is very concerning for me, because in your your revision, there is no accountability for who enforces people that are not permitted to street vendor. So I'd also like to point out that back in April, on April 23rd, I sent an email regarding sidewalk vendors, a revision to it, to the governance committee, to which I was told that it was the arts and economy committee, to which I sent an email to everybody on this committee regarding my revisions for for vendors that are not selling anything, but handing out drug paraphernalia on the city sidewalks and got no response from anybody. So I find it very odd that now you're going to bring it up and take away regulations that need to be enforced. My business, like I said, is impacted by these hot dog vendors. I'm tired of their garbage being all around, and I'm tired of them having to not get permits and be health code, violate our not have health code. Sanitization, whereas I have to pay permits. I have to take care of my sidewalk, I have to have inspections every year. So I do not agree with this at all.
142 Thank you karen.
143 John isaacs.
144 Hello again. Councilors again john isaacs, executive vice president, public affairs, Portland metro chamber I'm going to keep my testimony sort of casual today, and I want to thank councilor Green for meeting with a group of of our members yesterday, important stakeholders in this discussion that until yesterday had not had any engagement. And I was pleased to hear your commitment for more engagement. We're talking private property owners who manage a ton of storefront retail. Portland trailblazers, Oregon restaurant lodging associations. We're talking restaurants, sports venues, our most important sports franchise. These are all stakeholders that express their willingness to be engaged. And just thank you for your commitment to do that because they have not been engaged. I also just want to set the record straight on a few things about this ordinance. So first of all, this would definitely expand opportunity. And we support that. And we would like to keep working on this to achieve that goal. But and in certain parts of town we could increase vitality. But this we're talking about micro micro businesses. So this is not something that's going to generate tons of new revenue. In fact, most of these businesses won't pay any taxes to the city. And if it's not done correctly, this could cost the city revenue by further alienating storefront retail, which we were just talking about supporting this as drafted, the current ordinance would eliminate the 100 foot proximity limit for for street vendors to similar businesses, and that's one component that we oppose. And we just ask to be restored. The other thing is the ordinance as written does not eliminate any costs. It doesn't eliminate any public regulations or requirements that the government requires. It only cuts out private property owners. We researched all of our peer cities, and portland's code on this is not any different. It's not out of the market. In fact, the 100ft is a little more lenient than most cities. There isn't a single city that allows street vendors to operate on private property, and in Portland, the private property includes the right of way because we require property owners to maintain the adjacent right of way. So the discussion yesterday was primarily around liability and indemnification that if you're going to say, hey, you're responsible for maintaining the sidewalk property owner, you need to have some control over the retail activity that's happening on it. And so we ask for that balance to be struck. The last thing I'll mention is we did identify that there's a real opportunity for this in the short term with parks, and we are excited to work on that.
145 Thank you john.
146 Yeah.
147 That concludes testimony.
148 Okay colleagues, we do have another agenda item left. We have to hear an appointment. So let's let's keep our comments brief. We are going to bring this item back in the future. We are not taking a vote on this today. But I want to give us an opportunity for some some reactions. And I'll I'll kind of wrap us up. Councilor Dunphy.
149 Thank you. I have very limited comments, but I also just want to correct the record title. 14 a 30 .50.040. It explicitly allows police to be able to enforce non sidewalk uses on sidewalk. That is the authority that police currently use in order to shut down illegally operating hot dog vendors. I recently went on a ride along with the entertainment division through old town, and the biggest kerfuffle of the night was an officer forcing a hot dog vendor to shut down. I also watched as a 230 in the morning after last call, when the drunken revelry revelry went away, the hot dog vendors closed up shop and the folks who were suffering from fentanyl moved back in. I think that public space activation is extremely important, and we also need to operate from a point of reality that these folks are here, and if we can do more to bring them into legal compliance, I think that that is a better use of our system, especially limited police resources. Additionally, city code currently requires design review for compliant businesses in order to have a hot dog cart. So I think that the more we can move towards the reality of our current economy and regulate it in a way that creates safety, it creates less opportunities for conflict between business owners and police. The best part of my day in a week, or sometimes, is when the lady with the tamales comes rolling through my neighborhood. I'm certain that the food she's making is going to keep me is going to be safe. I would also love it if to know that she's not actively putting herself in harm's way or potential conflict with police, especially because I don't know her. I don't know her legal status, but she doesn't speak very good english. And with what's going on right now on immigration enforcement, I think we need to find routes to be able to legitimize these businesses. Lastly, I have been yelling about this for the the entire time in office. Portland needs an active nightlife. We have. We are the fourth largest city in America, but there was a recent episode of city cast Portland, which specifically extolled the fact that Portland does not have a late night food scene. We need more late night places for people to eat, and sometimes that looks less formal. The places I have seen hot dog vendors are outside of the moda center, at a corner of 122nd and glisan, where the lady is selling cups of fruit or elotes. I think that we need to meet the economy where it is, and recognize that this is actually a striking gap in our current system. That said, I also support pulling this back to your office and working further with the business community to to address some of the specific concerns. I do not want to see a hot dog vendor standing in front of zach's shack on Hawthorne, because that seems pretty cruel. I'm certain we can find a way forward that will benefit the community, and I thank you, councilor Green, for your leadership on this.
150 Thank you, councilor Dunphy. I look forward to partnering with you on that. Councilor Smith.
151 Thank you, councilor Green. I just want to say for the record, for the for the hot dog vendors, one of my favorite foods to eat is burnt hot dogs. That's my favorite. So I love hot dogs. So just know that when I tell you these comments, it has nothing to do with the hot dog cart. When councilor Green first brought this to me last week, I said no, absolutely no. I don't think that that is the right thing to do. I think the business and property owners, they should have some say in what goes on in front of them. In this current form. I would not be supporting this amendment. I would like to work with councilor Green to make it a little bit better. If there's something that goes on with parks, where we have it around parks, that that sounds interesting, and I'd be willing to take a look at that as well. But I think we need to do things that don't put barriers around businesses or cause businesses to lose business by putting smaller pop up shops in front of them. So if we could take a look at this and make this a little bit better, councilor Green, that's what I'm willing to do. Thank you.
152 I really appreciate that feedback, councilor Smith. And we're having this discussion in the open so the whole world can can watch. So I appreciate that collaboration, councilor Clark.
153 Thank you. Councilor Green. I just would echo what councilor Smith has said verbatim, almost. I do think that we could address the design review requirements. I think that seems a little onerous. But I definitely am concerned about property owners, and I like the idea of the parks. So I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
154 Thank you. And colleagues. I hear, I hear your feedback. I've heard the feedback of the testimony, even those who oppose my measure. I'm going to take that feedback to heart, just as a preview of kind of where I'm going with this is, I think one of the things I can very easily move on is the 100ft proximity piece. I think we can we can restore that, maybe even strengthen that a little bit. And I know there's going to be some opportunities, potentially prioritize park facing rollout first. So let's talk shop. The whole point of these committees is to start talking about ideas with the public. Here's some feedback, and then rework it before it becomes a final vote. So I appreciate that that that opportunity here. And I will encourage you all to read the written comments. There's, I think, 30 or so some odd written comments. Most of them do support it, and they come from voices that we don't often hear. These are line cooks. These are folks who have have odd hours that that don't have opportunities to, to, to purchase food. So I'll just leave you with that.
155 Councilor, while you're working on the edits I'd like, I need a better public health perspective on this.
156 Yeah. I mean, we can talk to the county, but I'll just tell you this I didn't change a single thing about the requirement to go through the Multnomah county health assessment. So if you were to open up a permit, you have to go through their whole process. Nothing is changing about this relative to that. So, you know, when we bring it back, we can bring someone from the county up to ask questions and engage in that dialog. But I just I think there's been some, some misinformation floating around that I was somehow trying to remove the requirement to, to pass a health check and a fire marshal check. And none of that has changed. So we've got some time. Let's take a look at the copy and we'll we'll bring it back for further discussion at a later time. At this point, colleagues, I'm going to move us on. Rebecca, can you read item number three?
157 Apologies for the for item number two. Is the plan to continue the item or.
158 Oh I'm sorry, I'm going to pull that back to my office. So I guess it's lay on the table. And as the carrier of that I think I can do that without a vote.
159 So you can refer it back to your office, which will then need to be refiled later on. Or you can lay it on the table, which then would be considered in a future meeting.
160 I'm going to refer it back to my office. Thanks.
161 Perfect. Thank you for clarifying. Item three reappoint serena stoudemire wesley to the prosper Portland board of commissioners for a term to expire September 30th, 2028.
162 Thank you so much. And can we, our representatives from prosper Portland, please approach?
163 Thank you.
164 And as you're approaching, please introduce yourselves for the record. Please go ahead.
165 Good morning. Good morning. My name is cornell wesley, and I proudly serve as the executive director for prosper Portland. I am soon to complete my second full month here on the job, and so we have a very brief time for this discussion, but I wanted to provide a quick reminder of who we are as an organization and board. Before I turn it over to the appointee and discussion with you, prosper Portland. We are the city's economic and urban development agency. Like hundreds of economic and urban development authorities around the country, we were established as a separate entity by voters to carry out certain work on behalf of the city government. And we also implement the city's goals pursuant to Oregon state statute. That being said, we work closely with the mayor and city council to deliver on the city's priorities, and our budget has been approved by the body since 2007. We are governed by a five member volunteer board, who are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the full council. These volunteers give three years of their time and some are reappointed for subsequent terms. If that ask comes from the mayor, our board chair, tom cruise, is here today to support this reappointment and is available for questions. Dca danny oliviera couldn't be here this morning, so it is my pleasure to introduce you to serena stoudemire. Wesley, the mayor's nominee for reappointment to the prosper Portland board of commissioners in this critical time for our city, it's essential that we continue strong, community centered leadership on our board. The mayor believes, as do I, that mr. Stoudemire wesley demonstrates the values, work experience, and volunteer service to guide prosper Portland through this pivotal period of our city's future. Mr. Stoudemire wesley has served on the board since 2020. She was initially appointed to a partial term to fill a vacancy on the board, so this would be her second full three year term in her nearly five years of board service. She has championed the agency's evolution from the Portland development commission to prosper Portland. Mr. Stoudemire, wesley brings to this work a deep and personal understanding of the past harm this organization has brought to Portland communities and neighborhoods, and we are deeply grateful for her leadership and insight. That is not an easy task, and I want to acknowledge, honor and appreciate her for her service. Now, I'd like to turn it over to miss stoudemire. Wesley, who would like to share just a few words with you.
166 Good morning council. My name is serena stoudemire. Wesley. As a first generation Oregonian and having raised a family here, I have lived through the changes that directly and indirectly impacted my family and community through the years, which informs my desire to continuing to serve on prosper portland's board. I'm very passionate and motivated about this place we call home, Portland, and would like to continue to contribute to the revitalization transformation of Portland. I feel that I offer a different perspective that brings forth my lived experience to the prosper Portland board. I shared a quote previously from amartya sen in my statement of interest that I'd like to highlight here. He says economic growth without investment in human development is unsustainable and unethical. That is the philosophy that I try to bring to this work. I know that you all on council share this sentiment. As we've all heard today, as I've been sitting here and you care deeply about meaningful economic opportunities for all portlanders. In all means, all prosper. Portland's mission of economic and social equity, along with creating jobs, closing the gaps of disparity, continues to align with my interest in ensuring that all members of our community have equal and equitable access to opportunities that will come with our city's continued development and growth. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve the city and the community that I love.
167 Before I turn this over to questions, I just want to thank you for your willingness to continue to serve our community and thank you for for bringing this forward. I know you're just getting thrown in the water and you've got some big things to shepherd through. So, so far, so good. Thank you. Colleagues, I think we have councilor Smith up first.
168 Thank you. Thank you, councilor Green. Thank you for your past service on the prosper board, miss stoudemire. Wesley, I'm impressed by your qualifications and your experience and obviously your commitment to community. It appears. And I know from firsthand that you have the drive and the willingness to continue serving on prosper's board of commissioners, I am glad that you really took this invite to heart, because I would have hated to lose you at this point in time. We really need people who have experience and who have delivered in the past, and I want to thank you for joining us today. I'm glad to see that you're already diving into your role, and your presence here today is a positive sign for the future, because oftentimes we we appoint people to boards and they don't show up. And I'm glad you're here today. I appreciate both of you for joining us today. I've enjoyed our previous conversations. I support nominating miss stoudemire wesley, to a second term on prosper's board, and I look forward to chatting with both of you again. Thank you.
169 Thank you.
170 Thank you. Councilor. We're going to go next to councilor Ryan.
171 Thank you chair, it's great to end the meeting with such enthusiasm. That was like the best presentation of why we should nominate somebody and extend their service. Thank you for being here. We need your energy more often. I was ready to get up and clap and yell and everything else. Also, I just want to look my friend in the eyes. And I get to say that because both of us have been in these parts for a while, and I've watched you serve in so many multiple ways. So when you say your life experience is needed and wanted on this particular board is so true. And so I'm just really grateful that you signed up for another three years. And also you're out there. Thank you for your service. I am experiencing a partnership that's growing deeper between the city and prosper. And when you appoint someone like serena stoudemire, wesley, that affirms to me that we're on the right track. So thank you for being here. And of course I'm supportive.
172 Thank you.
173 Thank you, councilor, co-chair, councilor Clark.
174 Thank you, mr. Chair. Hello. And so good to see you here. Thank you. I just so much appreciate that you are willing to continue in this service, that you bring your personal as well as your professional experience. I think we've kind of tracked each other through our careers, and I just appreciate your willingness to continue to do this. So I'm honored to be here with you. Thank you so much.
175 Thank you.
176 Councilor Dunphy.
177 Thank you. I just first want to echo what my colleagues have said. Thank you for your your dedication to public service and your willingness to grab a hold of the reins of of an enormously important issue in our community right now and run full speed at it. I just also want to acknowledge that you started this work at perhaps the hardest time for our economy in any of our lives.
178 That's true.
179 I also note that you start at a at an interesting point for the organization. And and you started after what was known as the tiff cliff and the tiff. Cliff came and went. And now we have six new tiff districts that are coming, three of which are in district one in my side. What is your vision for what success looks like in a tiff district in 2025 through 2055, or whatever the 30 year window is? And how what do you imagine? What do you see as your role as a commissioner in ensuring those outcomes?
180 I think my role, as well as prosper portland's role, as well as the community's role, is making sure that our community is left whole, that we're not leaving anyone out, that we're listening to all the voices and that everyone has access. When we're creating these districts. I find that that's important from the beginning, not the end and not the middle, but from start to finish and what some call we're going to right in right along the whole time. So ride or die. And I think that is my vision, is that we leave a community whole that that we don't leave them with gaps in services, that we don't leave them with gaps with people not being served. And so that would be my vision and that everyone has a place to live.
181 I'll just note that, you know, east Portland is, I would say, inherently a bit skeptical and a of that, that anything good will be coming that the city has shown for 100 years, that we make a lot of big promises and we don't follow through. And I, you know, with this new form of government, we have an opportunity to to demonstrate that. But I feel like that is the the uphill fight that I'm feeling every day in the community and trying to show up. Do you have and this is do you do you see your role being more like directive towards how that engagement happens in east Portland, so that it looks and has different levels of buy in? How do you envision approaching that or inviting that community in.
182 Councilor Dunphy I feel see, my role is making sure that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past. Being a generation that my grandparents home was taken through gentrification, my parents my grandparents home was down on north benton. So my I see my role as making sure, along with my colleagues on the council, is to make sure that those same things don't happen. My grandparents home was taken through eminent domain. And so making again, making sure that that doesn't happen, making sure that everybody is at the table, that everybody has a voice and that we're listening to all communities. And again, when I say all, I do truly mean all. And so that's where I see my role working alongside my colleagues as well as this, your whole entire council to making sure that those mistakes of the past do not repeat itself. And that's what we call building a sustainable home, building that sustainability. So when we're no longer here 20, 30, 40 years from now, that house is still standing.
183 Thank you for your willingness to serve.
184 Thank you.
185 Thank you. Council. Dunphy. And I see that councilor Smith, you jumped back in the queue. Do you have a very brief thing to say? Okay, you go ahead.
186 I just want to say that last week I saw prosper at two different places. They came to my coffee with a cop to talk about the bottle drop. And we also attended the midway alliance fair on Saturday and prosper Portland. We had two people there from prosper, so I think you all are making an effort to be in district one. I've seen you wherever I go, so if I if that ever falls down, I will bring it to you, serena, because it's very important and I understand what my colleague is saying, but he was there as well. So we are down on the ground and I see prosper right alongside of us. And I'm and I'm happy about that.
187 And can I just add one more thing? I have a lot of family that lives out in district one, and so I am committed to that, to making sure that things happen because I will hear from them.
188 Thank you.
189 Thank you, councilor Smith. And, you know, specifically to my councilors in d1 for continuing every single time that you guys are at the dais, whether it's prosper Portland or or infrastructure, you continue to hammer home how we don't want to reproduce the sins of the past, which was leaving out the east county. And so I really do believe under this incoming leadership and this reaffirmation of existing leadership, those priorities will be felt. So with that, you know, I'm fully supportive of this nomination. And so colleagues, I would I would I would like to entertain a motion to send the reappointment of serena stoudemire wesley to the prosper Portland board of commissioners to the full council, with the recommendation that the reappointment be confirmed.
190 So moved. So I heard I.
191 Heard a so move from councilor Clark, and I heard a second from councilor Smith. I thought second, okay.
192 You guys.
193 Is there is there any further discussion? I hope not, because we're out of time. Okay. Let's let's let's call the roll.
194 Clark.
195 Yes, I Smith.
196 I Ryan. I Green. I and with five I votes the motion to refer the report document 2025 359 to city council with the recommended recommendation be accepted is proved.
197 Thank you council, thank you so much.
198 Thank you for your ongoing service. All right colleagues, it is 1128. The next meeting of the arts and economy committee is Tuesday, October 10th. And at this time, I will now adjourn this meeting of the arts and economy committee.