TriMet wants your help to select their next general manager

The resignation of TriMet’s head honcho back in December has set off a flurry of organizing to make sure the agency picks a different kind of leader this time around.

Now the folks in charge of our regional transit system are asking for your input to make the choice. An online survey wants to know, “What experience, values and priorities are most important to you when it comes to selecting a new general manager?”

Given the importance of transit to our climate change and livability goals, the Getting There Together Coalition has led an effort to educate the community about the stakes of this position.

Among their demands are a commitment to an equitable and inclusive hiring process that includes transit-dependent people who’ve been historically left out of these decisions.

“We are in need of fresh, new leadership from TriMet with a clear vision to proactively champion transit as an essential ingredient to addressing our region’s growing inequality, carbon emissions, and as a job creator to tackle the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic,” reads a statement from the coalition. “Local community stakeholders have spoken loudly and for too many years about the need for basic improvements such as shelter at stops and increased bus frequency, as well as expansion of bus service to reach more people and essential destinations in the region.”

If you care about transportation reform in Portland and beyond, please take a few minutes to share your input via the survey. To learn more about the hiring process, check out TriMet.org.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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