Last of four stories. 

In Woodfords Corner, a 24-foot neon sign spells out “Hopeful” in rainbow letters. The sign has stood for four years as Portland has faced many challenges and moments where hope felt far away.

Not long after he launched his campaign to be the city’s next mayor, Andrew Zarro posed in front of the sign. He says it reflects how he feels about the future of Portland, and he’s not alone.

All five mayoral candidates used that same word, “hopeful,” when asked how they feel about the future of the city they want to lead.

The candidates have spent a lot of time in debates, interviews and at their own campaign events talking about solutions to the city’s biggest problems. But beyond addressing homelessness, the affordable housing crisis and the steady stream of asylum seekers coming to the city, they say they also have broader ideas about what they want the city to be.

“I would love to see Portland be the flagship for what it means to be a really intelligently run, progressive city. We think through complex problems, come up with creative solutions and make sure that they work,” said Justin Costa.

He wants to see the city take attainable, smart steps to move forward toward impactful, lasting change.

Dylan Pugh wants to see the city be bold.

“There is an enormous opportunity to widen our perception of what the city can do as a community of people. I’d really like to see us be at the forefront of all these issues we’re facing,” he said.

Pious Ali envisions a Portland that amplifies its best features – the ones he saw when it welcomed him and afforded him the chance to build a great life.

“Portland will be a city where everyone can thrive, regardless of their income, race or background,” he said.

Mark Dion sees a city that is safer and more just, part of an interconnected region with human connection as its heart.

“I want people to say this city really feels human,” he said.

Zarro wants Portland to be easy to get around and to be a place where people with diverse backgrounds can make happy lives.

“It’s a city that’s thriving, it’s affordable and there’s housing,” he said.

He’d like to see solar panels on every municipal building and to get to work quickly on climate mitigation efforts in the face of rising sea levels to protect Commercial Street and the island communities.

“Time is not really a luxury we have. It’s really important that we prioritize this,” he said. “The financial and political capital is here now.”

Climate action is a big part of Zarro’s platform. But all of the candidates said that working to protect Commercial Street, Back Cove and the island communities from rising seas will be crucial in the next five to 10 years.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The candidates have big ideas about how Portland’s infrastructure could improve.

Dion envisions extensive public transportation. He’d like to see more bus stops, faster routes and a light rail system connecting the city to Augusta, Bangor and Lewiston.

“It’ll change the relationship between those cities,” he said. “Instead of a 35-minute drive there, we could cut that down to 20 minutes on the light rail. Then living in Lewiston doesn’t feel so far away.”

Dion said that rail could help connect the colleges and hospitals in Portland with those in Lewiston.

He’d also like to transform Portland’s waterfront to add more space for recreation among the restaurants and shops.

“I’d like to be able to go fishing with my grandkids down in the harbor,” he said.

All the candidates say they’d like to see a city built for people, with more bike lanes and fewer cars.

“We need to get back to creating a space for the people who live, work and play here,” said Zarro, who wants to update infrastructure by fixing streets and sidewalks and putting up more streetlights. It’s also important to him to expand the city’s electrical grid so Portland can move away from fossil fuels.

Ali said the city could be more sustainable in the future by investing in renewable energy.

Pugh would like to see Interstate 295 routed around the city or moved underground so that it no longer bisects neighborhoods. He says I-295’s current location creates distance between neighborhoods and makes Portland less walkable.

“Imagine if there was a walkable promenade from the Old Port down to Back Cove and there wasn’t 295 there,” he said.

Costa has big ideas about using existing infrastructure to spread new technology. The city owns all the telephone poles in its boundaries, he said, so it could install free Wi-Fi networks in poorer neighborhoods to make sure kids and immigrant families have access to the internet. The same poles, he said, could provide a way to install more electric vehicle charging stations around the city.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Each of the candidates has his own ideas for social priorities in Portland.

Ali wants to offer better support to the city’s newcomers from other countries. He wants the city to provide them with more language classes and comprehensive support so that they can build sustainable lives in Portland. He views the immigrant community as a major asset for the city and wants immigrants coming in now to have as positive an experience as he has had.

Dion wants better support for aging Portlanders.

“There should be a way to engage and communicate with elders in a more effective way,” he said.

He wants the city to do everything it can to help its elders stay in their homes – whether that means creating easy ways for them to get to doctor’s appointments or working to improve sidewalks to make them more navigable. It’s front of mind for him that Maine  is an aging state.

Zarro would like to work with the school board to build out a free child care program in the city. He thinks that allowing parents to work more easily could have a major impact on the economy.

Costa also sees huge value in having more child care options. He’d like to work with schools to create more after-school and summer programs to keep kids connected to their school communities and give parents crucial support.

Pugh wants to create a city department of labor to facilitate unionization and support workers who want to buy out their employers and transform their workplaces into worker-owned co-ops.

“The goal is to increase peoples’ agency and control over their own lives” he said.

Some other ideas? Dion wants to see more free legal representation available to Portlanders. Pugh would like to require corporations establishing headquarters in Portland to build workforce housing. Zarro would like to adopt a cat that lives at City Hall. He’d call it “City Kitty.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Portland’s brick sidewalks and cobblestone streets are visible reminders of its history.

But just about every corner of the city has an invisible history, too.

Franklin Street, now a major thoroughfare, was once lined with row houses and shops – before urban renewal razed the neighborhood in the 1960s. Woodfords Corner was settled at the end of 1700s by the Woodford brothers. One brother and his wife manufactured decorative combs for women on the corner of Woodford Street and Forest Avenue. Now there isn’t a trace in the neighborhood of those tortoiseshell and cattle-horn combs.

The Woodford brothers probably couldn’t have imagined what their neighborhood looks like today, with a regular farmers market, a Colombian street food spot and a nail salon where their factory once stood.

Portland’s mayoral hopefuls know that whatever they conceive of today will take on a life of its own in the future. And they hope that Portland’s future will stretch on far longer than its past.

One thing that sets the candidates apart is how they talk about the city’s future – whether they want to bring back a past version of Portland, or build something new.

Costa believes deeply in Portland’s roots. He wants to foster and grow the community mindset that first made him fall in love with the city.

“Portland has long been a place where we really do try to help, we really do try to address issues, we don’t shy away from them,” he said. “I would love for us to become a place that’s more focused on that sense of community again.”

Dion also speaks of the richness of Portland’s past.

“We used to be the ‘Forest City.’ We have this rich fishing heritage, and when this city was built it was for people to walk through. If I can bring some of that back, I’ll be happy,” he said.

Ali see’s Portland’s future as an extension of existing successes.

“This city welcomed me and gave me a good life. In the future, Portland can bring security, safety and happiness to so many more people,” Ali said.

Zarro and Pugh think of the future differently, as an opportunity not so much to pull from the past as to build anew.

While Zarro wants to preserve the sense of community he has found in Portland, he thinks the way to do that is through innovation and new priorities that allow the city to evolve.

“The future of Portland is hopeful. I think we have a path forward that’s focused on not just climate, not just housing affordability, but innovation,” he said. “I think we can expect progress here. If we do things right, we have an opportunity to really be a shining city.”

Pugh sees the future of the city as something that’s probably unimaginable now. In a few decades or centuries, he thinks Portland may be as unrecognizable to us as it would be to the Woodford brothers today. He doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.

“My vision is not to return Portland to the way it was or to stabilize things, it’s to build the most just and prosperous city that we can imagine,” he said. “We should ask for and think that we can achieve way more than what’s on the table right now, because we can.”

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