Meet the Problem Solver

Portland has come a long way in the last few years. Crime is down, paychecks are up, and people are coming back downtown in droves. But plenty of challenges remain, especially in the city's business districts. Empty lots. Forbidding intersections. Sidewalks that families won't walk down.

Cue Anne Hill. As director of the City's Public Environment Management Office and leader of its Problem Solver team, she's on the front lines of an innovative project to reclaim public spaces that have fallen into disrepair or neglect. Through meetings with neighbors and business owners, the Problem Solvers identify issues, come up with environmental solutions, and navigate a maze of overlapping bureaucracies to make things happen.

The Problem Solver are more than a cleanup crew. They are the vanguard of a movement to use the tools of environmental design to energize the city's streets and sidewalks so that everyone in Portland can thrive.

What are the Problem Solvers, exactly?

As you know, the pandemic was tough on downtown Portland. We had storefronts boarded up, graffiti, needles, biohazards, vandalism. In 2021, Mayor Ted Wheeler and his team went walking up and down the streets. They started taking notes about things that needed to be cleaned up, block by block. He launched PEMO through an emergency declaration. And I got hired to set up regular neighborhood meetings where we can tackle these problems. We focus on the business districts or community hubs, because they've been hit the hardest. We use an incident command model - the same one emergency responders use for wildfire or floods. We bring folks from the community, folks from the city, folks from the police together to solve things.

How many business districts do you cover right now?

We hold 14 different Problem-Solver meetings to cover the whole city. Downtown, Parkrose, North Portland, Hollywood... We meet every other week and go down the list - what are the issues, what can we do to fix them?

What's a typical issue?

So many things. Something was vandalized. People are selling drugs on the corner. There's a chop shop over there. Can we check on the RV that's been parked for two weeks. Graffiti, garbage. All the things.

What's the goal?

The primary goal is activation. That's when you want to restore confidence, change the vibe, make the site friendlier. For example, we work with street artists to put up murals. It changes the mood. And it really discourages vandalism.

For example, the Chevron gas station on Fourth and Burnside was having a rough time. They had graffiti, their windows kept getting smashed. Someone tried to steal a car while the driver was putting gas in it! So we cleaned up the graffiti. We put up fairy lights to light the sidewalks. So we put up a mural highlighting Darcelle [Portland's legendary drag queen]. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was. That's activation.

What are the other goals?

Some sites, you just want to stabilize. Like people hanging out near a freeway. It's dangerous. So we put in a fence, like we did along I-405 downtown. Or maybe people are parking their RVs in an industrial area, making it unsafe for freight deliveries. We've installed barricades close to the driveways. That's stabilization.

Give us some examples of problems you've solved.

Are you familiar with signal cabinets? They look like mini refrigerators, they contain all the equipment for traffic signals. You see them on the side of the road, or on light poles. Unfortunately, they're magnets for vandalism. Sometimes they get so damaged that the crews can't open them. So we started wrapping them in vinyl, with roses, and a sign that reads "Portland is what we make it." They don't get vandalized nearly as often.

The thing is, we are creatures of our environment. Our environment shapes our behavior. If we accept vandalism as normal, if we accept graffiti and drug dealing, then they become normal. When we abandon our public spaces, or give up, then chaos takes over and no one feels safe. People leave, businesses close, and you've got empty buildings, abandoned public spaces and neglect. We can do better. The built environment can lift us up.

What drives PEMO's practices?

We informally apply the principles of human-centered design. We place the public's needs and experience at the center. My job is to listen to people's needs. My charge is to solve their problem. Many of the solutions are grounded in environmental design or "designing out crime."

How did you get into this line of work?

My first job in Oregon was working on a political campaign in Eugene in 1992. I helped Democrat Cynthia Wooten unseat a Republican in the Oregon legislature. Then I organized non-represented workers with the Service Employees International Union. I was part of the team that set up the legislation that allowed home care workers to be represented. I worked in workforce training for a while. Then I came to the city and worked on all kinds of stuff. The Portland Loo. The biodiesel fuel standard. Skinny houses. Traffic safety sensors. I work inside the bureaucracy and navigate the bureaucracy to deliver things that don't fit the bureaucracy - because that's what the public wants.

Do you still operate with an emergency mindset?

Yes. We have over 7,000 people living on the street. We have a fentanyl crisis. Don't get me wrong. We're making progress. We're headed in the right direction. But we aren't there yet. And we still have a lot of work to restore Portland's reputation nationally. We want the tourists. We want the conventions. We want storefront businesses to thrive and residents to feel safe everywhere in the City.

Have you received some recognition for your work?

Yes, in 2023 the Portland Metro Chamber proclaimed a day in my honor. They called it Anne Hill Leadership Celebration Day. And the Q-Side skatepark named a ramp for me. It's called the AntHill. "Anne-t Hill." That was fun.

What gets you up in the morning?

I like getting to Yes. Solving problems. My job is to go out and listen to people and identify the problem. Then I bring it into the bureaucracy and figure out how to get it solved. So what gets me up in the morning is making things better. You don't have to take your kids to school and walk through a cloud of fentanyl smoke. You don't have to have graffiti all over your building. Let's make it better. That's what gets me up in the morning.