Commissioner Carmen Rubio

12/31/2024

As my term comes to an end, I want to thank everyone who engaged with my office over these past four years: residents, neighbors, staff, and advocates.

Each and every voice matters, and I truly hope each person who engaged with my team and me at City Hall felt represented, respected, and seen, even in times of disagreement.

This has been a pivotal time in Portland’s history for all of us – and for so many reasons. When I started this job, the world was shut down during the critical days of the pandemic and everything was remote – including my first several City Council meetings. Portland was in the face of an economic slowdown, a housing and homelessness crisis, extreme weather related to climate change, a reckoning for racial justice, a devastating fentanyl epidemic, and other challenges hitting our small businesses and arts community hard.

But we are a resilient city, and we are already making progress on several fronts – like public and community safety, alternative shelters, and permitting reform to spur housing production – and on the road to healing and recovery. On others – like housing availability, homelessness, and climate crises – we still have significant work before us.

I have every confidence that our newly elected City leadership is deeply committed and up to the task in the coming years. They are entering into fundamentally different roles, and they are setting the stage for the next chapter in the City’s history.

It will not be easy. In some instances, they might wish they had the resources or authority or time to do more, but in so many other instances they will do much more – and maybe even more than they ever imagined was possible for our city. Those moments where things come together for an impactful change make it all worthwhile.

I hope that each of them will bring into their new roles and a spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and determination – and, most of all, love for this city and community. This is my sincere wish for them.

I am humbled by all that I have learned and contributed to in my time here and proud of the things that my office accomplished over the past four years, which are highlighted below.

First, I want to give my deep appreciation to the dedicated bureau staff who show up every day doing their part to make Portland good – to make sure our residents get the services they need, and to take tangible steps toward a more just future.

I am deeply grateful for the partnership and work of each of our bureau directors and Deputy City Administrators – especially Helmi Hisserich, Eric Engstrom, Sam Baraso, David Kuhnhausen, Kimberly Branam, Chief Day, and Donnie Oliveira, who have extremely hard jobs. But both individually and as a team, together we were able to establish a strong partnership and deliver the forward progress that Portlanders expect from their government.

I want to especially appreciate Mayor Wheeler for his leadership and integrity during these challenging times.

Finally, I want to particularly thank my outstanding staff for the dedication, brilliance, creativity, brain power, and humility that each of them brings to their work. Thank you to my team for stepping up for Portland over these four years – Adelina Cano, Megan Beyer, Christina Ghan, Jillian Schoene, Byron Beck, Jimmy Radosta, Angela Rico, Meeseon Kwon, Rico Lujan Valerio, Stephan Herrera, Julian Hanlon-Austin, Will Howell, Adriana Miranda, Michelle DePass, and Mona Schwartz.

The call to public service is not for everyone, but each of them responded to that call with honor and a deep respect for our community. And Portland is better for it.

I also want to thank the community organizations, neighborhood groups, and so many others who believe in Portland’s potential: Thank you for holding us accountable and reminding us about our values.

I truly believe we have a new Mayor and Council who believe in the very best of our city and an involved community. I know Portland is in great hands with our new Mayor and Councilors – and on its way to becoming a safer, more prosperous, and more inclusive place for everyone who calls this beautiful city home.

This job has been the honor of my life, and I am proud of all the work, heart, and love we are leaving on the field today.

At your side,

Carmen

12/16/2024

It was an honor to join the Native American Youth and Family Center last weekend for the unveiling of Terresa White’s Mamook Tokatee Raven Sculpture in the Cully neighborhood.

I’m incredibly proud that the City invested $500,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to commission and install new public artworks that celebrate Indigenous and Native cultures and community.

For millenia, the arts have made us feel joyful and alive and have helped us as humans to grieve, heal, and eventually celebrate together. It is my hope that this installation will incubate new ideas, opportunities, and frames for cultural expression so that future generations will continue to experience the energy and enrichment that comes from the arts.

I want to especially recognize NAYA, the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and artists from Indigenous and Native communities for their tremendous cultural, economic, and social contributions to the history and richness of our city. These installations are a key piece of strengthening Portland by building belonging together.

12/14/2024

12/13/2024

Affordable housing changes lives. Residents like Dawn, who lives at the Portland Housing Bond-funded East Burnside Apartments, use their newfound security and stability to change their life stories.

Learn more about PHB: http://portland.gov/phb

12/13/2024

The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) will add $10.3 million to the program.

12/12/2024

These actions represent an incredible amount of work for staff at the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and Portland Bureau of Transportation as well as our friends at the Portland Streetcar and community members who have been tracking this work for years. Together, we are setting the stage for the transformation of yet another area of Portland while reflecting the City’s values and priorities.

The new neighborhood in Northwest Portland plans to be a transit-friendly, mixed-use area, with more than 2,000 new housing units and include more middle-wage jobs.

12/11/2024

This morning City Council presented the 33rd annual Steve Lowenstein Trust Award to Dana Lynn Louis, who founded Gather:Make:Shelter in 2017 to empower people experiencing houselessness and poverty through creative opportunities including pottery painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Dana's compassionate, community-centered, and transformative leadership creates safe, loving, and welcoming spaces while respecting the innate wisdom of participants. She believes that everyone, regardless of circumstances, is entitled to dignity and belonging no matter where they live or what their story.

This is what true healing looks like, and we need more experiences like these – and leaders like Dana. I thank her for the vision of hope and connection she brings to our city.

12/10/2024

Nearly 10 years in, an innovative policy meant to repair the damage done to Portland’s Black community by years of racist housing practices is showing modest success

12/07/2024

Congratulations to Literary Arts on today’s opening of the largest literary center on the West Coast! The center is named for Susan Hammer, a powerful advocate for arts and culture in Portland.

Originally built in 1904, the four-story building began as Strowbridge Hardware. During the 1970s, the façade was covered with concrete and it became a furniture store; in 2018, new owners renovated the space. The building then sat empty until Literary Arts purchased it in 2022.

The center features a general interest bookstore with sections specializing in design, architecture, poetry, and writing craft; space for author readings and community events; classrooms for in-person workshops; offices for staff; and a recording studio for the radio show and podcast “The Archive Project.” A café serving coffee, beer, and food will open at a later date.

For the past four decades, Literary Arts has engaged readers, supported writers, and inspired the next generation with great literature. Its programs include Portland Arts & Lectures, one of the country’s largest lecture series; Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships, which celebrates Oregon’s writers and independent publishers; the Portland Book Festival; and Writers in the Schools, which hires professional writers to teach semester-long creative writing workshops in Portland’s public high schools.

12/05/2024

Mark your calendar: In partnership with Prosper Portland’s Portland Events and Film, Pioneer Courthouse Square will present 2 drone light shows to ring in the new year!

Presented by the City of Portland, Prosper Portland’s Office of Events & Film, Pioneer Courthouse Square and True West.

12/02/2024

“This is really stepping into that space with our climate data and hoping that this adds value for the public, for academics, for other policy analysts, both at the city and around the world,” says Bureau of Planning and Sustainability climate policy analyst Kyle Diesner. “Hopefully folks can see themselves in this data [and] see opportunities within their own life where they can implement changes to reduce these emissions by putting the data out here.”

The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has been collecting Multnomah County carbon emissions data for more than 30 years, but it was not always publicly accessible.

11/30/2024

Portland’s holiday season is here! Thank you to everyone who attended and performed yesterday at Pioneer Courthouse Square’s 40th Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Today is Small Business Saturday, so please support our amazing small businesses in your holiday shopping plans. Learn more at ShopSmallPDX.com.