Mayoral candidate Charlie Hales’ answers below are in response to questions sent to candidates running for office in the City of Portland or Metro 2012 elections. To see the original request click here. All responses from Charlie Hales are shown in there entirety:
between the Eastbank Esplanade and the Columbia River?
I was personally involved as Commissioner-in-Charge of Transportation and
Parks in the development of the Eastbank Esplanade, and I’m very proud of
that. I have been briefed on the current state of your effort and I find it
VERY exciting – I can’t wait to help with the next chapter!
to procure use of or purchase of some property to place a multi-purpose
trail on?
While I served as Commissioner-in-Charge of Transportation, we worked at
length to secure the right to extend a waterfront trail connection across
the lower level of the Steel Bridge – it required a long and difficult
negotiation with the railroad, up to and including multiple trips to Omaha
by then PDOT Director Vic Rhodes.
While I served as Commissioner-in-Charge of Parks, Zari Santner and I helped
lead the development of the Springwater Corridor trail…this also required
extensive negotiation with Bob Samuels, the owner of the short line railroad
that operates alongside it.
I’m the only candidate running for Mayor with any local government
experience and this is precisely the kind of challenge that makes in-depth
local government, land use and transportation experience essential for
GETTING THINGS DONE while in office!
property owner when requiring the owner to construct a portion of a trail
when development is proposed. Would you be willing to work to develop
standards that would enable the trail to be constructed in exchange for
requiring fewer parking spaces?
…or anything else we can use in the negotiation, that maintains the
purpose and effect of our policies while “getting to yes” on expanding the
trail network.
I plan to propose some specific local funding tools for transportation in
the course of this campaign, since state and federal sources are constrained
and likely to continue in that condition, or worse.
would you support the Willamette River Greenway Trail being one of the
trails to be constructed? If so, would you support construction of the
entire trail at one time or a portion or portions of the trail?
Yes! And as I mentioned in my Bike Portland interview (in which I mentioned
your specific project as an example), we need some compelling Big Idea
projects to inspire support for such a measure. I employed this samejavascript:void(0)
strategy in composing the first successful Parks Bond Measure in fifty
years: we included several spectacular new community centers in the mix of
projects…114 projects, mostly relatively modest improvements to
neighborhood parks, but three Big Ones to capture the imagination.
You can help by informing your members about my passion for this agenda and
my eagerness to be your effective partner as the next Mayor of Portland! I
can help a little as a private citizen; I can help a LOT MORE if…with your
members’ involvement and support…my campaign succeeds and I win this
election!
Contact information for Charlie Hales:
charliehalesformayor@gmail.com
www.charliehales.com
1220 SE Grand Avenue
Portland, OR 97214
campaign office: 503-567-9430
Comments are closed.