We Endorse Portland Charter Reform
Our Just Future enthusiastically endorses Portland city charter reform. We’re part of a coalition supporting this much-needed change, Portland United for Change. As a group of like-minded organizations, we stand together to ask you to vote YES on Ballot Measure 26-228. We believe it is our best path toward a Portland city government that better represents the people and better serves communities of color, who have been historically underserved in harmful ways.
What Measure 26-228 will do:
- Allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference on their ballots.
- Establish city council districts so that our elected officials are accountable to specific communities.
- Make government more effective and transparent through professional city management.
Portland’s city commissioners don’t currently represent geographic districts (instead they all represent the whole city). This means that right now there’s nobody whose job it is to look out for our needs, specifically, in East Portland. A yes vote for charter reform fixes this (and improves a few other things). Too often city commissioners aren’t from or familiar with East Portland, so they tend to overlook us.
Our Just Future serves folks from 82nd Avenue to the eastern Multnomah County line. We support one of the most racially and socio-economically diverse and culturally rich areas of Oregon. In the Portland bounds alone, this includes two emergency shelters and 15 affordable-housing communities. Many of people we work with and programs we manage will be affected by this important vote. We’ve been working in this part of town for 34 years and know from decades of on-the-ground experience how positive this change will be.
Make sure you’re registered to vote, and join us in voting YES on Ballot Measure 26-228. Your voice matters. This change will make a real difference.
— all of us at Our Just Future
