ANGELITA’S PRIORITIES

PUBLIC SAFETY

  • Portlanders deserve a public safety and crisis response system that is effective, accountable, and responsive to the real needs of our community. For far too long, our city has relied on a one sized fits all approach to public safety. That meant sending armed officers into situations that require medical care, mental health expertise, and/or social services. Oversight and transparency have too often taken a back seat, eroding public trust and leaving important questions unanswered about how public resources are being used. 

    We can do better. Public safety works best when it is built around prevention, care, accountability, and community trust.

  • As your  District 3 Portland City Councilor, I have worked to build a public safety system that responds to people with the right kind of help when they need it most.

    That's why I fought to protect Portland Street Response and establish it as a permanent, equal part of our public safety system. When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, the best response is often a trained social worker or healthcare professional – not an armed officer. I also protected the CHAT medical response team from budget cuts and secured funding to hire more unarmed responders so we can continue to expand the tools we have to keep people safe.

    I’ve also worked to make sure public safety dollars are spent wisely and transparently.  Portlanders work hard and deserve to know how and where their tax dollars are being used effectively. When police programs don’t work, tax payers shouldn’t continue to pay for them. Accountability isn't punishment –unless you have something to hide. 

    That’s why I secured funding for an independent review of police programs and pushed for stronger oversight of police overtime spending.

    As new and advanced surveillance technologies become more common, I’ve been working with state and federal lawmakers to ensure our civil liberties are not trampled upon and left behind. Private companies should not be able to collect information about communities without meaningful public oversight, clear and enforced regulation with well documented accountability.

  • I made you a promise and I kept it. But I'm not done yet.

    Portland Street Response is working and now I want to expand it, with more hours across more neighborhoods so that anyone in crisis gets the help and care they need.

    I'll keep holding the line on accountability. You work too hard for your tax dollars to go to programs that don’t show results. That's not up for debate.

    And I'm going to keep fighting to protect your privacy. Most people aren’t aware of the slew of private companies already building surveillance networks across Portland. I’m on it and I'm working to stop it.

    Honest leadership means showing up and fighting back to protect Portlanders. That's the commitment I make to District 3 every single day.

HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS

  • Your rent went up, again, and it was no accident.

    Corporate landlords like Greystar Management were using software technology to secretly coordinate rent hikes across the city, essentially colluding to charge you as much as possible. This wasn't the market working, it was the market being rigged. You had no way of knowing, and most people still don't.

    When people can't afford to stay housed, we all see what happens next. Portland's homelessness crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It is the direct result of a skyrocketing housing market that has failed working people for years. Rents artificially driven up. Not enough affordable housing built. A city permitting process that’s so slow, expensive, and complicated that even people trying to do the right thing get bogged down by overwhelming red tape. Honestly, our city government shouldn't be this hard to work with.

    Families fell through the cracks. People who lost their housing had nowhere to turn. And while all of this was happening, the city kept approving luxury condos that don't house those in desperate need of housing.

    The private market has had decades to solve this. Working families are still waiting. You shouldn't need to be rich to have a roof over your head, but in Portland that's what it's starting to feel like.

    This is a crisis of affordability, of accountability, and of political will. For too long, nobody was asking the hard questions about why or doing anything concrete about it.

  • Rent fixing banned. Families housed. Social housing funded.

    Portland is now the first city in Oregon to ban the rent-fixing algorithms corporate landlords were using to drive up your rent. I introduced that ordinance, I pushed it through, and it is now the law.

    I made sure families on the edge had somewhere to turn. Families in District 3 stayed housed because of emergency rental assistance that I got funded. Keeping someone in their home is always better than responding after they've lost it. Every family that stays housed is one fewer neighbor on our streets. That's not just compassion, that's smart policy.

    I worked to tear down the barriers that were making it harder to build new housing. Along with Councilor Dunphy, I sponsored reforms to make permitting faster, easier, and less costly because you shouldn't need three lawyers and a consultant to open a tattoo shop, nor should you to build affordable housing. We fixed the city's System Development Charges so more residential projects can actually get funded and finished. We made the Design Review less of an obstacle course and more of a supportive resource to builders and residents.

    We also passed a historic revolving loan fund so Portland can start buying buildings and stabilizing rents permanently. Not a subsidy, not a band-aid: the city owns it, the community controls it, and nobody can take it away.

  • We're building a city that shows urgency in getting people housed and that starts with following through.

    We're going to buy that first building, and then another, and another. Rents inside city-owned buildings will only ever go up by what it actually costs to run them. Not because a landlord wants a bigger return. Not because an algorithm says so. Not because a corporation bought the block and decided to cash in.

    Homes the city owns are homes the community controls, and nobody can take that away.

    We are pairing this housing plan with a real, urgent response to homelessness. Not sweeps, not shuffling people from one corner to another-- but actual, reliable, stable housing. Because that's the only thing that ends homelessness. People living outside in Portland are not a nuisance to be managed. They are our neighbors, and deserve the same as everyone else: a safe, stable place to come home to. Every dollar we invest in getting and keeping people housed saves this city far more in the future. We know what works. Now we need the united will to do it.

    We're going to make emergency rental assistance a permanent line in the city budget, not something families have to hope and pray fits in each year. Prevention is far more affordable than crisis response. We must fund it because we’ve seen it and we believe it. 

    We will continue to build better housing by cutting red tape, lowering costs, and removing the excuses and bureaucratic barriers that have kept people struggling instead of thriving..   

    Building luxury condos doesn't make Portland more affordable or liveable for Portlanders. Just as social housing isn't radical, it's what working, thriving cities do. And Portland will be one of them.

Better Governance

  • Have you ever tried to figure out what your city government is actually doing everyday? Not from a press release. Not from a social media post. The real day to day and ins and outs of the city’s leadership, systems and governing.

    Most people give up,– not because they don't care, but because it feels like you need a political science degree and a decoder ring just to get started. Meetings scheduled at 9:30am on a Monday when everyone is working or in school, documents written in wonky language nobody uses in real life, and decisions made behind locked doors in rooms most people don't even know exist. That's no accident. That’s exclusion. And it's not okay.

    Portlanders voted for a brand new government of better representation to be built from scratch. New structures, new rules, and new offices. In the middle of all that change, some of the base line barometers that keep the government honest were quietly left behind. The independent City Budget Office, whose whole job is to figure out if the numbers add up, had its vital role curtailed. The Mayor's office pursued cost cutting with almost no Council oversight, making it unclear if crushing layoffs and outsourced public services brought smarter, leaner government or just a slew of unintended consequences. Budget documents were inconsistent and written for insiders only. Information that should flow freely between the executive and legislative branches was getting bottlenecked like you wouldn’t believe.

    And then there's elections. Most people have accepted that developers, corporations and special interests run the show, that big money always wins, and that regular people are just holding on for the ride. That tired old story has been told so many times that it’s very easy to believe. We're here to tell a different one.

  • Good government isn't glamorous. But it is the difference between a city that works and one that doesn't.

    During the 2025/2026 budget planning process, I introduced a package of reforms and every single one passed with near unanimous support. 

    Here is what’s changed:

    The City Budget Office got its independence back. It can now do its job, providing rigorous, honest analysis of bureau budgets, without political interference. That means when someone tells you the numbers work, or don’t, there is actually someone checking, double checking and confirming.

    The Mayor's cost cutting initiative now has real Council oversight. Before, efficiency measures happened quietly, with no accountability. Now there are thorough checks in place on all proposed cost cutting and service changes. 

    Budget documents are now standardized and required to be accessible to the public because your tax dollars should come with a receipt you can actually read, not some dusty document written for only lobbyists and insiders to understand.

    The executive and legislative branches are now required to share information. That sounds like a basic no brainer. But it wasn't happening.

    I have hosted town halls across District 3 for residents to participate in the budget process directly, not just read about it after decisions are made. Participatory budgeting is a cornerstone of good governance and an important tool for true representation.

    And I fought to fully fund Portland's Small Donor Election Program, securing over $800,000 to amplify everyday grassroots donations that push back on the flood of dark money in local elections. I am living proof this program works. I'm not funded by developers. I'm funded by you, the voters. We ran that way, we won that way, and I'm governing that way. Because transparency isn't radical, it's respectful.

  • Here's the vision: a city government that feels less like a maze and more like a house we all have a key to. The key to the city, often presented ceremoniously to dignitaries and celebrities, should be on all our key rings, because city hall is the people’s house. A place where budgets are written in plain language. Where meetings are held with working people’s schedules in mind. Where the person you elected to public office can tell you exactly what they did with your money and why. Where running a clean campaign on small donations isn't a novelty. It's what leadership looks like and brings better representation as a result. 

    That's what we're building. Not just better rules and regulations but a different relationship between Portland and the people who run it. One built on honesty, on access, and on the belief that when regular, everyday people are in the room, better decisions get made together.

    Good government is the foundation everything else is built on. And Portland deserves stellar governance worthy of the people who live here.

    Honest leadership for a new era. That's not a slogan – that's the job.

TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE

  • There are things a city owes its people – not a favor or a reward – but a basic obligation of government to the people it serves.

    Safe streets are one of them. Reliable transit is one of them. Roads that are maintained, lights that work, sidewalks that don't swallow you whole. These are not luxuries, they are the floor. They are what you are supposed to get in exchange for living and paying into a city, trusting it will hold up its end of the deal.

    For too many Portlanders, for too long, that deal has not been honored.

    People are dying at intersections that have been dangerous for years. Potholes go unfilled. Streetlights stay broken. Buses run late or don't come at all. And the people hit hardest are the ones who cannot just jump in a car and drive around the problem. Working families. Seniors. People with disabilities. Neighborhoods that have been waiting the longest for investments that never come.

    This isn’t a mystery. It is a choice. Every year that a dangerous intersection goes unfixed is a choice. Every bus route that gets cut is a choice. Every neighborhood that waits longer than the one next door is a choice.

    We know whose streets always get fixed first. That ends now.

    The government's job is to deliver for people. All the people. Not just the ones in the right zip codes. Not just the ones with the loudest voice or the fattest wallets. Every resident of this city deserves to get to where they are going safely and efficiently. That is the basic promise. And we are here to keep it.

  • Promises made. Promises kept.

    I sponsored a resolution reaffirming Portland's commitment to Vision Zero, the goal of eliminating traffic deaths on our streets. Not reducing them someday down the road – eliminating them entirely. Because every person we lose at a dangerous intersection has a name and a family and a community that takes their personal safety very seriously and our city must do the same. 

    Portland is back on record. Zero deaths. No exceptions.

    I have kept a relentless focus on the corridors where people are getting hurt the most. Powell Boulevard and Cesar E. Chavez are not just streets, they are the main arteries of a working, moving Portland, and for too long they have been among the most dangerous places to walk, bike, or cross in this city. I have pushed hard to make sure they are not forgotten in budget conversations, not deprioritized when things get tight, and not treated as someone else's problem.

    I fought to harden bike and pedestrian infrastructure on Sandy Blvd, because paint on pavement is not protection. Real safety means real infrastructure. Bollards, barriers, and transit design that tells every driver this street belongs to everyone using it.

    When transportation funding got tight and basic maintenance like pothole repairs and streetlight fixes were on the chopping block, I worked with fellow Councilors to keep them funded by making Uber and Lyft pay their fair share. That’s over $5 million put back into Portland's roads and neighborhoods. Because the infrastructure that holds this city together is a public responsibility, and everyone who profits from it should help pay for it.

    I secured funding for District 3 street plazas, including the Roseway Plaza and the Hawthorne Plaza, because public space is not just decorative. It is where neighbors become neighborhoods. Government delivering valued community spaces that bring people and Portland together. 

    And as the only public transit-dependent City Councilor in Portland, I have worked across jurisdictions to keep TriMet funded and running. I ride the bus. I know what it means when service gets cut. I have been at the table fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen, because for tens of thousands of Portlanders transit is not a backup or an occasional weekend ride. It is how they get to work, to school and back home each day.

    I also traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation directly for the Montgomery Streetcar, expanded public transit, and improvements to 82nd Ave. When federal money is on the table Portland needs local representation on the Hill and in those rooms fighting for everyday residents. I went and I made the case.

  • This is what government delivering for people actually looks like.

    It looks like a bus that comes on time to every neighborhood, not just the ones that have always gotten the investment. It looks like an intersection that gets fixed before someone dies, not after. It looks like a streetlight that works, a pothole that gets filled, a sidewalk that is safe to walk on whether you are 8 or 80.

    We are going to finish what we started on Powell and Chavez. We are going to keep hardening bike and pedestrian infrastructure across the city so that choosing not to drive does not mean choosing to take your chances. And we are going to keep fighting for TriMet because a city serious about safety, equity, and climate cannot afford to let its transit system erode.

    It looks like a city that treats transit as the essential public service it is, and funds it like it accordingly. Where 82nd Ave gets finished, the Montgomery Streetcar gets built, and every improvement we promised gets delivered.

    The federal threat to infrastructure funding is real. We are going to fight for every dollar in Washington and we are going to have a strategic plan in place when those dollars are threatened. The neighborhoods that have always gotten the least will not be the ones who absorb the cuts. Not on our watch.

    Safe streets. Reliable transit. Roads that work. These are not big asks, they are basic needs and the obligation of a city to the people it serves. In Portland we will deliver on that obligation for everyone.

    Promises made. Promises kept. That is what honest leadership looks like. And this new era is already underway.

CLIMATE, PARKS, and Our City’s Future

  • Every summer it gets a little harder to pretend we don't know what's coming.

    The heat that traps you inside for days. The smoke that turns the sky orange. Treeless neighborhoods without shade or relief become heat islands, while other parts of the city stay breezy, green and comfortable. This is not the future we were warned about, this is the present we endure. And it’s hitting some Portlanders much harder than others.

    That is no accident. The parts of Portland with the least tree canopy, the worst air quality, and the fewest parks are the same neighborhoods that have been under-invested in for generations. The same ones with the fewest cars, the least political power, and the most to lose as things continue to worsen. Climate change does not treat everyone equally. Neither has Portland.

    While our neighborhoods have been absorbing these costs, powerful interests have operated in this city with too little accountability for too long. Fossil fuel companies are modifying facilities without permits while city staff looked the other way. Voter-approved climate funds sitting idle in bureaus with no clear accounting of where the money went. And now there’s a proposal to take the clean energy dollars Portland voters approved for their neighborhoods and redirect them to subsidize a billionaire's arena.

    This is both a climate crisis and accountability crisis all in one. And those who lose when we get it wrong are always the same people. Working families. Renters. Neighborhoods that have been waiting on support and investment for decades.

    We deserve a city that takes the climate crisis as seriously as it is. That protects the neighborhoods most at risk. That holds polluters extremely accountable. That keeps faith with the voters who approved clean energy funding and expects that money to be spent on exactly that.

    That city is possible. We are building it, growing it and believing in it together. Honest leadership is how we make it all happen. 

  • Promises made. Promises kept.

    When the Parks budget came up $7 million short and layoffs were on the table, I stepped in. I introduced and passed a package of amendments to restore that funding and keep Portland's parks open, clean, and staffed. Because parks are not a luxury, they are the living infrastructure of our neighborhoods. They are where kids grow up, where communities gather, and where people find relief after a long day. Every Portlander deserves a park worth going to.

    I secured nearly $500,000 to repair and reopen park bathrooms and bring them into accessibility compliance. A park that doesn't work for everyone doesn't work. We fixed that.

    I co-sponsored and passed the Parks Levy. A real, honest investment in something that belongs to all of us.

    On Zenith Energy, I helped lead one of the new Council's earliest and most significant environmental actions. I co-authored and was chief sponsor of a resolution demanding transparency and accountability from the controversial oil terminal in northwest Portland, where evidence surfaced of unpermitted facility modifications and a suspect land use approval. We directed the Mayor to pause city permits until a full investigation was complete and called on the City Auditor to examine how staff handled those permits. Because fossil fuel interests do not get to operate above the law in this city. Not on our watch. That is what honest leadership looks like.

    As Co-Chair of the Climate Committee I have led conversations on transitioning Portland's buildings, vehicles, and energy grid away from fossil fuels and I am preparing legislation to advance electrification and decarbonization citywide. I have engaged with the Urban Forest Plan, the CEI Hub Policy Project, and the FEMA Floodplain Process to make sure Portland's tree canopy grows, our communities are prepared for disaster, and our residents stay eligible for affordable flood insurance. It may be deeply unglamorous work but it is essential work, producing real change across our city.

    And when a proposal surfaced to use Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars to help finance a new Moda Center arena, I stood up and said no way.

    The Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) is climate money. Voter-approved, community-backed climate money that Portlanders passed because they believed in a cleaner, more equitable city. It was never meant to subsidize a billionaire's arena. I will not support that and I never will.

    If public dollars are going to move in the Rose Quarter and the Albina neighborhood, they need to come with real enforceable community benefits. Electrifying the neighborhood, with public transit access built into the deal. Strong labor agreements that protect the workers who build it and work in it. Not promises on some press release–actual guarantees with teeth.

    I am also preparing legislation to require full public reporting on how every Portland Clean Energy Fund dollar gets spent inside city bureaus. Those are voter-approved funds, so voters deserve to know exactly where every dollar goes. That is not a radical demand, it’s accountability.

  • Here is the future we are fighting for together.

    A Portland where every neighborhood has shade, trees and green space, not just the ones that have always had them. Where cooling centers and heating shelters are accessible, easy to find and open when people need them. Where you can walk, bike, or ride transit where you need to go, feeling safe and comfortable. Building person-centered transportation infrastructure on purpose, for everyone, especially the people who have never had the option of a car.

    A Portland that is honest about fossil fuels and serious about leaving them behind. Where electrification moves from conversation to legislation to reality. Where the clean energy money voters approved is spent transparently and accountably on the clean energy future they voted for. Where no billionaire, no developer, and no special interest gets to redirect those dollars away from the communities they are meant to serve.

    A Portland with parks that are open, maintained, and funded to last, because green space is not decorative. It is community, collaboration, connection and public health. 

    The climate crisis is not waiting, and neither are we.

    This is what a progressive city looks like when it stops making excuses and starts making positive change. When it protects the most vulnerable first. When it values commuters over polluters. When it tells the truth about what’s at stake and shows up with a realistic, actionable  plan to improve the lives of all Portlanders. Honest leadership for a new era. That is not a promise. It is a record. And we are just getting started.

    Pledges Signed: 

    • No Police Money Pledge

    • Climate 360 

    • Friends of Preschool for All