The League in the News
Affordable housing to be topic of LWV March meeting in Portland
Readers respond: Don’t cancel preschool tax increase
Jewish history exhibit is a scrapbook of community and faith in Oregon
LWV of Portland held a Community Education program, “Solutions to our Affordable Housing Crisis,” on Wednesday, March 13, 7 to 8:30 pm via Zoom. Click on the arrow below to view the video recording of this program.
Our community and state are experiencing a dire lack of affordable housing. The causes include limited rental vacancies and housing costs rising faster than wages. This program will focus on what is being done to help solve our housing crisis.
State Representative Mark Gamba represents Portland neighborhoods. He advocates for actionable solutions and investments in affordable housing and housing for the unhoused.
Brian Hoop, Executive Director of Housing Oregon. Housing Oregon is a statewide association of affordable housing organizations. They convene the 90 member organizations to develop and advance policy, organize a conference and other educational events, support peer groups, and communicate industry news to members.
Dominique Merriweather (Dom), Executive Director, Proud Ground. Proud Ground brings permanently affordable housing opportunities to first-time homeowners using a land trust model.
All of our programs are recorded for rebroadcast by MetroEast Community Media and available by video and podcast from this website a few days after the live event.
Replays of the recording will be on public access Comcast and Ziply channels. The schedule is below.
Funding for production of this program is provided by the League of Women Voters of Portland Education Fund and the Carol and Velma Saling Foundation.
This LWV of Portland Zoom webinar featured a panel of government and nonprofit leaders who discussed several of the most urgent challenges now facing our transportation sector. These challenges directly affect our communities.
The panelists:
This program was recorded by MetroEast Community Media. It is also available as a podcast here.
Funding for production of this program is provided by the League of Women Voters of Portland Education Fund and the Carol and Velma Saling Foundation.
Replay dates and times on cable TV are shown below.
On October 11, the League of Women Voters of Portland presented a Zoom webinar on “A new Community Board for Police Accountability.” The speakers and the moderator were members of the Police Accountability Commission (PAC). The PAC spent thousands of volunteer hours planning the details of how this new community board will operate. The final plan carries out the requirements in the charter amendment that voters passed in November 2020 by almost 82%. A representative of the U.S. Department of Justice also spoke.
Listen to the podcast of this event by clicking here.
Schedule for replays of this program on cable TV:
On September 19, 2023, a panel of leading experts discussed the work accomplished thus far and work that is underway to ensure effective and fair implementation of the charter reforms approved by voters last November. Panelists:
Click on the arrow to view the video recording of the program:
Listen to the podcast of this program by clicking here.
The video is being shown on cable TV at the times listed below.
The League is working hard to make sure the charter reforms that voters passed in November 2022 will make Portland’s government and elections better.
Our new page on City Charter Reform links to resources explaining ranked choice voting and the decisions being made now about our 2025 city government. We’ll be adding more resources as these decisions are finalized. Stay tuned!
We’ve updated our Directory of Elected Officials, with information from the results of the May 2023 Special Election. Read it by clicking here. You’ll find information about how to contact all the elected representatives who serve people in our area. There are websites, emails, or phone numbers for everyone from President Biden to the directors of the Fire Districts.
When you have a concern about government, you can use this contact info to ask questions or express your opinion. The Directory also has information about political parties and voter registration. Finally, if you need more details about area governments, check out the Contact Elected Officials page of this website.
At our Annual Membership Meeting on May 24, 2023, Portland League members elected a new volunteer president, Carolyn Buppert. You can read about the meeting and the decisions that members made here. We also elected new board members and committee chairs. You can read the bios of all the LWVPDX 2023-24 board members and leaders here.
League members and friends from the Portland Metro Area marched in the June 10, 2023 Grand Floral Parade. The parade is a highlight of the Rose Festival. All of the LWV marchers dressed in white, as suffragists did in the early 20th century when they marched for women’s rights to vote. We also carried the purple, gold and white “suffrage flag.” The League of Women Voters now celebrates 103 years since women throughout America won the right to vote. The LWV was also founded 103 years ago . We still fight to make sure all Americans have easy access to voting.
If mailed in ballots were postmarked by Election Day and arrived by Tuesday, May 23, they were counted. Multnomah County Elections results are posted here.
Thank you to those voters who used the election pages on this website to learn about the candidates and measures. We hope our information was helpful to you.
The panel of community leaders discussed chronic homelessness as a public health issue. They explained how they are trying to provide health care and shelter to people with mental illness and/or addiction, and the need for more shelters, and supportive affordable low-income housing.
The panel included:
Jill Kahnert, Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor, retired from Central City Concern.
Jason Renaud, LWVPDX League member, and Voluntary Managing Director of the Mental Health Association of Portland
Scott Kerman, Executive Director, Blanchet House
Rachael Duke, Executive Director of Community Partners for Affordable Housing
This program may be viewed on public access television channels at the times listed below.