In this episode, we hear from Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. Hardesty was elected in 2018 and became the first Black woman to ever sit on Portland's five-member city council. In January of this year Mayor Ted Wheeler put her in charge of the transportation bureau. It was a surprising choice, given that Hardesty had never expressed an interest in the bureau and up until that time was mostly known for her politics and activism around policing, government accountability, and racial and social justice issues. Now, with almost a year under her belt, she's gone from having no experience in city transportation policy to being - what she referred to in this interview as, "the big dog when it comes to the city of Portland transportation".
This episode was recorded in the commissioner's office in city hall where we had a wide-ranging conversation about everything from automated enforcement cameras to the decline of biking in Portland, the role of police in transportation safety, her feelings about a new "civilian traffic force", what she considers an ideal street design, and much more.
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Links & Notes:
- Host Jonathan Maus (founder and editor of BikePortland, @jonathan_maus on Twitter)
- Full episode transcript (PDF)
- Jo Ann Hardesty on Twitter (official account)
- Jo Ann Hardesty on Wikipedia
- City of Portland official website
- 2019 Bike Year in Review, report by PBOT Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller
- Tools to address gun violence and traffic violence come together in Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood (BikePortland story 10/8/21)
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Our theme music is by Kevin Hartnell.