may 2023 special election

I often draw primitive little diagrams for my students while we talk. One will tell me about how they are worried that their friend doesn’t like them anymore because they didn’t sit together at lunch. And if they aren’t friends anymore, then maybe the whole friend group is lost. And if the friend group is lost, then maybe the entire class will turn against them. And then they will grow lonelier and lonelier, losing all aspects of their personality that they have worked so hard to like. And then they will be stuck this way, alone and self-loathing forever. 

“Ah,” I’ll say, “This looks to me like…” and I’ll draw a gorgeous stick figure. I’ll put the student’s hairstyle of the day on it. A ponytail. I say, “That’s you.” We have a laugh. 

I draw a spiral emanating from the head of the gorgeous stick figure, and I narrate. “This is what I hear: your friend didn’t sit with you, so are you still friends?” A loop. “And what if all the rest of your friends follow suit?” Another loop. On and on. A spiral. A thought spiral. 

“You can learn to stop yourself right here,” I’ll say, putting an X on the first loop. “What could you do to get the information you need without spiraling into the next worry?” 

These conversations and doodles are the great honor of my life and career. I draw and label triangles to teach kids about family system triangulation. I have a fourth-grader who now requests my little whiteboard each time he visits my office so he can draw new triangles (or, most recently, a square) to represent his friend group woes. 

I have another student with whom I invented the Fear to Peace Scale. I think about her, and about this scale, constantly when I sit down to write about this election. She is fundamentally questioning aspects of her identity, and her family loves her but is terribly afraid of what this could mean. I know that current national political games are intensifying this fear to the point of near implosion. I believe that a year ago, before this anti-trans shit reached our current sludgy, talk show fever pitch, we could have had a much different conversation with her family. 

But anyway, here’s the scale. It’s a very simple scale, and life is a lot more complex than these two points. But it’s been a very useful way for us to think about how time might help these relationships, or about how not to totally fucking give up. 

i made this on google docs lmao i am laughing at how rudimentary it is 

So you’ve got fear. FUCK, have you got fear!!!! But the hope is that the friends and family who are truly invested in her well-being and growth will slowly but surely move toward peace.

“When you think about who you are, without worrying about what anyone else says, what do you feel? Peace?” I asked recently. 

She always takes time to think about what I ask before she responds. “There are things that have put me really on the fear end.” She arranged her hands on the left side of her lap. Fear. “But when I really think about who I am, and becoming who I truly am, I feel peace.” She smiled. We sat silently for a while. 

We refer back to this a lot. We talk about how some people take years to move from fear to peace. We use “fear to peace” as shorthand when she comes in to vent. “They are very much still in fear, making comments from a place of fear,” we will agree.  

This is really all I want for all students, and really, for everybody: when you think about yourself, about the times during which you feel most like yourself, I hope you feel peace. I hope you have had a chance to work through your real fears and move toward peace. I hope the people who love you are moving, even now, even slowly, away from the fear that wishes for the path of least resistance, toward peace and all of the joy and fullness that live there. 

We have all these school board elections at a time when adults seem to be flinging themselves toward the fear end of the spectrum. The puppetmasters of this fomenting are meddling in educational systems that they have underfunded and disrespected. They do not care that we already have processes to screen and vet what is taught; they imagine themselves as the only saviors who can shield children from being brainwashed into the great liberal think tank of public education. Be suspicious anytime claims to be the only savior. We vote in this particular election to protect the peace of our kids. We vote knowing that there are tons of problematic teachers and problematic curricula, but the very best part of public education is about free, developmentally-appropriate access to information that could lead a child toward understanding the truest parts of themselves.  

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I have solicited, of course, gossip from the community about this election. It’s kind of a shortie here in Portland, so I have included just a few local races outside city limits where there ought to be a focused effort. As usual, I don’t mention candidates running unopposed for the sake of time. 

I am one limited bitch. I don’t know anything, I don’t work in politics. Identity-wise, I am light-skinned, mixed-race Korean and white, queer, femme, mostly able-bodied (I’m interrogating the internalized ableism of this phrase but I’m gonna let it ride for now hehe), grew up experiencing poverty with my immigrant single mama and sibs but work a middle-class mental health and public ed job now, though of course I also have to do 847 side-hustles to afford my life. I hold my family’s lived experiences with violence, medical trauma, xenophobia, housing instability, and the despair of poverty very close to my heart and political sensibilities, right next to the lived experiences of the friends and students and community members who have trusted me with their stories too.

Platform-wise, I miss things and I have been wrong. Put another way: I go with what I think will be the lesser of two evils, and we’ll never know if the evil we have now is less evil than the evil we avoided. U feel? As always, I just want you to know at least as much as I do as you come to your own conclusions. I hope you will use the Bitchtucci Guide to supplement your own conversations and research…or if the conversations and research sound intolerable to you, O Burned Out One, then, yeah, hop on.

My endorsement criteria are basically: what’s better for renters and/or people with unstable housing, for kids in public schools to have the freedom to be and learn whatever they want, and for long-term autonomy, dignity, and self-determination of folks continually shoved into the most dire circumstances of life in this vicious economy. If your criteria is what’s better for…lol…landlords…or…homeowners…or…parents who want to prevent kids from learning about reality in schools…then…idk, babe…you probably already have too many tabs open. Go ahead and close this one too.   

• Election Day is Tuesday, May 16th. Find your nearest ballot drop-box here. Remember, your ballot just needs to be POSTMARKED by 8pm Election Day, so you could conceivably drop your ballot into a USPS Blue Box all the way until the last pickup of the day. If that makes you nervous, you also have libraries as drop-sites (my personal fave).

• Here is the holy sacred golden general Voters’ Pamphlet, including an audio version, a large print version, and translations into Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, and Chinese. 

• If you need a replacement ballot, don’t worry, go here. To track your ballot, go here. 

• I looked at endorsements and writeups from Ballotpedia, OPB, the Merc, the League of Women Voters, Willamette Week, Imagine Black, APANO, NW Labor Press, Stand for Children, BerniePDX, and more.
  Many of these sources include recommendations for statewide or region-wide races outside of Portland, like the Mount Hood Community College and Beaverton board races. 

• I made this sick playlist that makes no sense!!! It’s some of my finest work in terms of capturing my exact mood at this strange time in the season. I don’t want to hear ANYTHING about putting Drake on it. I am really interested in the bad girl/good girl (false) dichotomy right now. I am so drawn to being both a bad girl and a good girl, but ultimately I think I’m neither. King Princess also speaks to this. The discourse is rich on this playlist. Amen. 

• Love you. Mean it. Take care of you. Who knows what voting really changes but there will be no white flag upon my door re: creepy anti-trans school board try-hards. Get a nice little pen for your nice little ballot. Gooooood girl. 

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Candidates 

• Multnomah County Commissioner, District 3: Ana del Rocío
  It is so joyful to endorse Ana del Rocío in this race after following her career for so many years. This is our chance to elect a smart, experienced public servant who has the chops to hit the ground running on day one.

  
  If we’re comparing her experience to opponent Julia Brim-Edwards, we’ll see that JBE does have a longer run in various public offices and has become very effective at what she does. But this is not a case of standing with the more experienced politician because we are afraid a newcomer is too green to make real change. Del Rocío has her own long history of political and nonprofit coalition building. At some point, we have to decide if we want to take a chance on a candidate who might be a better representation of our East County community, and who might be more aligned with our values. We then have to trust that electing her is the only way she can get the experience that would put her neck-in-neck with a JBE.
  
  I contend that this could very well be ADR’s moment and that we should rise to meet it. We are indeed at a high crisis level with homelessness, rising rents, early education, public mental health initiatives, and public services. We are fucking with some serious money and resources at the county level. If I believe that ADR’s personhood and experiences will make her a comparably competent public servant (which I do), then I would rather elect someone whose values will begin to shift and solidify county plans and resources in a more human-centered, BIPOC-centered, renter-centered direction.
  
  Willamette Week compares Julia’s specific plans with Ana’s analysis and considerations, urging voters to move swiftly toward Julia’s specific plans. But I have no reason to believe that ADR would not also be extremely effective at enacting specific plans once she reaches this office, and would wager that she would better connect with our community’s needs in East County because of her lived experiences.  
  
  I have endorsed opponent Julia Brim-Edwards several times in the past because she has been more compelling and more progressive than previous opponents, or more experienced and decisive than idealistic previous opponents. She has accomplished a great deal and brings lots of local policymaking experience to this role. But she says she would allocate more resources aka funding to police and first responders to cut down on response time to criminal activity. Politicians so often try to soften the blow of funding police by looping in all first responders, but Brim-Edwards specifically addresses crime here. So I know she means cops. I am just going to drag my little cop-distrusting heels into the ground here and say that more money for cops, likely in incentivizing new hires with higher salaries, is not what I want. She used to be a Nike executive and on the one hand, has helped broker legislative deals that resulted in large corporations like Nike paying more of their fair share toward public works and education; on the other hand, she may have benefited from Nike putting tons of money into PACs that have helped elect her. Technically legal but seems like a real loophole to allow someone quite wealthy to reap the benefits of corporate connections. These things give me pause, on a values level. 

  
  Ana del Rocío is just so much more aligned with my values, and if you’re reading this guide, probably more aligned with your values too. Endorsed by East County Rising, Imagine Black, PCUN, APANO, Vote Pro Choice, Oregon Working Families party, and she has pledged not to take cop money.
   

• Multnomah Education Service District: Position 6, At Large: Danny Cage
  Danny is running unopposed but deserves a special shoutout.
  
  Let’s talk about MESD and the MESD Board real quick. Our county Education Service District oversees 100,000+ students across all the big and little school districts in our county, from Portland Public Schools to the Corbett School District tucked into the Gorge. They oversee projects and hiring that are too complex or expensive for an individual school district to take on, like hiring and divvying up licensed school nurses to serve across several schools, or training positions across several districts to fill holes that individual school districts can’t meet. The MESD website summarizes that their major spheres of influence are School Health Services (this is how licensed nurses end up in schools in our county), Special Education, Alternative Education, Technology, Outdoor School, and School Improvement.
  
  The Board triangulates and divvies up tons of resources, and can make or break strong policies or allocations of staff, programs, buildings, and trainings. Imagine if all the county school nurses had the backing of MESD to support our trans and gender-nonconforming students, and what if those nurses at schools are able to provide the first conversations with students and families about gender-affirming medical care? These are very real and very tangible impacts for our students. 
  
  As with any Board of Education, the best fucking thing a board member could be is pro-student, pro-considering families the experts in their lives instead of problems to be managed, and pro-letting expert educators do their fucking jobs without condescension or impediment.
  
  Let’s go back to Danny Cage, a young Black 18-year-old senior at Grant High School. His campaign Instagram quietly followed me months ago, so I was like, “OK LOOK WHO’S BACK!” He has been out here working with SunrisePDX, working on the Teressa Raiford Campaign, working as a staffer for Representative Hoa Nguyen, testifying in an incredibly self-aware manner at public hearings. Putting a young community organizer who is curious about politics, determined on their path for experience, but also looking at our systems with those fresh, radical Gen Z eyes is fun. It’s fresh. You LOVE to see it.
  
  Resist ageism, which might find this campaign cute or trite. Cage has been working his ass off to secure real endorsements from some of our favorite unions, organizers, school board members, and legislators. You can read this article from the Oregonian if you make a seven-day trial account (you don’t have to pay LOL). I think a lot of adults say they wanna be youth-centered but they’re actually not willing to give youth any real power. Cage will learn a lot in this role, sure, but I hope other board members heed his priorities and follow his lead in this opportunity to really hear what students today are saying they need.

  Endorsed by Imagine Black, the Oregon Education Association, Planned Parenthood, Vote Pro Choice, East County Rising, and more.
  

• Multnomah Education Service District: Position 1, Zone 5: Samuel Henry
  We’ve gotta keep Samuel Henry and frankly all of the MESD incumbents in their offices because the tactic of the week from creepy right-wing bored white guys (??? y’all…) is to infiltrate and obstruct on school boards. This is happening nationwide and is responsible for much chaos and harm to children.

  
  Henry is an experienced lifelong public educator, a professor emeritus of education, a board advocate for education all the way up to the state level, and has been in it to represent Black and BIPOC voices for decades. He has middling reviews on ratemyprofessor…………but listen.

  You compare his years of relevant and meaningful experience to opponent John Masterman, who has unsuccessfully run for various offices in Oregon, who opposes abortion altogether, opposes trans athletes from competing in sports, opposes free speech on campus LMAO, opposes critical race theory, and who would almost certainly be using this role to be obstructionist and create chaos and harm for Multnomah County students. His expertise in education is summed up by his voter guide statement, which urges us to not see color or gender, and includes gems such as, “If [students] are behind on achieving grade level milestones, we need to help them catch up.” BRILLIANT INSIGHT!!!!! ROUND OF APPLAUSE!!!! 
   

• Multnomah Education Service District: Position 3, Zone 2: Renee Anderson
  Another incumbent who should stay where she is. Anderson is another retired educator with real expertise in this field, and who has demonstrated a commitment to bettering education for our students in a systematic, organized, budget-conscious way for decades. She is another Black board member. We aren’t in the business of racial essentialism and knee-jerk endorsing any old BIPOC candidate, but I wish to flag for you here that Denyse Peterson is also Black, so if Anderson, Peterson, Henry, and Cage all win their spots, we are looking at a majority-Black MESD board, and a majority BIPOC board because Asian American Helen Ying and Latinx Jessica Arzate are staying in office. This is…………fucking cool. Hehe. When you have a toxic white supremacist space like public education, it really just heals a lot to put people in power who have lived experiences out of the white majority. This is not to say that BIPOC people cannot have internalized white supremacy; we all do. But Arzate and Ying are well-vetted, very cool board members.

  We want a county education service district that can hold the hopes and struggles of our student population, who are majority BIPOC, with care and consideration. We want a board that will support critical race theory even if complaints get taken up with the board by angry community members. We want a board that will support racial and gender justice initiatives being explicitly written into the MESD training materials that reach hundreds of staff members across the county. We want a board that just feels more COMFORTABLE, because there is something SPECIAL about being in a majority BIPOC space if you’ve worked your whole life in education as a brown person, always in the minority at your mostly white-staffed schools. I hope the board meetings feel like a RELIEF. I hope they feel FUN! Am I PROJECTING?????? PERHAPS!!!! 

  
  BACK TO RENEE!!! SHE IS A FUCKING MATH TEACHER WORKING ON BUDGETS!!!! This is, like, highly evolved Pokémon shit. WE LOVE TO SEE IT!!!! Endorsed by the Oregon Education Association aka literally teachers, PPS board members and union leaders, and many folks who currently work at MESD.   
  
  Opponent Walt Karnstein is an intellectual property attorney who has no education experience, but did secure 2 write-in votes back in 2008 for the Republican state rep gig. Nice.

• Multnomah Education Service District: Position 5, Zone 1: Denyse O. Peterson
  Peterson currently serves as the chair of the MESD board and deserves to be re-elected. She has held service leadership positions all over Oregon, including for PPC, the Skanner Foundation, has worked with DHS on family reunification assistance, and has even, according to Ballotpedia, served as a Personal Family Counselor for Dignity Memorial at Caldwell’s Funeral and Mortuary, assisting  families in “Planning ahead 4 All the Right Reasons.” There is so much to love about this. Peterson strikes me as a person with veeeery vast lived experiences that we can only scratch the surface of here. Re-elect her. 

• Multnomah Education Service District: Position 7, Zone 3: Katrina Doughty
  Re-elect her!!!! Doughty has proved her worth in current tenure on the MESD Board, is championing an LGBTQIA2S+ advisory committee on the Oregon School Boards Association, and is very pro-gender-affirming education and care. On a board filled with former educators, Doughty has healthcare experience, which is suuuuper important expertise to have at MESD since nurses, healthcare centers, and guidance about how to treat illnesses like COVID all are under the MESD umbrella. She names youth affected by juvenile justice as a priority. She’s very openly pro-choice. She would be the one token white on a majority-BIPOC board if all goes well.
  
  Endorsed by East County Rising, Next Up, Planned Parenthood, and many, many local elected officials, including many, many BIPOC elected officials. 
  

• David Douglas School District: Position 5: Aaron D Barrow 

  I really look to his endorsements here: the teachers’ unions, the school board members, outstanding BIPOC community leaders like Kayse Jama and Hoa Nguyen.

  
  Opponent Aaron Ford is using the word “transparency,” which appears to be a right-wing dog whistle for skewering teachers who teach real history, health, etc. This is part of the project that wants us to believe that a children’s book, for instance, that features two gay dads is pornographic, brainwashing our children, drag performers are perverts, etc etc.
  

• David Douglas School District: Position 7: coin-toss
  All of the lefty sources that offer endorsements for local school board races seem to be pointing toward Kate Sherman, a progressive DDSD mom with strong priorities. Running against her is Deian Salazar, another political newcomer and neurodiverse lefty thinker. Sherman has more local and community experience, including experience as a parent activist within the DDSD, and Salazar has put together an extremely sweet and thoughtful website and a platform about wanting to go to schools and listen to educators and students. I think either candidate will be a voice on the school board for racial justice, sexuality and gender inclusion, and disability justice.
  

• Gresham-Barlow School District: Position 4, At Large: Julie Frediani
  Look to the endorsements here. She’s got Ricki Ruiz, the Gresham Barlow Education Association, United Food and Commercial Workers union, and every GBSD teacher I have talked to.

  
  Fun fact: I was an educational assistant in Julie’s first grade classroom, like, ten years ago when I was fresh out of undergrad. The kids loved her. She liked to teach them call-and-response attention getters. For one, she’d say, “Hear ye, hear ye,” and the class would say, “All hail the queen.” LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
  

• Gresham-Barlow School District: Position 7, At Large: Stefanie Craft
  LOOK TO THE ENDORSEMENTS HERE. Many, many GBSD educators, the retired GBSD superintendent Jim Schlacter, workers’ unions, Ricki Ruiz, Stand For Children, and more.

  
  Craft has the disposition to listen to teachers and students, and she cites inclusiveness and feeling welcome at school as one of her key issues. When you have two candidates who have not worked in education before, you have to ask: WHO is going to listen to and advocate for educators and students? The school board is often a final check or balance when educators and district administration disagree. We want to elect school boards who have humility and a willingness to learn about complex educational processes, and who will ultimately be on the same team as teachers and students.
  
  Compare this to Ligatich who has carefully constructed a neutral-sounding campaign that centers student achievement. But read closely: he also cites “transparency,” that right-wing dog whistle for being combative to teachers for daring to include gender or racial diversity in their materials. You KNOW it’s bad when I have cautionary tales from SEVERAL educators in Gresham Barlow School District, AND SEVERAL STUDENTS who had this guy’s kid in class with them and who detested his Draco Malfoy “My father will hear about this” energy. Is that the transparency Ligatich wants? Yeah yeah, as a father/son duo, they had the right to be teacher-undermining ~citizen watchdogs~, but classmate observers also have the right to remember you and hate your ass and snitch on you to a local voter guide years later. That’s free speech, baby!

  Ligatich would be a right-wing chaos stoker. I don’t believe for a second that he’d be moderate or reasonable. The problem, of course, is that he thinks doing things like eliminating Women’s History Month or Black History Month reading lists is moderate and reasonable. GBSD has good leadership and strong priorities right now. We do not need an obstructionist dude who has contempt for teachers, who doesn’t want students to have the freedom to learn about the real world. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ABOUT VOTING FOR STEFANIE CRAFT IN THIS RACE. I consider this one of the riskiest races with potentially explosive consequences in this whole election. 
     

• Reynolds School District: Position 2: Joyce Rosenau 

  She’s running unopposed but I stan her. Prior to retiring, Joyce was an ELD teacher and teacher’s union representative in my district. She was a ruthless and meticulous negotiator for the union, and it is a SLAY that she is running for school board to continue advocating for students and educators. She has a very, very dry sense of humor and I would often listen to her union negotiations on Zoom school board meetings and whoop, “OH SHIT!!!!” after she said something spicy but correct to district administration. 
  

• Portland Public Schools, Zone 3: Patte Sullivan
  Be advised, Derrick Peterson is still on the ballot but he recused himself from the election after scandal broke that he belonged to the Harvest International Ministry, a pro-Trump Christian nationalist church. He says he is not a Christian nationalist. :) Ok.
  

Ballot Measures 

• Measure 26-238: Establishes residential tenant resources program, eviction representation, capital gains tax: Yeah
  
  This is not my most enthusiastic yes, but it’s a yes nonetheless. I think it’s a real longshot. I agree with a lot of the criticism that says the funding could have come from somewhere else, or the administrative costs could have been capped. But I do think we have to take a daring swing at the housing crisis. I would honestly rather see more tenants winning in evictions court sooner. And if this doesn’t pass, I would love for Multnomah County to immediately pick up funding for evictions representation.
  
  This ballot measure’s signature tagline is “Eviction Representation for All.” When tenants get taken to court, or when they elect to go to court to fight an eviction, they lose nine out of ten times. Going to court is basically an emotionally exhausting and soul-crushing way to buy a little more time before ultimately being tossed out with an eviction on your record.

  
  I would simply LOVE to see good lawyers be paired with tenants, ESPECIALLY because I see violations of Oregon’s Habitability Law ALL THE FUCKING TIME. According to ORS 90.320: Landlord to Maintain Premises in Habitable Condition, tenants have a right to a habitable home or they are eligible to sue and receive restitution in the form of rent for the duration of an uninhabitable home. Habitable conditions include, per section (h): “Floors, walls, ceilings, stairways and railings maintained in good repair,” etc. Among my own family, my friends, my students’ families, and the community at large, I see rampant toxic mold, leaking faucets, refrigerators that don’t work— and aren’t fixed within 24 hours, windows that don’t pass code, and all manner of bullshit that, under ORS 90.320, means that tenants are actually owed rent money for the time that they live in a legally uninhabitable lodging. I see people getting evicted as retaliation for bringing these concerns up — ALSO ILLEGAL!!! — and people getting evicted for nonpayment of rent even when their housing wasn’t legally habitable. THIS IS COMMON!!!! 

  I SAY THIS TO SAY: I would love a quick pathway for tenants to remain in their homes, for their kids to remain at their familiar neighborhood schools with the classmates and educators who know them and love them, and I would love for corporate property management companies and landlords to be held accountable for livability and legality. So yeah, I am wanting tenants to lawyer up. 

  DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS LAW AS WRITTEN? To be honest, I don’t care. I don’t care how it happens. I will vote yes on this because it is a path forward. Are we really going to pretend like there will be other immediate, viable paths forward if this ballot measure, which has required the concerted effort and political capital of so many organizations and unions, does not pass? The proposed program would require that eviction notices be accompanied by a notice of right to legal representation, and evictions would be postponed until a lawyer could be appointed. The lawyers would come from at least five nonprofit law firms or renter’s rights organizations who would be contracted with this new Tenant Resource Office within County Human Services.  
  
  Here are some considerations. I, like you, recently Googled “what is a capital gains tax” to better understand this ballot measure. A capital gains tax is applied to the profit of someone selling their asset. In this case, assets like property, stocks, bonds, or other investments would be taxed at  0.75% of their net profit when sold. This is a little loosey-goosey, yes. Someone whose house exploded in value from the time that they bought it for a nickel back in 1954 would, yes, be taxed on their net profit. Some folks find this intolerable. Look within and decide how you feel.

  At least two publications have scrutinized the very general capital gains tax and have used the example of a senior whose primary living space has ballooned in value over the course of 40 years of living there, and who would be taxed quite a bit when they sold their home to downsize and retire. I agree that this is not ideal…but I have to compare this inconvenience in taxed profit with the inconvenience and unlivability of…being a renter literally being evicted with no recourse in this godforsaken town.
  

  EDIT: 5/11/23
  Hello babies. I have received some more specific information about how the planners of this ballot measure hope to keep the capital gains tax from being too punishing on middle-class asset-owners. Basically the plan is this: once passed, oversight of implementing this ballot measure will bounce to the County Commissioners, who will align the tax with state tax codes. At this point, exemptions can be built into the implementation of the tax, such as exemptions for folks selling their primary residences. The ballot measure does not explicitly outline these points, presumably to preserve flexibility throughout the implementation process. If we trust our County Commissioners to balance the needs of renters with the needs of middle-class folks with middle-class assets (fingers crossed LOL), then perhaps we can alleviate our worry about the loosey-goosiness of the tax as written. It’s still a yes for me, boys!
  
  There are more quandaries, of course. A bunch of shit in this law is subject to change based on the County’s annual reports, which are not always accurate. There is a lawyer shortage in Oregon, so many nonprofit legal firms may be reluctant to make this their de-facto sole specialty. Portland is just not a city very dense with lawyers when compared to other comparably-sized metro areas.

  
  There is a chance that this ballot measure would fund a program, and all of the loosey-goosey administrative overhead required to run such a program, only for the program to have the same kind of desperately stretched-thin vibe that many of our government assistance programs suffer from. Just ask anyone who’s called 211 looking for rental assistance or PGE assistance. I have called many, many times, both for my own family and for the families of my students, only to reach dead ends.
  
  I’m voting for it because I want to offer legitimacy to real attempts for tenant rights reform, and because I believe in representation for folks who are served with eviction notices.
  
  And if it doesn’t pass. I am throwing down the gauntlet for Multnomah County to PICK UP THE INITIATIVE AND FIGURE OUT A WAY TO EXPAND LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR RENTERS. Can we fund this somehow??? JESUS
  
  Read these helpful Street Roots op-eds by Mary King for more.
   

• Measure 26-240: Renew Portland Children’s Levy investment for five years: YES 

  Yeah for pete’s sake. This doesn’t increase the current tax rate, it’s a continuation of an oldie but goodie levy. The Portland Children’s Levy funds have been utilized efficiently, effectively, and have especially centered our kids who are suffering the most because of familial and systemic trauma and harm. We continue. 
  
  

  ✿

Happy voting, and good luck. If you need help getting your ballot picked up, getting a replacement ballot, etc. just DM me. I or one of my hot friends will try to find you the resource or helping hand you need. If you’re in a position to help others navigate voting, I hope you will cast a wide net offering your assistance too!

Thank you for reading. I hate to say it but I care about you and wish only the best for you! 

I do this for free cuz I’m a freak and I love it. Never an expectation but for those who always ask, you can venmo/cashapp/paypal me @marissayangbertucci. In addition to the chokehold of paying for my own life, I am supporting my mama with stage four esophageal cancer and saving money to take her back to Korea for a homecoming trip MAYBE THIS FALL!!, as well as keeping her stocked with cancer-fighting supplements and routine medical supplies. Plus it’s Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Maybe you just venmo me so I can buy her kimchijiggae. hehe. You can also mail us some medical supplies at this link.

xoxo, 

bitchtucci