I am voting for Brim-Edwards who is the far more experienced leader, conveys positivity and optimism, and is able to lead and colaborate. As someone who is primarily focused on mental health policy and law, the road forward is long here on Oregon. Brim-Edwards will make headway in turning policies and is not prone to the mistaken perception that the failures of county governance are responsible for individual problems that are complex. She is not promoting housing first, or the homeless to housing continuum, because those policy directions have extracted taxpayer money with little result. She was also not in office when decriminalization of narcotics was enacted. Her candidacy, I believe, marks a strong turn away from housing first, the homeless to housing continuum, and decriminalization, and instead focuses on community rights to safety, civility and beauty in the public square.
It’s a ranked-choice ballot Thomas, you can vote for Julia and Sharon both and have a better chance at achieving your goals than just voting for Julia alone.
I take it that means you are not ranking Meieran. I hope you realize then that if Brim-Edwards doesn’t win you wasted a vote and helped Shannon Singleton get elected
I have heard a lot of negativities about Singleton but don’t know any of the substance of the general dislike of her that I hear. Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention.
If so, she has kept it a closely held secret. Tell me what her plan really is, because I don't have a clue beyond "the sobering center". Tom, I'd like to believe you, but I am not seeing it. Her vote for the new housing director says otherwise to me.
What if I don’t want an optimist? What if I want someone with grim determination, and a realistic if somewhat cynical view of the situation Multnomah County finds itself in?
The Examiner says” “Put Meieran on top of your ballot and Brim-Edwards in second place.”
In a ranked choice system, that is sound advice. All voters supporting Meieran should rank Julia Brim-Edwards second.
Why? In the event that Meieran is eliminated in the first round, ranking only Sharon means your vote no longer counts, and essentially helps DSA Council member-endorsed Shannon Singleton.
And the same applies to supporters of Julia Brim-Edwards. You should rank Sharon second to avoid inadvertently helping Singleton in the event that Julia is eliminated in the first round.
The bottom line is that ranking a second candidate after your first choice absolutely does not harm your first choice.
And not ranking a second preference means that you may help someone that you absolutely do not want to be the next County Chair.
This is exactly the kind of "advice" that warms the hearts of the east coast types who floated rank-choice voting out here for the bucolic savages to play with. As Robert Marshall (and others) have pointed out, once they dug into the math, second-place votes are highly determinative in this cockeyed scheme. If Brim-Edwards harvests scads of second-place "insurance" votes, she'll win. If you don't want someone to win--do not rank them.
My comment-like the editorial- was to rank your first choice, and if Julia Brim-Edwards is acceptable as well, rank her as well. Don’t rank anyone you don’t want. Frankly, for a Sharon supporter, Julia Brim-Edwards should be ranked second if you don’t want Singleton. If you disagree, then don’t do so.
"Vergow blames our homeless crisis on high rents. In an interview published by The Oregonian/Oregon Live, he did not mention addiction or mental health as factors. In framing the problem in this way, Vergow gave himself a permanent pass in that housing affordability is a distant hope and not under his control."
That is a charitable interpretation of Vergow's beliefs about the root cause of the area's homeless crisis. However, in Portland today one should not attribute to mere cynicism what can more properly be blamed on ideology. Vergow has spent over a decade inhabiting the ecosystem of nonprofits, activists, bureaucrats and elected officials who view homelessness as a social justice problem and the homeless as victims of society. The last thing they want to talk about is the possibility that the homeless might bear some responsibility for their plight.
I agree completely. I also hope all of the Examiner's readers will read yesterday's story in OregonLive by Lillian Mongeau Hughes on the new Homelessness reduction goals that were just announced by the "Steering and Oversight Committee of the Homeless Response Action Plan" (SOCHRAP?). Facing "financial realities", the Committee, comprised of the Mayor, JVP, Commissioner Singleton, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall and Councilor Zimmerman, as voting members, to reduce the homeless in Multnomah County to 13,000 from the 14,500 estimated now. The only "no" vote was Mayor Wilson, who suggested it was not ambitious enough. Government agencies were represented in a non-voting capacity, including Home Forward, Portland's housing authority.
Reactions reported were telling. Predictably, the service providers like CCC and Team Portland reluctantly accepted the vote, beamoning the funding realities. The County said the money they have spent so far, without positive results, has taught them just how hard reducing homelessness really is, and that the goal is really more ambitious than it seems because of the dramatic increase in homelessness that will continue, so the reduction to 13,000 is actually greater. Housing providers pointed out that Portland needed more higher wage jobs so people could afford the housing that exists but is sitting vacant.
The article did not make much mention of the different homeless groups within the City except to set a subgoal to keep people with behavioral health to keep people with drug addiction and psychosis in supportive housing longer. The article did not mention anything about what segments the County was going to focus on to meet its goal. It is likely that it could be met solely by concentrating rent assistance on those about to lose housing and people on the streets without behavioral health issues by using vouchers, or focusing on Veterans, where there is more public money available. If so, the County could meet the goal without ever actually touching the homelessness most of us in the central city are most concerned about-getting treatment for those with drug addiction and psychosis, getting them into transitional sober housing and putting them on the road to recovery. This is the challenge we face IF we are going to start growing the high wage jobs we need that can afford the housing that can be built today in this inflationary environment.
And there is no talk about the HOW we do this, except for the County and providers and agencies to confess that doing it the way we have been-the status quo-is all about more $.
What about changing the status quo? Sharon Meieran puts us on that path far more than the two other candidates. I agree Brim-Edwards is superior to Singleton. Don't rank her at all. I am so happy JVP is retiring.
Homelessness will never leave Portland. The political ecosystem is too dependent on the $-millions that subsidize the NGO money-laundries. It's arguably one of the city's few growth industries.
Most of the people in that Committee meeting are the problem. The County is the biggest doomsdayer, claiming homelessness will continue to rise. It’s almost like they want to “increase demand” for their “product.”
Wilson, Zimmerma, Stovall, and in some capacity CCC, are the only ones in that room with any common sense. CCC has its issues, but it also does a lot for addicts including detox, treatment and housing.
I completely agree with you on rankings. When Singleton speaks about homelessness, it is cloaked in Housing First language. I’ll never forget on OPB last year she said we can pay for supportive services once we have enough housing. Aka Housing First.
Sharon is the only one with the balls to disrupt the system and put the County on a path to success.
Hate to say it, Allan, but the one governing principle in a rank-choice election is : DO NOT RANK anyone you don't want to win. Just ask Eli Arnold about those pernicious second-place votes.
It bears repeating: Please DO NOT rank anyone that you DON'T want to win. Shannon Singleton is one I'm definitely leaving off -- no checkmark, no rank for her.
Brim Edward's sobering center is something she shepparded in light of a previous center which closed down. It is due to open in 2027. I am sure she has some secret plans that we will know about when she becomes chair, hopefully ones you and I can agree would be good for all county residents.
Just a plea here, lots of comments about the need for Sharon to be the county chair, which I agree wholeheartedly. She had an opportunity to canvass for her yesterday in the NW quadrant, and five hearty souls showed to help out and volunteer, including my wife and I. I was surprised there were not four times the turnout. I encourage her supporters to go to her website https://www.sharonforchair.com and look how you can volunteer and donate money for the cause.
I am voting for Brim-Edwards who is the far more experienced leader, conveys positivity and optimism, and is able to lead and colaborate. As someone who is primarily focused on mental health policy and law, the road forward is long here on Oregon. Brim-Edwards will make headway in turning policies and is not prone to the mistaken perception that the failures of county governance are responsible for individual problems that are complex. She is not promoting housing first, or the homeless to housing continuum, because those policy directions have extracted taxpayer money with little result. She was also not in office when decriminalization of narcotics was enacted. Her candidacy, I believe, marks a strong turn away from housing first, the homeless to housing continuum, and decriminalization, and instead focuses on community rights to safety, civility and beauty in the public square.
It’s a ranked-choice ballot Thomas, you can vote for Julia and Sharon both and have a better chance at achieving your goals than just voting for Julia alone.
I am hoping those who choose Singleton first, put Julia Brim-Edwards second.
I take it that means you are not ranking Meieran. I hope you realize then that if Brim-Edwards doesn’t win you wasted a vote and helped Shannon Singleton get elected
I have heard a lot of negativities about Singleton but don’t know any of the substance of the general dislike of her that I hear. Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention.
If so, she has kept it a closely held secret. Tell me what her plan really is, because I don't have a clue beyond "the sobering center". Tom, I'd like to believe you, but I am not seeing it. Her vote for the new housing director says otherwise to me.
AI strikes again.
What if I don’t want an optimist? What if I want someone with grim determination, and a realistic if somewhat cynical view of the situation Multnomah County finds itself in?
Thank you.
The Examiner says” “Put Meieran on top of your ballot and Brim-Edwards in second place.”
In a ranked choice system, that is sound advice. All voters supporting Meieran should rank Julia Brim-Edwards second.
Why? In the event that Meieran is eliminated in the first round, ranking only Sharon means your vote no longer counts, and essentially helps DSA Council member-endorsed Shannon Singleton.
And the same applies to supporters of Julia Brim-Edwards. You should rank Sharon second to avoid inadvertently helping Singleton in the event that Julia is eliminated in the first round.
The bottom line is that ranking a second candidate after your first choice absolutely does not harm your first choice.
And not ranking a second preference means that you may help someone that you absolutely do not want to be the next County Chair.
This is exactly the kind of "advice" that warms the hearts of the east coast types who floated rank-choice voting out here for the bucolic savages to play with. As Robert Marshall (and others) have pointed out, once they dug into the math, second-place votes are highly determinative in this cockeyed scheme. If Brim-Edwards harvests scads of second-place "insurance" votes, she'll win. If you don't want someone to win--do not rank them.
My comment-like the editorial- was to rank your first choice, and if Julia Brim-Edwards is acceptable as well, rank her as well. Don’t rank anyone you don’t want. Frankly, for a Sharon supporter, Julia Brim-Edwards should be ranked second if you don’t want Singleton. If you disagree, then don’t do so.
"Vergow blames our homeless crisis on high rents. In an interview published by The Oregonian/Oregon Live, he did not mention addiction or mental health as factors. In framing the problem in this way, Vergow gave himself a permanent pass in that housing affordability is a distant hope and not under his control."
That is a charitable interpretation of Vergow's beliefs about the root cause of the area's homeless crisis. However, in Portland today one should not attribute to mere cynicism what can more properly be blamed on ideology. Vergow has spent over a decade inhabiting the ecosystem of nonprofits, activists, bureaucrats and elected officials who view homelessness as a social justice problem and the homeless as victims of society. The last thing they want to talk about is the possibility that the homeless might bear some responsibility for their plight.
Multnomah County NEEDS Meieran ... without her as Chair , the same old insanity rules... JBE's decision-making is pathetic
I agree completely. I also hope all of the Examiner's readers will read yesterday's story in OregonLive by Lillian Mongeau Hughes on the new Homelessness reduction goals that were just announced by the "Steering and Oversight Committee of the Homeless Response Action Plan" (SOCHRAP?). Facing "financial realities", the Committee, comprised of the Mayor, JVP, Commissioner Singleton, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall and Councilor Zimmerman, as voting members, to reduce the homeless in Multnomah County to 13,000 from the 14,500 estimated now. The only "no" vote was Mayor Wilson, who suggested it was not ambitious enough. Government agencies were represented in a non-voting capacity, including Home Forward, Portland's housing authority.
Reactions reported were telling. Predictably, the service providers like CCC and Team Portland reluctantly accepted the vote, beamoning the funding realities. The County said the money they have spent so far, without positive results, has taught them just how hard reducing homelessness really is, and that the goal is really more ambitious than it seems because of the dramatic increase in homelessness that will continue, so the reduction to 13,000 is actually greater. Housing providers pointed out that Portland needed more higher wage jobs so people could afford the housing that exists but is sitting vacant.
The article did not make much mention of the different homeless groups within the City except to set a subgoal to keep people with behavioral health to keep people with drug addiction and psychosis in supportive housing longer. The article did not mention anything about what segments the County was going to focus on to meet its goal. It is likely that it could be met solely by concentrating rent assistance on those about to lose housing and people on the streets without behavioral health issues by using vouchers, or focusing on Veterans, where there is more public money available. If so, the County could meet the goal without ever actually touching the homelessness most of us in the central city are most concerned about-getting treatment for those with drug addiction and psychosis, getting them into transitional sober housing and putting them on the road to recovery. This is the challenge we face IF we are going to start growing the high wage jobs we need that can afford the housing that can be built today in this inflationary environment.
And there is no talk about the HOW we do this, except for the County and providers and agencies to confess that doing it the way we have been-the status quo-is all about more $.
What about changing the status quo? Sharon Meieran puts us on that path far more than the two other candidates. I agree Brim-Edwards is superior to Singleton. Don't rank her at all. I am so happy JVP is retiring.
Homelessness will never leave Portland. The political ecosystem is too dependent on the $-millions that subsidize the NGO money-laundries. It's arguably one of the city's few growth industries.
Most of the people in that Committee meeting are the problem. The County is the biggest doomsdayer, claiming homelessness will continue to rise. It’s almost like they want to “increase demand” for their “product.”
Wilson, Zimmerma, Stovall, and in some capacity CCC, are the only ones in that room with any common sense. CCC has its issues, but it also does a lot for addicts including detox, treatment and housing.
I completely agree with you on rankings. When Singleton speaks about homelessness, it is cloaked in Housing First language. I’ll never forget on OPB last year she said we can pay for supportive services once we have enough housing. Aka Housing First.
Sharon is the only one with the balls to disrupt the system and put the County on a path to success.
Hate to say it, Allan, but the one governing principle in a rank-choice election is : DO NOT RANK anyone you don't want to win. Just ask Eli Arnold about those pernicious second-place votes.
It bears repeating: Please DO NOT rank anyone that you DON'T want to win. Shannon Singleton is one I'm definitely leaving off -- no checkmark, no rank for her.
Brim Edward's sobering center is something she shepparded in light of a previous center which closed down. It is due to open in 2027. I am sure she has some secret plans that we will know about when she becomes chair, hopefully ones you and I can agree would be good for all county residents.
Just a plea here, lots of comments about the need for Sharon to be the county chair, which I agree wholeheartedly. She had an opportunity to canvass for her yesterday in the NW quadrant, and five hearty souls showed to help out and volunteer, including my wife and I. I was surprised there were not four times the turnout. I encourage her supporters to go to her website https://www.sharonforchair.com and look how you can volunteer and donate money for the cause.