Sarah Iannarone is a candidate for Portland mayor.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Last week, Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone spoke with Think Out Loud host Dave Miller about her vision for Portland's future.
Iannarone owns the Arleta Library Bakery and Cafe in Southeast Portland, and is the Assistant Director of PSU's First Stop program. She says she entered the mayoral race because she doesn't feel her opponents have a vision for Portland's future.
"I think Portland can be the most livable city in the country," Iannarone said. Making it so may require limiting infrastructure for automobiles, and investing in "good transit that's accessible and affordable for all Portlanders."
“We need to go back to aspiring to being the best at something and thinking about how can we take portions of our city where we've made intense investments in transportation infrastructure, in walkability, in accessibility, and continuing to push there ... I'm not saying we're going to take the whole center-city and make it car-free, but what we can do is start to explore what's next. Because we are thinking about a post-carbon future and how can Portland be a leader in that.”
Citing rising vehicle congestion in the downtown area, Iannarone says cars should be "lower down the food chain of transportation." She thinks Portland's transportation infrastructure goals should be more focused on providing efficient transit for commuters, freight, and workers, as well as improved safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
How would Portland pay for additional transportation infrastructure? According to Iannarone, one way is by lumping transportation wants in with transportation needs.
"It's costing our region millions of dollars when we sit in congestion everyday," Iannarone said. "For every public dollar spent, how can we solve two problems? When we tear up a road to maintain it, or fix it, we should be putting in the other infrastructure that we need there at the same time."
Iannarone thinks tax payers who only drive automobiles will still get behind her plan, because "this is not about cars versus transit versus cyclists versus pedestrians, it's about what is essential for our future. And as a society, we need to be moving away from a fossil fuel-based economy."