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Dear Friends,
This year started fast. I had big goals for 2025, and Portland couldn’t wait. Together, we stood up our first 200 beds of lifesaving overnight shelter immediately after I assumed office. It was a pivotal moment, showcasing what we could achieve through speed, collaboration, and compassion.
Looking back, I believe this year was defined by my relentless focus on community health and safety. We’ve engaged with encampments and unsafe RVs across the city to help individuals out of life-threatening situations and unlock the next steps on their journey. Portland has committed to helping people rather than moving them from place to place, and it’s working. Every day, more and more Portlanders are seeing a direct, positive improvement in the livability of their community. Block by block, business by business, we are restoring and revitalizing Portland, and neighborhoods across the city are feeling and seeing the result of our efforts.
I’m proud of how we handled the biggest curveball to date. When an overreaching federal government showed up, Portland showed up bigger. Together, we locked arms and marched in the largest demonstrations Portland has ever seen. Our message of peace and purpose set the stage for a series of winning lawsuits that protected our free speech and constitutional rights.
Our electoral system and local government changed, reforming our city under a new ranked-choice, proportionally representative Mayor-Council system. I swiftly followed these reforms by reorganizing the City of Portland to share resources, collaborate across programs, and learn from each other. The walls between bureaus are coming down, and our community will benefit from increased responsiveness, efficiency, and teamwork. Businesses are seeing the City show up for them, and more are choosing to stay and grow. That includes Next Adventure, the original Spaghetti Factory, and so many others. They are joined by groundbreaking new experiences, such as the renovated Portland Art Museum, Nike Flagship Store, and soon the James Beard Market.
On December 1st, we met our goal of standing up 1,500 emergency beds, deploying lifesaving shelter faster than any city in America. We’ve also reunited and housed over 225 people with loved ones in 40 states, helping them off our streets. Our wins in ending unsheltered homelessness were hard-fought, but we are far from done. Housing production and addressing inflow will be just as critical. Think about what we can accomplish together if we sustain and increase these efforts over 12 months, 18 months, and beyond.
Thank you for an incredible first year. In the coming days, my office will continue to push for public health and safety, housing, and economic opportunity in Portland. I’m sure this goes without saying, but I’ll bring relentless focus and action to issues that impact our families the hardest. Thank you for your support—I am so grateful to work with you to repair, restore, and revitalize the city we love.
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