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Novick is running to represent District 3, after a former stint on Portland City Council.

by Courtney Vaughn

Steve Novick says he’s ready to return to Portland City Hall.

On Friday, the former city commissioner announced his campaign for District 3, representing a broad swath of inner Southeast Portland that stretches east to I-205 and south down to the Woodstock neighborhood. 

Novick served on Portland City Council from 2013 to 2017. He lost his reelection bid to Chloe Eudaly in November 2016, after facing her in a primary election that spring that forced the two candidates to a runoff. 

He later endorsed Eudaly when she ran for a second term. Eudaly lost her seat to Mingus Mapps in the 2020 election. Eudaly said she has no plans to run for a council seat again, and is now encouraging voters to elect Novick in the 2024 race for District 3.

Novick, an environmental attorney who worked for the US Department of Justice and the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, wants to return Portland to its glory days. 

In a campaign statement, he leaned on 80s rock group the Go-Go’s to sum up his view.

“We need to work toward the day when we can say again, in the immortal words of the Go-Go’s: ‘This town is our town, this town is so glamorous, bet you’d live here if you could and be one of us,’” Novick says.

The former politician has a familiar refrain: he’s among the dozens of council candidates eager to restore the city to a version that feels lost to many residents.

“It’s been a rough few years in Portland, but we can’t give up on our city,” Novick said in a campaign announcement. “I’ll work like a dog to help bring Portland back.” The message appears near a photo of Novick with his corgi, Barley.

Novick cites homelessness, crime, and the housing crisis as top priorities, saying “both the left and the right need to get more realistic about the homelessness crisis.” He built a reputation as a progressive politician, but now finds himself on middle ground when it comes to housing and homelessness. Novick suggests the city reevaluate its developer fees on affordable housing projects that typically go toward funding parks.

“We won’t truly solve the homelessness crisis until we solve the affordable housing crisis. As long as we have tens of thousands fewer affordable units than we need, there will be some people who can’t find homes at all,” Novick says. “But that doesn’t mean we need to allow unlimited, unregulated camping until we have built all those affordable units, which will take years. We need to get people off the streets and into places that are safe, even if they aren’t permanent homes. Places like the sleeping pods in the Safe Rest Villages.”  

On crime and policing, Novick has a novel idea: “recruit more progressive young folks to be police officers, resulting in a force that increasingly looks and thinks more like Portland as a whole.” 

“I’ve been impressed with New Zealand’s creative ‘Do you care enough to be a cop?’ recruitment campaign,” Novick’s website states. It’s unclear whether that recruitment tactic would come with legal issues, or be embraced by the city’s police unions. 

Prior track record

Novick spent one term in office and previously oversaw the city’s transportation bureau. During that time, he was the architect of the city’s tax on exorbitant CEO pay, which imparted a surcharge on publicly traded corporations that pay their CEOs more than 100 times the pay of the company’s median salaried worker. Novick was also instrumental in passing a 10-cent tax on every gallon of gas sold in city limits, but couldn’t get endorsement of a fee to pay for street maintenance and repairs.

The gas tax is likely to come back to voters for renewal in the May election. 

While in office, he was known for progressive agenda and authentic, sometimes off-the-cuff remarks that relayed his passion for issues, but ultimately rankled conservative voters and the business community. Midway through his term on council, Novick asserted the Portland Business Alliance, now called the Portland Metro Chamber, would rather “burn the city to the ground” than embrace a tax to fund transportation projects. 

Before taking a job with the AG’s office in 2018, Novick delivered a steadfast, parting message to viewers on his final episode of a show he hosted on KGW at the time.

“Most of your tax dollars go to things that you like, like education and social security,” Novick told viewers. “Another thing is that unions are good. Third thing, global climate disruption is real, it’s threatening, it’s the worst crisis that humanity or a lot of other species have ever faced, and we gotta do something about it.”

Novick is the tenth candidate to file for District 3 in the 2024 Portland City Council race.