The mayor wannabes weigh in today on what to do about Peak Oil.

Last year the city adopted recommendations made by the Portland Peak Oil Task Force but little action has been taken. If one of the major solutions to global warming and peak oil is to reduce energy consumption and with it, reduce growth, how would you as a city commissioner approach this goal knowing that the business community prefers an unsustainable status quo?

-Jonathan Brandt
SE Portland

Slav Davidson pledges to turn 1/5 of the roads into food-producing gardens, Jeff Taylor calls out Mayor Tom Potter for “little ideas but also… little action,” Craig Gier keeps it simple and “promise[s] to do what ever it took to make this a better place,” and James B. Lee says he almost certainly “the lowest carbon footprint of any candidate for Mayor.” Sam Adams talks about the work he’s done at the city with private business “partnering to prepare Portland for a post-Peak Oil economy,” and Sho Dozono cites his business experience operating “with great concern and respect for environmental issues” and says “not all businesses are the remorseless status quo mongers you suggest.” Touché!

Oh yeah, and Kyle Burris is “in a mood” and calls out the other candidates for “an endless sea of safe, almost liberal complainings, and vague, rehashed planings all designed to try to keep this fundamentally fucked up system of ours from crashing to the ground, and killing everyone who would never think of getting out of the way.”

First up, Slav Davidson, back from a short hiatus:

Vladislav Davidzon
Position sought: Mayor
Website: ourportland.org
Public financing status: Not participating

I am the only candidate running on a platform (www.slav4pdx.com) focused entirely on sustainability who also has the business experience combined with a very clear understanding of sustainability and permaculture to make the significant changes needed. I am the only candidate who feels equally comfortable in a corporate boardroom as I do getting my hands dirty on an organic farm, and I understand the challenges and the resulting opportunities better than any other candidate running for Mayor.

What is good for our environment is good for our economy. It is truly that simple, and it is deeply unfortunate that so many managers and CEOs are missing out on the tremendous financial opportunity that the sustainability movement presents to their bottom line. I have built two businesses fundamentally focused on doing the right thing for the environment as a means towards generating profit and I passionately
believe that business and environment ought not stand at odds with each other. My track record is clearly outlined on my website at www.slav4pdx.com .

I am the only candidate running on a platform of localizing our economy through a small business grant program. We need to seriously look at localizing our economy through creating a local Cascadia currency, a project I would undertake as one of my first priorities in office. We simply must look at how we can keep our money local and increase the “multiplier effect” of each dollar spent by leveling the playing ground for small, local businesses and creating a thriving economy.

We must also look at how we can localize our food supply. The fact that we truck most of our food from thousands of miles away while living in one of the most fertile places in America is simply stupid. As mayor I would look towards creating a truly localized food system modeled on that of Cuba through partnerships with local farmers and creation of a huge network of community gardens.

I would like to look at where we can create public gardens where today there are roads. As Mayor, I would start by limiting down 1/5th of city streets to public transit, pedestrians, and bikes while turning much of that space into community gardens and parks.

By applying principles of permaculture design we can look at creating a thriving living system bolstered by a truly local, living economy. We can maximize the green space in the city, but use it not just for lawns but for growing organic food. I believe that most public space is simply utterly wasted today by being paved — we need to gradually undo the pavement and allow the seeds to sprout.

What makes my candidacy different is that I have actual hands-on experience successfully combining profit-making and sustainability. The two are not at all mutually exclusive, and we simply need to apply basic principles of permaculture towards building a truly green, sustainable city with a thriving, living economy. My website at www.slav4pdx.com outlines all of these ideas.

At the end of the day, let us make no mistake — we are facing a massive crisis; yet the Chinese symbol for crisis is the same as that for opportunity, and we have an incredible opportunity to build a better, more tolerable, just and sustainable world. The choice before us couldn’t be any clearer.

Best regards,

Vladislav

Jeff Taylor
Position sought: Mayor
Website: portland123.com
Public financing status: Participated, has not submitted any contributions

Dear Jonathan,

When I ran for Mayor in 2004, I was frustrated at the lack of concrete ideas given by the so-called top two candidates. Well, one of them won, and not only has there been little ideas but also like you said little action.

Here are the actions I proposed in 2004 that are as practical now if not more.

1. I visit all the major corporations to see if their employees could drive to Portland at not the peak rush hours but stagger their work hours.

2. Try to get companies to offer flex time and incentives for working at home but still getting as much or more work done as employees don't have to sit in traffic.

3. Stimulate small business especially green small business and make Portland a desireable city for small business to come here. I would set up a small business action team in City Hall to bring in and help existing small business especially ones that are focusing on green projects.

4.. Use the Willamette and Columbia Rivers like we did here in Portland 150 years ago for transport. I would advocate with the business community to have ferries and water taxis that would transport people to work and also be an entertainment vehicle in the evenings and weekends for a permanent source for funding of schools, public servants like police, fire, and the like.

Hope you see these as actions not just political vague talking. Thank you for your questions in your interest in our fair city.

HAD ENUFF?! VOTE JEFF!!

Jeff Taylor
Candidate for Portland Mayor

Craig Gier
Position sought: Mayor
Website: myspace.com/craiggierformayor
Public financing status: Not participating

I'm running for mayor, but if I were a commissioner I would decide in the best interest of the city and enviroment. It would be my promise to do what ever it took to make this a better place.

Jim Lee
Position sought: Mayor
Website: blogmayor.com
Public financing status: Not participating

Might seem a little smug on this one.

I own two bicycles (both yellow), one bus pass (color varies), and no car (transparent, like Wonder Woman’s airplane).

I live in Woodstock-Mount Scott neighborhood, which is flat for a mile in all directions and so is easy biking for coffee, library, groceries and nearly everything else. House is a 900 square foot 1950s bungalow with not so bad weatherization, gas furnace and gas water heater.

Do I have the lowest carbon footprint of any candidate for Mayor?

Almost certainly!

Sam drives a GMC pickup!

OK, I do belong to Flex/Zipcar, which is the paradigm of personal motorized transportation. We need to work with Flex/Zip to expand its locations--only recently did one show up in Woodstock. But our future must be completely beyond fossil fuels
for personal transportation, at least in urban/suburban locations.

In a decade we should see the Flex/Zip model morph into electric-only cars, which are recharged at their staging locations, usually overnight, when other demands are low. This model has been thoroughly studied and has tremendous potential.

So we must plan for this, which I shall do as Mayor. Please read my blog entry (blogmayor.com) on acquiring control of PGE, which will be essential to implementing our urban electric transportation for the future.

Here I must praise Ray Polanyi, who foresaw an all-electric system of transportation for Portland forty years ago. If anyone is responsible for our progress in public and private transport, it’s Ray!

By the way, the fewer cars we drive and the less oil we use the more money stays at home, where it can be applied to really useful things, like efficient housing. This is because we neither make cars nor produce oil locally. Check this link for our “green dividend” calculation. Also--fixies rule--especially if they are yellow!

Sam Adams
Position sought: Mayor
Website: samforpdx.com
Public financing status: Not participating, capping contributions

The recommendation by the Peak Oil Task Force, which was comprised of a broad base of community representatives, has instigated real action in reducing our dependence on oil. They, like me, believe the need to reduce energy consumption does not necessarily require reduced growth. Instead it requires strong leadership to guide us towards truly transformative growth.

We have begun to create viable, everyday alternatives to personal auto dependency. Consider, for instance, the bicycle. Congressman Earl Blumenauer rightly calls the bicycle the most sustainable and efficient urban travel tool ever created. As a city, we have steadily invested in bike lanes and other tools over the last 20 years. As a result, ridership has continued to grow and has exploded in recent years.

Events like last weekend’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show, where the fire marshal temporarily denied entrance due to overflow crowds (7000 in attendance total), demonstrate how our local bicycle industry is flourishing in ways that reduce our collective carbon footprint. (Congratulations to Portland’s own Ahearne Cycles for their ‘Best in Show’ commuter bike.)

Local apparel companies like Nau are choosing to headquarter in Portland to create pioneering business models. Nau has become a national leader through innovation in shipping, offsetting, fabrics, packaging, multifunctional products, reduced inventory and incentives for their employees to use alternative transportation. Their growth model depends on reducing their carbon footprint.

In both cases, the City of Portland used its resources to assist these efforts. There are many, many similar examples where the City and its business community are partnering to prepare Portland for a post-Peak Oil economy. I am extremely confident in the values and ingenuity Portlanders bring to these challenges. As mayor I will lead the city towards greater investment in these strategies. This is our future.

Kyle Burris
Position sought: Mayor
Website: site not up yet
Public financing status: Not participating

Yeah, I'm in a mood today. Here's my response.

I'll be honest; I'm getting a little tired of these Blogtown posts. We've got about 20 different people, running for four different. And somehow, then all manage to come here each week, and say the exact same thing.

It's become an endless sea of safe, almost liberal complainings, and vague, rehashed planings all designed to try to keep this fundamentally fucked up system of ours from crashing to the ground, and killing everyone who would never think of getting out of the way.

I can't tell where one post ends, and the next begins. I have no idea who any of these candidates really are. What are their politics or their priorities? I don't know what differentiates any of them from their opponents, and I'm not sure they do, either.

So, what, you want to talk about Peak Oil now? Well, as every one else has already covered, ad nauseum, we need to start turning our buildings into cute little power plants. We need to grab one of these over educated yuppies that seem to be flooding the city, and pay them to draw us a logo of a happy little office building. We'll stick it on a letter-head, put some kind of catchy title under it and send it out to all the press. This will do wonders to curb our usage of greenhouse gases.

As you know, the Portland Peak Oil Task Force has released a report calling for us to "Reduce total oil and natural gas consumption by 50 percent over the next 25 years". This is a good start, but it doesn't go far enough. As mayor, I promise that I will build more task forces. These task forces will release more reports. And I promise you, people of Portland, these reports will call for new and better things!

I promise a report calling for the reduction in crime. I promise a report calling for reduced housing prices. I promise a report calling for more alcohol consumption. And I promise a report calling for everyone to get laid!

Together, Portland, we can make these reports. We can make the change!

Sho Dozono
Position sought: Mayor
Website: shoformayor.com
Public financing status: Received initial certification for public financing today

Reducing energy consumption and controlling growth to ensure a sustainable future for Portland will be top priorities for me as Mayor. And I would argue that not all businesses are the remorseless status quo mongers you suggest when it comes to the environment and sustainability issues.

For almost thirty years, I have led a small business with great concern and respect for environmental issues. In 1996, Azumano Travel transitioned to paperless ticketing, and in doing so, we significantly reduced our dependence on paper. Twelve of our branches now meet the requirements of the City of Portland, Office of Sustainability, RecycleWorks Program. We are currently under consideration for their annual RecycleWorks Award. Azumano Travel has 9 Green Tags from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which is equivalent of 9,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, representing an offset of approximately 12,600 pounds of carbon dioxide. We are currently undergoing a comprehensive plan to eliminate fluorescent lights and move to power reducing bulbs. At Azumano we did all of this because it's the right thing to do. And Portland is full of other examples just like us. As Mayor I will make sustainable businesses the "business community" that is held out as an example to others. I will invite and encourage and reward businesses who strive to go beyond the status quo and help lead us all to a sustainable future.

I agree with the City of Portland¹s Peak Oil Task Force recommendations of supporting land use patterns that reduce transportation needs, promote walkability, as we simultaneously bolster our mass transit system. The Task Force correctly notes that it will be much less expensive to pursue these strategies now than in a decade or two, when materials and transportation costs are likely to be higher. Finally, all of Portland¹s efforts to reduce energy consumption will be not be enough to help the region without state and federal legislators pursuing viable, progressive energy policies, such as investments in alternative energy sources.

We must recognize that although Portland¹s borders will not change, the city's population will grow in the next decade and beyond and so will the demand for energy. As Mayor I will make energy conservation and reduction in consumption a high priority, educating the public and lobbying state and federal legislators to pursue policies that preserve and protect our environment. Reducing our individual and collective carbon footprints cannot be done overnight by declaration or by desire. As Mayor, I will serve as a tireless advocate for reducing our energy consumption as we rebuild Portland into the successful sustainable envy of the Pacific Northwest.

Sho

Beryl McNair
Position sought: Mayor
Website: none
Public financing status: Participated, did not submit any contributions

Did not respond by deadline.