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The D1 People’s Picnic is tomorrow! If you haven’t put in your RSVP, now’s the time so you can secure your free meal ticket. In this month’s newsletter, you’ll learn more about important policies Council passed (and didn’t pass), a key update on Parkrose’s local grocery store (former Grocery Outlet), and what’s been moving at committee. Keep reading for a high-level look at what I’ve been doing and events to look forward to this August.
2026 D1 People's Picnic
Parklane Park, SE 155th Ave &, SE Main St, Portland, OR 97233
Saturday, August 8, 2026, 12pm to 3pm
Learn more about what to expect (including confirmed vendors and tabling partners) and how to get to the D1 People’s Picnic here.
Candace Call to Action: RSVP HERE to the 2026 D1 People’s Picnic to guarantee your free meal ticket! Can’t wait to see you there.
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Here’s a TL;DR of this month’s newsletter:
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CAP 2.0 and a SDC waiver update passed!
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What Happened with Save Our Services
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The Future of Parkrose’s Local Grocery
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Portland Businesses for All Launch Party
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Faubion School Summer Acceleration Academy
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Housing and Permitting Committee
East Portland Stories and Happenings
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Starting September 11, 2026, I-5 southbound lanes between I-84 and I-405 will be closed for up to five weeks for construction with the potential for major traffic delays.
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Bottles to Soccer is currently accepting Fall 2026 applications for the Cayle Tern Legacy Soccer Leadership Program, an inaugural 8-week pilot program for youth.
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On August 9, starting at 9:00 AM, the Powellhurst-Gilbert and Pleasant Valley neighborhoods are hosting a community walk on Powell Butte.
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On August 10, from 2:15 PM–1:00 PM, kids eat free at Midland Library!
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On August 14, starting at 7:30 PM, come out to Gateway Discovery Park to watch “Hoppers” with the family!
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On August 22, from 9:30 AM–12:30 PM, visit Hoyt Arboretum Visitors Center (accessible via MAX, free Express Shuttle [Park Stop ID A], or Free Washington Park Shuttle) for a Pop-Up Nature event focused on cones.
Candace at Work
CAP 2.0 and a SDC waiver update passed!
Over the past year as Housing Chair, I’ve been leading the Unified Housing Strategy work to create a single, comprehensive roadmap for all things housing at the City. Part of the reason why we need a UHS is because we’ve accumulated policies and programs without always understanding how they all work (or don’t work) together. Our old, siloed form of government only made that problem worse.
Council recently passed two policies, that I helped lead, to cut through some of the noise in our code and simplify regulations for the Portlanders building the housing, businesses, and infrastructure we need for our city to grow.
The Code Alignment Project 2.0 is the next major step in modernizing Portland's permitting system by improving coordination across City bureaus, reducing unnecessary delays, and making it easier, faster, and more affordable to build housing and invest in Portland.
It directs the administration to make the dedicated Permitting Improvement Team permanent, with the responsibility of fixing conflicts between City codes, addressing the root causes of permitting delays, and driving continuous improvements to Portland's development review process.
I’m glad to have steered this policy through with my colleagues Council President Jamie Dunphy, Councilor Ryan, Councilor Morillo, and Councilor Novick!
The second policy we passed was an update to the System Development Charge (SDC) waiver to pause the income requirement for homes being sold under the old Affordable Housing SDC waiver. For more context, check out this livethread.
Essentially, homes that received a SDC waiver under the older affordable housing program are now at a competitive disadvantage to new homes entering the market that were built under the (temporary) blanket SDC waiver because they have less hoops to jump through for buyers. This isn’t a theoretical problem – many smaller, local builders operating on thinner margins have reached out to the Portland Housing Bureau and my office with stories of homes sitting on the market, unable to find qualified buyers – preventing builders from moving on to the next project.
As Justin Wood of Fish Construction NW said,
“For the small number of us builders who do use the affordable housing SDC program, beginning in late 2025, we started to see ourselves competing against new construction homes that also benefited from the new waived SDCs that the council passed last fall, but didn't require the buyers to meet the income qualifications.
Meanwhile, our homes were still subject to those restrictions, significantly reducing our pool of eligible buyers. We have lost sales to families who preferred our home but couldn't because they might have been slightly over the income cap. And so they chose to purchase a house down the street from somebody else who didn't have the same income cap.”
The policy Council passed took a simple approach: just suspend the income verification requirement of the affordable housing SDC waiver to align with the general 3-year SDC waiver. Other key affordability requirements like sale price, owner occupied, and arm’s-length sale requirement — one in which the buyer and seller act independently and have no relationship — all remain.
Thanks to Councilors Morillo, Novick, Clark, Green, Smith, Kanal, Ryan, and Council President Dunphy for voting to pass this ordinance!
Our initial Unified Housing Strategy has a goal of adding 20,000 new residential units across all housing types and income levels, permitted by 2033 and built by 2035. The two policies we passed help keep us on track to hitting that benchmark and making sure all Portlanders can afford to call our city home.
Workshop with Me
Thank you to everyone who showed up and made my first-ever Workshop with Me a success! As I said at the Workshop, our goal was to share more about the Climate and Health Standards for large buildings, answer questions, hear your concerns, and most importantly gather feedback that will help strengthen the proposal. Not everyone shared the same perspective, but I appreciate that when we disagreed, we weren’t disagreeable.
The Workshop left us with a lot to think about. My office is currently working through the feedback and talking with stakeholders, so we bring the strongest version of the Climate and Health Standards to council. We’re also working closely with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS), who has worked for years with community, local businesses and property owners, and national experts to develop the policy.
If you weren’t able to join us for the Workshop, don’t worry: you’ll have many more opportunities to offer input on the policy, before and after we officially introduce the ordinance. The current plan is to hear the policy in the Housing and Permitting Committee sometime in the fall.
Candace Call to Action: You can learn more about the Climate and Health Standards (including a FAQ section!) and read the draft code here.
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What Happened with Save Our Services
For everyone that’s been sticking around since Services First…phew. To cut to the chase, Save Our Services, our ordinance to protect essential programs and frontline workers, failed after the Mayor stepped in to cast the tiebreaking vote. The alternative ordinance to preserve some jobs ended up passing on a 10-2 vote. You can see a livethread of the meeting here.
Honestly? I’m disappointed with the outcome. But I’m not disappointed with our efforts to step up and save the very resources Portlanders were telling us mattered to them. To borrow the words of our new Metro president, I will never regret that we got caught trying. Because that’s what our constituents and our City workers expect us to do.
We were able to compromise and make some improvements to the ordinance that passed. I’m thankful that language explicitly naming the Office of Community-based Police Accountability (OCPA) as a funding source was removed, for example. But I personally wasn’t able to vote for the adopted package for two main reasons:
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The overall lack of compromise in the process. It was frustrating to be told that people who were not willing to work with us, to talk to us, were the ones who were compromising. I’m also concerned with the precedent that we can rely on the Mayor to resolve disagreements we have as a legislative body – that blurs the charter’s separation of powers in my view.
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That the adopted package didn’t go far enough. It didn’t go far enough, for me, to protect services. It lacked the position-by-position analysis we included, meaning we’ll be asked to make layoffs yet again without enough information of what we’re losing. And it didn’t go far enough to protect the OCPA.
I want to expand on that last point. While the passed package doesn’t literally say OCPA, it’s very likely that we will be asked to use OCPA funding (underspend) in our next Spring Technical Adjustment Ordinance (TAO) to backfill the hole we created in our budget. And it does put pressure on OCPA not to use its budget as the office sees fit.
During our discussion of the settlement for Manny Clark's family, I heard broad agreement around the dais that Portland still has work to do to change the culture within our public safety system. But words alone can’t create culture change. It requires actively building and protecting independent accountability.
If we truly meant what we said during the discussion of Manny Clark's settlement — that we want a public safety system that earns people's trust — then we have to protect the institutions that make that trust possible. That’s why I will always stand up and speak out for the police accountability system that 82% of Portland voters decided to create and that we promised to deliver.
To learn more about what happened with Save Our Services, how we got here, and what’s next, see this blog post.
Candace in Community
The Future of Parkrose’s Local Grocery
In 2025, my office got word that the Parkrose Grocery Outlet was at risk of shutting its doors. Not because Don McKeever, the owner, wanted to leave, but because of decisions being made by Grocery Outlet corporate.
From there, we mobilized to rally support and secure real commitments from multiple government partners to address community safety and livability issues. My office helped coordinate a pilot program with local grassroots organization Cultivate Initiatives to do beautification, street cleaning, and outreach to the homeless community in the Parkrose neighborhood. And it was working: at a recent press conference, Don said that the situation is “drastically better” than it was two years ago.
Grocery Outlet is leaving, but our local grocery store isn’t. Don, with help from Historic Parkrose and community, is leading a new vision for a grocery store that’s affordable and truly built by and for our community. We’ve secured commitments from Prosper Portland to help with renovation/building improvement costs, Historic Parkrose is exploring the possibility of a Spark microgrant, and D1 offices have already invested dollars into Don’s Parkrose Local Grocery Project.
Candace Call to Action: Learn more about the Parkrose Local Grocery fundraising effort and how you can get involved!
Don is hoping to hold a soft open this fall and I’ll be continuing to advocate for this project throughout the process. Stay tuned for more updates and follow @ParkroseLocalGrocery on Instagram for the latest!
As Lily Burnett, owner of Parkrose Coffee said: “People really want the grocery store back, and they really want Don back.”
Good in the Hood
Good in the Hood is one of our city’s signature events for a reason, and it was an honor to help celebrate the 36th edition of this longstanding North Portland gathering. Good in the Hood is about gathering different communities and giving back to our City: alongside City Administrator Lee, I got to present and congratulate six outstanding students who received scholarships through the Good in the Hood organization.
Despite the rain, there were still plenty of Portlanders that showed up to hear live music, support small businesses, share a good meal, or just be around one another. That’s what it means to be in community. And joy like this, to borrow from the words of Toni Morrison, isn’t just all right, it’s necessary – especially when things feel heavy in the world.
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Portland Businesses for All Launch Party
It was exciting to join local small business owners and Portlanders at the launch for Portland Businesses for All, hosted none other by beloved D1 business Parkrose Coffee! Portland Businesses for All is different than your typical business group – they believe what’s good for Portlanders is good for business, instead of starting from the other way around.
Their members, spanning a wide range of business owners, are committed to advocating for affordable housing, living wage jobs, access to transportation, health care and education.
I’m looking forward to working with this new business alliance to build a better Portland for ALL Portlanders.
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Faubion School Summer Acceleration Academy
 Portland Public Schools invited me to join students and teachers at Faubion’s Summer Acceleration Academy where I learned more about how SAA is helping students. Alongside other elected leaders, we heard that students, especially from historically underserved communities, are making gains in literacy, math, and science and getting a strong foundation for the upcoming school year.
Part of SAA’s success comes from the intentional wraparound supports like free transportation and afterschool programming, that make the program possible for families that might not be able to drop off kids to one of the four sites or take time off work for afternoon pickup. That costs money, and PPS is considering how to ensure the program continues to be sustainable as state dollars are limited and don’t cover the full scope of need.
It’s also not lost on me that East Portland school districts like Reynolds and Parkrose received no state funding at all for summer learning. As the representative of the district with the most kids and young families, it’s important to me that we invest in education – from pre-school up and including programs like summer learning.
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Candace at City Hall
Housing and Permitting Committee
On July 7, we had our first oversight hearing on shelter oversight: we heard presentations from Portland Solutions and Urban Alchemy (UA) about the processes in place to respond to complaints and allegations of misconduct at the City’s contracted shelter providers. Councilors also had the opportunity to ask questions directly.
As I touched on in my June newsletter, serious allegations involving UA employees have been brought forward publicly over the past several months. I led letters requesting for more information about the City’s shelter accountability system with my colleague Councilor Kanal, eventually leading to the oversight hearing we had in the Housing committee. You can see a livethread of the meeting here.
In 2024, an UA staffer was transferred to Oregon from California to work at Clinton Triangle. It later came out that this person was accused of sexual harassment by a shelter guest in California. I wanted to know how accusations are handled in the hiring process.
UA representatives answered that the company was not aware of the accusation at the time of transfer, that the accusation was reviewed by an independent investigator and found to be unsubstantiated, and that the staffer was eventually fired.
Overall, I appreciated the discussion during our H&P meeting on 7/7 and the thoughtful questions from my colleagues which got to how our system is working as a whole, and not just for this one provider. A consistent theme from the conversation was the need for due process where shelter guests feel safe from retribution or retaliation.
Oversight and accountability are a healthy part of good governance. As Vice Chair Green said, our intent wasn’t to set up an “adversarial” environment but instead have a space where we could feel comfortable asking and answering tough questions.
What’s been heard, what’s been moved:
City Life Committee
A big topic of discussion for City Life was the proposed Parkrose Enhanced Services District (ESD), Parkrose Forward, which is being led by Historic Parkrose. The ordinance we looked at would have created a locally funded district where participating commercial property owners pay an annual assessment to fund services beyond what the City normally provides, such as litter cleanup, safety initiatives, beautification, marketing, and business district improvements.
Earlier this year, in March, my office hosted a community town hall with Historic Parkrose to discuss the proposed Enhanced Services District. It was an opportunity for local business owners and community members to learn about the proposal, ask questions, and share what they wanted to see from an ESD. And it was clear then that not everyone had the same perspective, just as testimony was split during the meeting itself.
But while the news has focused on the perceived divide within Parkrose, I think this has actually highlighted that our neighbors and D1 councilors are unified in trying to think of different ways we can resource and activate local business corridors like Sandy Blvd. And that’s not something we always saw with our old form of government.
My office has been in communication with Historic Parkrose throughout the ESD process and my message remains the same: Parkrose’s priorities for an ESD are for the community to decide, based on what the neighborhood needs.
What’s been heard, what’s been moved:
Committee of the Whole
During the 7/23 CoW meeting, we heard a Vision Zero update. This was a follow-up after Council passed Councilor Koyama Lane’s Vision Zero resolution in Fall 2025. The resolution asked us to:
- Recommit to the work of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries
- Collaborate cross-bureau to implement strategies that reduce traffic violence and fatalities
- Direct a citywide approach through development of the Vision Zero Task Force and an updated action plan
- Enhance reporting and accountability
The staff presentation is helpful to better understand why certain streets feel sketchier than others, and why PBOT makes certain changes to slow speeds on dangerous roads. Between 2020 to 2024, 555 people were killed or seriously injured in crashes where speed was a primary factor.
Staff didn’t spend much time on the district level data, but it’s no surprise for any of us in East Portland that we have the highest concentration of deadly streets and traffic fatalities.
 As Dana Dickman, Vision Zero Lead, said: “Virtually all of the east-west corridors are some of the streets that are having those high-risk factors and those repeated crashes with injury and fatalities.”
That’s why it’s so great to see safety projects like the Stark-Washington PBOT project moving forward in our part of town: because no Portlander should lose their life on our streets.
What’s been heard, what’s been moved:
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East Portland Stories and Happenings
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Starting September 11, 2026, I-5 southbound lanes between I-84 and I-405 will be closed for up to five weeks for construction with the potential for major traffic delays. During the closure, overdue road repairs will be done as part of the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project. Learn more about the closure at the project's website and sign up for traffic alerts here.
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Bottles to Soccer is currently accepting Fall 2026 applications for the Cayle Tern Legacy Soccer Leadership Program, an inaugural pilot program for youth. This 8-week leadership and community program combines leadership development, civic engagement, experiential learning, soccer, mentorship, and community service to help students build confidence, strengthen leadership skills, and make a positive difference in their communities. Apply here by August 27!
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On August 9, starting at 9:00 AM, the Powellhurst-Gilbert and Pleasant Valley neighborhoods are hosting a community walk on Powell Butte. Meet at the trailhead parking lot; volunteers will hang back for late stragglers. Wear sturdy shoes and bring hat and water. RSVP by emailing PGNABOARD@GMAIL.COM.
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On August 10, from 2:15 PM–1:00 PM, kids eat free at Midland Library! There will be free cold lunch for ages 1–18 served indoors, crafts and coloring pages are available. No reservations required!
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On August 14, starting at 7:30 PM, come out to Gateway Discovery Park to watch “Hoppers” with the family! Free popcorn is available.
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On August 22, from 9:30 AM–12:30 PM, visit Hoyt Arboretum Visitors Center (accessible via MAX, free Express Shuttle [Park Stop ID A], or Free Washington Park Shuttle) for a Pop Up Nature event focused on cones. Participants will have the opportunity for nature crafts, activities, and hands-on learning at this free, drop-in event. Participants will receive a Pop Up Nature passport and gain a stamp for each week they attend. Get 5 stamps to receive a prize! Materials will be translated in English and Spanish.
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In solidarity,
 Candace Avalos
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Traducción e Interpretación | Biên Dịch và Thông Dịch | अनुवादन तथा व्याख्या 口笔译服务 | Устный и письменный перевод | Turjumaad iyo Fasiraad Письмовий і усний переклад | Traducere și interpretariat | Chiaku me Awewen Kapas
Translation and Interpretation: 311
The City of Portland ensures meaningful access and reasonably provides: translation, interpretation, modifications, accommodations, alternative formats, auxiliary aids and services. To request these services, call 311 for Relay Service or TTY: 711.
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