City Councilor Sameer Kanal recently reached out to BWNA and was accordingly invited to visit our March 9 meeting at Sylvan Learning Center.
Kanal is one of three city councilors (with Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Dan Ryan) representing District 2, which encompasses 29 North and Northeast PDX neighborhoods, including ours. Elected as part of the redesigned city governance structure enacted by Portland voters, Kanal and his colleagues began their terms in January 2025.
Prior to his election, the Portland native held various private and public sector positions, including project manager for the Portland Police Accountability Commission.
As his City Hall website notes, “Sameer is the first Indian American, and one of the first two Asian Americans, ever to serve on the Portland City Council. He is a renter and Timbers and Thorns season-ticket holder, and he lives with his partner in Kenton.” Self-described as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he is considered part of the Council’s progressive caucus.
Kanal began with a brief overview of his background, then answered neighbors’ and BWNA Board members’ questions for a half hour.
He expressed enthusiasm for the streamlined structure the City Council just adopted and will chair the new Committee of the Whole, which has oversight of finance, governance, labor, and emergency matters that require the attention of the whole council. He and his fellow District 2 representatives may not always agree on questions before the Council, he noted, but they conduct town halls together and regularly communicate on district issues. When questioned about reports of fractiousness on the new Council, he indicated that the first year of any significantly different operation will be bumpy, and the new group’s commitment to transparency (in contrast to what he claimed were past Councils’ closed-door processes) will naturally lead to more publicly contentious-appearing deliberations.
When asked what kind of things he’d heard about our neighborhood, Kanal responded, “Well, what should I be hearing about from Beaumont-Wilshire? What’s most important to you?” He got an earful about traffic on Fremont, parking problems and the proposed public plaza, and issues with the Critical Energy Infrastructure tank farm along the Willamette. When asked about ongoing funding of neighborhood associations, he said he believes the City Council will continue to support them.
Kanal elaborated on his public traffic safety focus, including better public transportation, bike infrastructure, and street repair. “I am a sworn enemy of potholes,” he said. He’d also like to see mitigation measures to slow drivers down.
Concerned by the controversial actions of federal ICE agents in our city, Kanal is the lead author of a proposed city ordinance banning officers’ use of facial coverings with some limited exceptions and requiring that they have visible badges. He supported the decision to make Portland’s sanctuary status binding on the whole city government, not just the police bureau.
Other emphases of Councilor Kanal include homelessness, climate change impacts on Portland, and the huge vacancy rate in housing units, compounded by the fact that owners can write off vacant properties.
After his Q&A, Kanal and a staff member stayed on for the remainder of the meeting to hear about BWNA’s ongoing neighborhood improvement projects.
As President Al Ellis noted, “I was impressed with Councilor Kanal’s courteous and calm manner as he frankly and deftly answered questions on a wide range of topics.”
BWNA board member Tim Gillespie was a public school teacher in the Portland area for almost four decades. A poet and essayist, he has lived with his family in Beaumont-Wilshire since 1979.