Steve Novick

“Thank you, Mr. President. One thing I want to say is that I respect the arguments on all sides and the positions people have taken. I think that a number of the issues we've talked about, you can quite easily make a case for, you know, one position or another. As far as the economic impact of the Blazers leaving, you can look at all the economic studies that show that politicians routinely overestimate the economic value of sports franchises. And you can look at the fact that Seattle and Vancouver didn't collapse when the Supersonics or the Grizzlies left. You can also reasonably argue that in a city whose economy is largely— is unusually dependent on reputation, Yes. The reputational hit of losing our one big sport— one major league sports team would be very dangerous. I don't know the extent to which Portland's reputation depends on the Portland Trail Blazers, but I think, you know,…”

“Mr. President, Councilor, I fear I need to say that I think that Councilor Green should have declared a conflict in the last item because as green, he obviously is biased against red.”

“Thank you, Mr. President. I feel kind of silly making this mundane point after Councilor Smith's eloquent speech, but I just did want to point out that this is a pilot that could have— this is not banning right turn on red throughout the city. This is something that could add 30 no-turn-on-red intersections, adding to the 200 that we already have.”

“Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, first of all, I have to apologize to my colleagues. In what we posted yesterday, somehow I must have like clicked on accept all deletions because I only had my I have 4 proposed changes. One is just under user fees on page 4 to say that a 7% user fee payable to the city on all ticketed events at the Rose Quarter will exist throughout the term. 1% Or 1/7 of that fee will be used by the city as it sees fit. There's no requirement to reinvest so that, similar to Councilor Kanal's proposal, increase of 6% to 7%. On parking revenues, we have a kind of odd arrangement now where the city gets— the city Blazer division of parking revenues depends on which historically was whose parking lot. That means the Blazers wind up getting the majority of parking revenues, even though most parking revenues come from non-Blazer events. So you're saying that the city should b…”

“Okay. Also, I mean, just a little Googling I did suggested that this is not a reason to vote no, but it suggested that there aren't that many fatal crashes at right turn on red because people are going slowly, but there are crashes, but they tend not to be of the fatal variety.”

“Because I'm not sure I'm well, my understanding was the intent of the proponents was for this body to, among other things, provide essentially public health advice to advise people on the appropriate use of psychedelics. And I was concerned about potential liability for the city if there was a city body that was giving advice on that. I was concerned about our capacity to even figure out who the right people were to be to give that advice. I think that's a very fair point. And I was concerned. It seemed to me that this is a public health issue that I would have expected the county to take on. So I was simply uneasy about the idea of having a city advisory body on psychedelics, given that it's something that we don't have much expertise in. I actually was willing to continue the conversation and see if some of my concerns could be addressed. Thank you. And I did not tell the proponents…”

“Well, I don't think that a $103,000 grant, it is, you know, where not the entire hierarchy is here to discuss the policy issues. Is the appropriate time to have this big, big policy discussion. I mean, you aired it. I appreciate you airing it, and I want to get a broader discussion on the agenda, but I don't think that we're going to resolve your issues today on this issue. And I think that we should— I want to hear from Councilor Murillo, but I would like to move to a vote on this narrow issue, schedule a future time on the general issue of disparities in traffic stops and hopefully get to the next item on the agenda. Councilor Murillo.”

“I actually had the same question. Would council— how did the extension work? Would you just be able to— would the council have to approve an extension? What would happen?”

“Thank you. And I want to say, I was talking to a national criminal justice researcher a couple of weeks I think we have a few minutes left. I think we have a few minutes left. Thank you. I think we have a couple of minutes left. I want to thank all of our presenters. I mean, there were a lot of folks who said, well, of course I know about Multnomah County DCJ's innovative and effective practices. I mean, this is an organization that has been at the forefront of, you know, evidence-based practices. And I really appreciate, Director Peña, you and your team coming here today. And thank you, Chief Hughes, Director Howard. I think I'm going to take a 10-minute break, and then I hope we can get through the legislative hopefully we can get through the 2 grant allocations quickly, and I think that we'll be able to simplify the psychedelic issue. And then I think that we'll have presentations …”

“So these buildings were legal when they were built and we stopped building them. And the apartment buildings we build today don't fit on a typical Portland lot. So why don't they fit? The standard American apartment building is an archetype familiar here in Portland.”

“Thank you. My name is Madeline Masters. I'm in District 2. Good afternoon, councilors. I'm here to discuss unintended consequences. I'd like to give you the view from North Portland, where what you call infill smells an awful lot like urban renewal. It smells a lot like extracting value from city dwellers to enrich suburban developers. It's a Trojan horse. Soon to be demolished is a landmark of my street, an old-growth bungalow with twinkling multi-pane windows listed by the city as a significant contributing historic resource. As a habitable 5-bedroom, it could be multigenerational housing, or to increase the development value, could be expanded and adapted to multifamily or even commercial use. But these possibilities are prohibited under R-2.5. To maximize value under the new zoning, the developer must demolish it, even as nearby houses and lots sit empty. Is this sustainable? Boug…”

“Thank you, Christopher. So we need to start by acknowledging that today is August 4th, the anniversary of one of the greatest events in history, which— because it's on August 4th, 1789, that the representatives of the nobility and the clergy in the National Assembly of France rose up to renounce their feudal privileges. And by the end of the night, the National Assembly had declared that the feudal system is abolished in its entirety. So I always want to commemorate that fact. The Oregonian reported this week that Oregon has already set a record for the number of acres burned during a fire season, surpassing 2 million, and we still have 2 months to go. As we're experiencing this week with our air quality, wildfires across our state impact not only the communities they are in, but also those hundreds of miles away. Here to discuss the city's response to active wildfires and how we as a…”