Oct. 10 – The race for a seat on the Portland City Council could prove to be the most contentious of this fall’s municipal elections, with one candidate trying again for a seat he lost in 2021 after a decisive recount and another hopes to fill elected positions at both the state and city levels.
Brandon Mazer, 38, is chairman of the city’s planning board and has run for council twice before: once for a District 1 seat in 2015 and again in 2021 when he ran against Roberto Rodriguez for the at-large seat which Rodriguez is now vacating. The two had reached a tie, but Mazer eventually conceded after the votes were recounted by hand.
Grayson Lookner, 40, will appear on local ballots twice as he also runs unopposed for a third term as state representative, a position he plans to hold in addition to the City Council seat if he wins.
There are three other candidates on the Nov. 5 ballot: Ben Grant, 47, who served on the school board for two years and was chairman of the state Democratic party for three years; Jake Viola, 33, board member of the Back Cove Neighborhood Association; and Jess Falero, 27, who founded the People’s Housing Coalition and organized Stop the Sweep rallies last fall to protest the city’s clearing of homeless encampments.
Early voting ahead of the Nov. 5 election began Monday and runs through Oct. 31.
All five candidates have big ideas about how to solve what they say are the city’s most pressing problems: housing and homelessness, with affordability and climate mitigation also high on the list.
HOUSING
Mazer, who works as an attorney, believes the Green New Deal has hindered development in the city and he would like to see it amended to make it easier for developers to build. One way to do that, he said, is to lower the percentage of required affordable units, which is currently set at 25%.
Viola, a deputy chief engagement officer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, also wants to adjust parts of the Green New Deal, which passed through a citizen referendum in November 2020, which would include a $15 minimum wage, the city’s rent control ordinance and inclusionary zoning requirements for new homes are introduced. developments.
“I think what we’re seeing with rent control and some of the Green New Deal laws, we had good intentions to create more housing and make housing more affordable, but we’re having these unintended consequences because it’s slowing down rent. building housing in the city,” Viola said.
Mazer and Viola both cited lowering property taxes as a development incentive.
Mazer said as a council member he wouldn’t want to see increases of more than 3% per year. He would also like to see the city’s housing trust fund used more liberally to pay for the largest number of housing units possible.
Viola said filling city staff vacancies and fighting for more general assistance funding from the state could help mitigate the property tax increase.
He also hopes for more zoning changes that will make building easier for developers and homeowners alike.
A recent proposal to help solve the housing crisis is the creation of a public housing program in which the city would build, own and operate middle-income housing projects.
Mazer said he does not support this idea because the city would have to change state law to allow such a program.
“I don’t think this is a system that will work here in Portland. We have organizations that know how to develop and manage affordable housing,” Mazer said. “This is from a playbook by the Democratic Socialists of America.”
Viola agreed that social housing is not the answer to the housing crisis. He said he prefers to encourage private development.
Lookner, who works as a stagehand at Merrill Auditorium, a kayak guide and a community organizer, is supporting the city in launching a public housing program.
“It’s really just housing developed using public equity in which a public entity like the city of Portland has a stake. It’s less expensive, more efficient and more affordable,” Lookner said.
He would also like to see the city more consistently enforce rent control and short-term rental restrictions.
Ben Grant, who works as general counsel for the Maine Education Association, is open to the idea of a public housing program but would also like to explore other ideas.
“It could be part of a mix,” he says. “There are many ways things can be built and we have to look at them all.”
He would like to see the city encourage some large-scale projects for developers to speed things up.
“We’re not going to overtake housing by going from single-family to multi-family. That’s all fine, but I want Portland to try some big things,” Grant said.
Falero, a community health specialist for the Church of Safe Injection, said they would support a public housing program. They would also like to see the city use vacant spaces for temporary housing while the impact of the rezoning process begins, and consider lifting some restrictions around development to make it easier to build more housing.
“We have to be creative as a city and make some tough decisions. We really have to build more, but also utilize existing structures,” Falero said.
HOMELESSNESS
Falero was homeless in Portland for years and believes it is crucial that that voice is represented on the council.
Falero sees the city’s expanded homeless shelter as a step in the right direction, but wants to do more to address the homelessness crisis.
“We moved everyone from downtown to District 5. It’s not as directly in our faces as it used to be,” Falero said. “It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, the problem is solved because we don’t see it every day,’ but that problem still exists.”
Falero is concerned the city doesn’t have a solid plan for heating shelters this winter. They would like to plan for heating shelters and starting a homeless count earlier this year so the city has reliable data on who is living outside and where.
They also want to ramp up housing programs in Portland to get people off the streets.
Grant is also a proponent of the Housing First model, which moves people directly from the streets into stable housing, rather than spending months in a shelter. He would like to see a robust Housing First program that would also provide wrap-around services to help people stay successful in their housing.
He would also like to see other parts of the state offer more support services for homelessness and substance abuse, so that Portland and its taxpayers don’t shoulder as much of the burden.
Lookner also said it’s important to him to see other nearby communities providing services. He said as a state representative and council member he is uniquely positioned to advocate for this.
“Homelessness is a statewide crisis, so it is very important that Portland is not the only provider in the state,” he said.
Viola said he doesn’t think homelessness is caused by a lack of affordable housing. Instead, he believes it is caused by substance use disorders, mental health issues and a lack of support. He is keen to ensure people have access to the support they need, but in the meantime he believes no one should have to live outside.
“I strongly oppose encampments,” he said. “I want to treat people humanely. It’s not humane to allow camping in the city. It doesn’t help any residents of the city and it certainly doesn’t help the residents of the encampments. We need to find ways to encourage people living outside to get help.”
NEEDLE CHANGE
As for the needle exchange, the program through which the city distributes clean needles to intravenous drug users, Falero said they would not be in favor of going back to a one-for-one exchange ratio, something Mayor Mark Dion proposed last month.
“I think Mark Dion’s proposal for a one-to-one ratio is well-intentioned. We certainly need to do something about the needles on the ground. But it feels like finger-pointing instead of working together to solve this problem.” to fix our community,” Falero said.
Instead, Falero would like to see more sharps containers in the city. And they would like to start a safe injection site, where people can come and use medicine safely indoors with clean needles that they can throw away on the spot. Staff there would be equipped with Narcan in case someone overdosed.
“When we talk about clean needles, we’re talking about life and death, people losing their limbs. It’s not about enabling. I don’t subscribe to the ideology that someone who loses their limb or gets a blood infection is a incentive is for them to sober up. That’s pretty cruel,” Falero said.
Grant said he would like to see more data before making a decision on the needle exchange rate, although he said the needles littering the city are definitely concerning. But when it comes to tackling homelessness, he has other ideas.
Lookner, like Falero, said he would not support lowering the needle exchange rate to one-for-one. Instead, he would like to see the city start a needle buyback program, where the city offers money in exchange for used needles. The model is intended to encourage people to hand in their used needles instead of throwing them away on the street.
Lookner would also like to see more sharps containers placed in the city. But he thinks limiting the needle exchange ratio is dangerous.
“It will increase disease transmission,” he said. “It is a stigmatizing non-solution that experts do not agree with.”
Viola, on the other hand, supports the mayor’s proposal.
“I find it disgusting that the city is giving out hundreds more needles than it takes in. I understand the element of harm reduction, but I don’t think needles can just be lying around in our parks,” he said.
Mazer also supports Dion’s idea. He said clearing up needles would be a “key focus”.
“I think it’s unacceptable for parents to walk around a playground and make sure their children don’t step on dirty needles. It’s a big problem and we need to get control of it,” he said.
Mazer also said he wants to start a licensing system for independent service providers such as Preble Street, Commonspace and Milestone, to ensure they keep the areas around their buildings clean and under control. If this is not the case and multiple violations are committed, they will be fined or closed.
“If these providers don’t maintain their sidewalks or if they get a lot of police calls, they have to be accountable to the city and to the neighbors,” Mazer said.
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