3 specific ideas for Portland from Mayor Strimling’s first State of the City address

Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling has only been on the job for two months, but in his first State of the City address Monday evening, he already covered a lot of ground.

Strimling’s predecessor, Michael Brennan, became known for announcing major personal initiatives in his annual State of the City speeches, including what many considered his signature accomplishment, the eventual launch of a citywide minimum wage.

Strimling, who defeated the incumbent Brennan in a November rematch of the top two finishers from 2011, was careful Monday night to qualify any proposals as ones coming about as a result of recent discussions among city councilors.

And as a result, most of Strimling’s remarks were somewhat less concrete than Brennan’s typically were.

City worker Kenneth Pringle empties a large recycling bin in Portland's Old Port. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

City worker Kenneth Pringle empties a large recycling bin in Portland’s Old Port. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

The new mayor talked generally about how he and his fellow city councilors are directing city committees to explore certain initiatives in the coming year — like modernizing the city’s trash and recycling program; planting more trees; changing the zoning to encourage a healthy range of new housing units; figuring out what to do with the underutilized Portland Ocean Terminal; and devising new programs to lift people out of poverty through employment.

And some of those initiatives were broadly phrased updates of ones Brennan championed as well, but didn’t get a chance to fully realize, like the expansion of high-speed broadband internet citywide.

Those are worthy goals, but with the exception of planting trees, are easier said than done. The proverbial devil will be in the details. If there was a template program out there that could guarantee every homeless person a good job, Portland — and every other city in the world — would already be using it.

nthony Cuppernell snags an apple tree for Jaiden Landscaping's display at the 2015 Portland Flower Show. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

nthony Cuppernell snags an apple tree for Jaiden Landscaping’s display at the 2015 Portland Flower Show. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Perhaps the bigger message in Strimling addressing the subjects in such a general, roundabout way was this: The mayor was reinforcing his campaign message of inclusiveness.

Instead of boldly saying “I’m going to do this specific thing this year,” as Brennan as both celebrated and criticized for, Strimling was saying, “This is the problem we’ll all be working together to solve this year.”

We’ll know a year from now, after those committees have had a chance to develop new zoning and work programs, for instance, whether the new approach is as effective in terms of getting results.

But although Strimling was careful to couch his remarks in team-building language, he did mention a few pretty specific initiatives he and his fellow councilors will be looking particularly hard at in 2016.

Establishing an Office of New Americans

If you absorbed the BDN’s multimedia Economy Project last fall, you know that we called for the city of Portland to establish an Office of New Americans, a step we said could play a crucial role in slowing down the state’s rapid aging and relative population decline.

Please do click here and read that report if you missed it, as it lays out some of the arguments for doing precisely what Strimling and the council are now publicly pursuing.

As we outlined in part in the Economy Project, Strimling said on Monday night a proposed Office of New Americans would “assist with job opportunities and business development so those building the next generation of our economy have the tools needed to succeed and thrive.”

Keeping any annual tax increase below 2.5 percent

Strimling was surprisingly specific about what he and his fellow councilors expect in terms of an annual budget. The mayor and council want to see any yearly tax hike capped at 2.5 percent, which is pretty frugal considering unavoidable annual cost increases for any municipality, such as payroll and health care.

“I believe we can do even better than that, and have begun working with the city manager toward that end,” Strimling said. “But even at 2.5 percent, that will be the lowest increase Portland taxpayers have received in five years and is below the average of the past 10.”

5 more ‘Housing First’ projects in Portland

Strimling also put a specific number on how many more so-called “Housing First” projects he and the City Council want to see developed in Portland.

Encouraging more Housing First projects for the homeless in the city is not a new idea. A city task force recommended at least three more such projects back in 2012, Brennan called for more in 2013 and the council in 2014 set aside $50,000 to distribute to a developer willing to build such a project.

But the mayor’s willingness to so publicly support such a firm quantity of them — in particular, a number higher than even the aforementioned task force suggested — in his first State of the City address was notable.

Strimling even reiterated his interest in tasking a city committee with reviewing the city’s portfolio of publicly owned properties with an eye toward building some of the five Housing First projects on city land.

The Housing First model does not require tenants to agree to substance use or behavior standards and often is signified by on-site counseling and care services.

The model is built on the theory that at-risk homeless individuals are more likely to take their medications and adhere to counseling if they have stable housing. Many shelters or housing facilities require clients to be sober before being admitted, which Housing First” advocates say places too high a barrier for many struggling individuals to overcome.

According to a 2011 study by Thomas McLaughlin, University of New England associate professor of social work, a group of nearly 100 Greater Portland homeless individuals with disabilities cost taxpayers a total of $622,386 less while living in stable housing than they did while living on the streets — with cost avoidance coming primarily from more efficient use of medical care and fewer run-ins with law enforcement.

Two such facilities are currently operated in Portland by homeless service provider Preble Street and its partners from Avesta Housing. Those facilities are Logan Place and Florence House.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.