Sarah Iannarone
Iannarone teaches at the Wayfinding Academy, a college in North Portland. She previously worked at Portland State University, hosting best-practices exchanges for delegations visiting Portland and serves on the budget advisory committee for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. A Portland resident, she is running for mayor.
The rising trifecta of climate chaos, social inequality and authoritarian nationalism is assailing cities around the world. Portland’s response to these problems will determine our prosperity and sustainability for decades to come.
Despite the limited power granted the mayor in our commission form of government, the Portland mayor maintains significant legitimacy in the public discourse as the de facto urban policy leader of Oregon. In the 2016 mayoral election, then State Treasurer Ted Wheeler made the case to Portland voters that he was the progressive leader best situated to occupy that position at a critical time in our city’s history, selling us on his elective experience, his leadership abilities and his commitment to reforms.
Portland voters were sold a false bill of goods.
Unlike their neoliberal counterparts, truly progressive leaders actively implement policies designed to move away from the status quo. They strive for justice while fighting to protect the environment on which we all depend. I’ve taken heat from an Oregonian/OregonLive columnist (“Suspect is down,” Dec. 13) and an op-ed writer (“Sworn to protect and serve a city that doesn’t welcome it,” Dec. 22) in recent weeks for publicly expressing my sincere and valid frustration with a critical and costly lack of bold leadership out of the Portland mayor’s office and the bureaus Wheeler oversees. I shared my frustration with the lack of accountability; frustration with the lack of community-based problem-solving; and frustration with the lack of strategic alliances and coalition building essential to the reforms we so desperately need.
The Portland mayor’s office is failing our city at a critical time and, yes, like my community, I’m frustrated about it.
I feel frustrated when the city cuts the ribbon on a $9 million project to improve street safety and my 82-year-old neighbor gets killed in traffic at that location later that day.
I feel frustrated when a Street Roots vendor who’s paid his fare on public transit, a lifeline for so many, is harassed and fined by officials for failing to tap his card against a reader.
I feel frustrated when the youth of our city march by the thousands to beg their elected officials to declare a climate emergency only to find themselves the victims of police brutality. Only to end without their desired emergency declaration or any substantial action. The youth want us to treat the climate crisis as just that – a crisis. Anything short of that is, of course, frustrating.
Indeed, I feel frustrated when an unhoused person in crisis ends up dead from police use of force 13 seconds after police officers arrive on scene. This despite our city’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice agreeing to reduce this use of force and eliminate these preventable deaths.
I feel frustrated about these things and I know a lot of my neighbors feel frustrated, too.
I’m no Pollyanna – I know we face serious challenges. I am asking Portlanders to vote for me for mayor in the May 19 primary because we need a leader who truly believes in the power of community and understands that Portlanders have everything we need to address our most pressing problems today if given the guidance of truly progressive leadership. In the face of rising inequality, we need leaders who will courageously stand up against injustice and human rights abuses. We need leaders who will boldly declare that white nationalism will have no home here. We need leaders who view the community as partners, not obstacles. When the United Nations reports that climate catastrophe is bearing down on frontline communities, we need leaders who get impatient about climate inaction. In dynamic, unpredictable times, we need leaders who quickly adapt and learn from the environments in which they find themselves. And in a transformative period rife with opportunity, we need leaders who are optimistic cross-pollinators, open to new insights and willing to co-create solutions.
The current administration has failed to make good on its progressive promises to Portlanders. As we head into a new decade, Portland needs a mayor less focused on shuffling spreadsheets and more focused on compassionate, community-centered leadership; a leader who can help us seize this critical moment in our city’s history to deconstruct the oppressive institutions and deadly systems undermining the health of our people and the place that we all share. Progressive leadership can bring us together in community and with creativity to craft new systems-- systems that will allow us to replace greed with the greater good; exploitation and exclusion with liberty and opportunity; and despair and disenfranchisement with peace and purpose.