LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK What was the high point of 2023 for you? Rep. Jeff Helfrich R-Hood River, House Minority Leader The high point for me is always going to be how I’ve delivered for the people of House District 52, specifically bringing home funding for the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge. I’m also proud of wins in HB 2001, which started a needed conversation on addressing housing costs and homelessness in Oregon. I’m also humbled and honored to have been chosen Republican leader by my House colleagues. Oregon is hungry for real leadership and common-sense solutions after more than a decade of the majority party allowing our state to become a laboratory for the most destructive progressive experiments in American politics. Gov. Tina Kotek Meeting Oregonians in their home counties, all 36 of them. The First Lady and I are grateful for the hundreds of Oregonians who have invited us into their communities and shared with us their genuine reflections on what’s working and what’s not. Rep. Earl Blumenauer D-Oregon’s 3rd District The year 2023 was not anybody’s high and had lots of lows. Anne Tan Piazza Executive director, Oregon Nurses Association Tthe high point of 2023 for me was the activism undertaken by nurses and other health care workers to address Oregon’s safe- staffing crisis. The passage of HB 2697 was historic, not just for Oregon but for the nation, and sets an incredibly high bar for the rest of the country on how to ensure safe staffing in acute-care settings. Nurses across the state, and ONA members specifically, raised their voices on behalf of their patients and their communities in an unprecedented way, which resulted in the passage of a “best in the nation” staffing law that will save lives, retain nurses at the bedside and bring nurses back to work who had left due to unsafe working conditions. Jason Brandt President & CEO, Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association Without question, the high point was getting further away from the grueling regulations endured by Oregon’s hospitality industry during the pandemic. The saga of COVID was nothing less than an explosion of disruptions and uncertainty. Moving beyond those challenges and reclaiming a sense of normalcy in our industry remains our focus. And there is plenty left to do in support of our restaurants and hotels as they work to sustain their operations and the employment opportunities they provide in a post-COVID world. Curtis Robinhold Executive director, Port of Portland I’m extremely proud of the work the Port team completed this last year to transform Terminal 2 into a site for innovation in mass timber and housing manufacturing. We partnered with the TallWood Design Institute and the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition to secure a $10 million EDA Build Back Better grant to start T2’s campus transformation, and we worked with Hacienda CDC to kick-start the site’s reactivation as an innovation hub through their Mass Casitas pilot project. Seeing Oregon families step into brand-new Hacienda- manufactured housing units built at T2 was a unique thrill. PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN Gov. Tina Kotek Anne Tan Piazza 33
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==