Kate Sykes for District Five

I’m honored and thrilled that you’ve elected me to be your next City Councilor in District 5. We have big work to accomplish, and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves.

It has been an honor and a privilege to be one of the first candidates to run clean in Portland. I’ve talked with so many of you over the last six months about the value of our new Clean Elections program, and how it allows candidates to run competitive campaigns. As we’ve seen this cycle, Portland Clean Elections has already reduced the amount of campaign spending overall in Portland elections. I hope that other municipalities across Maine will adopt similar programs to make it possible for working-class people to enter politics and transform our communities.

I look forward to meeting many more of you as we do this work together. The message I want everyone to hear right now is that I care about you, I value your unique perspective, and I want to hear from you. I have a 90-day plan to build a stronger community and will share it with you soon. There will be a regular D5 Newsletter as well, so please hit the “follow” button and confirm your email address so you won’t miss any important news.

For now I want to send massive thanks out to the many campaign volunteers, Clean Elections donors, neighbors, friends, furry friends, and family members who made this campaign not just successful, but positively joyful. You never stopped believing, and that made all the difference. I’ve been so inspired by your talents, hard work, faith, humor, and love, and I’ll carry all of that forward with me into office. It takes patience, trust, and hard work to build a people-powered movement. If today’s results are any indication, we’re well on our way.

At a street fair recently, I met a sidewalk poet who spontaneously lent their energy to this campaign with a poem that still leaves me breathless with wonder. I think it says everything. Enjoy! -Kate

PATIENT POWER a poem for Kate, by Coelti

What we build is
up to us,
attention clarifying
what is expressed
& what is hidden.
We counter what might 
have been & what 
has been too long,
patient power presencing
in the relational process
of community. 

If we make it official,
through all the arenas 
available to cooperation,
it will be through our hands
that the work is done.

Minds can make much of a 
future unwritten, but
it is touch that makes 
the long haul wonderful,
a journey of belief
meeting the art
of the possible. 

Last week our campaign held a voter information event at Riverton Park public housing complex in District 5. I talked with residents about how, where, and when to vote in the upcoming election. The Deering Ice Cream truck was on hand to give out ice cream to the kids, many of whom helped interpret my conversations with non-English speaking parents and family members.

I talked with resident Sarah Duoth, a South Sudanese American, while she cooked dinner for her family. I listened to her concerns about the cost of housing for people in their community and how difficult it is to navigate our housing system. She said it is important for city councilors to understand how hard everyone here is working just to get by.

Sarah works as a housekeeper, and even though her wages are not increasing, she keeps receiving rental increase notices from Portland Housing Authority. Other community members have received eviction notices and don’t know where they will go. No one can get ahead, and many fear for their future housing security in a system that does not hear their concerns, because politicians don’t come out here very often to talk with them.

Portland’s current system of giving tax incentives and public land away to private developers to build a very small amount of “affordable” housing has left us 10,000 housing units short. And the housing we do manage to build is poor quality—expensive to maintain and inefficient to heat and cool, which only costs people like Sarah more—because when you build housing to make a profit, you have to cut corners.

We have the ability to issue bonds to invest in higher quality, mixed-income housing around the city—housing that is revenue neutral because we, the taxpayers, retain the land, own it forever and can re-invest the equity in more housing to grow our community sustainably. Social Housing is built for the express purpose of housing people, not turning a profit. It’s a model that has been successful all around the world, including in the US, and it can work right here in Portland. We just need the political will to make it happen.

After the event, I spoke with Ryan, the Deering Ice Cream man, who often comes to Riverton Park. He said this was a very different experience for him, seeing every kid encouraged to participate in the fun and the democratic process of getting voter information to their parents.

If you elect me as your representative in District 5, I’ll forge a new path to housing affordability in Portland, so all families can get ahead, and every kid has a few bucks to spend on an ice-cream when the truck drives through their neighborhood.

For over a decade, we’ve given private developers money, land, and tax incentives to build housing in Portland, only to come up 10,000 units short of what we need today. Workers, families, young people just starting out, students, and retirees all suffer under a housing market that caters to real estate speculators, corporate landlords, and wealthy second and third home investors.

Home ownership was once how millions of Americans were able to enter the middle class and build financial security for our families, but no more. In Portland, owning a home is increasingly the exclusive privilege of the already wealthy. Cost burdened renters are unable to save for a down payment on a first home, and even if they could get ahead, what used to be “fixer-uppers” are now sold as tear-downs to make way for high-end single family homes. It would be foolish to continue to invest in this failed system and expect different results.

As Portland looks to implement new State and local zoning regulations to undo a century of exclusionary zoning, and increase density, we must also recognize that more housing supply overall will not automatically lower home prices, or make it easier to find an affordable apartment. In fact, up-zoning areas where affordable housing development has been resisted can have the opposite effect, increasing speculation and displacing people of color. Portland’s historic districts may have actually helped stabilize housing for low income BIPOC communities by preventing exactly this kind of rapid development.  

So, how do we build a lot more housing in Portland without creating out of control gentrification, displacement, and racial inequality? The answer is non-market housing, or “Social Housing,” which is built for the express purpose of housing people, not extracting profit, and remains permanently affordable because it’s shielded from market incentives. Social housing also helps to stabilize the private market by providing affordable alternatives.

And it delivers a higher return on public tax dollars because it remains off the private market forever. As loans are paid down, rent payments are leveraged to build more housing. And the more of it we build, the more market stability it provides.

Social Housing also fosters greater democracy and social equity among residents because it’s community-owned and managed. The model has been used successfully around the world, most notably in Vienna, where 60% of people live in public housing, and competitions for funding ensure that housing is beautifully designed and conforms to rigorous environmental standards. Seattle, WA passed a social housing initiative in February, and Montgomery County, MD has been using the model successfully for decades.

Social Housing is a broad term that can include mixed income public housing, limited equity co-ops built on community land trusts, and non-profit owned and managed rentals, some of which we are already doing here in Portland. But we need more of it. A lot more. Social Housing is a way to address Portland’s housing crisis that will help us build the housing we need now, and prepare for future growth.

If elected, I’ll make it my top policy priority.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to ride my bike around District 5 with the Portland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and answer their 2023 Candidate Survey. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun meeting the other candidates and talking with members of the committee about their work.

I’m an avid mountain biker and thought I knew Portland Trails backward and forward, but they showed me a cut-through I’d never seen before. It’s a nifty little connector from Maggie Lane to Eleanor St./Goodridge Ave. that allows you to avoid Morrill’s corner and Forest Ave. The trail that extends from it goes all the way out to Riverside Industrial Parkway and opens up some exciting possibilities as a commuter route. I’ve been using it a lot to knock on doors in the Riverton neighborhood.

The Advisory Committee does really great work researching bicycle, transit, and pedestrian issues, including handicap accessibility in Portland. They educate the public and advise the City on projects, including the Homeless Services Center, Franklin Street re-design, snow removal on sidewalks and around bus stops, and the need for bike safety education in our Public Schools. You can see their list of priorities for 2023 here.

If you’re excited about improving conditions for non-vehicular modes of transportation to make Portland more equitable and achieve our climate goals, please consider joining the committee and helping to advance their work. I look forward to working with them on projects in the future.

Kate Sykes
Clean Elections Candidate
City Council, District 5
207-558-5764
Kate@KateSykes.com
katesykes.com

Friends, 

Early voting has begun. If you’re the kind of person who likes to show up early and get the work done, now is your moment to shine!

Cast your ballot at City Hall from 8:30 – 4:30 from now until November 2. 

If you can’t get down to City Hall, or would rather vote by mail, you can request an absentee ballot by calling the City Clerk at (207) 874-8677 or by clicking this link.

Before you go, please enjoy this poem by one of my favorite poets, Ted Kooser, who once said of his work: “I write for other people with the hope that I can help them to see the wonderful things within their everyday experiences. In short, I want to show people how interesting the ordinary world can be if you pay attention.”

Early Bird – by Ted Kooser

Still dark, and raining hard 

on a cold May morning

and yet the early bird 

is out there chirping,

chirping its sweet-sour 

wooden-pulley notes,

 

pleased, it would seem,

to be given work,

hauling the heavy 

bucket of dawn

up from the darkness,

note over note

and letting us drink.