Kate Snyder for Portland City Council At-Large

Experience

Work and Service

I have spent more than two decades involved in Portland's public policy making — listening, showing up, and working toward good outcomes for our city.

2008

Masters in Public Policy & Management from USM's Muskie School.

2007–2013

Portland School Board. I served on the Portland Board of Education from 2007-2013. I chaired the Board for two years, and chaired the Finance Committee for two years. I worked hard to prioritize students and school staff through some very challenging budget cycles.

2009–2011

Executive Director, State of Maine Board of Corrections. I served as ED to a Board that was created by the Legislature to help create financial and system efficiencies within Maine's county jail system.

2011–2014

Director, Sales & Marketing, Zylo Media.

2015–2019

Executive Director of the Foundation for Portland Public Schools.

2017–2019

Founding member of the Portland Parks Conservancy.

2019–2023

Mayor of Portland. I led the city through one of its most challenging periods from 2019-2023. I provided steady leadership and I always worked to be collaborative with my Council colleagues, city staff and the community.

2024–2025

Fundraising committee for the newly renovated outdoor public pool, which was named the Kiwanis Pool and is now called Rising Eddy Pool.

Present

Current member of a Portland Parks Conservancy Working Group focused on the new First Light Park, formerly called Portland Harbor Commons.

Issues

Homelessness

The City of Portland's commitment to addressing homelessness by pairing people with shelter and services reflects our community's compassion, and our nonprofits do amazing work. But too many people still need help. Portland, the region, and the state need more emergency shelter.

I believe we can and must work more effectively with the state Legislature, regional partners, and the Governor to engage town, city, and county governments. Collectively, we can meet needs, share costs, and really help people.

I also hear the hard daily reality carried by downtown businesses. Those concerns are real and do not conflict with compassion. Our response must work for everyone who calls Portland home.

Housing

We need more housing in Portland. This is clear. Our supply is nowhere near meeting demand, and prices are so high. I am committed to working with all stakeholders to get more affordable housing built.

We need open minds about how and where housing gets built.

How do we work together to address the very real need for more, affordable housing, while also continuing to be the Portland that we love? Change is hard. And it's our only constant. If there were easy out of the box solutions — we'd plug 'em in. But — this is hard work and it requires a lot of work, patience and listening. I think we can all agree that there is a demand, and a need for more housing in Portland. How do we get there? What's the city's role? The state's role? How do we work to address the need for housing within our region, with neighboring communities?

It's clear that we need to continue to work together — creatively — with open minds — and intention with all of the stakeholders in order to build more housing that is affordable.

Transportation Planning and Safety

I am passionate about how we can make improvements to Portland's transit infrastructure in order to make walking and biking safe, protected, and a truly feasible transportation option. As mayor, I made sure that each annual budget included funding for bicycle infrastructure improvements. But, there is so much more we can do to invest in and prioritize funding for protected bike lanes, and pedestrian byways.

Everyone deserves to move about our city safely. Young, old and everyone in between ought to be able to take a walk, go to the park, bring kids to the playground, take a run, walk along our city's streets, go to and from work, do errands, drive, walk, bike…safely.

There's currently some great work happening to plan for safer transportation in Portland. Within the next several municipal budgets we have a chance to make generational improvements to make Portland safer and more enjoyable to get around. Let's do that. Let's work together to prioritize investments in transportation safety within the context of our local budget.

Community Investment Opportunities

As you walk through Portland there are too many empty storefronts…once vibrant sections of town now vacated…frustration that buildings sit empty while we desperately need housing.

I believe we have an opportunity to work with more intention as a municipality to engage in community investment opportunities. I think we can proactively bring real estate owners and developers to the table with our city staff, elected officials and the community to explore creative ideas for housing, and small business. In my opinion, this is not the time to be reactive only to what comes forward in the form of an application. We have a chance to work as partners to design pathways that will help us meet our city's crucial needs.

Schools

I started to engage deeply with Portland Public Schools in 2002 when our two daughters started kindergarten at Nathan Clifford School. In 2007 I was elected to the school board, where I served for 6 years, two years as Finance Chair and two years as Board Chair. As a city councilor I will work collaboratively and in partnership with our elected school board. I know that when young families struggle to be in Portland, our schools feel it first, and I want to work to attract and keep families in Portland.