2025 State of the City | Vancouver

The PNW Report attended the 2025 State of the City Recap on Monday night at Firstenburg Community Center. Representatives for Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell were in attendance. Nobody was in attendance representing MGP (shocker). Will Fuentes was also in attendance. Most people were respectful. A few negative Nancys, but what can you expect?

Much of the conversation focused on the homelessness situation. We will get into that, but we first wanted to recap the other topics that were covered:

Immigration

Mayor Mc-Enerny-Ogle confirmed that VPD will not enforce any immigration-related EOs. There was a lot of cheering on-site when she announced this. There was one person who booed, who received some nasty looks from the rest of the individuals in attendance. 

Prop 4

Prop 4 failed by a slim margin in the November 2024 election. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle stated that The City of Vancouver is in desperate need of police-related funding, so they are reworking the proposition and will release it as Proposition 5 on the November 2025 ballot. She believes the reason why it failed was the addition of the new traffic cameras around town – she thinks people don’t want to be “watched” – so they will remove the traffic cameras from Proposition 5. She said Vancouver is the second lowest staffed police department in Washington State with a population of over 100K.

PFAS

The clean water issue was mentioned. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle said that the City of Vancouver has a grant to handle the unsafe levels of PFAS in our drinking water. In Summer 2025, they will be installing granular activated charcoal filters in our water stations. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle commented that Water Station #14 consistently has the highest levels of PFAS, so they are going to start by installing the new filters there. They are currently testing all the water stations quarterly and are providing regular updates on their website.

Federal Grants

The City of Vancouver relies pretty heavily on federal grants. There were questions about how the current presidential administration would affect a blue city in a blue state’s ability to get grants, particularly in relation to the I-5 Bridge Project. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle stated that Senator Cantwell voted to confirm Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy because they had an agreement that he would not cut federal grants to fund the Bridge Project if she did so. Whether or not that will remain to be true, we shall see…

Tariffs

Yep, they’re hurting us. The majority of the city’s pre-existing contracts are going to need to be renegotiated with contractors that use Canadian suppliers. The majority of the city’s steel comes from Canada, so to make a story short, we are going to be paying more and getting less. 

A New Flag

The city announced that they are releasing a flag design competition to have a new city flag designed. They showed a pretty funny video where they showed the current Vancouver flag (designed 32 years ago) and asked residents what they thought it was. Basically nobody knew, and when they found out, they were shocked that it was supposed to represent the city of Vancouver. The Mayor described the “mascot” as an Eagle with a seagull’s head (lol) and basically just said it doesn’t represent the city anymore. The design competition is open until June 14th (Flag Day).

Economic Growth/Development

Vancouver is growing really, really fast. Like faster than the City really knows how to handle. They reiterated how crucial it is for Proposition 5 to pass in the fall. They also said they are in desperate need of affordable housing, which they are mandating and working with new developers for. In the next 1-2 years, there are four main development projects they are prioritizing:

Waterfront Gateway

This project will connect Downtown Vancouver to the Vancouver Waterfront in a safe and seamless manner. The area that will be used is the 6.4 acres directly behind City Hall (it is currently used as the parking lot for Vancouver Farmers Market). There will be 95 affordable housing units in the apartment, and around 400 units overall. Construction breaks ground in Spring 2025.

Main Street Promise

Main Street Promise is a big initiative for the City of Vancouver to make the historic Main Street safer and more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists. If you’ve been downtown at any point in the last few months, you’ve likely seen this construction happening. Construction completion is estimated in Spring 2027.

The Heights

Another project that you talked about was a new project called The Heights, which is at the former Tower Mall site. It’s an inclusive community full of low income, housing, modern income, housing and high income housing – construction will start in 2026. 

SE First Street Improvement Project 

If you live in East Vancouver, you’ve likely been seeing this construction since 2023. The goal of this project is to make First Street safer with wider sidewalks and bike lanes. Construction should be done sometime in 2025. 

The Homelessness Crisis

This was arguably the biggest topic that was discussed at the 2025 State of the City. It was clear by the audience response that this is very top-of-mind for the majority of city residents.

Mayor McEnerny-Ogle and Jamie Spinelli (Homeless Response Coordinator for The City of Vancouver) stated that their goal is to find a solution that is supportive and sustainable for both the housed and the unhoused in Vancouver. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle recapped that they have had 112 grads from the Safe Stay program last year, but 54 members of the unhoused community died last year due to harsh temperatures.

The need for additional structures for the unhoused was mentioned; Mayor McEnerny-Ogle said that, in the interim, they have been opening up city buildings during months associated with harsh temperatures. They had 75 members of the unhoused community living in the old library basement in the winter. They are currently working on building the Bridge shelter that will be opened by Summer 2026.

Many of the valuable insights about the homelessness emergency came from the community forum that happened directly after the meeting. This was an open forum where residents and members of the general community were able to ask questions of Mayor McEnerny-Ogle and Jamie Spinelli.

One resident expressed concern about Burnt Bridge Parkway and how it appears as if the city is just moving the camp from one side of the street to another instead of permanently clearing them. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle and Spinelli took the time to explain how much time it takes to get people off the streets into a Safe Stay unit with the intent of graduation. If they just moved the camp somewhere else, the underlying issues would still remain in another part of Vancouver. They are trying to solve the problem in a sustainable way, and the reason they are currently moving the residents from one side of the street to another has to do with reducing fire liability.

Jamie Spinelli said that the influx of homeless individuals in our city is actually not from Portland. They are from neighboring cities in Washington who are not doing a good job of interacting with and providing for the unhoused. They were very quick to debunk the “crime train” argument that many individuals have against the proposed I-5 light rail program.

Overall, it was a successful evening, and we can’t wait to attend the 2026 State of the City address to see how far we can come in a year.