If you happen to didn’t make it out to Bike Comfortable Hour on Wednesday night time, you missed one thing particular. A number of dozen Portlanders sat and stood within the crisp, chilly night time in a plaza on a public avenue (thanks PBOT!) to participate in an interview with a candidate for native elected workplace.
I deliberate to interview Portland Metropolis Council Candidate Steph Routh inside Ankeny Faucet & Desk, however it was such a pleasant night time that everybody was already camped out within the plaza. So we determined to only go together with it and I introduced the speaker and mic exterior, set it on a picket picnic desk, and went for it. We talked for about 35 minutes after which took questions from the viewers. It was pleasant and I feel you’ll actually recognize studying extra about Steph and her considerate strategy to vital points.
Steph, who was born in Parkrose and now lives in Lents, has been part of our biking and transportation advocacy neighborhood for a few years. In 2006 I photographed her bike wedding ceremony (sure she married her bike, she wore a veil and kissed the bike and all the pieces) and have adopted her ever since. Since then she’s been a pacesetter in our neighborhood. Steph was the first-ever govt director of Oregon Walks (the place she led the org on an workplace transfer by foot!), she labored in communications for Group Biking Middle, Sightline, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. In 2013 she authored a e-book on how you can transfer by bike (and has taken half in over 80 bike strikes). Steph can also be an adjunct professor on the PSU Faculty of City Planning and was a part of the technique workforce that helped win Portland’s native gasoline tax enhance marketing campaign in 2016. In 2017 she interviewed girls for a collection on BikePortland. And since 2019 she’s served as a member of the Portland Planning Fee (service she known as a “love word to my metropolis”).
Requested by somebody Wednesday night time why she’d by no means run for workplace earlier than, Steph mentioned she at all times assumed being a planning commissioner (a place she “begged to be on”) can be her highest calling. However then she noticed that main insurance policies she labored to move hit highway blocks at metropolis corridor. “After which once I noticed the council district strains drawn and I noticed that, on Day One of many new administration, east Portland would have extra illustration than within the cumulative historical past of Portland Metropolis Council — that was simply so significant. And I couldn’t say no.”
Listed here are a couple of different notable exchanges from our interview:
What are you able to deliver to council in order that we be certain nice packages and insurance policies [like bike infrastructure plans, Portland Street Response, etc…] aren’t diluted or dismantled?
“I feel it’s vital to recollect I’m working for metropolis council as a result of I care and I wish to be a part of an answer. Nobody candidate, nobody politician goes to resolve our issues. And authorities can’t be the hero of our story. Communities are the heroes of our story. And it must be. The city is the hero. And the purpose and the function of presidency and I consider politicians, is to create the situations the place communities can thrive and community-based options can discover buy and endure.”
I’ve seen activists achieve energy and workplace, then turn into silent and part of the machine. Are you assured that you would be able to be an elected official able of energy and nonetheless type of like, hold it actual?
“You simply described all of my nightmares!… I’ve additionally began to attempt to construct a ‘Workforce of Rivals,’ if you’ll. People who find themselves naysayers, those that I’ve disagreed with; as a result of I feel it’s vital to have individuals who can name me to account… I feel it’s vital to hunt the honorable opposition.”
On her opposition to federal funding for bike share in 2011 as a result of it will solely serve the central metropolis, and the argument bike share advocates made that downtown has a few of the lowest revenue census tracts within the metropolis:
“I feel that we had been proper on this, and I’m very glad that we bought bike share, I adore it. However being close to poor folks, shouldn’t be the identical as being for poor folks, there’s a distinction… We don’t get to say that one thing that excludes people who find themselves unbanked, at the moment, is a social justice mission. We simply don’t get to say that.”
In response to an viewers query about how you can attain our biking mode share targets:
“Making the case for biking is quite a bit simpler when you’ve gotten locations to cycle to. And I feel as the previous govt director of Oregon walks, I feel walkability and roll-ability is the elegant resolution to so lots of our points and makes the considerable case for biking clear. And I feel there’s that triptych of transit and walkability and biking, and we have to do all three. I feel we have to actually have a look at how transit is funded and the way, how we’re engaged on operations, as a result of transit is the spine to a land-use that makes each biking and strolling inevitable.”
I hope you hearken to the complete interview. Steph is somebody who provides me hope for the way forward for Portland and I at all times be taught one thing once I discuss along with her. I feel you’ll too.
Hear within the participant above or wherever you get your podcasts. A full transcript might be added as quickly because it’s accomplished (I pay for hand-written transcripts and it takes time!).
