Mayoral candidate Sean Davis teaches writing at Mt. Hood and Clackamah Community Colleges. His memoir, "The Wax Bullet War", was published in 2014 on Ooligan Press. He’s also a U.S. military veteran.

2:00-4:21
Sean's work in arts: film, friend’s bands, an original opera, etc.

4:22-5:46 - On Portland’s unique art scene:
“Artists happen in a couple different ways. People turn to art because all of their needs are met and they’re able to do art. The second group turn to art despite their needs not being met and these people have chosen art over money. Then because of that they struggle because they have to get whatever jobs that are available…That struggle creates character.”

7:57-10:12 On the Regional Arts & Culture Council [RACC]:
“Art is huge in my life and I credit it with saving my life… The general fund is half of the budget and our roads are falling apart, we can’t pay our police officers… Art will always be in that list of priorities, but I cannot commit to saying I’m going to give them the same amount or more of budget. What I will commit to is working with the community.”

10:55-11:35 On RACC and diversity:
“I love the equity grants, but I don’t think they spend enough on diversity. I’d put out more grants where it says in order to get this grant a certain percentage has to be minorities or women."

12:08-13:45 On taking an active role in the arts as mayor:
“I’d be an art liaison between RACC and the city… When people’s voices are being heard in the community, they are invested in that community. When they’re invested in that community, art organically will grow from it."

14:20-14:48 On bringing the state legislature into housing talks:
“We need more support… If we have developers on our side, if we have property owners on our side, and we go down there and say 'We want this to happen', then I don’t think they can keep it from happening.”

15:42-16:44 On innovations in housing policy:
“My idea is to look at the inventory of buildable land that the city owns and say we’re going to start a couple projects… We’re going to put a priority on everything that you do in these different projects and shorten that time and save you money."

18:23-18:54 On creative housing solutions:
“What they’re doing there [at Right2Dream2] I’ve never seen before… these guys are looking out for each other. It’s not a homeless camp, it’s a conduit to get people back on their feet."

19:47-21:03 On the community’s role:
“I think the big thing I’d try to change is our leaders… when they see the issues we’re facing they see dollar signs instead of people, they see spreadsheets instead of neighborhoods… We have to respect the work they did in those communities.”

22:30-23:09 On Portland’s Art Tax:
“I think it does great. I’d like it to be a little more transparent… Art in our schools is very important. So important that the voters voted that to be a permanent tax. The thing I’ve heard is that it’s too difficult to figure out how to pay it.”

24:32-25:40 On saving Portland’s soul:
“Portland is unique because of the people who live here… The person who sells you your coffee is in a band, the person giving you your food at night is an actor… The last mayor we elected had a history of lobbying for developers and we’ve become overdeveloped. We have to save our soul.”

26:36-28:23 A place representing your focus on planning:
“When I first moved to Alberta Street seven years ago [Last Thursday] was an organic, artist-run event… It was a beautiful, small, low-key thing… now it’s just thousands of people moving shoulder to shoulder, young kids looking to get into trouble, some of them at least. It just got out of control because we lost the artists that wanted to deal with it.”

29:00-30:05 On solutions:
“The problems Portland is facing — houselessness,...