Dr. Esther León

Cultural Connection

Not only do we need to protect our immigrant neighbors from the unprecedented attacks of the federal government now, we need to think long term to combat xenophobia and sow the seeds of cross-cultural connection. We can start by funding free Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Russian (the top 4 most spoken languages in Multnomah county after English) language classes at PCC, as well as ESL classes.

Environment

Investing heavily in re-wilding concrete lots for urban farming and food forests is a dual method to combat the effects of climate change and improve food security. Organizations like Depave are already doing the work to empower disenfranchised communities and should be commissioned/funded by the city to spearhead this project. In addition, I will advocate for formally legalizing the harvesting of edible plants that already exist in public spaces, in personal quantities, to further address food insecurity. Another excellent organization I will advocate city funding for is Friends of Trees, who is working to exponentially increase the amount of annual tree planting, focusing on communities with low shade, often the areas into which our BIPOC and low income community members have been pushed into.

AI may be the wave of the future, but it is costing us our present environmental wellbeing. One of our environmental protection priorities must be establishing regulations, together with Metro regional government, to stop a complete take-over of living space, wilderness preserves, electricity, water, and other natural resources by AI data centers.

Neighborhood Association Reform

Putting the power of government back in the hands of the people starts at the Neighborhood Association level. There is a lot of confusion among the people of Portland as to what a Neighborhood Association even is, with part of the problem being that the name is similar to "Home Owner's Association". Let's expand the accessibility of this most local form of community involvement by re-branding "Neighborhood Association" to "Neighborhood Community Board", and offer them real investment from the city to focus on civic education, community events, and mutual aid.

Public Bathrooms — "Everyone Needs a Place to Pee"

We need a huge expansion in public restroom access to address city sanitation and provide our unhoused community members with dignity. We can start this tomorrow without building a single new toilet. I cannot tell you the number of times I drove to a local park to use the restroom between patient home visits, only to find the toilet "closed for the season." Let's start with paying city janitorial staff a living wage to keep park restrooms clean and open 365 days a year. We can also incentivize local businesses to open their restrooms to non-paying customers by funneling some of the city's sanitation budget their way. Longer term, we need to look into expanding the Portland Loo facilities close to high traffic bus stops.

Public Payphones

Bringing these back will not only improve public safety for emergency use, it will reduce dependence on mobile phones and allow people to go back to a time where they could enjoy a night in the community without being tied to the internet.

Portlanders are currently incentivized to work for either large businesses or not work at all in order to have healthcare. Most small business owners simply cannot afford to provide their employees with benefits. This needs to change. Healthcare is a human right. We can start making it accessible to all by working with the State to expand OHP eligibility to include owners and employees of small businesses under a certain revenue threshold. This will help create a thriving small business community, lower unemployment rates, and ultimately, make Portland healthier.

I also stand in strong support of healthcare unions including SEIU Local 49, ONA, and OFNHP. In doing so, I will use my voice as an elected official to advocate for fair working conditions and thriving wages.

Introducing "Holistic Zoning"

Current zoning policy in Portland is complicated, inflexible, and bloated with subclassifications. It suppresses a vibrant community culture by chunking the city into arbitrary divisions rather than treating it as one functioning whole. Imagine seeing the brain and heart as independent parts of a human body rather than relying on each other to function. This approach is at the heart of the housing crisis. These problems extend well beyond housing — why do some neighborhoods have extensive amenities within walking distance while others do not? Zoning is at the core. We need our city to relate to itself as a whole body rather than separate parts. "Holistic Zoning" would simplify zoning policy into 12 easy-to-understand categories that will make it easier for small businesses to grow, improve city walkability, and overall lower cost of living.

Resolving Homelessness (not just sweeping it away)

This is perhaps the most hot-button issue in Portland right now, and the most complex. Portlanders are fed up at the complete lack of effective measures to address the crisis of unhoused community members, especially in light of the $106 million meant to address homelessness, found unspent by the Portland Housing Bureau in February 2026. City sweeps and hostile architecture are not only inhumane, they fail to address the root of the issue and drive our unhoused neighbors further away from trusting any government initiatives to help. Shelters, while necessary, are not stable housing. Supportive housing is limited in availability and often requires tenants to be fully sober in order to stay there. Qualification criteria for affordable and/or subsidized housing does not reflect the cost of living with recent inflation nor our dwindling paychecks. Focusing on housing alone will not fix problems of severe addiction and antisocial behavior, which are present at higher rates in the unhoused community. Too often, progressive candidates have shamed citizens voicing valid quality of life and safety concerns when it comes to homelessness, such as massive trash piles accumulating around campsites, or sidewalk drug use. If we are to resolve this issue, we need to listen to all sides. I believe we can, and should, address deep systemic failures while holding people accountable for antisocial behaviors that impact quality of life and safety.

I am proposing we work with the county to revamp the affordable and subsidized housing approval criteria to actually reflect today's cost of living, so that community members can qualify for support before they are forced onto the street. No one should need to face the daunting task of overcoming addiction while unhoused. Therefore, sobriety mandates for supportive housing need to end. In order to keep those who run supportive housing programs safe without involving local police, we need to provide publicly sponsored de-escalation training, nonviolent communication training, and self defence education. Furthermore, we must collaborate with the State to make mental healthcare accessible for everyone.

We need to listen to the genuine concerns of local landlords, who are often made the villains of the housing crisis. We must acknowledge the financial burden placed upon them when taking in tenants at high risk of being unable to make rent, and the financial realities of maintaining a clean, liveable residence. This is why I am proposing we utilize funds from a vacancy tax (see "Local Economy" section of this platform) to guarantee security deposit, and first & last month's rent for taking in tenants with a history of being unhoused. These changes, as well as investing in public sanitation, establishing urban food forests, and expanding community programs as discussed in this platform, will address many of the drivers of poor mental health, thus additionally driving down rates of homelessness, self harm, and crime.

Full Audit of City Finances and Revenue

We are living in an era of all-time low trust in government. Recent revelations in regard to missing money from the Portland housing fund as well as the arts tax have shaken public trust. Portlanders carry a high tax burden yet don't see it reflected in high quality services. This is a major problem. We need to get our house in order so Portlanders know that their money is going where it is supposed to be going and efficiently utilized to benefit the collective.

Property Tax Reform

Home ownership is a financial behemoth to achieve as it is. Add to this the fact that Portland consistently ranks in the top 5 most expensive property tax cities in the country, and we are further contributing to home ownership disparity. When it comes to commercial property, taxes rise dramatically with building renovations and expansion, incentivizing owners to keep lots undeveloped, and properties aging. This is unsustainable. We need to consider alternatives such as a Land Value Tax, in which only the value of the land is assessed and taxed, not the value of the property resting on the land. This means that someone who builds an apartment building on a lot will pay the same amount in property tax as the owner of a vacant lot. It would incentivize development and discourage hoarding of the land for the promise of a "pay day." It would also keep from skyrocketing home owner tax rates. Like any tax, it isn't without its downsides, but overall, it would be much more equitable than the current property tax system, and, over time, it would noticeably improve the land use of the city. Coupled with the Holistic Zoning reform, the Land Value Tax would radically transform the cityscape and affordability of the city.

Reform the Arts Tax

Nobody likes the way the Arts Tax is administered separately during tax season. So let's roll this up with other taxes. This will reduce administrative overhead, allowing more of the money to actually go to its intended purpose. I would love to see this translate to expanded support for our local artist unions and the Portland Street Art Alliance.

Vacancy Tax: Commercial and Residential

The idea of a "vacancy tax" has been floated around for years by the city council, but it always seems to get stuck in the "discussion/study" phase. By taxing landlords with empty commercial and residential spaces who are holding out for tenants willing to pay outrageous rents, we can incentivize them to lower rent and expand the potential tenant pool. Vancouver BC has implemented such a tax for over a decade and has the data to show that it has helped keep rents from increasing while providing a large pot of money to go towards affordable housing. I am proposing residential vacancy tax funds be utilized to subsidize direct deposit and first/last month's rent for landlords taking in tenants with a history of being unhoused. For the commercial funds, I am proposing this go directly toward small business rental assistance.

An Alternative to "ACAB"

Portland's "ACAB" culture comes from a passionate stance against severe injustices committed by police, particularly against people of color. While the outcry is justified, the blanket villainization of law enforcement has only placed Portland Police Bureau on the defensive without actually accomplishing real reform. Shame culture does not work for anyone. We can both acknowledge the ugly history of policing AND work with our modern iteration of law enforcement to achieve equitable public safety. Making this city whole again will require mending relationships with the Portland Police Bureau on both ends: PPB needs to acknowledge the harmful practices it has utilized to target marginalized groups and actively work to de-militarize their operations, while citizens need to acknowledge that change is possible without making officers local pariahs, and thus driving understaffing of the police bureau.

We must end practices like Civil Asset Forfeiture, which currently allows police to keep anything they find while investigating potential criminal activity for the bureau. We must clarify the specific role of police rather than asking officers to play mental health managers. We can offload this burden by expanding the Portland Street Response operation. We must also mandate officer training in de-escalation, nonviolent communication and self defense techniques, and mandate use of force as a last resort, while simultaneously decreasing the number of lethally armed responses to calls. And, we need to encourage Portlanders to engage in civil dialogue with cops. This would be much more realistic if Portland Police Bureau intentionally participated in unarmed community engagement.

Responding to ICE, and Standing Up for Immigrant Safety

Like many cities in our country, Portland residents have recently been terrorized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating with near complete immunity from the law. I have personally witnessed the use of tear gas at peaceful protests and watched my immigrant neighbors slowly decrease how often they go out into public spaces, for fear of being violently taken without warning and held in detention centers under inhumane conditions, without respect for their constitutional or human rights. As the granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant, this moment particularly calls for me to take a firm stance. While city officials have limited power to stop federal operations, our current city councilors' responses have been feeble, with their actions against ICE's unethical operations amounting to a slap on the wrist, rather than treating them as the human rights violations that they are. Portland needs to show its teeth — we can and should make it as painful as possible for ICE to operate here through a few different avenues:

1. We mandate and enforce the need for ICE officers to have a valid warrant before they are allowed to even set foot onto any property managed by the city. This includes public schools, hospitals, courts, and libraries.
2. We drastically increase the annual impact fee city administration levied against the owner of the ICE detention center in December 2025. We then funnel a sizable portion of the impact fee directly into immigrant support organizations such as Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition and the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization.
3. We continue to prosecute the detention center owner for violation of land use agreement, to the full extent of the law, in an urgent manner, without continually pushing back trial dates, with the end-goal of giving ICE nowhere to operate in the city.
4. We audit our partnerships with local contractors to weed out any businesses collaborating with ICE's operations.
5. We offer free education to businesses and individuals alike on their constitutional rights and how to act for community safety.

Transportation is not only a matter of public safety, it is at the heart of issues of equitability and inclusion. We need to create spaces that are human-first: car dependency hurts Portlanders by not only worsening the climate, but demanding a certain level of income just to get from place to place. True freedom of transportation is being able to choose your mode of travel with the confidence that it will be safe, accessible, and affordable.

For bicycle transport, we can use the recently opened "4th Ave" bikeway/busway Downtown as a model for expansion of the protected bike network. We need to also continue expanding the car-free plaza initiative, installation of speed-calming concrete planters near schools and residential areas, and increase personal bike rack space. I also want to see the city invest in highly secure public bike lockers in high pedestrian areas, so you can trust you will still have your wheels there when you finish that Stumptown coffee.

The city needs to collaborate with Metro to create a regional funding mechanism for TriMet that supplements dwindling State funding. Our goal must be to create the best public transit system in the country. This includes expanding bus and light rail hours to past bar closing time, to decrease the risk of drunk drivers on the streets and make night life safe again.

I also say absolutely no to Waymo (the self-driving car conglomerate) establishing a presence in Portland. Let's keep public transit, taxis, and ride share services in the hands of our human labor force. Let's also stand up against any measures that make mass surveillance easier.