A Political Dispatch From The Thumb
Once upon a time, I spent three years writing a blog called Portland Communique. It was well-regarded, well-read, and one of the few examples of what some called “stand-alone journalism” around at the time. For awhile afterward on my personal blog FURIOUS nads!, I continued to stick my nose into local affairs and elections.
I don’t really talk about local politics much anymore. Were I to start a blog (I’m not, so don’t get excited), it’d be called The Thumb because that’s what our new District 2 looks like—it’s a side view, there’s even a thumbnail—and also as a play on The Finger.
At any rate, since this election ushers in Portland’s new form of city government and its use of ranked choice voting, I thought I would, I hope briefly, mention how I voted and why.
Mayor
Like most people, I wasn’t overly thrilled with our choices for mayor. That seems to happen a lot here. The most important thing here was that I did as the Don’t Rank Rene movement asked and did not rank Rene Gonzalez at all. In the end, I only ranked five candidates and my fifth was a write-in.
-
Liv (Viva) Osthus. I do not actually think Osthus is the best candidate for mayor, but I wanted to communicate two things: the lackluster field, and my appreciation for Osthus’ focus on the idea that Portland has lost control of its own narrative. Given the ways in which the mayoralty changes with the new form of government, the office really will be the sort of “Head Storyteller”, to use the phrase from her OPB questionnaire.
-
Keith Wilson. I’m loathe to back a businessman for mayor, but at the same time two things are true: the field is lackluster, and of all levels of government arguably a city is the most business-like. The business-inclined often have a harsher view of the unhoused, but at least in [his OPB questionnaire] he states that he “do[es] not support jailing individuals for simply refusing shelter”—although that leaves some wiggle room to find other pretexts to arrest. Given the ways in which the mayoralty changes with the new form of government, I don’t think Wilson is overly a risk, presuming a council ready to exercise its powers.
-
Carmen Rubio. The rest of my rankings ultimately are more about making sure I’d cast votes against Gonzalez than about any kind of enthusiastic support. Here, for all intents and purposes in my own head I ranked Rubio and Mapps equally, and effectively flipped a coin as to who’d be third and who’d be fourth.
-
Mingus Mapps. See above.
-
Phil Belmont. Enough said.
District 2
Much of my early culling for the council seats to be elected from the Thumb came from this North Peninsula Review article, and much of that came around the issue of using a vacancy tax or other tools to push back against out-of-town property owners or private equity firms just sitting on empty storefronts, including the idea of activating them with short-term or temporary project use.
Part of the argument here is that neighborhoods can find themselves in either a virtuous cycle or a vicious circle when it comes to what exists to go do and who is bothering to come out to do things. If half your downtown (like St. Johns, say) or business district is empty storefronts, it seems less like a place to be. The less that people want to be there, the less anyone wants to open a business there.
So, let’s force the issue.
When reading through various interviews or questionnaires for these candidates, I did downrank in my initial thinking anyone who couldn’t stick to word limits in their answers, but that didn’t quite as heavily factor into my final decisions.
-
Michelle DePass. As noted by Willamette Week, District 2 “includes the city’s highest concentration of historically Black neighborhoods, including Albina”, and as noted by Portland Mercury, “when she was 12 years old, DePass worked at the Black Panthers’ free health clinic on North Williams Avenue, in the heart of the historic Albina neighborhood”. DePass also made reference to a “car free downtown” on Bike Portland, and in her OPB questionnaire states that “no one should be criminalized for being houseless”.
-
Sameer Kanal. This ranking comes mostly from a combination of his OPB questionnaire and the Mercury endorsement. In the former, Kanal mentions police accountability, housing (including “market-rate, affordable, subsidized, and social housing”), not expanding I-5 as we cap it to restore Lower Albina, and supporting a vacancy tax.
-
Jennifer Park. As indicated in the Review article, Park supports “options around taxing vacancies”, while the Mercury endorsements note “her career working in nonprofits to advance social justice principles”. In her OPB questionnaire she indicated she wants to “prioritize Portland Street Response operating at a 24/7 service level”.
-
Elana Pirtle-Guiney. My final three rankings were more or less tied, but looking back at my notes again, Pirtle-Guiney probably should have been sixth on my list. I think I got a little bit autistically overwhelmed trying to find all my information while filling out my ballot today. Here it came down to a cross between her OPB questionnaire where she notes that “jailing someone for being homeless leaves them homeless but now with a criminal record”, and the Week endorsement.
-
Marnie Glickman. See above note, although looking back at my notes again, Glickman probably should have been fourth on my list. In her OPB questionnaire she notes she wants to “ensure Portland Street Response operates 24/7 with an expanded portfolio”, and on Bike Portland she notes that “Portland’s transportation system should facilitate the safe movement of humans of all shapes, sizes, and abilities”.
-
Laura Streib. See above note, although looking back at my notes again, Streib probably should have been fifth on my list. In the Review piece, Streib backed “incentivize and/or have a vacancy tax for landlords to activate their spaces for small businesses, nonprofits, or pop-ups to revitalize our downtown sectors”. In her OPB questionnaire had the right things to say about housing, including the need to “ensure we build units that can accommodate our aging populations”, backs some degree of participatory budgeting, and says she “do[es] not favor arresting and jailing people who are houseless”.
In the end here, I think I was satisfied with looking at my picks and seeing people of color and women, two things I most decidedly am not. In no way does that automatically guarantee that useful and dynamic perspectives and policies will follow, but I feel comfortable with voting to push the inaugural District 2 in that direction.
Just a few stray, remaining notes. Yes, perhaps surprisingly to some, I voted against the “rebate” measure. Although I support some sort of Universal Basic Income, this particular design is suspect, as is the fact that it seems to be an experiment on the part of California businessmen who I guess either wanted to use our state as a testbed or are just somehow fucking with us?
Finally, of course I voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, because our choice right now is between outright fascism and very much non-fascist liberals upon whom political pressure can be brought to bear to push them leftward on some problematic positions such as the continuing genocide in Gaza, which anyway is something on which a sitting Vice President can’t exactly stray too far off current White House course.
First, stop Mine Furor.
Then, get President Harris to protect Palestinians, for whom it really would only get much, much worse under a second Trump term.
As noted by Dave Karpf last year (and mentioned here at the time), the choice is between electing the Democrat and then “fight to articulate and pass new proposals the make the world better”, or electing the fascist and then “fight like hell just to keep the world from getting worse”. Anything else you might do with your vote for President is about your own sense of moral purity, but there is no moral purity in a presidential election.
There is only harm reduction.
So, there you have it. Your rare taste of Portland Communique —the Thumb edition—nearly twenty years later. My ballot gets sent back tomorrow, and then I join the ranks of the breath-holders.