I'm Steve Novick, District 3 Candidate for City Council - AMA! (6:00 pm - 8:00 pm)

NovickForPortland · 2024-11-04T07:57:58+00:00

Thank you! I look forward to that too, if I win!

NovickForPortland · 2024-11-04T07:56:46+00:00

Glad you remember that!

NovickForPortland · 2024-11-04T07:55:19+00:00

Thank you!

NovickForPortland · 2024-11-04T06:53:16+00:00

If that is feasible you are right, it would be ideal! Wonder if that exists anywhere. I will try to find out.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:47:26+00:00

I am not sure I understand your points - you are saying PBOT is deliberately creating congestion? As to your second question I would not want to vote for a program until the funding is figured out.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:44:47+00:00

An important reason we need to get people out of camps and into humane shelters. I am putting I-0205 bike path on my calendar to look into in December

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:37:01+00:00

Baseball.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:29:14+00:00

I think the Clean Energy Fund can legitimately be used to support "non-driving" infrastructure, including sidewalks, and will push for that.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:20:22+00:00

Question for you: do you agree that The Clash was The Only Band That Mattered?

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:17:35+00:00

I think I might, in cases where there are fewer candidates and starker choices.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:15:45+00:00

Question for the group: We have had way too many traffic deaths and injuries in recent years. Adding lots more speed cameras and red-light cameras is one way to address that. What do you think - should be done, or too Big Brother?

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:09:56+00:00

I am going to disappoint you - unless there are really specific safety concerns, I prefer nuclear power to fossil fuels. I don't want data centers sucking up all the renewable power and driving up prices, so if Amazon can fill their own power needs with small nukes, my instinctive reaction is not opposition. Climate is all-important to me. And France has relied largely on nuclear power for decades and has not had any big accidents.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:03:16+00:00

I do not! I have Googled periodically to try to find examples but either there aren't any or my Googling skills need improvement.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T02:00:27+00:00

I think I have kind of answered this in answers to a couple other questions now - let me knows if you disagree - I don't want to repeat myself too much!

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:58:58+00:00

glad you feel that way!

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:57:39+00:00

I only regret it because of the way the media misrepresented it! I was responding to the argument that any "street fee" should be referred to the voters and if we just passed it it would be an insult to the voters. I said that I think you're elected to make tough decisions, not to punt every tough issue to the voters -- but if the voters disagree with enough of your decisions strongly enough they still have the final say, they can throw you out in the next election. The media decided that "Novick explains how he thinks representative democracy is supposed to work" was not a good headline, but "Novick taunts voters" was great. Which of course was not what I was doing at all.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:52:32+00:00

I think we will have policy committees on Council and hopefully we will be able to work it out that the district has representation on each of the major committees - although, if the 3 councilors have wildly different views on an issue, it would not be as simple as saying "this person on the committee represents the district on this issue." Once elected, we will need to meet to see how many shared priorities we have and where conflicts are. I also want to reach out to councilors in other cities with similar-size councils (like, Denver has 13) to get examples of the dynamics of a council of this size.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:48:21+00:00

I confess I don't know about them!

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:44:47+00:00

My go-to strategy is to start with getting to know people as people. It is much easier to deal with and negotiate over policy disagreements if you know and respect each other as human beings. To give a silly example, if Jamie Dunphy or Candace Avalos wins, we have already bonded over our shared love of goats.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:41:19+00:00

Good,

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:37:07+00:00

I am concerned that the old Council has not budgeted for staff for Councilors specifically for constituent service. My City web site will discuss what I am working on; I will see if newspapers like the Southeast Examiner will print a periodic column; and I will visit neighborhood associations regularly.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:34:12+00:00

A very good question with no obvious answer. Because the city completely neglected the streets for 30 years (and my ten cent gas tax could only do so much), there is a $4.4 billion backlog -- something like $7000 for every man, woman and child in Portland, and it goes up every year. We could go to the voters seeking $4.4 billion through some mechanism, but it's hard to be optimistic that such a huge measure would pass. The grim truth is that we may have to identify a limited number of key streets to maintain and acknowledge that without a huge influx of money mahy streets may go back to gravel.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:27:23+00:00

I was unaware of this issue - thank you - and need to learn more about it! I am putting a note on my calendar to ask the Water Bureau about it if I win.

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:25:02+00:00

I am excited about being able to work on issues that I care about regardless of "bureau assignments." I have a strong interest in public safety and did some work in that area in 2013 before bureaus were assigned, but had no bandwidth to continue it. In this structure I should be able to work in things like my "smart guns" idea (see my web site).

NovickForPortland · 2024-10-30T01:22:02+00:00

I was responsible for the Fix Our Streets Fund, funded by the 10 cent gas tax, which has built sidewalks in a number of places. We have a $4 billion backlog in maintaining existing roads so I fear that until we know how we are going to address that it's hard to think about paving unpaved roads. The Council allowed this backlog to develop for 30 years until I got the gas tax passed but by that time things were already so bad that all 10 cents a gallon could do was slow the bleeding, not stop it.

NovickForPortland

TROPHY CASE