A Small Language Change
A new name, something progressive, and the DSA... again.
Just like our favorite District 2 Councilor Sameer Kanal, my “small language change” is actually three different things! Is this joke dumb? Too bad.
Fresh Coat of Paint
First, the “big” announcement. After speaking with friends and a few professionals, I’m updating the branding of this newsletter to encompass all the work I’m planning on doing over the next year. Here are my goals for 2025:
Continuing to bring you Portland-based news and opinion, centered around improving our city and returning to sane, effective policies.
Having conversations most of our local media has ignored out of ignorance or discomfort, especially from the liberal side of things.
Releasing a companion Podcast with interviews and additional commentary.
Producing a post-game show for City Council and County Board sessions. Highs, lows, and reactions from myself and guests.
Keeping everything free. Audience supported, but without a paywall.
So, I present the new name for this somewhat ambitious undertaking:
Recalibrate Portland with Max Steele.
All the old links work, so if you point someone to coachmaxsteele.substack.com, it still gets them here. Now when someone asks about my stupid newsletter, you can actually tell them what it’s called.
Max Supports Ceasefire?!
Friday night I grabbed drinks with a few friends and colleagues. Among them was former District 1 Candidate Terrence Hayes. He wanted to discuss Ceasefire, the Portland gun violence prevention program.
I had you worried it was going to be Jew stuff again, didn’t I?
Well, in a way, it still is. There’s almost nothing more Jewish than championing real, impactful social justice programs. Programs that are more than buzzwords and branding for a small group of people to funnel public money to their friends. You know, actual social justice?
With our city council looking to trim the budget, these are the sort of programs at risk. Terrence’s ask was that we make some noise to support this life-saving, non-controversial program. I’m going to do it by being (a bit) controversial!
I have been critical of Portland’s Black Lives Matter movement(s) for years. To quote Terrence from his first NW Fresh appearance:
“We watched millions of dollars go out in the name of black people in the last four years… and black people didn’t become more wealthy; didn’t become better sustained… violence went up in our communities.”
Certainly some black Portlanders became wealthy… Teressa Raiford, for example - and what do we have to show for that? A series of nonprofit scandals caused by young activists having no idea what they were doing. A few more black millionaires while the murder rate among young black men soared to record heights. Lots of yard signs and t-shirts. Not so much on actual lives… mattering.
I was tangentially involved in that first linked scandal. My former podcast cohost was the activist who took over the Women’s March with a group of other black women and allies. They didn’t know what they were doing and the money was stolen. This event was emblematic of what racial justice activism would look like in Portland over the next four years. We have a recent history of poorly thought out programs that involve hitting our problems with a firehose of money; no results tracking or accountability necessary.
Programs like Ceasefire are what it looks like when you actually pursue results; when your plan makes sense and you are qualified to do the job. Damn it feels good to be able to say something nice about a cause that progressives support! Feels almost like hope.
Here are a few interviews about the program, for those wanting a bit more info:
Portland Ceasefire's Program Director Sierra Ellis, one year ago.
Director of Community Safety Stephanie Howard, last week.
This program is working but it needs to be funded in an ongoing manner. The good news is everyone on the City Council seems to support it, although some (like Candace Avalos) have spoken of it as an alternative to police.
In reality the program is complimentary to the exact sort of policing we want to see in Portland. Ceasefire cannot function without a funded and staffed police bureau, and their work likely assists in keeping policing costs (and risks) down. They are symbiotic.
You want a reduction in police shootings and gun deaths in Portland? Back Portland Ceasefire, not at the expense of other public safety spending, but alongside it. The same can be said of Portland Street Response. In certain situations, they need police to do a co-response. These programs work well in tandem, but not at all on their own.
The DSA and the Budget
2026 can’t come fast enough. I’m already tired of writing about the Portland Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Too bad I took the job as “Portland’s resident DSA expert.” They have been busy.
First, we’ve got a blog post written by Brian Denning (current co-chair and Teamster) explaining how wrong people like me are about Portland’s political spectrum.
To sum it up: our local media, even Maja Vikland Harris’s Rose City Reform and Willamette Week have obvious conservative (maybe Republican) biases. Portland is actually a big business, hyper-capitalist town and our media run cover for the real power brokers - the developers.
Many of the reporters interviewed on Rose City Reform, and in the Portland City Cast, consistently describe Portland politics as a spectrum: from “moderate,” to “progressive,” to “far left”. This is false, and pretends that there is not a right wing. By omission or downplaying, reporters maintain the pretense that powerful interests aren’t right wing, and pit “moderates,” and “progressives”, against a “far left,” purposefully obscuring the field and players.
Next, they hosted their “Tax the Rich - Fund the People” rally at City Hall in Downtown Portland. Councilor Angelita Morillo formally joined the DSA (I told you so…), bringing their official number on the council up to four.
Also in attendance: Representatives Farrah Chaichi and Mark Gamba. Those two are not Democrats, and likely never have been. Tell your parents to stop voting for them!
The event was also the launch for Olivia Katbi’s campaign to be chair of the DSA again. Just in time for the Big Budget Fight, we’ve got the DSA pushing to cut the police budget and roll out a host of new services, all paid for by “taxing the rich” more. I wonder how low they can get our average income and tax base by the end of the year?
After Morillo’s reception at the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association last week (along with all of the “Police Intimidation”) the DSA is planning to flood the City Budget Hearings.
The first one is tonight (March 18th). If you can make it to these, please do so. Our communist councilors are going to be showing off how good they are at mobilizing a hostile crowd. The next few months promise to be heated as the debate over the budget gets underway. Fully half of the council has indicated they are opposed to Mayor Keith Wilson and Councilor Eric Zimmerman’s suggestion to use the Portland Clean Energy Fund surplus to save our city’s budget crisis and fund the homelessness plan.
It’s going to take a lot of us getting loud to show this crew that we are not interested in two more years of this bullshit. Fund what works and stop hoarding money for vague pet projects. We need to cut spending on redundancies, not on public safety or parks. The DSA is threatening you with false choices about austerity. It isn’t necessary. These lies are to keep people angry and pliable. They will keep jingling keys labeled “Trump” and “Musk” so that you are good and pissed off about them - the one’s who don’t want you to have a good life.
Portland is not run by billionaires (we literally have one), developers, or any other they/them. There is no secret cabal of capitalists. I should know because if anyone was getting a check from them it would be me. I’m a good liberal Zionist. We all know who the secret bankers are (if they exist) and I haven’t gotten so much as a free dinner! I guess a tech executive did buy me a beer once but if that’s all they’ve got, color me unimpressed.
Jeez, we've catered so very, very much to the loathed "developers" that today's headline is: "Portland Apartment Construction Falls to Lowest Level in More Than a Decade."
Progressives always need someone to hate--it tends to drift with their narcissism, but anyone with "too much of what we want grab for ourselves" usually suffices.
Most of all, our leadership thinks it's really, really smart and--therefore--the rest of us are dumb and owe them acquiescence, obedience, and silence. After all, sheep must be shorn.
They are largely young, products of decayed and infiltrated schools, and not big on morality--in the sense that people have inherent rights (god-given or not). Sorry: everything is fungible (thus we're now in the era of "gender expansive"); rights can be withdrawn on a governor's whim. They know nothing of history--if they did, they would be embarrassed (even mortified) to be called "socialists," heirs of an ideology that killed millions: the political zombie that keeps pulling the stake out of its hard little heart.
And they run Portland! (Thanks to Julia Meier's radical 25-percent-and-you're-in voting scheme... which none of them like to talk about.)
PS: Portland just was dislodged by Austin, TX and is now 26th largest city--and fading.
Still hoping you'll run for local office one day Max…...