City Council Entrance Interview: Mariah Hudson

Seeks to represent: District 2 (North and Northeast)

Age: 46

Pronouns: She/her

Job: Senior communications specialist for OHSU

Fun fact: She knows Northeast Portland streets better than anyone because she’s a runner.

Mariah Hudson grew up in Eugene, but as a kid she came to Portland often to go to punk shows. Now she’s been living in the city for more than a decade and is running for a seat representing District 2 so that her kids can enjoy the city as much as she did while growing up.

“Portland’s a city I’ve loved for years,” she says, “and I wanted to bring my kids back here to a community of doers and makers.”

Hudson has been a communications specialist for Oregon Health and Science University since 2018. She was the board chair of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods from 2016 to 2020 and now chairs a budget advisory committee that offers feedback to the city’s transportation bureau.

“We need leaders who are going to lead with an urgency I have from health care, with a vision I have for our neighborhoods, and with accountability I provided on our budget committees,” Hudson says.

Hudson has raised a little more than $102,000 and has qualified for $80,000 in matched funds through the city’s Small Donor Elections program. She’s been endorsed by SEIU, Teamsters Joint Council #37 and Future Portland PAC, which backs moderate candidates. She’s also been endorsed by Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards and city commissioners Mingus Mapps and Rene Gonzalez.

We spoke to Hudson about her campaign. The conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

WW: What are your top three priorities if elected?

Mariah Hudson: We really need to work on safety. I have a son who rides the TriMet bus to school with his tuba. For me it’s ensuring our streets are safe for everyone long-term. I also want to prioritize our affordability, and a big piece of that will be building the housing we need, especially in my district. My third priority is being prepared for climate change. I’m a former sustainability officer, so that’s a huge priority for me, to ensure that our communities are as best prepared as we can.

Do we need more or fewer police officers than we currently have?

We need to be right-sized for our city, and that’s going to be more police officers. Portland has grown, and we haven’t expanded our police force.

How would you foster economic growth in Portland?

Our recovery begins in the neighborhoods. I’m in District 2, and we have a lot of small businesses in North and Northeast Portland. I think investing in safety will help. We need wraparound support from the city, including better promotion and easier pathways through Prosper Portland and streamlining permits.

Do you support the city’s camping ban, and do you think the Multnomah County sheriff should be booking people arrested for violating the ban?

I do support the camping ban and getting people from unregulated camping into sanctioned camping places. Regulating camping is helping people into pathways to recovery, giving them choices for shelter, which we need to do. We should work with the sheriff on this because they are most closely aligned with the county services people really need to succeed and get out of houselessness and homelessness. I think we should enforce the rules for repeat offenders.

Which current City Council member do you and your policies most align with?

I worked with a lot of our commissioners because I chair the PBOT Bureau & Budget Advisory Committee. I would say Dan Ryan in terms of his work on the Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites and getting the Clinton Triangle going. I will say I don’t agree with Dan on everything. We part ways over things around neighborhoods and certainly the Columbia Pool.

What is the first piece of policy you would bring to City Council?

On the 15th we [heard] from Multnomah County on the metrics they outlined for the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and they’re supposed to have these achievable goals figured out. I don’t have great optimism it’s moving forward in a way I consider measurable and achievable, and I want to see the city pull out of the Joint Office. But I’m open to continuing it if I see performance improvement.

The county used to support women and children and families—that was the primary work there, and the city had services for single adults. That’s why we’ve traditionally had a sobering center here in the city, that the city supported. I would take that $32 million [the city’s portion of the Joint Office] and put it immediately into a sobering center or a couple of sobering centers. Hooper [Detoxification Stabilization Center] and the detox centers are pretty full, too, so I would propose another detox center with that money.

Do you support Carmen Rubio shifting some Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars to city bureaus?

I do support this. I’ve seen how the Portland Bureau of Transportation has aligned those dollars carefully with projects that otherwise wouldn’t happen, to create connections in our bike infrastructure, to help with mode-shifting to look toward those climate goals I think PCEF as an umbrella is targeting.

See the other Portland City Council Candidates here!