Newsletter: Moda Center, Waymo, TUF, and the Right to Know

Dear Neighbors,

It's a busy moment at City Hall, with budget season in full swing, and major decisions looming on transportation and public safety. This week I want to update you on four key issues that I believe deserve your full attention: The Moda Center, Waymo, the Transportation Utility Fee, and the Right to Know.

I also want to take a moment to reflect on what we achieved in April:

• We co-championed major pieces of housing and affordability legislation and got them over the line. The Inner Eastside for All resolution supports expedited planning and policy work across City bureaus to enable housing development. The 'Keep Portland Housed' package is a sweeping investment that both prevents immediate displacement and lays the foundation for a permanent public alternative to the City's housing crisis.
• The Transportation Utility Fee will deliver sustainable funding for our transportation infrastructure including sidewalks and streets.
• City Council held an oversight hearing on how $12 million in housing funds went undiscovered and unbudgeted for months.
• Councilor Zimmerman, our Chief Financial Officer, and I kicked off the City of Portland Financial Stabilization and Recovery Plan Workgroup with other academic and business leaders.
• My office collected over 700 budget survey responses to inform our work and hosted a Budget Townhall in Sellwood.

This is critical work and part of our everyday progress in City Hall. We still have much to do to ensure that all Portlanders can have their needs met.

In Solidarity,

Councilor Mitch Green

More of the same on Moda

Let me be clear, I love the Blazers and want them to stay in this city. But my commitment is to the people of this district and this city, not to NBA ownership.

Last week, the governor, the mayor, and several of my colleagues attended a photo op to celebrate the Governor signing a bill to hand $365 million of our tax dollars to the Moda Center renovation.

Governor Kotek took the opportunity to once again urge the rest of council to fall in line with the plan, warning us that now is "not a time to play politics".

To date there has been no City Council vote on this deal. In fact, there hasn't been any public process at all. Yet the state has already passed a $365 million funding bill, and the Mayor has pledged $120 million in city dollars and suggested that those funds should be taken from existing Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) programs.

I don't want to speak for my colleagues, but I can tell you that I wasn't elected to negotiate for billionaires. I refused to be a party to an NDA that would have let me access negotiations while silencing me publicly. If you want public money, make your case in public. I will continue to push for a robust public process and support referring the renovation question to voters.

Waymo: Innovation for Whom?

Waymo announced this week that they have begun manually mapping Portland streets for a planned autonomous taxi rollout. You can see my initial reaction here. I should note that my skepticism here is not about a fear of technology, it's about who benefits.

The future of Portland's transportation system needs to be climate friendly, and it needs to align with our Vision Zero goals — getting traffic injuries and deaths to zero.

Autonomous vehicles have blocked emergency responders, are obstacles in bike lanes, and worsened congestion in other cities. And research indicates robotaxis may increase vehicle miles traveled by encouraging more frequent trips and empty repositioning miles. Transportation is already the top U.S. emissions source. We need more public transit, not more individual cars, even driverless ones.

Waymo claims they want to "disrupt" urban mobility, but we need to think about what that really means. If that disruption means extracting profits to Silicon Valley while eliminating rideshare and delivery jobs here, we should pass. In any case, Council needs to look very closely at our regulatory framework before we let Waymo in.

New Transportation Utility Fee

A new Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) to address PBOT's $6 billion maintenance backlog is moving forward. While I know nobody likes new fees, and while I find this approach to be far from perfect, I supported the TUF because doing nothing would have meant letting our aging streets and sidewalks deteriorate even further.

The transportation utility fee is a broad-based revenue source that creates a stable foundation to reflect the fact that everybody, even if they never leave the house, benefits from the transportation system functioning well. While previous City Councils have kicked the can down the road on addressing our enormous deficit in our transportation infrastructure, we know that without stable State and Federal funding and after hearing from constituents about the disrepair and lack of sidewalks, we had to take action. Similar fees already exist in 31 cities in Oregon.

My primary concern with the TUF is that the current structure for the fee is regressive. Flat per-unit fees disproportionately impact apartment dwellers, transit riders, and lower-income households. That's why I passed an amendment that requires bureau staff to create an improved fee structure before it begins. We can generate necessary revenue without balancing the budget on the backs of working families.

‘Right to Know Who's Policing You' first reading

This week the council heard the first reading of Councilor Sameer Kanal's ‘Right To Know Who's Policing You' ordinance, which I support fully. This ordinance is one of the most direct ways at the local level that we can push back on authoritarianism. It prohibits law enforcement officers (including federal officers) from masking, requires they display visible identification, and directs local police to investigate and document masked individuals operating in our city. Portlanders have been clear that they want leaders at every level of government to use every tool available to oppose federal overreach. That's what this ordinance does, it's why I was one of four signatures to help bring it to the full City Council for a vote. Portlanders and our immigrant and refugee neighbors especially, cannot wait any longer for this to pass — I hope to see it scheduled in the coming weeks for a vote.

Budget Townhall in Sellwood

On Monday, we returned to Sellwood Community House to host our first Budget Townhall of the season. It was a lively discussion with neighbors who shared their ideas and interests in learning more about the budget process and our priorities. Watch out for more opportunities to engage (hint: a virtual one will be happening this month).

District 4 Joint Budget Listening Session on May 5

We hope you'll join us this upcoming Tuesday, May 5th at Chapman K-5 School Auditorium from 6 - 8 pm to share public comment on the budget. The event will begin with a brief overview of the budget which helps to get oriented to the fiscal year 2026–27 process. My colleagues and I will then share a bit about our role in the budget before inviting feedback from all of you. You can register here to provide testimony.