BROADCASTS.com

b'Mayoral candidate Sean Davis teaches writing at Mt. Hood and Clackamah Community Colleges. His memoir, "The Wax Bullet War", was published in 2014 on Ooligan Press. He\\u2019s also a U.S. military veteran.

2:00-4:21
Sean\'s work in arts: film, friend\\u2019s bands, an original opera, etc.

4:22-5:46 - On Portland\\u2019s unique art scene:
\\u201cArtists happen in a couple different ways. People turn to art because all of their needs are met and they\\u2019re able to do art. The second group turn to art despite their needs not being met and these people have chosen art over money. Then because of that they struggle because they have to get whatever jobs that are available\\u2026That struggle creates character.\\u201d

7:57-10:12 On the Regional Arts & Culture Council [RACC]:
\\u201cArt is huge in my life and I credit it with saving my life\\u2026 The general fund is half of the budget and our roads are falling apart, we can\\u2019t pay our police officers\\u2026 Art will always be in that list of priorities, but I cannot commit to saying I\\u2019m going to give them the same amount or more of budget. What I will commit to is working with the community.\\u201d

10:55-11:35 On RACC and diversity:
\\u201cI love the equity grants, but I don\\u2019t think they spend enough on diversity. I\\u2019d put out more grants where it says in order to get this grant a certain percentage has to be minorities or women."

12:08-13:45 On taking an active role in the arts as mayor:
\\u201cI\\u2019d be an art liaison between RACC and the city\\u2026 When people\\u2019s voices are being heard in the community, they are invested in that community. When they\\u2019re invested in that community, art organically will grow from it."

14:20-14:48 On bringing the state legislature into housing talks:
\\u201cWe need more support\\u2026 If we have developers on our side, if we have property owners on our side, and we go down there and say \'We want this to happen\', then I don\\u2019t think they can keep it from happening.\\u201d

15:42-16:44 On innovations in housing policy:
\\u201cMy idea is to look at the inventory of buildable land that the city owns and say we\\u2019re going to start a couple projects\\u2026 We\\u2019re going to put a priority on everything that you do in these different projects and shorten that time and save you money."

18:23-18:54 On creative housing solutions:
\\u201cWhat they\\u2019re doing there [at Right2Dream2] I\\u2019ve never seen before\\u2026 these guys are looking out for each other. It\\u2019s not a homeless camp, it\\u2019s a conduit to get people back on their feet."

19:47-21:03 On the community\\u2019s role:
\\u201cI think the big thing I\\u2019d try to change is our leaders\\u2026 when they see the issues we\\u2019re facing they see dollar signs instead of people, they see spreadsheets instead of neighborhoods\\u2026 We have to respect the work they did in those communities.\\u201d

22:30-23:09 On Portland\\u2019s Art Tax:
\\u201cI think it does great. I\\u2019d like it to be a little more transparent\\u2026 Art in our schools is very important. So important that the voters voted that to be a permanent tax. The thing I\\u2019ve heard is that it\\u2019s too difficult to figure out how to pay it.\\u201d

24:32-25:40 On saving Portland\\u2019s soul:
\\u201cPortland is unique because of the people who live here\\u2026 The person who sells you your coffee is in a band, the person giving you your food at night is an actor\\u2026 The last mayor we elected had a history of lobbying for developers and we\\u2019ve become overdeveloped. We have to save our soul.\\u201d

26:36-28:23 A place representing your focus on planning:
\\u201cWhen I first moved to Alberta Street seven years ago [Last Thursday] was an organic, artist-run event\\u2026 It was a beautiful, small, low-key thing\\u2026 now it\\u2019s just thousands of people moving shoulder to shoulder, young kids looking to get into trouble, some of them at least. It just got out of control because we lost the artists that wanted to deal with it.\\u201d

29:00-30:05 On solutions:
\\u201cThe problems Portland is facing \\u2014 houselessness, housing issues, wages \\u2014 I think it\\u2019s an oversimplification to say these are separate categories and we have to attack them one at a time\\u2026 The solution for one thing might go in through the other."'