DECRIMINALIZE HOUSELESSNESS
Voting: Yes
Reason: We must treat everyone with dignity and harassing our houseless communities as they seek safety and rest is unacceptable. Our city has put a lot of money into policies that push this community around rather than spending our resources to house them. If I'm correct, about half of the police interactions in 2017 were related to interactions like this with our homeless communities and this was a complete waste of time and funds. We all seek safety and security and we must as a city offer that to every community member and end harassment type policies that only harm our most vulnerable.
FOR A FAIR POLICE CONTRACT THAT SERVES THE PUBLIC
Voting: Yes
Reason: We expect a lot from police officers but first and foremost, we expect integrity. There is a divide and a mistrust when it comes to police officers and the community and the only way this can be fixed is by holding police accountable to civilians. They are public servants and work to serve us. Citizens should absolutely have jurisdiction to review dead force cases. These cases should not be limited or hidden from the public eye. Discipline must expansive and modified as new cultural expectations emerge. I don't normally support drug testing but I understand wanting to test officers after a case of excessive force. Complaints of any type should absolutely remain anonymous and allowing officers access to the victim's information is unacceptable.
OREGON DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR THE PEOPLE
Voting: Yes
Reason: I love and support Oregon District Attorney for the People campaign! I am aware of the power of our prosecutors and this platform reflects the changes I want to see in criminal justice. BIPOC communities are targeted and jailed at higher rates. It is a systemic oppression that we must address. Our children deserve the benefit of the doubt and youth defendants deserve to be treated as the children that they are. I fully support removing the criminality that is currently attached to mental illness. The majority of people who are incarcerated are arrested on non-violent or low level drug offenses. This is unacceptable. I've actually been reading into prison abolition recently as a result of these realities. We must hold our criminal justice system accountable by critically reflecting on police and prosecutor accountability. Last but not least, we absolutely need to decriminalize homelessness, sex work, and drug use. I have said it multiple times before on social media that I support the decriminalization of sex work and drug use, and have heavily criticized our city's use of police to harassment our homeless communities. It's about safety for our communities, offering basic human dignity to everyone, and accepting that drug use is found in every level of society but that we are only criminalizing certain groups.
TENANT PROTECTION ORDINANCE
Voting: Yes
Reason: As a renter in a community of renters, I absolutely support expanding tenant protections through this ordinance. Often times, renters feel ill-equipped to seek justice when being harassed and that's because the city is not openly offering the resources until you seek them out. We must equip renters with the knowledge they need before they are ever in a situation to need it. We absolutely need a database for rental properties to access amenities, rates, and accessibility as we currently have no oversight for that market. Landlords are under regulated and use that as a weapon against tenants. Licensure and mandatory training is a MUST. You should not be able to legally rent a property without this level of expectation. We need to adequately fund the RSO while also enabling our community members to create tenant unions to act collectively to defend their right to safety and security in their homes and communities.
UP NOW! UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL IN MULTNOMAH COUNTY
Voting: Yes
Reason: Too many working class families are burdened by childcare costs and we must address it. Children love school at these early ages and getting them involved helps create social skills and offers them a positive outlet in tandem with recognizing the realities of working parents. This program helps the kids, it cultivates their future, it relieves the financial burden off their parents, and it allows families to have more manageable schedules - what's not to like! My parents would have benefited from this, my community now will benefit from this. I am happy to support UP NOW !
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
Voting: Yes
Reason: Campaign finance reforms is one of the four major tenets of my campaign. It is the largest issue I face as a young, low-income woman running for office. The odds are stacked against low-income candidates as it costs money to run for office. Campaign donations are not free speech and we must limit all donations to an equitable amount as to not exclude anyone's voice from being heard. I support the current campaign limits and actually want them to be limited farther as $500 is not equitable to most working class people. I think the best thing for our democracy would be to fund voting vouchers with tax money, essentially eliminating cash donations in favor of equipping every voter with an equal number of vouchers to restore equal access to campaigns. I will not vote for any elected official who is not limiting donations as I see it as working against the will of the people.
MUNICIPAL BANK
Voting: Yes
Reason: I like the idea of a municipal bank but don't know enough about it to have an educated opinion yet.
MUNICIPAL BROADBAND
Voting: Yes
Reason: I believe we've come to a point where internet and access to it should be a considered a public good. I support subsidizing broadband for the 30% of households who lack it.
COMMUNITY BENEFITS AGREEMENT (CBA) FOR THE SUPERFUND CLEAN-UP OF THE WILLAMETTE RIVER
Voting: Yes
Reason: As an environmental scientist running for public office, addressing climate justice and Portland's Superfund sites are top priorities. I support developing agreements with front-line communities to address decades, if not centuries, of environmental impacts that have wrongfully affected their communities without remediation. I support giving the Willamette River Personhood Rights to instill indigenous views into law and to focus clean up around a racial justice lens.