Mary Ann Schwab (running for Commissioner position 1)
Should policies be adopted to ensure every neighborhood in Portland welcomes more neighbors, through smaller, denser, lower-cost housing options like smallplexes, cottage clusters, and small-to-moderate-sized apartment complexes, via both the nonprofit and private markets?
No, only in certain locations. Might I suggest your team walk throughout the Sunnyside Neighborhood. Where will see SNA had a vision for smaller, denser housing options to accommodate those working in the shipyards.
Should Portland expand transit-oriented development (allowing apartment complexes by-right within a short walk of all major transit lines) as a way to discourage the use of single-occupancy vehicles and reduce our city’s carbon emissions?
No. Only in your dreams will renters give up their vehicles; as evidenced by six vehicles parking around my corner lot. -- driven on weekends. At that rate city carbon will not be reduced as PBOT Planners reduce two lanes of traffic to one -- increasing carbon when allowing cars to stay in heavy traffic longer, while the closed lane is open to bicyclists. As to who is paying closer attention to Vision Zero goals -- when a young women was killed on Hawthorne.
Should neighborhood associations have less, as much, or more power than other community organizations when it comes to questions of housing, such as whether new apartments or homeless shelters are permitted in a given neighborhood?
The same amount of power. Neighborhood Associations are as strong as their weakest link -- lately the unhoused individuals sleeping in tents without access to clean water and honey-buckets. SNA, SES, and Representative Rob Nosse Town Hall did their best listen to unhoused individuals o find solutions, none were found. I left feeling homelessness if foremost an economic event, not a choice. Nor should the burden be left with their former landlords.
Should Portland dedicate less, as much, or more money to regulated affordable housing? (If you answered "more money," what funding mechanism(s) would you pursue to build this additional housing?)
As much money. Let's prioritize support services for homeless families and children. By restoring the rate of HUD housing funding to 7% of the Federal Budget, like it was in 1977. About the time, the Portland Development Commission Model City's goal was to provide low-interest grants to rehab housing within the Inner-Southeast Coalition seven (7) neighborhoods. Yes, including the 1908 Bungalow we purchased. The 2035 Comprehensive Plan meets the state mandated requirements of HB 2001 without RIP. Duplex’s are currently allowed on all residential lots since a house and attached ADU meets the requirements of a duplex.
Would you support a citywide moratorium on evictions during the three coldest months of the year, as Seattle recently adopted?
No. Hello! Churches and Non-Profits lack resources to take in homeless. Take for example, when the Sunnyside Community House [former Centenary United Methodist Church] volunteers prepared hot meals, provided hot showers, took turns washing laundry. Pat Schwiebert contacted the City/County Joint Office of Homeless Services, for seeking help for increasing water heating and up to 8 dumpster fees. Funds were pre-allocated.
As Portland implements an anti-displacement plan, which policies from the Anti-Displacement PDX Coalition would you support? What additional anti-displacement policies do you support?
None of the above
Developers with deep pockets have more influence within City Council, Multnomah County, METRO and the State of Oregon, over RIP land use decisions than do neighborhood people. I will work to give Portland residents a framework for making their voices heard. My approach will focus on grass-routes representation by geographic district, as outlined in The City That Works: Preparing Portland for the Future, September 2019. With in the next four years, the Portland City Charter will be reviewed by an open & transparent Advisory Committee to make recommendations to City Council -- then off to the Voters. The 2035 Comprehensive Plan meets the state mandated requirements of HB 2001 without RIP. Duplex’s are currently allowed on all residential lots since a house and attached ADU meets the requirements of a duplex.
What else should Portland pro-housing, pro-tenant community know about you & your candidacy?
When Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty announced she had located public land to construct affordable housing on half of the Rose City Golf Course, that was the straw that broke this camel's back.
Publicly owned school campus, parks, and water property must be held in common for the common for the generations that follow. In the past, some of these lands have been sold to a developer without adequate public notice in the Daily Journal of Commerce.
I'm running for City Commissioner Position #1 because I believe in tearing down the curtain of secrecy that cloaks shenanigans like this.
I am an unrelenting, unconventionally tenacious community advocate in a quest for justice. Based on my 40-plus years serving the community, I ask for your Vote on May 19. Thank you.
Schwab received an F overall from our scoring committee. See all scores and read about our process here.