Councilor Pious Ali is the Chair of the Housig and Economic Development Committee for the City of Portland.

Portland City Councilor Pious Ali serves as the Chair of the Housing and Economic Development Committee for the city of Portland.   He is a Portland renter and is also up for reelection to the City Council next week.  Earlier this week this blogger contacted the Councilor both by telephone and by email to ask him how he intends to vote on the upcoming tenant protections on the November 8th ballot.  It’s Question C.

By way of response, this blogger received a position paper from the Councilor stating his support for Question 5 – there was no reference to Question C whatsoever anywhere in his response.

When passed, as it will, Question C would assure that renters receive 90 days notice to have their lease terminated and to receive notice of a rent increase rather than 30 days at is now.  Can you imagine trying to find a new apartment in this housing shortage, arranging the financing, the move and getting it done in 30 days?  I’ve been there and it was extremely stressful.  I ended up in a place I didn’t want to be in and had to move again. Changing it to 90 days in just common sense as well as decency..

And Councilor Ali won’t say whether or not he supports such a decent plank in his position paper?

Councilor Ali may well be aligned with Nick Mavodones, co-chair, Enough is Enough, who has called for an absurd blanket rejection of all 13 questions on the upcoming Portland ballot next week.  No exceptions.  Just reject them all. Rather than explain why voters should reject  each of the citizen initiatives in his September 28, 2022 mailer to voters, Mavodones attacks the political organization behind Question C. Maybe, just maybe there’s no justification for an individual analysis of each initiative.  So a big swipe at it all is easiest:   One attack fits all. Those are the tactics used by the “Crass” Paul LePage and his higher power Donald Trump.  What is Mavadones so afraid of? The “sky is falling in” like the chicken little speeches he has given in the past?  Is it change from the status quo that the uncompromising, former city councilor fears?

For anyone wondering why so many citizen initiatives are on the ballot, one answer is:  when the city council fails to do the job it was elected to do, citizens need to step in to do the right thing.  Maybe not all 13 Questions should or will pass  Some merit passage more than others. Some not at all. One initiative on the November 8th ballot is the  effort to limit the number of passengers that can disembark from cuise ships in Portland harbor to 1,000 per day should not be passed.  But a blanket rejection by the rigid Mavadones is an arrogant display of ignorance.