 Hi, I'm Lisa Savage, welcome to Pathways to Progress. I'm here with City Councilor's Victoria Pelletier, Roberta Rodriguez. We're gonna talk about some issues here in the great city of Portland, Maine. Let's check in first. You guys have had a council meeting since we met last. How are things going? Things are going, they're going. I'm, you know, now that we have summer meetings, it's really interesting because that was our first summer meeting, I think. So we combine them. So we have an afternoon meeting and an evening meeting, evening, but we only meet once every month. But those meetings are long because we're essentially having two meetings in one. So I think we finished around like 1030. We started at four, was our first meeting. And the finish, we had to take the vote to go past 10. And I think we ended up maybe 1015 or 1030 that we finished. So it was a long, a long discussion and a lot of stuff happening. The police budget was voted on and that was a really challenging conversation for a lot of us. And then the conversation around the citizens' referendum as well. So we had like two, I mean, we voted on the overall budget and the police wage increase was part of that. So that was a really lengthy conversation. And then the conversation around the citizens' referendum as well was also super long. So I think by the end we were like, I mean, I was just like exhausted by the end of that because that was like seven hours of just going around and around. So yeah, I think we have another one on Monday and that will be our last summer meeting before we get back to a regular schedule. Yeah, it's the summer meetings. I never thought about this, but we had a couple of people comment. It's two meetings that normally take place two weeks apart. They're all kind of mixed into one night. And the public comment, the unagenda public comment, you only get one opportunity, right? As opposed to two of the way you normally would. And not only that, but you get it at the start of the first meeting. So the second meeting, in a sense, it doesn't have it. So a couple of folks commented on that. And not only that, but I think that we also kind of screwed up because it was posted that there would be public comment but then like kind of like last minute. So it was, it's one of those things that you don't think about, oh, like how cool, like we only have one meeting. But it does sort of kind of interfere with a few of those things that were required to do. Yeah, those were, I mean, like we talked about two meetings in one night. So it was a long night, really, really contentious items. So what ended up happening on the reference, as an referendum, which is what our last show was? Yeah, so that we ended up, the council ended up postponing that indefinitely. So that means that we didn't take any action. But that was after several hours of both public comment and discussion with several amendments that were offered. I had a couple of things that I threw out there. And it went from, you know, the recommendations which was a large block of like different areas that were gonna be amended to the discussion, took us to maybe two or three different minor things to postpone it all together. So as we went through that discussion, it was, yeah, it was, I appreciate, I completely agree with Tori that it was taxing. I appreciated it because there was a lot of context that was put out there, both by the folks that commented by the council discussion. There was a lot that I heard that as we were progressing through the conversation, I found myself kind of like, oh, you know, that's a great point. And it makes me feel less strong about something that I was kind of on the fence about. So it helped me figure out a few things. But again, incredibly taxing. Do you wanna talk about the police budget or would you rather just let bygones be bygones at this point? I mean, it was a six to three vote and it was by far definitely one of the hardest conversations that we have had in that environment. We're all coming through it to that conversation through different perspectives. And the conversation was around increasing the wages for the cops because we are really understaffed within the police department. So there was gonna be a wage increase of 14%. And I was not on board with that because I felt like we have a really significant problem between police officers and the people of Portland. People don't feel safe. We of course had a Nazi march that people felt like it wasn't handled correctly from what I saw from my viewpoint. It was not handled correctly from the people that are supposed to keep us safe. And wage increases to me are tied to performance in every other environment. So I couldn't sit there and support a wage increase for an institution that not only has a lot of historical oppression, but also in this very moment has not been showing up for individuals in the way that we as a community think that they should. And again, like it just, it was hard. I mean, it was tough for everybody. It got very emotional. We definitely needed to take a break after which we did because I think it just, it was really, it felt personal in a lot of ways, especially me as a black woman and feeling like I have a really complicated relationship with the police officers. I have the most racially diverse district, I think that we have in district two. And I've heard from a ton of people who are just terrified about even talking to the police. So it's challenging to be able to have that conversation. And I wish that in the realm of making racial equity our number one goal that we would have taken more of a deep dive into saying like, what does this mean in terms of this wage increase rather than like, we need more cops. I wish we would have had an opportunity to have a deeper discussion on that. But again, like, you know, when I joined the council, I feel like one of the things I always would say was like, I'm not always gonna get my way on votes. And that was a way, I just didn't get what I wanted. And it's, you know, sometimes you get the things that you want, sometimes you don't. And I think for that, it was hard. And I think we all were personally impacted in a lot of ways by that, and especially because there, the three votes to not support the police wages were three women of color. This was myself, Councillor Phillips and Councillor Fornir. And we all have really unique perspectives with policing in this city. So I think it was really important for the three of us to be able to share in the way that we did. And unfortunately, the vote still passed. And I think, you know, if anything, I'm hopeful that we can have another discussion as councillors and go into that conversation around policing, around wage increases and what that means going forward for the people of Portland that don't feel safe living here. So. Yeah, well, that's a good goal to work toward. Speaking of hearing from the public, our director, Warren Edgar, and I went out onto the streets of Portland about a week ago and asked people a very open-ended question, like told them about the show and said, what would you like to bring up to your councillors? There could be questions, comments, whatever. So we're gonna run one of those here in a second and then give you, councillors, a chance to respond to the issues that are brought up. Are you guys ready to give this a try? Okay. So we were gonna roll the first clip. If there's going to be more support for the homeless, that's really what it comes down to as someone who has been unhoused and grew out of that. Congratulations. I appreciate that. Just kind of hurts to see. And it's not like having been in that situation. I don't really want them to go away. I just want support. And I've seen people out and about helping them and that makes me happy. But, you know, it's just rough to say. I really like how he made the decision, or they made the distinction. I'm not saying that I don't want to see unhoused people. I'm saying it's traumatic for me. I've had that experience and responding to the numbers of people, I think that we all see all around Portland that aren't housed. Yeah, and I, well, I appreciate the question. And I agree that I think it could be significantly traumatizing for a lot of people who have experienced being unhoused and are seeing their community and their friends and others also experience that. We do have a lot of encampments in Portland currently, which speaks to our housing crisis and the fact that we don't have enough shelter. Our shelters are at capacity. We don't have affordable housing enough in the city where people can feel like they have spaces to live. And it's something that we are probably getting the most amount of feedback on currently are the encampments and what's happening with the encampments. I know that we talked about this through our Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee meetings, which are gonna resume in September. And right now, we did receive an update at the last meeting from Director Dow in terms of the encampments. We're receiving another update on Monday, but it's an ever going conversation. It's never something we're not talking about. Currently, they've created what's called the Encampment Crisis Response Team. So it is a team of city employees and social service providers that are working on addressing the encampments throughout the city. So if there's a health impact, if there's any type of safety crisis, they're prioritizing the encampments by that, by those credentials. And they're doing what's called like a housing first model. So they're really trying to make sure that they're addressing these encampments, providing the necessary resources as they can. And hopefully in doing that, we'll be able to at least alleviate some of the really dense encampments that we're seeing throughout the city. There have also been encampment sweeps that happen. The most specific one was around the Trader Joe's area and myself and a few others were definitely advocating against encampment sweeps because it re-traumatizes the individuals that are living there. And again, it's like the big question is where is everyone going? Where do we want everyone to go? So this is a really significant thing that we're seeing not just in Portland and not just in Maine, but nationwide in terms of like lack of housing, lack of shelter. So I think we are doing the best that we can with the resources that we have and with the finances that we have knowing that the city is extremely understaffed. It's never, like I said, something that we're not talking about. And I also am really appreciative of the grassroots organizations that we have that are working with our unhoused community as well. Specifically Maine Needs who is doing a great amount of work trying to get resources for our unhoused neighbors as well. But the encampment crisis response team is the first of its kind in the city. And I'm actually really excited to see that task force. It's slow work and it's gonna take some significant time for them to really address all of the encampments. And I think we have to have a lot of conversations at the city level too about what are our next steps in terms of shelter. We just voted in support of a 108, 108 bed shelter that's gonna be opening up in the Riverside area. We're hoping that that can be specifically for asylum seekers, which will alleviate some of the asylum seekers that are currently in the homeless services shelter. We're hoping that if there's more room in the homeless services shelter, then we can have some of our unhoused neighbors actually start going into that shelter. But I think there's also a conversation around, do people want to go in that shelter? Some of these people don't wanna go. And that's also a conversation around, how do we understand that some individuals don't look at the HSC as a relief and as a place that where they can feel like they can have autonomy over their things, over their bodies. So yeah, I don't know. We have a lot of conversations to have and I appreciate that question because it's something that we are talking about all of the time. And I think we're all doing the best that we can with the limited resources that we have. I know that the homeless and the encampment crisis team that they've had because like beds, units have opened up or beds have opened up at the homeless services center. And so they've been able to provide some opportunities for folks and other folks. You've encountered what Tori was alluding to that they've not taken on the opportunities of going there. They feel safer and they feel like where they are right now and the community that they've created, that that's the option that they wanna follow through. I think the encampment crisis team is also trying to create relationships with these folks, right? We're trying to figure out exactly who is out there. And trying to not like quote unquote lose people so that we can follow up with them when we're connecting them with services. And that takes time, right? Like you have to build trust with someone. When you're telling them, hey, come with me. We're gonna help you come to this like massive place out here in the corner of town. Most of us are not gonna jump in and follow along. So again, building that trust is part of it. And through the working out, having the folks out in the streets, having the folks working with the service providers and creating those relationships. That's the hard work. It's heartbreaking. I'm sure for them when they offer a bed to someone and they see that they don't accept it. I remember, I made a comment during our last meeting. I remember when I was working home health and I'd go to someone's house. I used to go out here, right? Anyways, I'd go to someone's house and after a quick checkup of their vitals or something, you realize that they're having an emergency. You have to get them to the hospital or something. And they would refuse, you know? Like leaving your house, leaving your belongings, leaving your place of safety. It's not an easy decision. Even, quote unquote, in the face of an emergency. You know, when like the clinician is telling you like you have to go to the ER, you know, your blood pressure is out of control or your blood sugar is out of control. And again, that's a personal decision for folks. And so the same thing when we're offering people to go over to the Homeless Services Center, you know, we shouldn't expect it to just be like, oh yeah, absolutely. You know, let's go over there and be happy. People still want their autonomy. Let's listen to the next clip. Not surprisingly, it's also about housing. Slightly different perspective. It's so complex, but housing is the first thing that comes to mind. So both more like emergency housing for our unhoused neighbors who need a place like immediately. And then also just more affordable housing. So continuing, you know, to like uphold the voters' rights. Rent control that was in the ballot obviously passed or you know, was voted in. So just seeing that enacted and like less condos, more affordable housing. So I think this mother who had two young children with her on her bicycle outside, Rennie's has come up with a slogan. Maybe she's planning running for office. You know, less condos, more affordable housing. I love it. Maybe this is where we should address, okay, what kind of housing is getting built in? Yeah, I mean, there's, you know, I think that we are seeing all sorts of different housing being built, right? And there's a couple that we're in the Housing and Economic Development Committee. We're about to take a vote on funds to get this co-op housing model done over in Lambert Street. We've seen a couple of other projects. So the things are being built. The problem is that, you know, the crisis is a crisis, right, like the need is much, much greater than what we're seeing built. Even the comprehensive plans goal of the number of units that should have been built by now was using an estimate that we far outpaced because of the need. So even if we're meeting our goals, the reality is that we just don't have enough of it. Question, the person that's spot on that, you need all sorts of different housing. And particularly when we're talking about, you know, the on-house folks, you know, supportive housing, you know, more shelter spaces, different sorts of shelters, not having the one mega-shelter outside of town. So I think that we need to sort of kind of play all of the cards, right? Like we're trying to mitigate these challenges. Like we started to talk about, this is a problem that we're seeing nationally. So, you know, Portland is not going to have the one key that solves all the housing problems. We're mitigating the challenges that individuals are going through. And I remember, this is the last thing I'll say. I remember having a conversation with prior counselors and they talk about the city manager's role. And they would say the city manager's primary role is to be a driver for economic development in the city. And I'd been after a year and a half plus, I'm like, no, the city manager and the council's role is absolutely, the priority is to make sure that our citizens have everything that they need to just survive, right? Like at this point, it's not even thriving, but just to make it day to day. And if that were our focus, just to make sure that people had those basic things that they need, I think that we'd be better. But for a long time, clearly that's not what we prioritize. That's great. So priorities have shifted of the council. We've seen that happen, we've talked about it, but things take time, it's slow. You don't just snap your fingers and create housing. Long process. And I know that, I mean, this is tough because sometimes I feel like there's work that happens in committees and it's just slower work that often doesn't get immediately reflected in what's happening on the council or doesn't make, like no one's really reporting on the committee work in the paper or things like that. So I don't know, I try and always encourage people if they can to attend some of the committee meetings, especially the Housing and Economic Development Committee to kind of hear those conversations. And again, I know it's tough because the meeting time is at like 5.30, it's not entirely accessible, but all the meetings are recorded and they're on the city website. Because sometimes I think in committee, you can kind of see the pieces being put together in ways that you wouldn't outside of the council meetings and just saying like, there's no housing being built and like, nothing's happening. And I think all of those conversations and more and even talking about emergency shelters and what's happening with our unhoused neighbors, like that is something we are always talking about in the Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee. We're lucky that we get updates as well at the council meeting, but sometimes when you dive deeper into the committee meetings, I know a lot of people at times can think that the committees are boring and like sometimes they're super boring and dense, but there are oftentimes that the like nitty gritty stuff gets talked about within those conversations. And I think it helps people to see like, okay, I understand like this is happening and this is happening. And now when I do go to the meetings or when I am talking about the city of Portland, I can at least have a little bit of a better idea of what's going on. So I don't know, I know like, I know it's not the most exciting topics all the time, but I try and encourage people to like, maybe go like once a month even to, or once every couple of months to committee meetings and just listen in and see what's being talked about. Cause sometimes we do a little bit of a deeper dive on like specifics in there. That's a really good point. And you are always an advocate for both of you really, but you especially are always advocating for get involved. Here's the process. It's not an easy process, but it's, you know, you can figure it out and you can participate a lot more than you may think you'd be able to. All right, let's run our next clip. This one is a little bit of a different perspective on the housing issue. My question is, why is the rent so expensive in Portland? And why do they keep increasing the rent for everybody? I think they should vote on it again and reassign something to help solve this problem. It's crazy, I can't afford my own place, you know? And I'm lucky I have a place to stay, but it's, I can't have my own and that's what I want. Why are the rents so high in Portland? That's a great question. The rents are extremely high in Portland. I mean, you have, so it's not money, first of all, right? Because you have vouchers and you have subsidized rent. Yeah, but then as a landlord, there's nothing incentivizing them to use those vouchers. So they'll rather have the higher paying rent or tenant and then that quickly gets out of control when the majority of landlords start choosing that. And it's, yeah, it's, it's too short. I mean, I'm a renter, so rent control is in place. Rent control is in place, I'm a renter. It's a great question. I still ask why are the rents so high? I can bear, I'm hanging on by a thread of being able to afford to live here and be the district two counselor. So I'm right there with that person. Everyone I talk to who is a renter is like, no one is thriving in like the renting world of Portland. We're all like hanging on and hopefully being able to survive living here as the rents increase. And I think that was a really great point in terms of like landlords being incentivized. I mean, the city council doesn't pick the, like rents of spaces. I do think that there's also a huge impact that we're seeing because of all the short-term rentals and Airbnb's that exist here. So it's driving up the neighborhoods, essentially. The Airbnb's are regulated here, but I think that there have been conversations around doing more around that because if you're having, especially like non-owner occupied Airbnb's in a neighborhood, it's just driving up the cost of the property within that space. And so everyone else is trying to compete with that as well. I think that's something the city council could do. Yes, yes. You could also, I'm not recommending this, but does the city council have the power to freeze rents? I don't know if we do. I believe that we can, yes. That we can do like moratoriums, like the same way that we're thinking about doing like an eviction moratorium. So yeah, I believe that we have that ability. I mean, other cities have used it. Again, this is a national problem. I know people that move all over the country and rents are way, I mean, everything's high, inflation is high, rents are part of it. Let's listen to our last housing clip. You know, we see it every day, right? There's so many people on the streets, right? That absolutely should not be on the streets. They're not there in their minds and that bothers me a lot. And I mean, the ones that can work, they need a place to clean themselves up and they can go to work. But the ones that are really bad off, they don't need to live on the streets. So essentially this person without using the phrase mental health is talking about people whose mental health is perceptibly difficult for them. And basically the commenter was saying those kind of people should not be living on the street. They just don't have the wherewithal to succeed there. It's one of the many complicating factors. And often these folks, even if they had like a home or apartment, they also need a lot of support. So supportive housing models are definitely key for that. This idea of just like giving somebody an apartment and everything will be solved, that's not the reality. Particularly with folks that are dealing with mental health issues, substance use disorders, et cetera, et cetera. Well, we have such a robust public health system in this country that I don't understand how it is that people are not getting their mental health needs or other health needs addressed. It's a big problem and that's part of it. Well, believe it or not, one of the people that we interviewed talked about something other than housing. So I did not set this up so they were all housing. I just asked random people and everyone would talk. So let's hear our final clip and move to a slightly different topic. This morning my husband and I were talking about parking. Parking, that's a new one we haven't heard about. What about parking? Well, they're just doing all this construction in our neighborhood. They don't provide any other solutions when you can't park in your own neighborhood. So your parking permit's only good for your zone. There's gotta be other solutions. I love that idea. I don't have an answer, but I love that idea because I also live on the peninsula and I have a hard time finding parking when there is construction. They're absolutely right that you don't have an alternative, but you can either park in your zone for all day parking if you have a residential sticker. But if you aren't able to park in your zone, you have to abide by paying like whatever the street parking would be. I'm curious if that does happen, if they are able to, if they can't get like a special permit, if they are able to send in any parking tickets that they get for potential reimbursement or saying the zone that I normally am parking in is under construction, so where else can I go? I'm wondering if that's something that we would be able to do or initiate or talk about. Where on the transportation, sustainability and transportation committee? So who knows? Yeah, both of us are. So just send all your parking tickets. Just bring in all your parking tickets. I get so, I just feel that I get so many parking tickets because I think I'm in my zone and I'm not in my zone. So I, and yeah, the construction is a huge part of it where people are saying, well, if I can't park in my zone, where can I park? And I wonder if there would be any type of reimbursement for tickets that happen, if you can show like this is where I was going to park, but there's construction during this time. So like, how do we get that reimbursed? But I think it's actually a great question. I'm glad that someone brought that up in terms of finding a solution for that because I think that that speaks to just a parking issue that we're seeing around the city. And I know that in a way, climate change and climate equity are some of our goals as well. So we're not trying to kind of create robust parking. We're hoping to move into people walking, biking, and taking alternative methods of public transportation. But I really like that thought about like there has to be another way. If there is construction in my neighborhood, what else can I possibly do and where else can I park? So I will think about that, yeah. Yeah, I think the question about parking like comes up a lot, you know, particularly when we're talking about public transit and you're trying to not incentivize people to park and you're trying to get people to use public transit or even the bike share that we have in town. So we don't wanna just keep adding parking spaces. But we also, and I've talked about in here, like when I hear you talk about having like getting parking tickets or even just the cost of parking if you're actually paying the meter on time. You know, if you're working in town, you're spending half of your salary that you're making that day just to work, just to park so you can be at work. And so that to me still like frightens me. But we're in that transition where we're trying to get people to use public transit. So until that becomes available, you know, more rides and more frequency of routes, I think that we're gonna see these problems with. Were you talking earlier about a kind of a leveled parking access where people that work in Portland could have parking, but then people that come from off, outside Portland like myself to visit would be paying full ticket. Yeah, I was specifically looking into having like workers. So while you're on your shift, they should be like you could be able to get a space like in one of the parking garages and not have to like, you know, pay or at least have a significantly reduced rate. And I believe that there's ways to do it and there are parking garages that are available for workers. They're just not used because they're kind of like out of the way and not necessarily where people work. So I think some people do access it and other folks, it's just not convenient. So I just think we have to be a little bit more. Yeah, we've been hearing that main med workers office don't park in the designated lots because they're really far away. So they take street parking in the West End and then residents. I send residents like what's going on, yeah. But I know you have mentioned, Roberto, before that parking is a source of revenue for the city and it's not inappropriate that it would be. You know, we're not trying to get everybody driving around in their cars. And I think our rates are, you know, regionally speaking they're comparable. We still, you know, most cities, you know, you pay parking up until like 8 p.m. We stop at 6 p.m. So we're still, you know, not as aggressive as some other municipalities. But, you know, as I say, it is so significant expensive you're out there working half your day, you know. Well, believe it or not, we have used up all our time again, just flies by when we're together. Thanks so much for listening in on our show today. I think we're going to be out in the street listening to people in the street more. That was really fun to do and we will try to broaden our neighborhoods that we go to and, you know, find all the topics people are thinking about and talking about. Thank you so much to the Portland Media Center for your production support here. We couldn't do it without you. Warren Edgar, our director, also was the camera person for when we did People in the Street. And tonight we had tech help from Mark Casa. Thank you so much to our audience at home. Without you we would not have a show. Normally we are on the second Friday of each month at 7 p.m. coming to you live from the Portland Media Center. So, you know, look for us out on the street and obviously there are ways to contact your counselors, myself through the Portland Media Center. If you want to send us questions that way, we'd be happy to take up the topics that you'd like to hear us talk about. So thanks and thanks for listening in.