The city of Gresham has a lot of issues facing it, ranging from a difficult relationship with the county commission, to a lack of funding for public parks, to traffic and limited access to public transportation.
We need someone who is willing to meet with county commissioners and do what they can to repair the relationship and ensure that the communities in eastern Multnomah County receive their fair share of tax dollars. When any city in eastern Mult Co receives less than that, it hurts us all.
We need someone who will work with TriMet to improve access to public transportation. It is unthinkiable that a major transportation route, Burnside, has no public transportation for a large chunk of it. Almost 4,000 households have no access to a vehicle. Another 13,000+ have access to only one, which increases their chances of needing public transportation. There are very few routes running 7 days a week, and very few North-South routes. Getting around town using the bus can almost be impossible for some residents. A quick trip to the grocery store shouldn't take hours of bus riding and waiting.
Not only do we need more access to public transportation, we need that access to be safe. People shouldn't have to worry about beaten, stabbed, or sexually assaulted when they utilize public transportation. TriMet needs to increase security throughout the system, and thus far it has done little more than try to placate the residents in east county. Something needs to be done now, whether it is TriMet doing its job or the legislature or governor making it do so.
We need someone who will work with the neighborhood associations (N.A.) to educate the city's residents on how much funding is available in the city budget, how it is spent, and how it compares to other similar sized cities in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and around the country.
“In the past few years, there has been a growing gap between the residents of Gresham, the city, the county, and other governmental entities. While Gresham is the state’s fourth largest city, and home to almost 100,000 residents, we have limited access to public transportation, only one small post office, and a transportation plan more suitable for a small town, not a large city.
“We need the residents of Gresham more active in the process of identifying problems and potential solutions. We also need to work harder to build relationships with other governmental entities to ensure that the citizens of Gresham get the services they need and deserve,” said Jenni Simonis.
We need someone who will push for the city to work and meet with its N.A. and city departments to identify traffic problems around the city and solutions for solving them. Every day we wait to fix problems like traffic tie-ups on a two-lane Powell, limited access to the neighborhoods on the souther half of the city, etc., the harder and more expensive it will be to fix.
“With so many neighborhoods in Portland being priced out of the reach of its long-time residents, we’re seeing an influx of people and families into Gresham. This not only increases the need for services from the city, like parks and police, but also more cars on our already crowded roads and more people needing access to public transportation. The longer we wait to look at and fix these problems, the more expensive the solutions are going to be," said Simonis.
We need someone who is going to meet with residents and listen to them about what's wrong, what needs to be fixed, etc. Jenni is that person.
