 Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Portland City Council Candidate Forum. My name is Amy Boyce, and I'm a volunteer with the Portland Area League of Women Voters. Tonight, we'll be speaking with Regina Phillips and Nathaniel Ferguson. Regina and Nathaniel are running for one council opening in District 3. Welcome, and thank you for your willingness to serve and to participate in tonight's forum. For those of you unfamiliar with the League of Women Voters, here is a brief summary of our mission. The League of Women Voters is a political, grassroots network and membership organization that believes the freedom to vote is a non-partisan issue. For more than a century, the League has worked to empower voters and defend democracy. As a non-profit, non-partisan organization, the League does not support or oppose candidates or political parties. Increased partisanship in this country makes the League of Women Voters non-partisan candidate forums for local offices ever more important. In line with the League's principles, our goals tonight are to address each other with respect, to inform voters and to encourage participation in the upcoming election. We invite you to learn more about the League at LWV.org. In an effort to remain fully transparent, I'd like to let voters know that the League invited the three city council candidates running for the contested at-large seat to participate in tonight's forum. However, two of the candidates declined. It is the League's policy that at least two candidates participate for one competitive seat, so we were unable to include the at-large candidate in tonight's forum. Now, I'd like to introduce our moderator for this evening's forum, Sue Robbins. Sue is an instructional designer currently living on Munjoy Hill. Sue has moderated a variety of forums including the 2019 League of Women Voters mayoral candidates forum and developed moderator training for the League of Women Voters. Sue's background includes development of training and online learning experiences for corporate, higher education and government clients, teaching and teacher coaching in higher education and grades K through 12, and service as an elected member of a school board in another city. Sue holds a BS in Zoology, an MS in Education, and a certificate in e-learning instructional design. Welcome, Sue. Thank you, Amy. Welcome, candidates, and to all in the audience. Thank you to all that are here tonight and all who are viewing online for your participation in our electoral process. Municipal elections are critical to the direction and prospects for our city. Before we begin, I'll briefly explain the format for this evening. Each candidate will have three minutes to introduce themselves in their opening statements. Each candidate will then be asked to respond to seven questions written by the League of Women Voters. The order of the questioning will alternate between the candidates, and each response will be limited to two minutes. So that you may know how much time you have for each question, a timekeeper will hold up a yellow card to indicate you have 30 seconds, and a red card to indicate that your time is finished. We would like to end the evening with 15 minutes of audience questions. Interested audience members will be provided a note card on which they can write their questions. I will read the questions, and each candidate will have two minutes to respond. There will likely be time for three to four questions. Following questions, you will each have two minutes to make a closing statement. The format of this forum is moderated question and answer. As such, there will be no debate on any issue, but rather an expression of each candidate's opinion. Therefore, I ask each candidate not to challenge, accuse, or state positions of the other candidate in their responses, as there will be no opportunity to respond. Audience members, I ask you to please hold your comments and applause until the end of the event. This both saves time and ensures that all can hear. Before we begin, we toss the coin, and Nathaniel chose to take the first question, meaning that Regina will be the first to do her three-minute introduction. Let's begin with the opening statements. Regina, you may have three minutes. Thank you. First of all, I just want to thank the League of Women Voters for having us here this evening, and it's an honor to be here, especially here with my opponent. I'm a ninth generation manor. I grew up in Portland. I've been a resident here for about 60 years. I'm a mother of three, and I have two grandchildren. Educationally, I have a master's in social work and a doctorate in social work from Tulane University. So my whole professional career, I've been a social worker. I've tried to take care of families, advocating for them and bringing people together to achieve a positive and sustainable change. I started out. I've worked at a Head Start Center. I worked at the homeless teen shelter, and for 19 years, I actually worked for the City of Portland. At first, I was at the family shelter, running the family shelter, and then after that, I was there for seven years, and after that, I moved over and I ran the Refugee Services Program. The Refugee Services Program unfortunately closed in spring of 2016 because it lost a big federal grant worth $1.1 million. And from there, I went to the Westbrook School Department, and I worked there for five years. When I worked at the Westbrook School Department, I was hired to be the Grants and Community Engagement Coordinator, and then over time, I switched jobs to be the Equity Resource Coordinator. I've served on what currently, right now, I co-founded my own organization called Cross-Cultural Community Services. I co-founded it with two of my friends and colleagues, and we do cultural competency in agri-diversity and inclusion work. I've sat on many boards. I've sat on the Coastal Enterprise Inc. Board in the United Way of Greater Portland, which is now United Way of Southern Maine. I sat on their boards both for two terms, which was about six years. I've had the opportunity to work with many leaders across the state, both professionally and personally. And I have also served on countless committees looking at a variety of issues, juvenile justice, homelessness, social justice, all of those things. And so I'm running because I feel like I have the expertise and I have the experience to bring people together and try to... Oh, I wasn't supposed to do that, was I? Sorry. Go ahead, you've got 30 seconds. And so I'm just running because I do think at this point we have a really good city council and I think we have the opportunity to get things done. Thank you, Regina. Nathaniel, you have three minutes. Great, thank you. And thanks to the League of Women Voters for organizing this. It's great to be here talking with you all today. So hi, I'm Nathaniel Ferguson. I'm 23 years old. I lived all over Maine and I currently rent half of a lovely duplex in the Oakdale neighborhood. I grew up in Limerick and I went to high school in Orissa County at the Maine School of Science and Math or MSSM. From there I studied math and statistics at Colby College in Wanderville and received my bachelors of arts from them and now I work as a data analyst in a Portland nonprofit. Growing up, Portland is always the exciting big city that I would visit with my family. When I was looking for a place to live after college I didn't want to leave Maine but I wanted to live somewhere with lots of people to meet and things to do and Portland was the obvious choice. I was extremely fortunate to find a job that uses my math background and pays me enough to afford this city. Now I'm very proud and grateful to call Portland my home. There are so many different political issues in Portland, in Maine, and in America. Some are issues that really need to be tackled at the national and state level like immigration policy and healthcare. But there are many issues that deeply affect us on the local level which get left out of the partisan dim, which build our city and what we value as a community. I'm running for city council because I think there's a desperate need for city council to address the biggest issues facing Portland including housing affordability, transportation access, and environmental justice. If elected as your district three counselor I'm not going to ask politely for a study to consider the potential impacts of the city maybe doing something. I'm going to actually do something. I'm going to put forward policies that move our city in the right direction and work hard to make Portland more affordable, livable, and inclusive. I think it's fair to say that the city council has earned a reputation for not addressing the issues that are most important to the people of Portland. It's clear from the number of referendums that have been put to voters in the past few years that the people of Portland are unhappy with the inaction of city council. Whether you agree with the referendums or not I think it would be foolish to dismiss that message from voters. I intend on introducing policies that address these issues and embracing the public comment and amendment process to land on policy that actually works. No city can stay the same forever. The question for Portland is what direction do we want to change in? Do we want to be a city where rising costs of living displace our working class, prevent families from living close to where they work, and ensure that only the well-off can enjoy life here? Or do we want to be a city that welcomes new residents with open arms, supports the hard-working people that make Portland run and embraces diversity, community, and solidarity as its biggest strengths? I believe the answer is clear and I hope that you hear what we have to say tonight and agree with my vision. Thank you. Thank you, Nathaniel. Nathaniel, you also chose to take the first question. So, question one. As a council member, how would you work to increase civic engagement between Portland residents and City Hall? I think that civic engagement is a very important part of making the city run but I also think that we need to be realistic about the burdens that attending city meetings, going through events, and keeping up with city politics place on working people, young people, and people who might not be as plugged in to the day-to-day minutiae of the city. I think that as a city councillor, I would aim to have the city make sure that residents are getting information that's relevant to them at a time when they need it and at a time when their action is required. I think that we need to be honest that if we just say, well, there is public comment on it, if you had been reading every city council agenda, you could have shown up and spoke. I think we need to be realistic about the fact that the people who have time to show up to every meeting, to say everything tend to be of a different demographic than people who don't have the time for that, for people who are working, for people who they don't have the time or the energy or the money to attend those meetings. So I think that really it starts with the city directly reaching out to voters and I think that it's about making sure that the information they're given is relevant and actionable. So that's meeting voters where they are with surveys, with social media. We can't just say, yeah, voters, you come to us. If we want to hear from the people who live here, we need to go out and meet them. Thank you, Nathaniel. I'll repeat the question just to make sure it's to be fair. So Regina, as a council member, how would you work to increase civic engagement between Portland residents and City Hall? I think we have to look at this in two folds. One is the internal civic engagement or engagement and the other one is an external. And so internally I think that we need to look at the annual neighborhood meetings. We have them once a year. Maybe what we need to do regarding civic engagement is to hold them twice a year. So that we're going externally out into those neighborhoods and listening to what people have to say. A lot of folks can't get to City Hall. A lot of folks don't want to come to City Hall. And so therefore I think we need to go into those neighborhoods and we need to talk to those folks and we need to continually get their voice because a lot of people in those neighborhoods, they have not had a voice. And so that's one option is to go out to have more of the annual neighborhood meetings. I think we need to look at the boards and the commissions. The City has a lot of boards and commissions and we need to constantly take a look at those and see if those boards and commissions are what the City is looking for. We just recently did a racial and equity task, we had a task force and they made some recommendations and those recommendations were how we were going to engage with the communities, especially those communities of color that typically do not think they have a voice. And so I think we need to take a look at that plan. I think we need to look at the recommendations so that we're making sure that everybody in the City is heard because previously I'm not sure if that was the actual case. I think we need to host more events. When I worked in Westbrook, the police chief, Jeanine Roberts, at the time, she did an open house. And so I think that we need to open that up and look and see if there are events that we can do to bring people into City Hall. Those who were not used to go into City Hall and so I think, again, it takes an external and internal plan in order for us to continually engage. Thank you. Question two. This goes to you, Regina. The lack of affordable housing in Portland is a topic of great concern to many voters. What measures would you support to increase the supply of affordable housing for those seeking to work and live here in Portland? Well, first of all, I think we have to look at who has been working and doing affordable housing. Cullen Ryan Community Housing in Maine has done an incredible amount of work to look at affordable housing in Portland. And so currently, Community Housing in Maine is building a 90-plus units, affordable housing units, at the Old Mercy Hospital building. And those units are going to be affordable and it's not just going to be, you know, it's going to be for everybody, young, old, you name it. There's other buildings that are coming up, other affordable units that are coming up in the city as well. There's the Wessec Woods. I mean, there's the Phoenix Flag, which is Phoenix Flats, which is the building that's going to be going out on Middle Street. That's also some affordable housing units. Wessec Woods is another affordable housing unit that is on Brighton Ave. That's in my district or our district. And so there are a lot of people looking at affordable housing, homelessness and housing is not just, it wasn't just a pandemic issue. It's been on going issue. And so I think we need to applaud the people that have actually been doing that work. That said, there's still a ton of things that still need to be done. We still need more affordable housing units. And I think that we need to look at, you know, the quarters. I mean, like I say, we have an affordable housing unit on Brighton Ave. And I think we need to look at, I think we need to look at, you know, Forest Ave, Brighton Ave, Washington Ave, places where we think that we can, you know, build some buildings that looks at affordable housing. And so we also have to remove the barriers for people accessing housing and affordable housing. You know, background checks, you know, credit checks and all of those things so that people can actually afford the house that they're living in and have the option of living in them permanently. Thank you. Nathaniel, the lack of affordable housing in Portland is a topic of great concern to many voters. What measures would you support to increase the supply of affordable housing for those seeking to work and live here in Portland? So affordable housing is one of my biggest concerns as a candidate and as a person who lives in Portland. I think that the core issue behind housing being unaffordable in Portland is that we simply don't have enough housing. We are drastically undersupplied. Estimates put us at around 10,000 units short from Portland and South Portland combined for what we would need to have, like a truly sustainable number of units. And the reason for that is because our land use policies make it illegal to build anything more dense than single family homes throughout much of the city. The duplex that I live in, for example, was built in 1920 before the introduction of zoning and it could not be built today. The lot it's on is 5,000 some odd square feet and it needs to be at least 6,000 square feet to allow a duplex. It's also too close to the sides so the side setbacks need to be changed. There's a lot of barriers to building middle density housing that can actually fit people and we can do it in a way that folds into our existing neighborhoods. The recode, which is a process looking at the land use code that's going on right now, they did some initial estimates and it seems like a lot of the older neighborhoods have much of the housing that is there is not currently legal under the existing zoning laws and so I think that at a bare minimum we need to make it possible to build the stuff that we already have on new land but we also need to be looking at making it possible for those middle sized developments to be legal. Currently there's no distinction in the land use code between a 3-unit building and a 30-unit building and I think that makes no sense. We need to make it possible to build enough housing so that we have enough physical space for people to live and that will get the price down for everyone, not just the people who can walk into a subsidized unit not just for the people who are connected enough to get access to those resources but if we truly bring down the price of housing across the board I think that does wonders for our city. Thank you. Nathaniel, question 3. Under the One Climate Future Plan the city of Portland has collaborated with the city of South Portland to reduce community-wide greenhouse gases and prepare for a variety of negative impacts caused by global climate change. What measures, either from the plan or in addition to it, would you support to reduce the effects of climate change on public health, safety and economic security here in Portland? Right, so there are two big issues. So the One Climate Future Plan if you haven't read it has about five different policy recommendation areas that it focuses on. There's two that I want to highlight in particular and that's rethinking how we use land or land use and housing policies but then also transportation. And so a big thing for me is that I think that we should be as recommended by the plan we should be looking at our streets and making sure that our streets are safe and accessible for people not inside a car. So if people are biking, if people are walking, that active transportation both reduces our emissions because those people aren't driving. It makes it more pleasant for the people who do end up driving and it leads to a healthier, safer community. Same with having denser neighborhoods where people can live and they're within walking distance of places to go. That means that they don't need to be getting in a car to go get groceries. They don't need to be doing all these things and that can really help us live in a more sustainable way. There is no form of housing is more expensive and harmful for the environment than the sort of single family sprawl where we have lots of roads that are all spread out and you need to drive between everything. And so I think that by allowing sort of smart density in Portland, I think that we have that more sustainable direction as pitched in the One Climate Future and that's really what we need to do if we want to be serious about meeting our emissions goals that are in that plan. We need to be investing in the bus system, we need to be investing in pedestrian infrastructure and we need to be investing in making it possible to get around the city without needing a big car. Thank you. Regina, what measures either from the One Climate Future plan in addition to it, would you support to reduce the effects of climate change on public health, safety and the economic security here in Portland? Yeah, I mean the One Climate Future plan it's 300 pages and in it it talks about there are four goals and those goals talk about waste and transportation and land use and climate change and that's the plan and under those goals are strategies that self Portland and Portland put together and I think it's a really good plan I think that we need to continually take a look at the plan and see what in there are our priorities because you can't take a look at all of those things in that plan and go we're going to tackle every single one of them it's just too overwhelming. I think we need to support Troy Moon who runs the office of sustainability at the city and I think we need to support him he can't do it all on his own he's only got one staff member so he can't do it all on his own so I'd like to give him another staff another staff person in order for us to really take a look at what is in the plan and how we can move that plan forward the other thing is that the other thing that I would do is Portland and self Portland actually have a really good relationship and so we have to give credit where credit is due they put this plan together and it's something that we could possibly change is there more that we can do? obviously probably and so we need to support the plan and we need to make sure that Portland the city of Portland and the city of South Portland are continually talking and continually looking at each other and having conversations about the plan so that we can actually cross off our goals continually take a look at our goals and our strategies so that we can develop more thank you question 4 is for you Regina social support services for immigrants and asylum seekers arriving here in Portland are stretched to the limit what actions would you take to address this issue? this isn't my real house because when I worked for the city of Portland I ran the refugee services program and even though it closed in 2016 my work within those communities have continued and so I think we need to give some credit to the city of Portland and Chelsea Hoskins who is the refugee coordinator I think she's doing a really really good job of trying to take care of so many families and not just the refugee and immigrant families I think she's doing a fabulous job and I also think the community-based organizations are doing a great job we have folks going out there Gateway Community College Hope House, we have folks going out there that are constantly looking at those families to make sure that they're getting the resources that they need and so the major thing with the families that refugee and immigrant families right now is housing and housing is a huge issue and so we need to continually look at that they need to continue to work with their case managers and their communities in order to get housing and we know housing is an issue and we've already talked about affordable housing so we don't need to go down that road anymore but I think the other thing that we need to look at we need to look at making sure that our refugee and immigrant community can work and one of the federal stipulations is it's going to take you a year to get a work permit a lot of folks come over here and they want to work and they want to work now and so we need to take a look at that and we also have to look at you know other things that they may need regarding healthcare and taking care of their children and also looking at our systems most of the members that I know because I've worked with a lot of community members within the refugee and immigrant community and they just want to understand the systems right, they want to understand the education system and so I think we need to continually talk to them and continue to outreach to them and continually case manage them so that they can be successful in our community Thank you. Nathaniel Social support services for immigrants and asylum seekers arriving here in Portland are stretched to the limit. What actions would you take to address this issue? Yeah, so I think that asylum seekers and refugees are a big asset that Portland has I think that they represent as we all know Maine is the oldest state in the nation and we're getting older and it's only through immigration that we can have the next generation of Mainers and Portlanders and people who are here to live and work Unfortunately as was pointed out the federal law does bar asylum seekers from working for a while after they arrive in the US and unfortunately Portland City Council does not set federal immigration policy so there's not much that we can do about that what we can do is we can look at how are we supporting these people in the time between when they arrive here and when they're eligible to work and when they can start supporting themselves and I think that's really important I think that we need to be honest about the fact that it's expensive to be talking to the state government and the federal government saying we need money to take care of these people we need to make sure they're connected with services and we need to continue working with our partners that already do fantastic work working with these families it currently does cost $12,000 a month for us to host a family in a South Portland hotel and I think that if we tackle this issue we can get that price down if we start having more locations for them to be and I also think that we just need to be viewing asylum seekers and refugees and all these new leaders as an investment in our future I really think that they pay off in the end and it's only the diversity of Portland and the new people arriving in Portland is our biggest strength and so I think we need to be emphasizing that we need to make sure that Portland remains a welcoming and safe place for everyone thank you next question according to Preble Street there are an estimated 1500 unhoused individuals currently seeking shelter here in Portland this number has nearly doubled since the beginning of the pandemic as a council member what steps would you take to address homelessness in Portland so homelessness is a problem and it's a problem that has a sort of a dangerously simple solution if people have homes and they're housed they're no longer homeless so in the long run the fix is we have more housing available so that these people can have a safe warm place they can call home in the short term though we're not going to be able to fix that overnight so in the short term we need to make sure that people are connected with the services they need whether that's temporary shelter so they can get back on their feet whether that's a more permanent supportive housing model or whether that's something like the new Preble Street shelter that's opening up that has some support services in place for them to help them through any mental health issues or drug addiction that people are struggling with so I think that really we need to take an all of the above approach I think I really support the housing first model of getting people into homes so that they're warm they're safe they don't need to worry about how they're getting food and whether they'll have a warm place to sleep I think that really we need to make sure that nobody's sleeping out on the streets in the cold we need to make sure that people aren't just left you know left with no other options I think that if we if we don't do that then we're kind of failing as a city and I think that you know we also need to be honest with the state again about the fact that Portland ends up taking on a lot of homeless people that other municipalities don't want to deal with and so we need to you know say this is a regional problem and we need to work with other municipalities we need to work with the state to make sure that we have the resources to make sure that these people are safe thank you as a council member what steps would you take to address homelessness in Portland well I think we need to look at who has been providing services to the homeless population and who's been doing this work for a long time like Nathan you said a public street just opened up a 40 bed shelter and that will get some folks into a safe place every single day and that's exactly what we want I think we're building a shelter a 200 200 person shelter out on out in the Riverside area that's supposed to be opening up in the spring I think that will bring down the number of homelessness I also think that we need to look at shelter plus care we need to look at the BRAP program bridging rental assistance program we need to increase those programs so that folks can get the subsidy they need to live permanently in housing I think that Nathan you also mentioned housing the housing first model I think we need more to look at that model as well to transitional housing and project based housing those are all really good examples of housing that we could do and that is happening now that we can get people in you know one of the things that I've been involved in is the emergency shelter assessment committee and that is something that a lot of folks around the table come together to try to figure out how we can deal with the homeless population and what steps that we need to do to make sure that we're taking care of folks in a respectful manner and so they are constantly looking at that not only that for folks who are homeless but also those folks that have been homeless for you know several years the long term stayers I think we need to look at our general assistance guidelines I know that those are state guidelines but in the city of Portland we can do something with the maximums and we can also take a look and see what we can do and thinking about general assistance and thinking about this in general we also definitely need to always consider partnering with the state because even though in municipality there are a lot of things that we can do on the state level and taking a look at general assistance is another one that I think that we can do Thank you Question 6 Regina A major role of the city council is to adopt an annual budget for both municipal and school operations. Do you support the Charter Commission's recommendations regarding budget autonomy for the school board please explain your position Education is really close to my home I raised my three kids in Portland I have a grandson who goes to Talbot Community School when I was a member of the NAACP for a couple of years I chaired the Education Committee and so I've had the opportunity of working with a lot of folks at the Portland Public Schools. I've also had a chance to look at some of the policies you know I remember going to a school board meeting and asking them why Brown and Black kids weren't referred to AP classes and obviously since then that has changed and so education is a big one for me and so you know I think that the schools have plenty to deal with and they have, they're in charge of their own policies and their own procedures and I think the budget is one of those and I think it's very difficult you know to try to put a budget together. I worked at the Westbrook School Department and so I was part of those conversations when you're looking at something and you're saying we need to cut that and you're like well wait a minute how can we cut that because we need to make sure that all of our children are succeeding and so I want to do some more research as far as that question is concerned at this point I think that you know I think that there's enough for the city to tackle and to take a look at across the board with everything that we have going on and I think we need to continue to work with the school department to make sure that our kids are graduating and being successful. Thank you. Nathaniel, do you support the Charter Commission's recommendations regarding budget autonomy for the school board and please explain your position. I think it's a good question. I don't support the proposal from the Charter Commission and that's because I think that the current model for how we approve the school budget works really well. So for those who don't know currently the school board sets a budget and then it gets approved by the school board and then it gets sent to city council. City council can ask questions about it but they ultimately vote on it. If they want to give the school board less than the total amount of money they asked for they need a super majority in order to do so and then otherwise it gets folded to the city budget and it's all part of your property tax package. The reason why I don't support the proposal for the school budget autonomy is because I think that the school board should focus on running the school. They should focus on the policies, they should focus on the day-to-day operations. The school board is really about making sure that kids are educated and I think that's why we should be picking people for school board and I think that's what the school board should focus on. The school board being a place where the school board is raising taxes essentially. I think that what we would see under the proposal would be candidates running for school board and their platform could be I'm going to get on the school board and then I'm going to just make your property taxes go down and I don't think that's really what we want for the school board. I think the school board should be about here's what we need for the schools and then I think the city council should look at the budget together and should say alright this is the budget, this is how much we're doing for property taxes here's how we're going to fund the different parts of our city. Thank you. And last question that you were warned about is question 7 and Nathaniel you go first. Please share with us an issue specific to district 3 that you see as a high priority for you as a member of the city council. Right so an issue that I think is a big priority for district 3 would be allowing for more mixed use areas in district 3 so district 3 is kind of strange you know we're off peninsula it's a little bit too far to walk on to the peninsula a lot of the time and we have all these commercial areas but they're big strip malls it can be kind of unpleasant to walk around them and it can make it hard if you just want a few things for groceries if you just kind of want to walk around the neighborhood you kind of have this big segregation between residential areas and commercial areas so what I'd like to see is I'd like to see us open up the ability for small businesses little corner stores throughout the district so that everyone's within just a short you can walk around the corner you can stop and pick up some items for dinner you know and you can really build community in that way and that also has the benefit of building these more sustainable and dense communities that we were talking about earlier so that's something that I'd like to see in district 3 and I think that allowing for more of that sort of mixed use development where you have maybe a little shop and then an apartment on top that is I think something that district 3 in particular could stand to benefit from a lot because currently if you look at just even the land use zoning maps that are farmed up between this is the area for the staples and the shopping center and this is the area where people live in their homes and I think that if we can integrate that a little bit more we'll have a much more bustling we'll have a much richer community and urban space for people living thank you Regina please share with us on issues specific to district 3 that you see as a high priority I think district 3 is unique just like some of the other districts in Portland we've got coffee shops we've got restaurants we've got apartment buildings we have home ownership district 3 has a lot to offer and so I do think we should take a look at that area like I said earlier and look at what affordable housing that we can build on in district 3 and not only affordable housing but workforce units because it has that mixture and so I do think that we can take a look at that and see and again Wessex Woods is a really good example of how something was able to be built right then and there it's on the bus line so it is looking at you know our emissions and all of that and so I do think that it gets like my opponent said it gets those things off of the peninsula and gets people out there and we don't and they don't because it's on the bus line right now and everything there wouldn't be a bad walk to to get on the bus and then come in town if somebody needs to work there I think there are some small really nice shops there I think we need to have conversations with them I think we need to figure out how we can how we can make them stay in those neighborhoods you know we've seen a lot of times there's restaurants that was closing and these restaurants have been there for a really really long time and so I think we need to find out how we can help what we can do in order to make sure that they can sustain their building and their business thank you thank you both for your thoughtful answers to those seven questions I hope we have some questions from the audience thank you let's see so Regina this will go to you first first question is and this is a two minute answer give a specific example of how you have worked with others with opposing views to gain consensus a specific example of when I've worked with folks I suppose God has been so many let's see I would say let's see well I think that I think one of the opposing views is how we tackle equity diversity and inclusion and so I think that earlier the city has put together they've put together a racial equity task force and they've made recommendations on how we can continue to get along with continue to engage folks what our schools will look like and what our city needs to look like and hiring diverse candidates and all those other things there are some people that believe that we're right where we need to be and that we don't need to look at race that we've come a long way and that things are going within time those things will get worked out thank you and Nathaniel give a specific example of how you have worked with others with opposing views to gain consensus so I think that a place where I've worked with other people and I've talked with them about people who might disagree with me strongly but we end up reaching consensus on the issues of land use policy and affordable housing creation I think that when I go and talk to people about whether they're conservative or they're a libertarian or they're a socialist when we sit down and we start to look at what do we want to see in a city what do we want to see what do we want to see in what's allowed I think almost always have the same view in mind they want to see a city where people can live where people can feel safe and where people can be authentically in their communities so I think that really on a lot of those issues that we see at the city level in particular there's a lot of common ground because it turns out that the major political parties and those people's political identities don't really map cleanly onto issues of land use and zoning regulation it just isn't really something that's talked about and so I think that there's a lot of common ground there to be found and I think that when you work with people you find that there is a lot of room for compromise here and it can move our city in the right direction Thank you Nathaniel would you consider holding council meetings at remote locations such as schools maybe one meeting in each district each year yeah I think that's a I think that's a great idea I think that that would be great for making it easier for people to attend who might not be able to make the city hall I know that city hall is a lot closer to people who live in district one over here and for people who might live out in district three near Westbrook it can be a bit of a drive and you have to find parking and all that so I think it would be great to get the city council out in the community and make it easier for people to attend and I just yeah I really don't see any downside to that idea it gets people involved it gets people active and hopefully it can make it a little bit easier for people to participate so I think if you look and you'd say make sure that we got enough chairs and microphones for everyone but that's I think that's a very solvable problem thank you Regina would you consider holding council meetings at remote locations yeah I concur with my opponent which is that's the way to get people involved when you're talking about engagement that's how you have to do it you have to go where they are because like Nathaniel said because some folks don't have a car some folks have children that then they don't have childcare and it's easier for them to walk to their schools and I think there's spaces in our schools we can hold a city council meeting I think we can also hold just events there to get folks to come and see our schools so yeah I think that that's the way to go I also think that we could do neighborhood meetings within our schools as well absolutely and Regina do you favor more bike lanes and better bike infrastructure in Portland? absolutely I mean the only way we're going to tackle climate change and one of the ways we're going to tackle climate change is for us to look at our bike groups and so and transportation so we that's what we have to do and Nathaniel do you favor more bike lanes and better bike infrastructure in Portland? absolutely I think that Portland right now we're sort of going through the growing pains for our bike infrastructure there's a lot of bike lanes that then don't necessarily connect to things or then you have to merge in with the cars in the rest of the road and I think that my dream for our bike infrastructure is where you can get around on a bike having to interact with the car at speeds above 25 miles an hour so this means like on neighborhood streets I think you can mix the cars on the bikes but around areas like Forest Ave Franklin Street all of these places I think that we should have physically separated bike infrastructure and I would love to see us expand not only bike lanes on existing roads but expand our network of mixed use trails and paths that we currently have throughout the city so for example the Bayside Trail sort of starts like behind Trader Joe's it's kind of weird and hard to get to but it actually takes you nice through the Bayside neighborhood I know there's a plan to eventually connect that to Deering Oaks but I'd like to see that continued and prioritize and I'd also like to see more of those sorts of things happen so that it's easy to get around on a bike it's no longer you know it's not a question of well can I actually bike technically possible for me to bike there but I don't really feel safe because of all the heavy car traffic or it's kind of getting late so it might be hard for cars to see me I want it to just be easy I want you to be able to hop on your bike and go somewhere if that's how you want to get around Thank you and we have no other questions okay alright thank you both for your thoughtful answers and now you each get two minutes for a closing statement and Nathaniel you went second for closing for opening statement so you go first for closing statement and this one is two minutes sounds great yes so yeah thank you to everyone who's been here today and who's been listening to this to this event I just want to leave you with a few thoughts I think that Portland needs to again like I said at the beginning we need to think about what kind of city we want to become what kind of city that lets that just tries to hold on to things the way they are and isn't bold, isn't innovative or do we want to be this sort of city that really opens up our minds and embraces the change and growth that's necessary to really take us into the 21st century I think that we need to make sure that Portland is a city that works for old people working families and in new manors and I think that Portland can get there and I think that there's a lot that city council can do specifically with city council's powers that maybe hasn't been done and hasn't been addressed in a comprehensive way so if I get elected to city council I plan to be in there I plan to introduce ordinances introduce resolves and really bring an agenda to city council then city council can take a look at and vote on I'm not going to just get in there and advocate quietly for some change maybe ask people if they think it's the right idea I'm going to get in there and I'm going to put in the work I'm going to write ordinances I'm going to participate emphatically in committees and I'm going to make sure that the policy of the city is the policy that we need going forward because it really when it comes to the city all of it stems from the policies and the policy in the city is set by city council so I'm really more of a policy not politics kind of guy I'd love to talk about all sorts of nitty gritty details on our you know city policy and so I hope that that's what you're looking for in your district of Canada thank you and Regina your closing statement yeah thanks again for having us here and for the questions and asking the questions I've lived in part of my entire life my roots are here my three kids grew up here I have a grandson that is here and so I've seen what has been done and I can identify what still needs to be done for us to continue to live in a vibrant wonderful city and so I want to I want to be on the city council because I happen around the table and with a lot of different people and I think I can bring more people around the table to figure out what needs what we need to change and what we need to stay the same because I do think we have done some really good things within this city that has allowed it to thrive and so I bring my extensive experience and my background of bringing people together a diverse group of people together so again we can look at the city and see what we can celebrate because Portland has a lot to celebrate we are a wonderful city we have a lot to celebrate even though we know that there are challenges and so I just want to bring people together because I think we were at a place where some of us are not together and so I have that experience of bringing people together not only locally but statewide to again figure out how we can continue to thrive not only the city of Portland but statewide because we also have to work with our elected officials across the board not only within the state but federally thank you as a member of the League of Women Voters of Portland area I would like to thank you for participating in this and I would like to thank the audience that is here and the audience that is watching for participating and I would also ask you please to make a plan to vote talk to your friends, talk to your relatives make sure everyone is registered and make sure everyone gets to the polls and thank you very much