Rene Gonzalez discusses how he would tackle Portland's public safety challenges as mayor

KGW’s Straight Talk with Laural Porter

Portlanders will face a large number of decisions on the ballot in November, but one of the most of important and consequential will be choosing the city's next mayor. Whoever wins will take office right when the city switches to a brand new form of government, one completely different from the one Portland has used for more than a century.

The new mayor will immediately be tasked with hiring Portland's first permanent city administrator, and they'll also help set the city's agenda and set the tone for the culture of the new city government. So far, there are three leading candidates in terms of money raised, and they're all current Portland city commissioners: Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio.

Gonzalez was a guest on this week's episode of "Straight Talk" to discuss how he plans to tackle Portland's challenges with crime, homelessness, addiction and ambulance response times. Public safety and livability were a key part of his campaign when he was elected to the city council in November 2022, and he said he's maintaining that focus in his mayoral campaign.

"We went from very safe to average overnight, and that's been brutal for Portlanders," he said. "That was a big part of our identity. You could walk to the neighborhood grocery store or to a restaurant and feel safe, that your children could bike to the park. And all of that has been implicated in recent years."