I’m a Portland mom, a marketing and creative professional and a member of the board of SPACE Gallery, and I will be voting for Kate Snyder for mayor on Nov. 5. Here’s why.

Let’s start with the two urgent influences of our time: The planet is heating up, and it’s getting more crowded.

This may seem like a broad orientation when considering a local mayor choice, but it will take pragmatic thought leaders at all levels to develop sustainable solutions for our planet and populations. The life we’ve become accustomed to is not de facto guaranteed in the future.

From lobstering to food supply to immigration, impacts are already being felt in Portland. We need to meet these urgent challenges with a collaborative approach to decisions ranging from parking regulations and public transportation to housing and public schools. Though I find a lot of goodness in the current mayor’s values, I have been disappointed with the lack of collaboration with the City Council. I see far too much political fraying at a time when we need a diligent focus on results.

Kate Snyder will bring a fresh perspective to leading Portland. She has a gift for uniting people and weighing various points of view. She can navigate tough decisions and build long-lasting solutions. She proved it when she led the school board to form budgets during the recession; even despite those challenges, the schools got back to a functioning level to generate the exemplary public-school system we have now.

We need people who can look at hard questions and not retreat into polarized points of view or skirt the old-fashioned, slow burn of collaborative leadership. I hope you’ll join me and vote for Kate Snyder for mayor this Nov. 5. 

Thank you.


Emily Bruce


Portland

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