A neighborhood association president is mounting her second run for the District 1 seat on the Portland City Council, facing a challenge from the founder of the Urbanist Coalition of Portland.

All three of the City Council seats on the Nov. 5 ballot are open races, with none of the sitting councilors seeking a second term. The District 1 seat is being vacated by Anna Trevorrow, who announced in June that she would not seek reelection.

The district covers the east side of the peninsula starting at High Street and includes all of the Casco Bay islands.

Both candidates say housing and transportation are critical issues for the city, but they don’t always agree on how best to address them.

Sarah Michniewicz, 53, who works as a seamstress, ran against Trevorrow in 2021 and lost by about 300 votes. She has served as president of the Bayside Neighborhood Association since 2017 and said her firsthand experience living in a neighborhood heavily impacted by homelessness, where new housing developments are going up and sea level rise could potentially be disastrous, uniquely positions her to understand how the city’s issues impact its more vulnerable residents.

Todd Morse, 29, a technology officer for a company that conducts clinical testing, has never run for office before but said that after he got involved in the city’s ReCode process through the nonprofit Urbanist coalition, he became inspired to take things a step further and run for council.

HOUSING

Morse is a supporter of social housing, a concept that would have the city build and operate middle-income housing using housing bonds. But, he said, developers should still play a key role in helping the city address its housing crisis.

“I think social housing is just one piece of the puzzle; we need to have a diverse array of more development,” he said.

Morse said he would also like to see the city streamline and clarify its permitting and inspection process to make it easier to build housing, and for homeowners to add accessory dwelling units or additions to their homes.

Michniewicz said she’s not sure if she could support social housing before seeing a specific proposal.

However, she is concerned that the city’s inclusionary zoning rules, which require developers to build at least 25% affordable units or pay money into the city’s housing trust fund, have slowed down private housing development in the city and created economic segregation – she cites a large development in Bayside where all of the affordable units the developer was required to build were put in one building, separated from the market-rate units.

“It keeps coming up as a sticking point,” she said. “I think we’d be remiss not to at least take a second look.”

Morse also would like to prioritize a more robust housing first program to help people struggling with addiction or mental health get into stable and secure housing where they would have access to the supports they’d need. But in the meantime, he said, he’d like to see the city’s homeless shelter continue to be utilized and more consistent enforcement of the city’s rent control ordinance.

“We need things like shelters and tenant protections to bridge that gap, because those longer solutions will take time and we need to be realistic,” he said.

HOMELESSNESS

Michniewicz said her neighborhood’s experience with homelessness was what first inspired her to get involved with the neighborhood association and ultimately to run for council.

“I lived in the middle of the homelessness crisis and I have for the entire time I’ve lived in Portland,” she said.

She said she’d like to see more coordination between the city and social service organizations so people can get the support they need to stay in housing. She also said she thinks Portland should revisit rules that allow the city’s needle exchange program to give out as many as 100 clean needles for every used one that’s returned. She said a one-to-one exchange rate might be too restrictive but the current ratio is too high.

“I know people who have been stuck multiple times working on properties they manage. It’s dismissive to say (littered needles) aren’t a problem.”

Morse said he’d like the city to provide more sharps containers for safe disposal and commit to cleaning needles up off the streets. He said he would be open to revisiting the needle exchange rate but does not support going down to a one-to-one exchange because of the public health risks.

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation is also a big priority for both candidates.

Michniewicz said she would like the city to conduct a master study to see what it would look like to better connect the city through biking. She also wants to expand the Metro system, having public buses circulate later in the evening and with more frequent stops.

Morse agreed on both points, but he’d also like to create tax districts where public transit is robust to help the city capture more revenue and ultimately expand its public transit system. The proposal wouldn’t increase taxes for anyone, but it would earmark a small portion of taxes that come from designated areas to be used for transit development.

“I’d like to encourage people to use transit by making the system higher quality; specifically for the bus system I think buses should come more frequently.”

Morse also said that basic things like maintaining streets, putting in more crosswalks and public trash cans and making sure streets are well-lit are big priorities for him. He also would like to see the city move forward with the Franklin Street Redesign project, which he said could have a big impact on housing and transportation.

Ultimately, Michniewciz thinks her decades of experience living in the city has prepared her to serve Portlanders who are personally impacted by the issues the city faces.

“I decided to run for council again because a lot of the issues that were really predominant in 2021 are still huge issues,” said Michniewicz. “I have personal experience with these issues. I don’t think we’ve had a councilor yet from District 1 who lives in community with people experiencing homelessness, or who sees the development and growth. My neighbors and I are literally in the middle of this. That’s an experience that can’t be replicated.”

Morse, though newer to Portland, said his work with the urbanist coalition and extensive knowledge of housing code inspired him to lend his voice to the council.

“This isn’t really something I saw myself doing so soon, but when it came time to run, I thought maybe I’d try to push for some change on the council,” he said.

Copy the Story Link