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Metro seat attracts two candidates from MHCC
The Advocate
Three people are running for the District 1 Metro seat — and two of them are from MHCC.
Chris Gorsek, instructor of geology and criminal justice, and district board member Duke Shepard are running against each other, along with Shirley Craddick, a Gresham city councilor.
All demonstrate similar experience with local government, similar platforms and similar plans for Metro. All three candidates also focus on transportation and want to offer a louder voice for East Multnomah County.
Both Gorsek and Shepard stated in separate interviews that they wanted to update East Multnomah County’s transportation infrastructure to better accommodate MHCC and the surrounding community.
“Work at a regional level needs to be done in a way that better benefits East Multnomah County,” said Shepard. “One specific piece where I think we (East Multnomah County) lag is on transportation infrastructure.”
Gorsek said he felt the same way. “One of the big problems we face out here in East County is that we are frequently out on the periphery in terms of regional considerations.
What we need is to find a way to get us more integrated into the regional discussion,” Gorsek said. “Mt. Hood is probably the largest generator of transportation trips in East County.
You would think that after all the years of planning and transportation issues, that we would be a pretty strong focal point in terms of how Metro views us and the development of the transportation infrastructure in our area.”
Shepard expressed the same feeling that East Multnomah County is underserved by Metro.
“We have huge needs in East Multnomah County. Think about it: Connecting to the college, we have a unique asset in the region in the college and connecting your human infrastructure – your workforce and population - to the physical infrastructure - that connection hasn’t really been made here, for whatever reason lo those many years ago, the light rail line didn’t come to MHCC. But we should have the transportation infrastructure that treats Mt. Hood more as an economic hub rather than a spoke,” said Shepard.
Shepard also said Metro seems to favor Portland and Multnomah County’s west side in terms of funding. “If you look at what Portland has done, they’re more and more tying their transportation infrastructure to PSU (Portland State University) and OHSU.
Physically you see Mt. Hood separated from the city, both where it’s located originally and where the city has grown out to it. But physically, it’s sort of inaccessible and it’s not good to bike out here – you can’t bike on campus, really – and it’s tough to get here.
That’s the kind of thing someone at Metro should be fighting for, is how to grow the economy out in East Multnomah County using the transportation infrastructure, and the assets we have, rather than see it all go to the west side,” said Shepard.
Craddick was unavailable for interview. However, her website echoes the sentiments of both Gorsek and Shepard.
Neither Gorsek nor Shepard’s role at MHCC would be affected by winning the District 1 Metro seat. Gorsek would be able to continue as an instructor of geology and criminal justice.
Shepard would be able to continue as a member of the district board.
The election for the District 1 Metro seat takes place in May.
The Advocate reserves the right to not publish comments based on their appropriateness.