Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:00
Timur Ender
Running for office. You know, when we think about our nation's streets, you know, it's the the FAA controls airspace, right? The, the the Coast Guard controls the, the waterways and things like that. But when we think about our nation's streets, those are overwhelmingly controlled by local governments. And if you want to have an impact on where, majority of these crashes and fatalities and, and, and also opportunities in terms of walking and biking or happening, those are really made at the local level, whether it's transportation or housing and land use.
00:00:34:03 - 00:00:57:22
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman and that is Timur Ender running for City Council in Portland, Oregon for the East Portland district. And we talk about that campaign as well as some really cool all ages and abilities cycle network facilities that he helped, build and bring to fruition when he worked for the city.
00:00:57:25 - 00:01:04:21
John Simmerman
let's get right to it with Timur.
00:01:04:23 - 00:01:08:15
John Simmerman
Timur, it's wonderful having you on the Active Towns podcast. Welcome.
00:01:08:18 - 00:01:11:27
Timur Ender
Thank you. Pleasure to be here. I love what you do.
00:01:11:29 - 00:01:20:03
John Simmerman
Thank you sir. hey, you know, I love giving my guests an opportunity to, introduce themselves. So, who is Tamara?
00:01:20:06 - 00:01:45:19
Timur Ender
Cool. Yep. to more. More, I am a candidate for Portland City Council district one. that's East Portland, which is, basically the city East of I-205. A little bit about my I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, went to NC State University and then, moved to Portland in 2013 to attend law school at Lewis and Clark.
00:01:45:22 - 00:02:08:17
Timur Ender
When I first started law school, I was kind of interested in District Attorney route. And, I having done an internship at the district attorney's office, I kind of decided that really wasn't for me, and I was more interested in the built environment in cities. And this was kind of 2008, where climate change was kind of becoming a more, well known issue and more urgent issue.
00:02:08:17 - 00:02:39:15
Timur Ender
And so I really kind of got involved in local government. And so my first kind of advocacy space was the 2011 Transportation Bond camp, transportation affordable housing bond campaign for the city of Raleigh. And then, when I moved to Portland, I did some internships. So, for example, I interned at the Federal Transit Administration, which dishes out, public transit dollars to transit agencies all across the country.
00:02:39:18 - 00:03:05:15
Timur Ender
worked at the Port of Portland, which is the airport in Portland. Congressman Blumenauer is an office who is known for, you know, nationally for walking and biking and livability. And then finally, my last internship was in local government at the city of Portland. And, love that and kind of decide to stay in local government, and really work there for, six and a half years.
00:03:05:15 - 00:03:45:09
Timur Ender
And so one of the things I did was we helped pass transportation funding, known as the city's local gas tax. And then, I had the privilege of managing a lot of those projects, whether it was paving, traffic, signal, street trees, Ada ramps, sidewalks, and a lot of those projects that I managed wearing these Portland. So I had the opportunity to kind of work with a lot of, neighbors and, advocacy organizations, and, and other groups to really implement a lot, a lot of, their community visions for how they envision their community in East Portland.
00:03:45:09 - 00:03:48:28
Timur Ender
And so, yeah, you brought up this. I'll just should we just dive right into it?
00:03:48:28 - 00:04:08:17
John Simmerman
Yeah. I was going to say you brought up East Portland, and, before we hit record, we were trying to think of when I last saw you and I last saw you. Right? Right in this, you know, in the bullseye here of, of the center and, and in fact, I have a photo of of when I last saw you.
00:04:08:20 - 00:04:28:29
John Simmerman
That's you right there. That's a good one. That's a really good one. And and. Yeah. So, so the reason why I was there in 2019, for this in, in, in fact, if, if this is actually part of a video. So I'm going to hit play on this and, and we can talk a little bit about this.
00:04:28:29 - 00:04:44:29
John Simmerman
But yeah. So last time I saw you was, you know during this event. So it was July 21st, 2019. And this was one of the Sunday parkways right there in the East Portland area. And this is this is part of your neighborhood, too. This isn't very far from where you're at.
00:04:44:29 - 00:05:12:10
Timur Ender
Right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. In that, you know, maybe if it's okay to talk about the big jump because that was kind of the big the big picture kind of effort here was this was an intentional effort to really focus, a lot of infrastructure improvements and have them be very coordinated and intentional. And, it was actually a, a decision we made to have Sunday parkways, be in East Portland.
00:05:12:10 - 00:05:26:01
Timur Ender
So this was either the first or second year where we had Sunday parkways. kind of almost completely east of I-205, in this area. And one of the things that the city does with Sunday Parkways, I'm pretty.
00:05:26:01 - 00:05:34:05
John Simmerman
Sure this was the second. Yeah, this is the second because I think I have a video two of 2018. So that was 2018. So that would have been the second year.
00:05:34:05 - 00:05:52:20
Timur Ender
Yeah sure. Yeah. Yeah. And so the one of the cool things about Sunday Parkways is they, they use it as a way to show people, recent bicycle and walking improvements. And so there was a lot done in that area. And so it made sense to have one of the Sunday parkways, be in this area.
00:05:52:22 - 00:06:03:27
Timur Ender
And yeah, this was kind of an intentional effort to really look at, this gateway area, in kind of pretty significant kind of focus.
00:06:04:00 - 00:06:10:05
John Simmerman
I think I know the answer to this, but but why don't you explain why they call it the gateway?
00:06:10:07 - 00:06:36:18
Timur Ender
Yeah. Gateway. Gateway opportunity. I actually, I'm not sure. It was just kind of. You caught me off guard. it's just kind of known as the Gateway District. There's the Gateway Transit Center, and then the green shaded area in between the two interstates is kind of a gateway green park, which that was a long time vision of advocates of, of kind of making use of what was hidden in plain sight in this beautiful area.
00:06:36:18 - 00:07:03:06
Timur Ender
And now it's this kind of state of the art mountain biking area. And it has trails for all skill levels, whether it's a four year old kid or, someone much older and and ranging from beginner to expert level, trails and terrain. So, that, you know, that really is a huge win for the community, for kind of having that vision and then working with, government, partners to really make that happen.
00:07:03:10 - 00:07:27:16
Timur Ender
So we were part of the big jump, which is kind of ten cities, across the US, to with and each city was responsible for choosing an area to focus, investments on. And so I was lead on this application right around, 2015, 2016. And out of 70 applicants, Portland was one of ten cities that were eventually chosen for the big job.
00:07:27:16 - 00:07:59:29
Timur Ender
And that was that was a project of people for bikes. And, you know, really what this was, was, like I said, kind of opportunity to look holistically. We had, Doctor Charles Brown, who's known nationally, for walking and biking, particularly as it relates to safety and personal safety and communities of color. we did focus groups with immigrants and refugees to understand, barriers to bicycling as well as business owners and really just having these things be coordinated in a way.
00:07:59:29 - 00:08:16:06
Timur Ender
And really like for someone who lives here to see, oh, okay, there's a lot going on. I can use this bikeway to then connected this bikeway that then gets me to a grocery store that has a safe, crossing right outside of it. And one of the reasons we picked this is because of its suburban style land use.
00:08:16:06 - 00:08:40:02
Timur Ender
And so we thought, you know, if we can make biking and walking and access to transit more convenient in this area, particularly in an area where that that has over 80 languages represented and has wide socioeconomic diversity, then that could really be a recipe for, other cities looking to improve, biking walking rates as well. Yeah.
00:08:40:05 - 00:09:03:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. And you noticed, in, in that video, we had some really nice, video clips and some footage of some of the protected bikeways and the integrated protected bikeway and transit stop that was in there. And that was all part of that, portfolio of of activities that were happening as part of the big jump. So, yeah, it's that was those were exciting times.
00:09:03:15 - 00:09:32:13
John Simmerman
It was good fun. You know, it was like I was able to I was able to hang out with you and the rest of the big jump, crew for a couple of years. And, and I know that, you know, you're still seeing the results of some of the things that are happening, you know, in, in that area, and in fact, I'm going to pull up the what I think is a relatively recent, photo here, because this is also over on the East side here, too.
00:09:32:13 - 00:09:36:06
John Simmerman
Is this currently being done or is this recently been completed?
00:09:36:06 - 00:09:59:04
Timur Ender
That was completed approximately two years ago. So that's a mid construction picture. and really the benefit of that was as part of the 100 and 30s neighborhood Greenway, and that the goal of this was to provide, Ada accessible crossing in front of an elementary school. So the thought is, you know, some people, this picture is taken from, a pedestrian overpass.
00:09:59:06 - 00:10:20:10
Timur Ender
And obviously that's not accessible for every single kid that is going to that elementary school, most of whom need to cross this major arterial. And so this was kind of you, as part of a federally funded project called the 100 and 30s Neighborhood Greenway. And this kind of made some changes to improve accessibility to, Menlo Park Elementary School.
00:10:20:12 - 00:10:51:08
John Simmerman
And when you really look at this, I mean, to me, this is really kind of brings home what you said earlier, which is this is very much a suburban context out here in in far east Portland, northeast Portland. And the streets are just massively wide. And so we see just, you know, some real estate being, you know, taken away from the travel, you know, prioritizing the travel of motor vehicles and, and making it safer for people walking and biking.
00:10:51:10 - 00:11:14:06
John Simmerman
so it's it's really, truly, you know, a, a statement and a tremendous, commitment on the city's part to, you know, address some of these concerns because now, obviously, these incredibly wide streets saw incredibly fast speeds and the resulting traumatic crashes that come from those fast speeds.
00:11:14:08 - 00:11:40:11
Timur Ender
Sure. Yeah. East Portland definitely has a disproportionate amount of traffic deaths. and that's actually one of the reasons, I'm running and is kind of really my, my lens is kind of health equity. And so when we look at East Portland, everything in the neighborhoods east of I-205 has a life expectancy that is ten years lower than the rest of the city.
00:11:40:13 - 00:12:02:20
Timur Ender
and so when I'm if I, if I do get elected and I hope I do, my lens for how I seek to implement policy is how are we reducing those disparities so that we don't have ten years lower life expectancy in one part of the neighborhood, one part of the city? And a lot of that is due to historic underinvestment.
00:12:02:20 - 00:12:20:01
Timur Ender
And, and one one key reason is the disproportionate number of, traffic crashes that we see and the people who are, kind of harmed by these traffic crashes are disproportionately, black and brown people as well.
00:12:20:04 - 00:12:48:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I'm in a pull up this, this document here or we've got some overview of some of the things and this is what we had been talking about earlier, was the East Portland Access to Education and Employment, project. Again, this is some of the Gateway Transit Center, you know, locations. And over here on the, on the east side, talk a little bit about what that transformation has been like over there on the East side.
00:12:48:27 - 00:13:09:23
John Simmerman
Again, last time I was there was, was that events that the Sunday parkways event in in 2019. What sort of the update of what's been happening over there and put that into context too, because then you left the city, you you stepped away from those projects. I think you spent a little bit of time living abroad and then came back.
00:13:09:23 - 00:13:24:21
John Simmerman
So why don't you bring us up to speed with how the projects are progressing, where what the status is over there on the east side and, you know, kind of fill in the gap between 2019 and, and, coming back to Portland.
00:13:24:23 - 00:13:46:05
Timur Ender
Sure. Well, you gave me a lot to talk about. So I'll start with this, 136 Avenue project, which was kind of this two mile long project where we, repurposed the curbs of the street there. You know, there was sidewalk on one side. So we were able and actually before that, there was sidewalks on no side. And so in 2012, the city put in the sidewalk on one side.
00:13:46:07 - 00:14:16:15
Timur Ender
And then our project in 2019, 2020 was able to plant street trees and kind of put in these protected bike lanes for a two mile corridor. And then, you know, that project then connects to Division and Powell, which also have protected bike lanes. And now all of a sudden, for the average resident who had didn't even have a sidewalk in front of their house, now they have sidewalks and protected bike lanes that connect to other sidewalks and protected bike lanes that connect to their grocery store.
00:14:16:17 - 00:14:43:27
Timur Ender
And so now it's it's, in my opinion, a total transformation. And that really is one of the keys that that was my takeaway from the big jump is two things safe facilities that are actually safe and perceived to be safe, and then that they connect seamlessly to other safe facilities. And so when you have that, then it's the world just really opens up in terms of walking and biking.
00:14:44:00 - 00:14:45:07
Timur Ender
and so that's really been key.
00:14:45:07 - 00:15:15:26
John Simmerman
And if I can jump in part of the reason why they called it the big jump was they, were encouraging those ten cities to identify a geographic area, a constrained gopher, great graphic area, and encourage each of the ten cities to try to build out, a network, a connected network within that area of high comfort facilities so that you can see a quote unquote, big jump in the number of people riding on a daily basis, you know, for, for everyday purposes.
00:15:15:28 - 00:15:31:08
John Simmerman
And so that's the essence of the big jump was to see that big jump in participation. And, and that was what people for bikes was trying to push those ten cities to do was try to build out, like you said, a connected network of, facilities.
00:15:31:11 - 00:16:05:19
Timur Ender
Yeah, I think you nailed it. So and that was really a mental shift for me of, you know, looking at it, you know, as transportation professionals were so kind of focused on looking at corridors. And that was a change. We're like, okay, this is exciting. Let's look at the network. And because we were able to look at the network, we found other things like maybe a shortcut here, maybe an Ada ramp here that that really maybe it's just the Ada ramp, but the value to the network, because it allows someone to connect to a path that connects to something else is huge.
00:16:05:19 - 00:16:27:25
Timur Ender
And so, that was kind of one of the key takeaways from that. And, you know, a lot of these projects came out of East Portland in motion, which is also something I want to talk about because I don't think this would have been possible without that community's community buy in. And so, East Portland, for a number of years, the city funded East Portland in Motion and East Portland Action Plan.
00:16:27:25 - 00:16:57:26
Timur Ender
And what that was is an opportunity for community members, almost like participatory budgeting. They would come together, have city staff there, and they would articulate their highest priorities. And so one thing that came out of that was, for example, getting Powell out of Powell, fixed with sidewalks, which was a state highway. And so what that does is allows people who are working in city government and particularly elected officials to really focus and fight for those projects to get delivered.
00:16:57:29 - 00:17:16:08
Timur Ender
and the benefit for elected officials is they don't have to guess where their community is on something like what are their desires? And unfortunately, the city has not kind of continued funding that. And so that's kind of one of my key priorities as well, because we shouldn't have to guess what our community needs. We should have funded those efforts.
00:17:16:08 - 00:17:36:20
Timur Ender
And then the people in office, in city staff were then either applying for grants or finding funding to make those projects a reality. so a lot of credit is goes to there. And then we have the third renewal of the Fixing our Streets program, which is the ten cent, city gas tax. And so that started in 2015.
00:17:36:20 - 00:18:08:01
Timur Ender
I was kind of helping work on that, to deliver that. And voters approve that by 52%. So it was it was quite close in those first that first time we went to the ballot and then in, I think 2016 and then 2020 was the second time. And that one, it passed with 77% of the vote. And so people really saw the benefits of these projects and were able to vote on them, and, and continue supporting them.
00:18:08:01 - 00:18:25:11
Timur Ender
And so the third kind of the third time is 2024. So in a couple months, there will be another public vote on this. But I think a lot of people have seen the benefits of this, ten cent motor fuels tax and, what it's been able to do in terms of safe streets and crosswalk and walking and biking infrastructure.
00:18:25:14 - 00:18:55:02
Timur Ender
and then as you said, yeah, I lived abroad in 2022. We spent the whole year there and kind of we went for a number of reasons. One was I wanted my kids to learn Turkish, which was kind of important to me. I wanted them to meet some of their family members, particularly my grandparents, who were kind of much older, and I wanted them to see cities that were designed differently than where they were currently living in kind of a suburban style land use in East Portland.
00:18:55:02 - 00:19:25:05
Timur Ender
And, and so, we accomplished all those goals. we were able to kind of live in a city called Miniman, which, is in Izmir, which is like the third largest kind of metropolitan area in Turkey. And it was designed around horses. And so the the land use is much tighter. And so, you know, they were walking to school, they were walking to transit, like the major rail line which connected you to anywhere you wanted in, in Izmir, and then even Turkey.
00:19:25:05 - 00:19:48:18
Timur Ender
So we would take the train, to different parts of Turkey as well. And so it exceeded our, our modest expectations in terms of kind of having them be fluent in Turkish and kind of having that kind of cultural background. And then and then also just kind of seeing the benefits of, of proximity and being close to your neighbors and small businesses and things like that.
00:19:48:21 - 00:19:53:24
John Simmerman
Yeah. And it gave you an opportunity to practice your Turkish because you're fluent in Turkish too.
00:19:54:00 - 00:20:14:02
Timur Ender
Yes. That's right. It did give me an opportunity to speak and actually that, you know, you make a good point too, which is, you know, we were there obviously a whole year, and one of those months was Ramadan. And that was kind of interesting to see because, you know, you're so used to cities focusing on like 9 to 5.
00:20:14:03 - 00:20:40:25
Timur Ender
And if, if it's Ramadan during the summer, the whole 9 to 5 thing goes out. And so, you know, people are waking early to, have their breakfast before sunrise and then, you know, stores might be open from like 9 to 1, and then it's in the middle of summer and people are fasting. So no one's really out kind of operating their business or doing much between like 3 to 6.
00:20:40:28 - 00:21:00:03
Timur Ender
And then and then let's say sunset is at eight. So then you have this kind of a lot of people going out between 6 and 7. And because the weather's cool, they can walk. They can kind of like be out and playing at the playground. And then it's silent at eight because, you know, now people, they fasted all day, they're eating their dinner and stuff.
00:21:00:05 - 00:21:28:07
Timur Ender
And then, then from 10 p.m. to like 1:00 am, everyone's out again because the weather's great. They've been inside now. They're inside all day. And so it really was kind of just interesting to see during Ramadan this like massive shift in how people are, you know, in public spaces outside at night feeling safe. And and it was just kind of total mind switch because it's like, you know, in East Portland, you know, there's not much going on at 11:00 at night.
00:21:28:09 - 00:21:38:15
Timur Ender
And so it was kind of interesting to see kind of how that all came together. And kind of this area where people are living close together during Ramadan is kind of very special to see.
00:21:38:17 - 00:22:09:03
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just it's so cool that you were able to do that with the kids and get them over there and give them that opportunity, because it's one thing to just be there for vacation and you're there for a couple weeks. It's totally different when you're able to have that, that opportunity to immerse them and and just kind of settle in and, and like, let it let let them really kind of a get to know your family that are still over there, that much more.
00:22:09:03 - 00:22:19:02
John Simmerman
And like you said, from a language perspective, being able to get immersed in the language in the culture. And that's really, really super cool.
00:22:19:04 - 00:22:36:05
Timur Ender
Yeah. And part of it is we didn't really have a choice in the sense that, you know, going across the Atlantic is like $2,000. And then you multiply that for a family of four and it's like, I can't do that. And so and so this actually took years of planning. We had we'd been talking about this for a number of years.
00:22:36:05 - 00:22:55:24
Timur Ender
And so that's kind of why we made it happen of like, this is the most financially sound decision for us is to just, take time off work, go there and then really be present for a year and then come back as opposed to trying to do like a two week or three week vacation for like $10,000. It's just it doesn't pencil out.
00:22:55:26 - 00:23:20:23
John Simmerman
Yeah. Well, that's a I'm glad you brought that point up. You know, it's that is a really, you know, good point in that. Yeah. If you're going to bring the whole family over there, it's you might as well spend some time there. So so bring me up to speed, you know. So you went over there and, you could have obviously gone back to work for the city if you really wanted to.
00:23:20:23 - 00:23:38:23
John Simmerman
Or I suppose you could have even officially taken a leave of absence to do that. When you came back, did you know by the time you were coming back that you wanted to run for office? Or when did that that idea really settle in for you and be like, this is what I want to do?
00:23:38:25 - 00:23:59:12
Timur Ender
Yeah, I have been thinking about it for a while, so maybe I started thinking about it in Turkey. And, that's how you raise a good question, because there was like a lot of mental dancing to try to figure this out. But one of the things I'll just mention is the city government went through a a charter change, which is kind of think about it as a the change of constitution for the city.
00:23:59:12 - 00:24:28:29
Timur Ender
And that was approved by voters in November 2022. And right now we have five city commissioners elected at large. So there's no districts. And what the voters approved is a change in form of government and this commission form of government. You have people over city overseeing city bureaus. So, for example, this person would get elected at large. But then, the mayor assigns them the Bureau of Transportation and Water and Sewer, for example.
00:24:29:01 - 00:24:51:00
Timur Ender
And so now you have elected officials essentially like playing God over entire city agencies, which probably is not their expertise. But also, you know, they may not be an expert in that particular bureau either. And so it was. And usually when people are elected, they, they're, they do policy stuff. And so this was very much administrative and executive heavy.
00:24:51:03 - 00:25:19:23
Timur Ender
And so it was one of the last cities to have this form of government. So, thankfully voters kind of approved the change in form of government. And now we are in line with most other cities that have a professional city manager. It's going to be district based. So this is the first time in 150 years of the city that there will be political representation accountable to East Portland in the last hundred and 50 years, there's only been two people that have been elected to city council that live east of 82nd Avenue.
00:25:19:23 - 00:25:48:23
Timur Ender
So this is a huge win for East Portland, families in East Portland. voters and multi-member districts. And so not only districts, but multi-member districts. And the thought behind that is there was this kind of understanding that one person cannot represent the diversity of views in a district. And so with multi-member districts, you are able to, capture some of those nuances.
00:25:48:23 - 00:26:16:20
Timur Ender
So one example I'll say is, you know, tenants may not make up 50% of voters in a district, but maybe they make up 30%. And through some organizing and kind of focus, maybe they're able to elect one tenant friendly, elected official to represent that district. So, so multi-member districts are a more likely to have, pro housing candidates get elected, which I'm proud to be a pro housing candidate.
00:26:16:27 - 00:26:35:24
Timur Ender
And, having some of those nuances captured in a way that one person cannot. And then the other thing that the final change that voters approved as part of this change in form of government is ranked choice voting. And, the voter will now be able to rank up to six choices, and then the top three vote getters will be elected.
00:26:35:24 - 00:26:57:11
Timur Ender
And so, that's kind of so that was so my point in explaining all that is this is a kind of once in a lifetime opportunity where there is no incumbent on city council. there's three open seats. They luckily increase the pay of city councilors and said you can't have any other jobs. And so so that was nice.
00:26:57:11 - 00:27:20:08
Timur Ender
So it makes it makes it more accessible to more people. And you know, they said once you're on council, your focus is policy. You're not. When you're no longer running city bureaus, we're going to have a professional city administrator to do that. So all of that change. And so I was thinking about it and I was kind of on the fence and I was like, you know, I don't want to take up space because, you know, that's like an immigrant mindset is like, stay in your lane, don't make waves.
00:27:20:11 - 00:27:39:04
Timur Ender
And luckily, I had people in my community really kind of push me to run saying, you've worked in city government, you've done all these things. You'd be a great candidate. And then and then the person is my campaign manager. Now. She was like, just by running for office, you're serving your community because you're charting a vision for where you want to go.
00:27:39:07 - 00:27:57:26
Timur Ender
And I was like, okay, then, I've now switched it in my mind and I'm not taking up space, but I'm rather I'm already serving my community by saying this is what I think should be done. And so then I was like, okay, I'm not taking up space. This is a way to do it. And and then it. So it took me long story short, it took me a while to gain that confidence.
00:27:57:28 - 00:28:17:03
Timur Ender
but but I just fall back on servant leadership. Like, this is a continuation of my service to the people of Portland. So I had the benefit of privilege of serving for six years in local government. And this is a continuation of my commitment to East Portland. And it just, you know, I was working on the ground in terms of the infrastructure pieces.
00:28:17:03 - 00:28:37:17
Timur Ender
But now this is an ability to kind of affect that in a positive way. And really, you know, when you work at PBoT, you are everyone's neighbor because you're touching a city streets that, you know, for like 136 project that was two miles long. I mean, there's like hundreds of people that live along that street. And we had a number of like tiny details of, like, what street tree would you like in front of your house?
00:28:37:22 - 00:28:52:24
Timur Ender
How do you want to dedicate some land to the city for a wider sidewalk? And so I'm privileged to have had a lot of those experiences working with neighbors in East Portland to accomplish some of their kind of small goals, but also big picture goals as well. So.
00:28:52:26 - 00:29:20:23
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love that too, that you've had that opportunity to work within the city government structure. You know, just how incredibly hard it is to get things done and how long they take. And so it's like you're coming into this and I'm glad you also mentioned, you know, the that making that point about the transition in the type of government.
00:29:20:26 - 00:29:56:01
John Simmerman
I always thought it was strange that, you know, like one city council member had such pull and sway over PBoT. You know, it's like what you know, it's like and it's not fair to that person either, to your point, because they may not be a subject matter expert in it. And suddenly they, you know, they're calling balls and strikes and saying, you know, no, you know, it's like so I like the fact that it's it's also you're going to get some representation of, you know, the actual districts that are out there.
00:29:56:01 - 00:30:05:07
John Simmerman
You know, the East Side district. So it sounds like you're saying three people will be elected from that district. And how many total districts?
00:30:05:09 - 00:30:06:05
Timur Ender
Four.
00:30:06:07 - 00:30:19:10
John Simmerman
Okay. So four total districts in and so so you've got, you know, three from each of those. And then a mayor that is, is voted, At-Large.
00:30:19:12 - 00:30:20:04
Timur Ender
Yes.
00:30:20:07 - 00:30:43:25
John Simmerman
Okay. Okay. And it's I would assume it's since you mentioned city manager, I'm assuming this it's kind of the mayor is one vote on city council and maybe helps set the agenda and all that. But really, you guys are doing policy and then turning it over to the city manager to say run the city. Is that correct?
00:30:43:26 - 00:30:46:03
Timur Ender
That's exactly right. Yeah.
00:30:46:06 - 00:31:07:27
John Simmerman
Yeah I wanted to belabor that because you know there's a big difference between a quote unquote weak mayor system and a strong mayor system. And you know, some of our big cities are strong mirror systems where you're, you're you're, you know, basically voting in a cult of personality and somebody who can drive through their, their initiative. And, and if it's good, it's good.
00:31:07:27 - 00:31:10:29
John Simmerman
And if it's bad, oh, boy. It can be really nice.
00:31:11:01 - 00:31:30:02
Timur Ender
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I think you can think about it as the old form was a weak mayor. And I think the new form continues to be weak mayor, in the sense that the mayor is really kind of, you know, they're able to articulate a vision and really pull the rest of council along if they if they're able to convince the rest of council.
00:31:30:06 - 00:31:58:16
John Simmerman
Yeah, they'll still be the mayor, which tends to get the, the, you know, the, the camera focused in on them for good or bad, you know, but when we look at, you know, you know, some truly, international strong mayors that are making, you know, good headlines in, in the realm of, creating livable cities, you know, we we look to, you know, Mayor Hilldale go in, in Paris and the plant and in, in, in Montreal.
00:31:58:16 - 00:32:17:15
John Simmerman
And we're seeing them, both of them female. Yeah. Really kicking butt and doing some wonderful things in terms of making a more, welcoming, livable community that encourages, you know, mobility, active mobility for all ages and abilities for sure.
00:32:17:15 - 00:32:40:00
Timur Ender
For sure. And, I mean, I just keep going back to what Congressman Blumenauer keeps saying, which is it's all about options. And right now, you know, I look at the I look outside my house with my kids, elementary school, and we have people walking in ditches and that turn into puddles when it's raining. And so and then there's the bus line on Northeast Gleason that comes once every 70 minutes, seven zero.
00:32:40:02 - 00:33:05:00
Timur Ender
And, you know, we haven't we haven't really, you kind of created this, like the system, the network is still not in place after all these years because part of it is there hasn't been any political accountability to East Portland. And so this is the first time where we have political geographic boundaries drawn around these health outcomes, where people are dying from gun violence and traffic crashes.
00:33:05:02 - 00:33:25:12
Timur Ender
And so that's one thing I'm excited about. And, and really, how I, how I will define success by my, for myself if I'm elected is how do we reduce these disparities in life expectancy and health outcomes, whether it's asthma or challenges related to pollution and other things like that. And so that's kind of kind of what I'm focused on.
00:33:25:14 - 00:33:26:04
Timur Ender
Yeah.
00:33:26:06 - 00:33:47:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. you mentioned that you're, you know, a pro housing candidate. And it makes me chuckle a little bit because what candidate would be pro housing. Yeah. It's just like saying I'm a I'm a pro mobility choice candidate. It's like every candidate should be a pro mobility.
00:33:47:09 - 00:34:11:17
Timur Ender
Choice should be. But you know I don't know if we're there yet. and maybe I'll just talk about one of the things that we have going on in Portland related to that is Portland neighbors. Welcome is kind of just like housing advocacy group. And one of their campaigns right now is the Inner Eastside for all campaign, which seeks to increase, density and proximity between 12 power Fremont and 68.
00:34:11:18 - 00:34:59:20
Timur Ender
So think inner Portland neighborhoods, where there's extensive tree canopy well served by transit, low displacement risk and, legalizing types of housing that have not been legal before, whether it's apartments, for plexus, allowing people to share walls and kitchens and things like that. And so when we do these things, what we're essentially giving people is proximity and affordability, because now all of a sudden, we've increased the supply, in areas where we that are highly attractive for people in terms of, you know, proximity and transit and all these things, small business access and because we've done that now all of a sudden we've we've reduced the housing pressure on all to all sorts
00:34:59:20 - 00:35:20:11
Timur Ender
of other housing opportunities, whether it's single family duplexes, etc.. And one of the challenges we see in East Portland is this is the area of the city that sees the most displacement risk. And I you know, I see that my kids elementary school, where there are people moving from inner Portland to outer Portland, and then people who live here are now moving to Troutdale at the edge of the region.
00:35:20:14 - 00:35:28:26
Timur Ender
And so we need to kind of have policies that mitigate those, those price tensions and unaffordability.
00:35:28:28 - 00:35:54:02
John Simmerman
You know, and I pulled I wanted to pull up the gateway, to opportunity map again, because I think this is a great way to exemplify what you're talking about here is that when we look at, you know, how far out this is. I mean, back in the day, you know, when this was all platted, I don't even think that this was part of the actual city limits.
00:35:54:02 - 00:35:57:29
John Simmerman
It got annexed in at some point in time, decades ago.
00:35:57:29 - 00:35:59:00
Timur Ender
That's correct.
00:35:59:03 - 00:36:44:08
John Simmerman
Yeah. And and so it's one of the reasons why there's been a historical disinvestment in this particular area is because it was way out there. And and it makes it even more important to your point, to ensure that that we are, you know, creating more housing in areas where people can have access to transit and active mobility facilities, as well as meaningful destinations out there and along some of these corridors, a you and I rode some of those, you know, back in 2018 and 2019, you know, you've got corridors where there's plenty of businesses and you've got things that are happening there.
00:36:44:08 - 00:37:10:28
John Simmerman
You just mentioned schools, there's schools there. So there are some meaningful destinations out there. But what we really needed to do and what you all have been focusing on or, you know, ever since, basically 2016 is trying to make it easier for people to be able to walk, bike and use transit to get to their meaningful destinations and to create more housing close to those meaningful destinations.
00:37:11:01 - 00:37:25:17
John Simmerman
Have has Portland as a city addressed, you know, the bane of of single family housing only, zoning codes? Or is that something that y'all are still working on?
00:37:25:20 - 00:37:32:29
Timur Ender
I think my understanding is single family zoning was outlawed a number of years ago. And so, that's that's of to.
00:37:32:29 - 00:37:47:14
John Simmerman
Say you guys are Portland, man. You should be back way ahead of us on that. Yeah, yeah. So it is easier. It is theoretically easier to be able to build more housing. How about parking minimums that you guys already get rid of parking minimums.
00:37:47:14 - 00:38:15:17
Timur Ender
Yeah. Yeah I think there's there may still be work to do but I think in general that we've made a lot of progress on that. And, and some of that pressure has actually come from the state government as well, which is kind of nice to see. So and then inclusionary zoning was another kind of when approximately 2017, where, when one developer build something, a certain number of units need to be, deeply affordable or the developer pays a penalty that goes into a fund to create affordable housing.
00:38:15:17 - 00:38:38:02
Timur Ender
And so that's been another strategy as well. So, so long story short, local governments really are the place where housing policy gets done. And so I think, you know, people really focus on maybe federal government or state. And they certainly have a role to play. But, pro housing candidate in local government is someone who can really cause a lot of good trouble.
00:38:38:04 - 00:39:03:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. You know, in into your point too, is that since this area is seen as an area that is at extreme risk or displacement, as you know, probably has has been seen over the last few years, there's probably been a lot of money, being focused in, in this area and, and probably a fair amount of gentrification happening.
00:39:03:29 - 00:39:43:22
John Simmerman
And I when I say gentrification, I mean that, you're seeing a great deal of care being put to the area. Hopefully that gentrification doesn't necessarily also mean displacement, but it could if you don't have backstops in place. does the city already have pretty decent backstops to ensure that, you know, you know, as a, as an area like this that is, you know, starting to gentrify and starting to see investment in it, that people aren't being driven out due to, you know, undesirable displacement because of, of the cost of living is going through the roof for them.
00:39:43:25 - 00:40:14:12
Timur Ender
Yeah, I think I think you make a great point. I think there's obviously a lot more that can be done. one of the things the city's allowing is, is doing is, you know, with in the Albina corridor in inner northeast, where I-5, displace a lot of black families. they are, kind of having a housing program there that allows, some of those families to have preference preference in terms of accessing housing in that Albina corridor.
00:40:14:15 - 00:40:45:05
Timur Ender
And so that was kind of actions the city took that, you know, are, are very well documented that displaced, black families and, and essentially rob them of the opportunity create generational wealth. And so that's something that is definitely, happening. But I think obviously there's more that can be done. I think another key strategy just generally is rent assistance as well as like, we have with wages not keeping up with the cost of living.
00:40:45:08 - 00:41:10:26
Timur Ender
People are often like one below or away from, potentially losing housing and so and once someone becomes unhoused, the cost of addressing that now is exponentially higher. And so whatever we can do on the prevention and mitigation side, I think goes a long way in terms of addressing some of those, needs. And then really the other thing too is, you know, how can we make transportation more affordable?
00:41:10:28 - 00:41:40:08
Timur Ender
and even, childcare more, more affordable. I mean, without like, like our family is receiving, employment related daycare assistance from the state, if it wasn't for that, my top household budget item is not my mortgage, is not my transportation. It would have been daycare. And so, a lot of, you know, these challenges are what can we do in terms of a policy level to address some of these, costs, for families.
00:41:40:08 - 00:42:07:03
Timur Ender
And so transit plays a huge role in that. If it's competitive and accessible, walking and biking, if it's competitive, accessible and safe. and so one of the great things that, the city has done is this transportation wallet, which is really kind of just like cash in your pocket type thing if you're using it for, bike share scooter transit and, I think maybe even Uber and Lyft, for a certain number of trips.
00:42:07:05 - 00:42:40:06
Timur Ender
and so really, that frees up people to use their existing cash supply for, other needs, because families really are in the best position to determine their priorities. And so having these sorts of supplements and, financial assistance that that is not just cash in their pocket, but cash in their pocket in a way that's like, hey, cash in your pocket if you use transit walking and biking, now you're you're both uplifting the economic, status of that family and also channeling people toward walking and biking, which is kind of good, but best for a lot of people.
00:42:40:08 - 00:43:29:02
John Simmerman
Well, and I like to, you know, point out, too, that, you know, when you look at housing affordability, you cannot just not look at transportation because that's that's a huge part of affordability and being able to live in a neighborhood. And that has, a network of all ages and abilities, facilities and, and the connectivity through some of these quiet residential streets, which are part of the mix that we see in here, is hugely empowering to families, because maybe they can get away with only having one car in their household, or maybe zero cars in their household, really freeing up a ton of cash on a monthly basis to be able to, you
00:43:29:02 - 00:43:52:25
John Simmerman
know, to thrive within, you know, in an environment and, you know, in, in, in pointing out to when we talk about this being, you know, the Gateway District and you and you mentioned it earlier, we've got the gateway, you know, transit, right there in the center. And once you get on that, you've got access to, you know, all sorts of things throughout the entire metro area.
00:43:52:25 - 00:44:16:07
John Simmerman
There of, of Portland, including, I believe, being able to get up to the airport, correct. And being able to get downtown. the other thing I wanted to mention too, which is you see these little colored lines going over these interstates that are that are running through here. And that, again, is part of that bike network.
00:44:16:10 - 00:44:41:21
John Simmerman
And so, you know, several times when I visited Portland, I've, you know, I've ridden, you know, back and forth over these connectors and as well as the pathways, along some of these interstate areas here. And so that connectivity is so essential, I think, to those families that are trying to make ends meet is being able to, you know, be able to live without a car.
00:44:41:24 - 00:45:02:07
Timur Ender
Yeah. You make a great point. I mean, the cost of having a car between maintenance gas and insurance is roughly $10,000 a year. And I mean, that's that's huge. That's huge. And so if you're able to provide some of these things, it makes a huge difference. And then you know, as a parent, you know, I'm I'm thinking about some of the crosswalk projects we've done.
00:45:02:09 - 00:45:28:17
Timur Ender
And you know, if that is a signalized crosswalk that has a red indication that when someone presses it, the cars or stopping now all of a sudden I can trust my six year old to cross that street alone to get to the other side and get to school. whereas if without those signalized treatments, then maybe I don't trust it enough.
00:45:28:17 - 00:45:48:28
Timur Ender
And maybe that's the missing link in the Safe Routes to School network. And now, because I've worked with my my kid of like, okay, this is how you're crossing the street, make sure everyone stopped, etc., etc. then all of a sudden that may be over an hour a day of my life that I get back that I can do other things with.
00:45:48:28 - 00:46:16:22
Timur Ender
And so, that really is kind of a huge time benefit for families. If now, instead of having to cross the street with their kid, of a major arterial, now they're able to like, okay, there's this really upgraded new safe crossing that that you can trust that is going to, help, particularly if you're traveling with other kids as well, in terms of a walking bus or a bike bus or something like that, then you're able to get some of your time back, and that also makes a difference as well.
00:46:16:26 - 00:46:24:16
John Simmerman
And I'm glad you mentioned, the school and the bike bus. are you repping a school bus?
00:46:24:18 - 00:46:31:26
Timur Ender
This is the David Douglas school system, and, I'm in the I'm in the David Douglas dad's club. So that's, that's the hat I'm repping.
00:46:31:28 - 00:46:54:09
John Simmerman
He's repping. All right. Good. but you mentioned bike bus there. And, of course, we've had, you know, coach ball toe symbol toe on the, on the podcast a couple of times. and in fact, he came here to Austin, so I took him for a bike ride around and showed him some of the protected bike ways and, you know, so that serves some of the schools in our area here.
00:46:54:11 - 00:47:01:12
John Simmerman
Do you have an operational bike bus there in in your neighborhood in this, the gateway area?
00:47:01:14 - 00:47:23:09
Timur Ender
No, I don't think we do right now. we'd love to start one, but again, it just comes down to time. I think the closest one to us is vestal, which is near 82nd and Burnside and, in that area. And so they, they have one. But and luckily, I think the city has some, grants to help start a bike bus and things like that.
00:47:23:09 - 00:47:42:06
Timur Ender
It just, you know, it takes people having the time. It takes people having the money to do it. And really, there's just a lot of people who are just kind of trying to keep their head above water and really make it through their lives. And so that is kind of a general, a general challenge in East Portland is like, there's just a lot of working families who are just trying to get by.
00:47:42:06 - 00:47:46:02
Timur Ender
And so, I think it's possible it would just take a lot to do.
00:47:46:04 - 00:48:17:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. And Coach Balto and I had that conversation because he's a very vocal proponent of the fact that this shouldn't be something that relies on volunteers and shouldn't be something that, you know, relies on, you know, extra work for, you know, teachers, you know, and, you know, there's some there should be something if it's going to be a part of the solution, you know, it's probably should be something that is, is budgeted for and, you know, paid for.
00:48:17:09 - 00:48:36:23
John Simmerman
Just like crossing guards frequently are. How about school streets? Are there any plans for or any operational school streets where you have, incredibly low, volume or no cars? in, in a, you know, in the immediate vicinity of a school.
00:48:36:25 - 00:48:52:20
Timur Ender
I'm trying to think of that for East Portland. none jump off the top of my head right this minute, but I've seen some of those in inner Portland. for sure. It's. Yeah, yeah. So I, I can't kind of speak to that. There's nothing that comes.
00:48:52:20 - 00:48:56:29
John Simmerman
There you go. Yeah. That's a I'm adding to your list of things.
00:48:56:29 - 00:49:00:10
Timur Ender
There's a lot to do.
00:49:00:13 - 00:49:03:27
John Simmerman
I'm sorry I cut you off. You were headed in another direction.
00:49:04:00 - 00:49:26:22
Timur Ender
Yeah, yeah. The only the other thing I was gonna mention is really, I'm so glad that when the city drew the geographic boundaries for this new form of government, that they didn't split East Portland in half, you know, they could have gone everything north of Burnside is one district. Everything south of Burnside is another district that they really kept East Portland whole.
00:49:26:24 - 00:49:52:02
Timur Ender
And and part of that is I think East Portland is largely defined by I-205. And that is the boundary, the geographic boundary that the city chose with community, input about how to draw the district lines for East Portland. And, you know, as someone who lives car free, I-205 is like this major, major mental barrier. And I'll get to I-84 in a minute, too.
00:49:52:04 - 00:50:13:28
Timur Ender
But it's the transit. I think there's only like seven crossings of transit, of I-205, walking and biking. A lot of the the opportunities are substandard. that that may lack, bike lanes, or sidewalks may be substandard. And so it really does create this, like a mental barrier. similar to, like, if you lived in inner Portland.
00:50:13:28 - 00:50:38:05
Timur Ender
Oh, it's like going across the river to the other side. and so and then with I-84, you'll notice on this map, you know, I 102nd Avenue is the safest is kind of the main safe way to cross I-84. And then you go east and the next kind of safe crossing is not really until Gresham at, like, 181st.
00:50:38:05 - 00:51:02:17
Timur Ender
And so you have, you know, 120 second has a crossing. It's totally shady. And it's absolutely substandard. 1/48 and 140 1/48 and 1/62 are the other two crossings. And they there's virtually no biking and walking access for that. And part of it is there's four. But right next to it is this railroad track with old kind of constrained bridges.
00:51:02:17 - 00:51:40:10
Timur Ender
And so, there's a lot of money that would need to be put in. But so my point and that is saying is I someone who lives south of I-84 is I rarely go north of 84 because, there's just there's so few safe ways to get there, from a walking and biking standpoint. And I think, you know, that's something we can focus on, whether it's a pedestrian bridge near 130, which is on the transportation system plan or something else, or really, maybe it takes, you know, getting some money from the Biden infrastructure package of like $30 million to upgrade an old railroad bridge to make it wider, maybe, if that's what it takes.
00:51:40:10 - 00:51:52:17
Timur Ender
But there's just there's just a lot that can be done to make some of those, crossings more accessible. and really stitch together some of that fabric for, East Portland.
00:51:52:20 - 00:52:09:02
John Simmerman
Yeah. I'm just going to pull up the map here. So the chair, because I had I realized that I probably was showing, East Portal in there, but, maybe not the entire East Portland of the district, because it was just the gateway area.
00:52:09:05 - 00:52:30:07
Timur Ender
Exactly. So it's basically the river to the north. I-205 to the west. Okay. And then the city boundary to the east, which is shown on that map right there. Yeah. And then it's the southern boundary of the city, which is a little bit further south. Yeah. Right around. Yep. You can see actually on your map to, the southern boundary of the city is articulated there.
00:52:30:07 - 00:52:50:22
Timur Ender
So basically, that's what we're looking at from Leech Botanical Gardens to the south, to LeWitt View Park in the north and then I-205 to the west. And so that's, and I'm glad the city did it that way of like, it's, it's one cohesive East Portland, chunk that because this is really where you see a lot of the disinvestment.
00:52:50:22 - 00:52:57:02
Timur Ender
It's not about North or South. It's pretty much east and west and so, yeah.
00:52:57:05 - 00:53:29:00
John Simmerman
So I'm going to hone in on, a tremendous activity asset that that exists in the the shared use pathway, the bike path that goes right along, 205 takes you right into the great gateway green, which is that wonderful, bike park that we you had referenced earlier. again, a recipient of, of a couple of different, people for bikes grants to to help build that out and make that happen.
00:53:29:02 - 00:54:02:16
John Simmerman
One of the biggest challenges with that pathway, whenever I was on it was the homeless encampments. And it's one of the things that I hear about on the channel when I, when I promote, you know, some of the multi-use paths that are out there. Obviously, it's a very, very complicated in challenge issue overall. How's how what's the status on this or is it still a challenge to be able to to manage some of these, you know, separated pathways and, and, you know, pathways specifically are along that corridor?
00:54:02:18 - 00:54:25:13
Timur Ender
Yeah. I think it has been a challenge. I think it is getting a little bit better. And I think, you know, I keep going back to policies and really we one of the benefits we had in Portland was we had money allocated to getting chronically unhoused people off the street, which is kind of the hardest demographic to address.
00:54:25:16 - 00:54:56:08
Timur Ender
And we got 6000 chronically homeless people off the street. Now, in that same time, we had 5000 people become homeless who were previously in housing, and now they're housing insecure. Whether that means they're sleeping in a car or in a tent, or kind of living with other people in, in one housing facility. And so my point is, through our policies, we haven't really been able to stop the bleeding of people becoming housing insecure.
00:54:56:08 - 00:55:14:26
Timur Ender
And that's due to a number of reasons of like housing Unaffordability wages haven't been keeping up with inflation and all these other pressures. And so my thing is, you know, until we kind of stop the bleeding of more and more people become housing insecure, we're not even going to be able to address some of these, like, more visible issues.
00:55:14:26 - 00:55:43:14
Timur Ender
And, you know, visible homelessness is an issue. But there's also invisible homelessness where people are not trying to be seen and are housing insecure. And, you know, I see it because, you know, they're parked on our street at night living in their car. And and really, they don't want to be seen. And that's someone who is they're just they're the systems in the structures in place have not been keeping up with what that person needs to be able to, to adequately thrive and function.
00:55:43:16 - 00:56:09:16
Timur Ender
And then the other challenge I see is is really kind of scary, which is the the demographic that is experiencing housing insecurity at the fastest rate is people over the age of 55. And again, I just go back to how expensive and challenging it is to address homelessness once it is out on the street. And so it has to be focused on preventing housing insecurity before it happens.
00:56:09:16 - 00:56:39:16
Timur Ender
And, we're dealing with a number of crisis is whether it's climate change or social isolation or wages, not keeping up with the cost of living. And so all of these things are coming together. And then where we see that manifest is on our public spaces. And so my point in kind of mentioning that which, which I think homelessness is a huge issue is like we have, yes, it's an issue, but we have to address the systems and the structures that that lead to that.
00:56:39:16 - 00:56:46:15
Timur Ender
And we can't just be addressing the symptom and and pretending out of sight is out of mind and like, that's actually going to solve it.
00:56:46:17 - 00:57:23:12
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love that. It's I mean, it seems to me like, especially since you spent a fair amount of time, you know, in the last decade with your head wrapped around, building some of this amazing, empowering infrastructure which makes it, you know, possible for all ages and abilities to, to get around, on the East side, making that decision to run for office, you're you're having to really bone up on a lot of stuff that you probably didn't have your head wrapped around as much.
00:57:23:12 - 00:57:57:12
John Simmerman
I certainly to at a certain level. Again, it's hard to tease apart housing and transportation. So we talk about it all the time, even though we're primarily, you know, active mobility advocates and really promoting that as part of the solution. But we know that that's so interrelated and interlaced with, with housing affordability. So, but yeah, I can tell you, you've are definitely having to bone up on a lot of other things in addition to active mobility and transportation solutions.
00:57:57:14 - 00:58:29:18
Timur Ender
Yeah, yeah. And, and, you know, active mobility is such a great lens to look on this stuff. And for example, I don't really consider myself an expert on policing. Right. And so but with some of these things, it's all about, you know, I keep going back to servant leadership and listening to community voices. And so you funding things like focus groups funding things like East Portland in Motion, where you're you're paying people to tell you what city government needs to do, and then you're working to implement those plans.
00:58:29:18 - 00:59:10:28
Timur Ender
I think that's huge. But then also, you know, even though I'm not really an expert on policing and things like this, you know, just by being in this space, just like I know from being in this space that policing does touch a lot of what we're trying to do, whether it's, the fact that most Americans interaction with police officers is through traffic stops and things like mandatory helmet laws or mandatory licensing, like, we know the disproportionate impacts of that, even things like automated enforcement cameras of like, for example, two thirds of the city's automated enforcement cameras are in my district, which is a district predominantly of people of lower income and communities of
00:59:10:28 - 00:59:45:15
Timur Ender
color. And it's like, why are we balancing city budgets off fines and fees in low income communities? And so when, when in fact, we should be focusing on affirmatively creating those safer streets so that we're not reliant on fines and fees to, really fund a safer streets. And so, so, so I think, I think you get at that point too, is like, you know, just by being in this space, we've had to have an awareness of, policing and housing because, you know, if, if, if, if people are living far away, then forget biking.
00:59:45:15 - 00:59:58:01
Timur Ender
I mean, that's not going to be a viable option. And so that's that's kind of benefit of being knee deep in one of these spaces. Is that you? You you're not totally new to everything. But yes, I am I am obviously having to learn about a lot of other stuff.
00:59:58:04 - 01:00:31:02
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I'm pulling up, southeast, 1/36 again, because you had mentioned, you know, that connection between, you know, the automated enforcement and all that, you know, what we can do as cities is we can change the design, the street design, and make it more likely that we're not going to see habitual, you know, dangerous speeding happening in, you know, when you change the streetscape and you, you know, reduce those travel lanes to, you know, eight foot, 9ft or 10ft travel lanes.
01:00:31:02 - 01:00:58:01
John Simmerman
And, you know, you plant some trees and you've got protected bikeways, you've got people, you know, now walking along these areas, these are all traffic calming, mechanisms which, you know, do two things. It helps bring the speed down. And it also relieves, you know, that burden that ends up happening because when you build streets that are like raceways, guess what?
01:00:58:02 - 01:01:20:05
John Simmerman
People are going to speed. And then if you just, you know, and like you say, you know, then that burden of, of those, speeding tickets that, that and that enforcement that takes place. So let's, let's start with design folks. And then if we get the design right, and then you still see, you know, speeding issues then, then then let's have that conversation about enforcement then.
01:01:20:05 - 01:01:42:13
Timur Ender
But let's get the design right. Yeah, yeah. In an ideal world, you want your design speed to match, your actual speed to match the posted speed. And for so long, we've kind of just put up these signs that say this is the speed limit. And then just know good luck after that. But the other thing too, you know, with these sidewalks, is you're more likely to meet your neighbors as well, which I think also has this like community safety benefit as well.
01:01:42:13 - 01:02:03:12
Timur Ender
And and tree canopy is huge. Before I talking about tree canopy though, with my child going to elementary school, you know we time it where she's going out the door the same time her friends are coming by. And so it's kind of like unofficial walking school bus. And it's like, you know, that wouldn't be nearly as fun without a sidewalk.
01:02:03:17 - 01:02:33:12
Timur Ender
And so it just makes a huge difference. And then tree canopy is is another kind of topic that we haven't talked about, which is in recent heat dome that we had a few years ago is we had the most fatalities in the entire state is like zip codes within East Portland's District one, this council district of fatalities because the lack of tree cover was such an issue that, the amount of concrete and asphalt really became this liability.
01:02:33:12 - 01:03:06:25
Timur Ender
And we had temperatures coming up to 130 degrees because of what's called urban heat island effect, when in the same city a few miles west, it's 80 degrees because of the tree canopy. And now all of a sudden, I mean, it was literally life and death. And so that's going to be, I think, a key priority for me and some of the people I'm running alongside in terms of a slate, of like, we have got to get city government focused around increasing our tree canopy very rapidly.
01:03:06:28 - 01:03:07:09
Timur Ender
Yeah.
01:03:07:14 - 01:03:29:03
John Simmerman
You know, I'm going to, to kind of close this out. I'm going to play our video again here. because I think it brings in some of the, the, the scope of what we're talking about here. You get a good mixture of some of the quieter, tree canopied streets here that are in the residential areas, which are part of some of those connectors streets.
01:03:29:03 - 01:04:07:23
John Simmerman
But they also you have a few shots of some of these bigger boulevards that are just massive, massively over paved and like you said, don't have much in the way of tree canopy to them. to close this out, you know, what do you want to have is your, your like final message to others who are tuning in and watching this or listening this, maybe not even from Portland, but, you know, might be inspired, you know, to roll up their sleeves and maybe go to work for city government or, or run for office, any any words of wisdom and inspiration from that standpoint.
01:04:07:24 - 01:04:42:11
Timur Ender
A few things running for office, you know, when we think about our nation's streets, you know, it's the the FAA controls airspace, right? The, the the Coast Guard controls the the waterways and things like that. But when we think about our nation's streets, those are overwhelmingly controlled by local governments. And if you want to have an impact on where, majority of these crashes and fatalities and, and, and also opportunities in terms of walking and biking or happening, those are really made at the local level, whether it's transportation or housing and land use.
01:04:42:13 - 01:05:19:22
Timur Ender
And so, pay attention to candidates that are running in your local city council and what they're saying about some of these issues obviously, work for local government, if you can. I mean, I had a I had a very wonderful opportunity working. I love the six years I worked because I was uplifting those community voices, working to make sure their needs were met, join a board or a commission, join things like East Portland Action Plan, where you are having a say and then rolling up your priorities to a city staffer who is then developing cost estimates and getting into the transportation plan, who then is rolling it up to a city council person
01:05:19:22 - 01:05:37:14
Timur Ender
so you don't have to be running for office to affect change in your community. You can absolutely do it on the ground level. Testifying in front of city council, starting a bike bus, applying for grants for, a green space or a park. You're trying to do all of these things, you know, combined, they have a huge benefit.
01:05:37:14 - 01:05:57:08
Timur Ender
And I, I really love the Jeanette. Sorry, can't quote where it's like, if you can change your streets, you can change the world because it's like there's so much it really reframes the built environment. As you said, if people are seeing, people walking and biking, they're slowing down. They're enjoying that area. so it really makes, a huge difference.
01:05:57:10 - 01:06:26:25
Timur Ender
And then I'll just kind of let people know how how they can follow our campaign. and so we're at Ender for East portland.com. It's the number four. And on Instagram we are at Ender in East Portland. And so that's kind of the two best ways that people are able to get in contact with us. And yeah, just really, enjoyed the opportunity to kind of connect today and, talk about the local streets movement and the stuff we've done in East Portland.
01:06:26:28 - 01:06:54:11
Timur Ender
Yep. This is our campaign page. Yeah. And, yeah, we've had a great campaign so far. And, there's we, there's a lot of other great candidates running both in my district and in other districts. And so I'm excited to be part of a slate with other candidates as well. The benefit of this multi-member district and ranked choice voting is it really does reward working together because, you know, I'm telling my people, vote for me first, but then vote for this other amazing candidate second.
01:06:54:11 - 01:07:21:01
Timur Ender
And then she's telling her, people vote for me first, but then vote for two more. Number two. And so you don't want it doesn't incentivize knocking people down. It really you know, you're trying to build together. And then ultimately when you get into office, you know that you you just continually piggy bank off that of like, let's, let's work together for some of these issues because, you know, there's a lot of challenges and we gotta we have to make sure we're kind of rolling in alignment of kind of how we're making progress on some of these things.
01:07:21:03 - 01:07:28:01
John Simmerman
And testing to remember this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for doing this.
01:07:28:03 - 01:07:40:07
Timur Ender
Yeah, thanks. I always love this is my happy space of like talking about streets and biking walking. So it's it's easy and I really, really appreciate it. It's kind of gives me out of my, my grind of campaign stuff. So really appreciate your time today.
01:07:40:10 - 01:07:55:28
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Well, I, I applaud you for doing this and for, you know, rolling up your sleeves and running for office. This is fantastic. so this, this election, it will be the big election, right? This is, the November election. Okay.
01:07:55:28 - 01:08:19:23
Timur Ender
Yep. This there's no primary because of ranked choice voting and instant runoff. So it's it's, a November election, and we start our campaign in August of 2023. So it's kind of a 15, 16 month election cycle. so it's a total grind. but yeah, it's it's definitely fun. And then and then I also want to thank you for the work you're doing, because I think storytellers are so important in this, in this field, whether it's kind of street films does a great job.
01:08:19:23 - 01:08:39:13
Timur Ender
You do a great job on this podcast. And so, and then just as I'm going on my walks and listening to some of these things, it's like, okay, you know, I'm there's other people in this fight too, that we're kind of we're not alone because it can sometimes feel lonely. And so having these having storytellers like yourself, I think makes a huge difference.
01:08:39:15 - 01:08:46:03
John Simmerman
And I appreciate you, mentioning that as well. Tamara, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
01:08:46:06 - 01:08:48:11
Timur Ender
My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.
01:08:48:13 - 01:09:03:17
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode with more. And if you did, please. Hey, give it a thumbs up! Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and ring the notification bell.
01:09:03:19 - 01:09:24:20
John Simmerman
And if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts. It really helps out a great deal. It's easy to do. Just head on over to Active Towns dawg and click on that support button. Hey, every little bit adds up and really helps out a great deal. Well, until next time. This is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness.
01:09:24:22 - 01:09:44:15
John Simmerman
Cheers and again sending a huge thank you out to all my Active Towns Ambassadors supporting the channel on Patreon. Buy me a coffee YouTube. Super! Thanks. As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the Active Town Store. Every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated. Thank you all so much.