You're an extremely well informed, perceptive and incisive critic of Portland's political and cultural scene. What sets you apart from others in this genre is your nuanced knowledge of the leftists who circulate in the activist-advisory board-nonprofit-government staffer-elected official revolving door. It is a pleasure to read your outstanding work.
What makes it stand out even more today is that our local print media has abdicated its responsibility for covering your beat. There was a time when Willamette Week and perhaps even the paper with two names, OregonLive/The Oregonian, would have provided readers with similar coverage, though they would have pulled some of the punches that make your pieces so interesting. The Oregonian's extensive reporting on the Red House scam and debacle not that long ago was extraordinarily detailed. It shows the ability was there. What was missing was the will to supply readers with the relevant who, what, where, why and hows.
Speaking of The Oregonian, it says a lot about the newspaper's priorities that it ran the story about the election of the city council president in 10th place on the randomly assembled scroll that passes for its online edition. The sports editor's complaint about the College Football Playoffs captured the headline, followed by four more sports items, a story about a celebrity, something about a former Intel executive and so on.
I am delighted to see Candace Avalos fail right out of the gate. May that trend continue.
The toppling of the statues of great American presidents and the city's failure to return them promptly to their plinths has pissed me off for years. Here is the letter I wrote then-city commissioner Carmen Rubio about it in February 2024.
I am one of your constituents. I am a moderate Democrat. I am also a retired lawyer and a gay man. I have a long-standing interest in art and art history. A few years ago, I was among a small group of people who received a term paper of the year prize from the Portland State University art history department.
I understand that Portland City Council is the latest holder of Portland's art-historical hot potato. By that I am referring to the fate of the beloved statues of great American presidents and others that were toppled by leftist mobs during the breakdown of law and order following the death of George Floyd. Very shortly you will vote on a process to decide whether or not statues of our nation's greatest leaders should be returned to the places of honor they enjoyed in Portland's cityscape for generations.
Have Portland's elected leaders lost their minds? The nation is just now waking up to the excesses of a small group of radicals and, yes, criminals, during 2020-2021 as if from a bad dream that turned out to be real. It's time for Portland's city commissioners to wake up too. Would you really entertain approving a process that could end by ratifying the actions of a violent and ignorant mob? Do Abe, Teddy and others need to hire historians to defend them against whatever spurious charges the usual contingent of illiberal activists might accuse them of? Is there any doubt that today's Portlanders enjoy a better America because of the presidencies of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt?
As a politician, you are surely savvy enough to realize that most of the loud activists who claim to represent "the community" are not even their democratically elected representatives and almost certainly do not represent or respect the views of the majority. Is it not clear by now that Portland voters are fed up with the grossly disproportionate influence our local governments have given them?
Anything short of returning Teddy and Abe to their original locations without delay will make Portland's politicians an object of ridicule from coast to coast. You will look like one of the out of touch members of the San Francisco School Board who could find no better use of their time than to rename schools because their namesakes failed to live up to the radical standards of 21st century cancel culture.
History has already decided that Teddy and Abe are members in good standing of the American pantheon. All the public requires from Portland City Council is an apology for the disgraceful delay in restoring them to their historic locations and an order to make it happen.
So, what to do if popular sentiment favors erecting new monuments to other individuals? It's simple: if a committee comprising a truly representative group of members of the public and nationally recognized experts in such matters decides the time has come to honor a distinguished person, by all means commission and install a suitable monument. There is no shortage of appropriate sites in Portland for new public art.
The only locations that are off-limits are the places that rightfully belong to Abe and Teddy and their peers.
You're an extremely well informed, perceptive and incisive critic of Portland's political and cultural scene. What sets you apart from others in this genre is your nuanced knowledge of the leftists who circulate in the activist-advisory board-nonprofit-government staffer-elected official revolving door. It is a pleasure to read your outstanding work.
What makes it stand out even more today is that our local print media has abdicated its responsibility for covering your beat. There was a time when Willamette Week and perhaps even the paper with two names, OregonLive/The Oregonian, would have provided readers with similar coverage, though they would have pulled some of the punches that make your pieces so interesting. The Oregonian's extensive reporting on the Red House scam and debacle not that long ago was extraordinarily detailed. It shows the ability was there. What was missing was the will to supply readers with the relevant who, what, where, why and hows.
Speaking of The Oregonian, it says a lot about the newspaper's priorities that it ran the story about the election of the city council president in 10th place on the randomly assembled scroll that passes for its online edition. The sports editor's complaint about the College Football Playoffs captured the headline, followed by four more sports items, a story about a celebrity, something about a former Intel executive and so on.
I am delighted to see Candace Avalos fail right out of the gate. May that trend continue.
The toppling of the statues of great American presidents and the city's failure to return them promptly to their plinths has pissed me off for years. Here is the letter I wrote then-city commissioner Carmen Rubio about it in February 2024.
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Dear Commissioner Rubio:
I am one of your constituents. I am a moderate Democrat. I am also a retired lawyer and a gay man. I have a long-standing interest in art and art history. A few years ago, I was among a small group of people who received a term paper of the year prize from the Portland State University art history department.
I understand that Portland City Council is the latest holder of Portland's art-historical hot potato. By that I am referring to the fate of the beloved statues of great American presidents and others that were toppled by leftist mobs during the breakdown of law and order following the death of George Floyd. Very shortly you will vote on a process to decide whether or not statues of our nation's greatest leaders should be returned to the places of honor they enjoyed in Portland's cityscape for generations.
Have Portland's elected leaders lost their minds? The nation is just now waking up to the excesses of a small group of radicals and, yes, criminals, during 2020-2021 as if from a bad dream that turned out to be real. It's time for Portland's city commissioners to wake up too. Would you really entertain approving a process that could end by ratifying the actions of a violent and ignorant mob? Do Abe, Teddy and others need to hire historians to defend them against whatever spurious charges the usual contingent of illiberal activists might accuse them of? Is there any doubt that today's Portlanders enjoy a better America because of the presidencies of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt?
As a politician, you are surely savvy enough to realize that most of the loud activists who claim to represent "the community" are not even their democratically elected representatives and almost certainly do not represent or respect the views of the majority. Is it not clear by now that Portland voters are fed up with the grossly disproportionate influence our local governments have given them?
Anything short of returning Teddy and Abe to their original locations without delay will make Portland's politicians an object of ridicule from coast to coast. You will look like one of the out of touch members of the San Francisco School Board who could find no better use of their time than to rename schools because their namesakes failed to live up to the radical standards of 21st century cancel culture.
History has already decided that Teddy and Abe are members in good standing of the American pantheon. All the public requires from Portland City Council is an apology for the disgraceful delay in restoring them to their historic locations and an order to make it happen.
So, what to do if popular sentiment favors erecting new monuments to other individuals? It's simple: if a committee comprising a truly representative group of members of the public and nationally recognized experts in such matters decides the time has come to honor a distinguished person, by all means commission and install a suitable monument. There is no shortage of appropriate sites in Portland for new public art.
The only locations that are off-limits are the places that rightfully belong to Abe and Teddy and their peers.
Free the political hostages NOW.
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I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say in 2025.
You have my vote!