After a short break I’m really happy to be back in the podcasting groove and cannot wait to share this interview with Oregon State Rep Khanh Pham.
Rep Pham is a former community organizer who’s worked with OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon and the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO). Most recently she was a founding member of the coalition that created the Portland Clean Energy Fund and she continued that momentum by playing a major role in passing three clean energy bills in her first session.
You might recall hearing from Rep Pham in a previous episode, when I caught up with her at a Youth vs ODOT rally in September of last year. Back then she was a rookie legislator and just emerging as a transportation reform leader. Since then she’s firmly established herself in that role by speaking up with testimony on several big projects and, most notably, by grabbing a seat on the powerful Joint Committee on Transportation down in Salem. It’s also worth noting she’s recently hired former policy manager from The Street Trust, Andre Lightsey Walker, to be her transportation advisor.
Advertisement
Rep Pham and I talked about all that stuff and a whole lot more in this interview. If you’re curious about how a progressive democrat from Portland will impact transportation policy in a highly partisan legislature, what her vision is for a post-ODOT 82nd Avenue, or if you want structural reform of ODOT and the Oregon Transportation Commission, I think you’ll love this episode.
Listen via the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also read a full transcript of our conversation via the PDF below:
[pdf-embedder url=”https://bikeportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/pod-pham-draft-for-transcript.pdf”]
This podcast is a production of Pedaltown Media Inc., and is made possible by listeners like you. If you’re not a subscriber yet, please sign up today. You can listen to more episodes and find out how to subscribe here.
Jonathan,
Can’t believe you and Pham are supporting the Portland Clean Energy Fund! It is one big slush fund and is emblematic of all things wrong with Portland. They just awarded $12 million of tax dollars to a group whose executive director, Linda Woodley, had previously served time in prison for defrauding energy companies and had amassed millions of dollars in liens for unpaid federal and state taxes. They had to cancel the grant. Wokeism gone awry unfortunately. If we can’t be fiscally responsible eventually even generous Portland taxpayers will close their wallets.
https://www.opb.org/article/2022/01/07/portland-clean-energy-fund-oregon-withdraws-grant/
Hi H. Ovekov,
I disagree with you. I’m aware of that oversight failure with that one grant and agree it’s disturbing that it ever happened. The way I see it, that one episode isn’t really about PCEF more broadly and is rather a story of mismanagement from folks who are supposed to do more due diligence and ask harder questions, and about a very bad actor taking advantage of that bad oversight. The PCEF coalition and the idea/program in general is still a really great one in my opinion and worth of support.
Yeah, I agree. The Portland Clean Energy Fund is a boondoggle. I wish we could use all these millions to clean up our bike paths (MUP’s) and prevent camping and crime on them. That would allow them to be used for green transportation and reduce our carbon footprint more than buying air conditioners for people (which is one item they have been spending money on). And they they awarded the $12 million to a fraudster in their woke scurrying to award money to a BIPOC group without proper fiduciary oversight.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/council-votes-ac-unit-program/283-b2952eab-8322-46af-b167-36d1510e7a5d
Did no one else notice that at 46:13, Rep. Pham equates a certain type of cyclist (male, certainly) and a certain type of cycling with “toxic masculinity”? She indulges in some lazy stereotyping as she contrasts apparently virtuous cyclists – moms with kids, for example – with those less-than-virtuous, spandex-wearing cyclists (again, most likely men) with $1000 bikes.
I wish you, JM, had called out her lazy thinking in that moment, but I guess we cyclists are just grateful for any support at all.
Before listening to the podcast I had been indulging in some of my own lazy thinking – in supposing that Rep. Pham is a really thoughtful politician. Your podcast disabused me of that notion, so thanks for that. Her heart is certainly in the right place and she should be commended for being willing to serve, but I think we deserve political leaders who think more deeply and more carefully about important issues.