Jun 4, 2021
Multnomah County passed what its leaders call a once in a
generation budget this week. It includes a record $2.81 billion
dollars. District 3 County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson says
she hopes some of that money, millions of dollars of it, will help
stop gun violence in the coming summer months, the traditional time
when shootings spike. She remembers witnessing a shooting herself,
in her own Portland neighborhood last summer.
Another big source of the money is the new, voter approved
preschool for all program, which she says expects to welcome its
first class of about 1,000 children in the fall of 2022. She
explains how this investment will help boost people, across
generations.
She's also one of the many local leaders, working on getting an
earthquake resilient bridge, crucial in the case of a cataclysmic
event.
I also asked her about her Sierra Club award winning environmental
work on cleaner transportation, both as a state lawmaker and a
county leader.
And, how her observations about sidewalks and parks, spurred this
tech worker, to get into politics.
But first, we talked about the pandemic. The county's move, to a
lower risk level. The vaccination efforts, and how they're
targeting harder to reach communities, especially in the Latinx
population. And the impact of COVID-19 on the essential workers who
are her neighbors.