Council candidate Jamey Evenstar already told us what she thinks of neighborhood associations

Former City Hall insider once said neighborhood associations had “too much power and voice.” Now she wants Portland voters to hand her more of both.

Jamey Evenstar

Jamey Evenstar (formerly Jamey Duhamel) is running for Portland City Council in District 4. Before you consider whatever pitch she’s now making about community and civic engagement, you should know something: She has already told you in her own words exactly what she thinks of neighborhood associations and the people who show up to participate in Portland’s civic life.

That record reveals more than a disagreement over process. It reflects a governing philosophy that sees ordinary residents not as participants in democracy, but as obstacles to be managed.

That history matters in a city where public trust in government is already strained.

For decades, Portland’s neighborhood associations have served as the city’s civic backbone: volunteer-run organizations where renters and owners—newcomers and longtime residents alike—can show up, ask hard questions, challenge bad policy and hold City Hall accountable.

Which is precisely what Evenstar found intolerable.

An effort to sideline neighborhoods accelerated under former Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who launched an open campaign to gut neighborhood associations’ standing in city code and replace independent citizen voices with organizations more amenable to City Hall insiders. The backlash was fierce because residents understood what was really happening: not reform, but displacement.

As The Oregonian reported in 2019, emotions flared because Portlanders recognized that neighborhood associations are often the only place where regular citizens, rather than paid consultants, nonprofit lobbyists or ideological staffers, can directly challenge City Hall. The Oregonian covered what many already knew: Weaken neighborhood associations and you weaken public accountability.

That fight was never really about “inclusion.” It was about control, shifting power away from neighborhoods and into the hands of City Hall insiders who decide whose voices count.

The effort eventually collapsed.

Jamey Evenstar was not on the sidelines of that effort. At the time, then known as Jamey Duhamel, she served as policy director for Eudaly.

Text messages later released from Eudaly’s office after public records requests showed Duhamel expressing open contempt for neighborhood associations and the residents who defended them.

“This is why we need our neighborhood associations in their place. They get too much power and voice.”

That statement is unambiguous. Not better engagement. Not broader participation. Less voice. Less power. Put them “in their place.”

That is not a reform agenda. That is a statement of political intent.

She continued, mocking the residents testifying at a city council meeting:

“Well they are white and ‘high caliber’ soooooooo ... any inconvenience is a big deal to their cozy lives. HOW DARE WE STRESS THEM OUT!!!”

And then, summing it up: “So. Much. Privilege.”

The issue here is not whether neighborhood associations are perfect. They are not. The issue is whether a City Council candidate believes citizens should have meaningful participation in the decisions that shape their communities, or whether those voices should be put “in their place.”

Neighborhood associations ask difficult questions. They challenge assumptions. They force public officials to justify decisions in public, whether on homelessness, public safety, tax burdens or basic livability. Neighborhood associations are often the first warning system for failing policy because they and their neighborhoods live with the consequences first.

That is why they are inconvenient to power. And that is why they are essential.

Most recently, Evenstar served as chief of staff to Councilor Candace Avalos, hired at the start of Avalos’s term in January 2025. She was a prominent public voice for the office, defending a roughly $20,000 taxpayer-funded trip to Vienna for Councilor Avalos and two staff to study social housing, writing that the cost “was worth the learning” and that the office did not “apologize for spending our own budget in a way that prioritized our values.”

She is no longer in that role. The circumstances of her departure have not been publicly explained. What we do know is that a person who recently vacated under unknown circumstances, one of the most senior staff positions in City Hall, is now asking voters to give her a council seat. Voters are entitled to ask why she left before deciding whether to send her back.

This election offers a simple choice. Portland can continue down the path where insiders dismiss neighborhood voices as irrelevant and govern without interference from the people they are supposed to serve. Or it can insist on the principle that the people closest to the consequences of public policy deserve a meaningful seat at the table.

Jamey Evenstar already told us which side she is on. Voters should believe her.

Sources: Gordon R. Friedman, “Eudaly, staffers bungled efforts to change Portland neighborhood association rules, emails show,” The Oregonian/OregonLive, Aug. 9, 2019, https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2019/08/change-to-portland-neighborhood-groups-is-stalled-records-show.html

Sophie Peel, “Here’s Who the Portland City Councilors-Elect Have Hired as Top Staffers,”Willamette Week, Dec. 17, 2024, https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2024/12/17/heres-who-the-portland-city-councilors-elect-have-hired-as-top-staffers/

Avalos office staff page, https://www.portland.gov/council/districts/1/candace-avalos/councilor-avalos

Bob Weinstein is a Northwest District resident and the former mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska.