Kevin Looper and Dan Lavey
Looper is a strategic consultant who generally advises Democrats and progressive causes. Lavey is a former Republican consultant who generally advises businesses. Both are Portland residents and co-founders of People for Portland, a 501(c)4 organization.
Portland has a problem. And it isn’t just COVID-19, rising homelessness, declining public safety and garbage piling up across the city. It goes beyond a weak form of city government and layers of inexplicably overlapping jurisdictions – city, county, state and however you explain Metro to your friends. Of course, it’s all of these things in some measure. But Portland’s biggest problem is the failure of our elected officials at all levels to lead with the urgency, innovation and cooperation required to rescue our broken city.
As political consultants, we are usually behind the scenes. Over the years, we’ve fought on the opposite sides of some significant campaigns. Today, we come together to save the city we love. We’ve just launched People for Portland to provide a platform for everyday Portlanders to amplify their voices and make politicians listen harder to the people they were elected to serve. We want to create an “election day” every day to demand action that serves the common good.
We have three goals: 1) end the humanitarian crisis on our streets by more quickly transitioning people from dangerous, inhumane camps to safe, temporary shelters or housing; 2) immediately clean-up the garbage, graffiti and dangerous waste now commonplace across our once beautiful city and 3) enhance public safety – by expanding the Portland Street Response to better serve Portlanders experiencing addiction and mental health issues; adding police and neighborhood patrols to address rising violent crime; and requiring body cameras on police to strengthen transparency and justice.
These goals are neither ideological nor partisan. They are practical. They are the basic expectations of people living their daily lives – working to make ends meet, educating their kids, operating small businesses, going to school, keeping people healthy or enjoying retirement. As citizens, we cannot let ourselves become comfortably numb to what is becoming normal on our streets and in our neighborhoods and lose what is special about our city.
Fortunately, despite our polarized political times, there is astounding agreement among Portland voters. Polling conducted for us by respected pollster FM3 Research reveals that 84% of voters disapprove of how elected officials are handling homelessness, 79% disapprove of the handling of downtown protests and 74% disapprove of city clean-up efforts.
In terms of solutions, 84% believe tent encampments are a humanitarian crisis that demand greater action and 85% support the idea of creating safe, managed villages across the city and requiring people to move off the streets. In terms of public safety, despite voters’ concerns about the Portland Police Bureau, 62% still believe the police can be reformed, 91% support police body cameras to boost accountability for those on both sides of the law and 49% believe we have too few police officers, according to the poll, which was conducted from May 13-18.
One number that should worry every politician is that 87% of voters say they will likely vote to replace current local officials if things do not seriously improve before the next election.
Right now, local and state tax revenues are soaring. Voters have approved hundreds of millions in new taxes and bonds to address homelessness. The federal government is sending billions to state and local governments. The money is there – what’s missing is the leadership to boldly address our problems.
Portland remains full of potential and is vital to the economic, social, and cultural health of our region. But time is running out. Politicians are simply doing too little, too slowly. That will change if, every day, more elected officials hear from the public. Real leaders will emerge and fake ones will follow when we come together with one voice instead of waiting and hoping it will get better on its own.
Go to www.peopleforportland.org and take action. Make your voice heard, share your story and donate or help us spread the word however you can. Portland needs leadership – and it starts with you today.
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August 22, 2021 at 08:01PM
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