Stay tuned for a details of the Five Bridges to a Thriving Portland.

1. Sustainability

Almost everyone has heard about Global Warming, the hole in the Ozone, the polar ice caps melting, reducing carbon footprints, and the trendy phrase "sustainability".

Here are some of my thoughts and ideas of how to greener-ize Portland.

1. Support the City Composting Program

2. Create incentives for businesses to buy eco-friendly products ad to recycle

3. Create incentives for individuals to buy eco-friendly products and recycle

4. Support local businesses, farmers, and other local entities

5. Campaign to support permaculture and encourage neighborhoods to hold annual neighborhood "Harvest Dinners".

2. Homelessness

No one can deny that we have a large population of homeless people. Everyday we someone new asking for the change jingling in our pockets.

Some of my ideas include:

1. Employment. Educate people how to get a job, retain the position, and move up the ladder. Then help then actually land the job. If people have and income, they can pay for other things they need like clothes, showers, housing, hygiene, and many more.

2. Housing. I am a big supporter of the Ready to Rent Program. I went through the program and it teaches people how to effectively rent an apartment or house while knowing when you are being a "bad tenant" or a "good one".

3. Ongoing support. Everyone could use ongoing support. This category encompasses mental health support, drug and alcohol support, utility assistance, and generally programs to go for basic needs.

4. Support the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

Supporting these programs through building development, business development, and community involvement will help Portland greatly reduce he number of homeless people we have.

3. Citizen Involvement

Involved citizens are the key to a working government. If the citizens aren't participating, there can be no future leaders.

I would like to support the work of three projects set in place by Mayor Tom Potter.

1. Our Bill of Rights: Children and Youth

2. VisionPDX

3. Community Connect

These projects took a lot of work and commitment from citizens young and older. If these projects to go away or be tossed aside with new commissioners and a new Mayor, all that work would have been for nothing. I would like to utilize these already existing movements and help them continue and succeed at their goals.

4. International Affairs

As it currently stands, the City of Portland puts no money into the International Affairs "office". And yet we have all of these wonderful sister city relationships. Working at a result of a sister city relationship, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, it has become apparent that there is very little participation across governments to foster the vibrancy of the relationship.

I would like to allocate funds for two full-time employees to:

1. Conduct research and train on cultural competency

2. Enrich and strengthen existing sister city relationships

3. Seek out new city to befriend and draw alliances with

5. City Services AND Infrastructure

Just like it says already, I would like to see the City of Portland take on more social responsibilities and Multnomah County take on more infrastructure responsibilities. This can only be done by reconstructing the relationship we have with the County.

Because I have seen Multnomah County go through many severe budget cuts and the City stay thriving, the citizens that receive social services from the County are being left with no services in the time of crisis.

 Re-designing the relationship between governments will help give equal social and infrastructure responsibilities to each to help make sure everything need to be funded is getting the funds they need to develop and serve.

This in the end is my ultimate vision. It will take a long time and some lengthy discussions to come up with a concrete relationship.