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This is an archive of the original CitizenSmith.us campaign web site. This archive is for demonstration and reference purposes. It is not a part of any active campaign. The information presented may be out-of-date.

Issues / Policy

A Renewed Urban Renewal Policy for Portland

April 24th, 2008 | posted by Webmaster
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Downtown Contrast

Widen the Scope and Benefits of Urban Renewal Spending

I believe that the usefulness of the current practice of focus all urban renewal spending only in specific districts is obsolete. Thankfully, the City no longer has whole urban districts that are ‘blighted’, but we certainly have needs for investment all over the City.

Therefore, we should now reinvest in much needed infrastructure – parks, schools and roads all over the city and not just in the 15% of the City that today can legally be included in urban renewal districts.

Chris Smith Bridges Portland's Past and Future

April 14th, 2008 | posted by Webmaster
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Sauvie Island Bridge - Photo from Multnomah County

Today Portland City Council candidate and long time citizen advocate Chris Smith reaffirmed his support of a plan to relocate the Sauvie Island Bridge center span to a new site in Northwest Portland on the Flanders Street Bikeway.

A Bicycle Policy for Portland

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Bicycles Parked in the Netherlands

Why Bicycling is Important

Cycling and walking are the most energy efficient, environmentally sustainable, cost effective and healthy modes of transportation. As a City Commissioner I will ensure that Portland’s policies and practices make us a world‐class cycling city.

Research indicates that many more Portlanders would cycle if they had access to safe and convenient low‐traffic routes to take them to work, school and daily activities. Let’s make this happen together!

A Transportation Policy for Portland

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Portland Bridges

Creating Sustainable Choices

Forty percent of greenhouse gases generated in Multnomah County come from transportation. Some of the best opportunities to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels are through creating more sustainable transportation options for our citizens. All capital and programmatic transportation investments must be subject to a carbon footprint analysis.

A Matter of Priorities

Our dollars for transportation are finite. We< must focus them to attain our goals for Portland. My priorities for transportation investments are:

On Being Open

December 30th, 2007 | posted by chris_smith
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Generally I keep my professional life (as a software architect and middle manager at Tektronix and now Xerox, after our division was acquired in 2000) separate from my political life.

But there's an intersection that I think is worth commenting on: transparency in government and open source software. My experience is that both are very valuable for the same reason: more eyes make for better quality!

Just as having more programmers looking at code and making contributions makes for great software (often of much better quality than closed-source commercial software), the more informed citizens we have participating in government decision-making, the better the results will be.

And there's also the issue of trust. The more transparent program code or government processes are, the more we can trust what they're doing.

As a City Commissioner, one of my goals will be to re-invigorate and strengthen our citizen input mechanisms so we can keep those good ideas coming.

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