There is too much behind-the-door deal making with the council, mayor, and city administration. Long term leases are signed for shelters and then reversed, revenue has buckled but pricey projects get funded, PGE gets its power line decision reversed. Highly compensated executives are paid to leave without any explanation of a vision that makes them obsolete—until another one is hired.
The round robin lack of respect for voters who are paying the bills demonstrates that key government employees have forgotten that respect and trust must be earned. You don’t get it by announcing you have it. Do better.
Recently, all City Council members present for the 9/2/26 session expressed support for fast-tracking the renaming of Cesar Chavez Blvd (formerly SE 39th) to Campesinos Blvd in contravention of city code, which requires the initiation of a public process to approve the change. This is a long, busy thoroughfare, lined by businesses and residences that will have to begin the expensive process of changing addresses, without having had an opportunity to vote on the matter. A District 3 candidate named Tom Sollitt (not an endorsement - I know nothing about him) testified that "How we do things matters and to waive the city code cuts out, not red tape, it cuts out the inclusion and involvement of people who will be materially impacted by this name change." Many on the Council seemed to think that the solution to continually making exceptions to the re-naming code is to change the code. The bigger issue here is not the name change, but whether we're governed by democratic principles, set out in code, or by the feelings and interests of councilors.
As a Pearl Resident, I have two words: "Ditch Mitch." Seriously, it's why Mr. Green never feels any need to meet with us or get our input. We need diversity of thought and council members who are willing to listen and engage (Ala Olivia Clark and Eric Zimmerman). Ironically they claim transparency but their actions speak louder than their words.
Very nicely expressed and it mirrors the frustration many of us have at the national level. MAGA policies are horrible for the Country and the World and we are being held hostage by 33% of the voters in this Country because the Democrats have no power to act in Congress. Ironically, we in Portland (and Multnomah County and to some degree in Oregon) find ourselves in the same predicament, with less than a third of our electorate preventing Portland and Multnomah County from making the policy choices to pull Oregon, Multnomah County and especially Portland out of its economic doom loop. The irony continues. The very "party" that professing to care most about workers is driving jobs and the opportunity to create new one from the City. The same Campaign is advocating policies that are keeping new businesses at bay and resulting migrating high income and net worth households, which fund the policies, to other jurisdictions. The resulting irony is that those who pay the highest taxes are leaving Portland, leaving it with out the revenue to help the most disadvantaged among us.
The DSA platform advocates for giving workers access to the means of production. In essence, Oregon has done this. We have among the most unionized public work forces in the nation. We have the among the highest tax rates in the nation. But we rank poorly in most areas of public service where government plays the most important role; public health and behavioral health, public safety and public education. Don't get me wrong, in this age of Artificial Intelligence and developing Oligopoly nationally and with existential threats like climate change to deal with, we need to protect the rights of workers and those with little power, but we have to start by proving government workers can actually work together to solve the problems that the vast majority of residents and voters and taxpayers want addressed. We need to show it can be done now with the resources we have available to us. We need a Government That Works. The DSA seems to be taking us further away from that and from the democracy we are fighting for at the federal level. Democracy is more than policy. It is process.
The DSA hased used the democratic process to become undemocratic.
At last--a major voice in Portland's tortured politics points out that the new charter (written by flaky progressives and socialists) has served up what it was engineered to produce: rule by fanatics, "none of whom would even have been serious candidates before charter reform."
Then comes the happy ending: "The peak of DSA power may have passed at that juncture; after the election in November, we may know for sure."
What we will know is that the pols who know how to manipulate a stupid electoral system will simply bring in a new bunch of stalking horses...same-old, same-old. Any of the "don't rank" nonsense will fall on deaf ears (ie., the voters who approved the disaster).
Anyone around here note that the legacy media is totally uninterested in asking the fundamental question about the charter: "How'd that work out?" When will someone with money and smarts step up to the plate and get some repairs on the ballot?
Portland is in the cusp of economic contraction accelerating. The Democrat Party encouraged and allowed the DSA to meld into it. Very bad choice. Very lazy choice. The Democrat Party is a shadow of what it was 20 years ago.
Portland needs conservative leadership that respects our nation's Constitution. Portland needs to earn back the respect it once enjoyed as being fair, economically opportunistic and disciplined.
Conservatives in this city will learn in November whether they need to endure or leave.
If conservatives have ever had an original thought in their collective skulls they might be suited to municipal leadership. Alas, they do not, and allowing themselves to become the ideological zambonis for full fledged-fascism doesn’t suggest they could lead a lemonade stand, much less a mid-sized American city.
With the benefit of hindsight, Rudy’s tenure is a mixed record at best. His antics since then… you might not want to draw attention to if you’re trying to make conservatives look sane.
Conservatives do not support illegal immigration, nor abortion up to full term, nor leaving a population without adequate police protection, nor do they endorse violence in the name only of "peaceful protest", nor allowing children to be mutulated for gender surgeries, nor inventing voting schemes that endorse cheating. Sadly, your liberalism is only acceptable. To other radicals.
Personally, I would have a hard time voting for any of Portland’s DSA councilors. They simply do not strike me as serious about the practical work of governing. They also don’t look as though they are having much fun. Serving on the Portland City Council should be demanding, but it should also be an exciting opportunity to improve the city. Treating cooperation with people you disagree with as weakness is a remarkably Trumpian way to govern: politics becomes a contest between loyal allies and enemies rather than a search for workable compromises.
But I would offer the moderate bloc some equally direct advice: It’s the economy, stupid. If moderates cannot offer credible solutions to Portland’s affordability crisis, they should not be surprised when voters abandon them for candidates promising more radical change. Gresham’s departure from the Bull Run water system, for example, is reducing wholesale revenue and contributing to higher rates for Portland residents. Portland households already pay nearly $2,000 annually for combined water, sewer and stormwater service, with further increases expected. To the moderates on the council: What is your plan to keep Portland affordable?
I know everyone is tired of 'Portland is in a doom loop' posts but I actually sat down and tallied every new tax, fee, levy, and rate hike hitting us in 2026 and 2027. The total is genuinely insane.
New annual costs hitting a typical single-family household
Arts Tax increase ($35 → $50/person) +$15–$30/yr (single/joint)
New Parks Levy ($1.40 per $1,000 assessed value) +$310/yr
New 'Transportation Utility Fee' street fee (Jan 2027)+$144/yr
Water rate hike +8.1% (Jul 2026) +$64/yr
Sewer/stormwater +5.15% (Jul 2026) +$59/yr
PGE electricity +5% (Apr 2026) +$96/yr
NW Natural gas +4.7% + more hikes +$72/yr
Conservative total (before income taxes & parking) ~$775–$1,200+/yr
That's before the downtown parking meters jumping from $2.20 → $3.60/hr (a 63% increase that happened last July with basically zero coverage), event parking going up 25%, and permit fees rising another ~8%.
And if you're a dual-income household earning over ~$205K? You're already paying 1% Metro SHS tax plus 1.5% Preschool for All on top of that: a 2.5% combined local income tax hit before Oregon's 9.9% state rate even enters the picture.
Then in 2027, the Preschool for All rate jumps to 2.3% (and up to 3.8% above $400K joint). On a $75K slice above the threshold, that PFA increase alone adds roughly $600/yr more. Portland-area households are stacking local income taxes that peer cities simply don't have. The Parks Levy alone hits every homeowner. The TUF street fee hfits every household... renters included, because landlords will absolutely pass it through. The utility hikes hit everyone. There is no bracket. There is no opt-out..
I compared us to Seattle and SF. Seattle has higher base property taxes but no city income tax and their utility hikes are similar or slightly lower. SF passed big water/sewer hikes too but has no local income tax either. Portland has ALL of it simultaneously. The levies, the fees, the income taxes, the utility hikes...all in the same 12-month window. For what in return?
The city will tell you the Parks Levy replaces an expiring one so it's 'only' $132/yr extra. They'll tell you the TUF is 'just $12/month.' The city and county tell you the Arts Tax increase is 'only $15.' Every single one sounds reasonable in isolation. Add them up and you're looking at a grand minimum for a regular household just trying to keep the lights on.
I'm not saying don't fund parks. I'm saying maybe don't do everything at once and then act confused when people can't afford to stay.
I consistently write emails to my D2 councilors, especially Sameer Kanal and even to “Teacher Tiff” and hotdog Mitch summarizing out what the submitted written testimony is requesting before they take public testimony on various topics. For example, 70% of submitted written testimony on changing the name of Cesar Chavez made it clear that Portland voters wanted the name changed back to 39th Ave. One, I never get a return response from either Mitch or Sameer, even though they tout how important it is to respond to constituents. Two, they never vote with what the public wants, they vote directly with the ideology of the DSA. They don’t represent the will of the voters of Portland at all.
I am happy to be back in Portland and the USA after five weeks in Slovenia hiking. I found the people remarkably helpful and friendly, but there was something sad about the leisure class of European vacationers that seem so dependent upon their vacations, dining, and government run everything. That is why I am not a socialist.
Portland should do away with the rank choice nonsense and give the mayor a vote on the city council in case of ties. I predict that people are drawing a line in the sand around the socialist block. At some point the political candidates need to do that also. Do we really hate capitalists so much that we want to remake ourselves and become conforming and thoughtless? Much of the election is about what happens in the Governor's race. It would be really great if Christine Drazan won so we could push back on needle and drug paraphernalia distribution and build in a stronger criminal justice system that works hand in glove with a well administered and practical mental health system.
Well said.
Well, Olivia, whatcha gonna actually DO?
Richard, it’s up to the voters in D4 & D3 to decide who they want to represent them and change the composition of the City Council.
There is too much behind-the-door deal making with the council, mayor, and city administration. Long term leases are signed for shelters and then reversed, revenue has buckled but pricey projects get funded, PGE gets its power line decision reversed. Highly compensated executives are paid to leave without any explanation of a vision that makes them obsolete—until another one is hired.
The round robin lack of respect for voters who are paying the bills demonstrates that key government employees have forgotten that respect and trust must be earned. You don’t get it by announcing you have it. Do better.
Recently, all City Council members present for the 9/2/26 session expressed support for fast-tracking the renaming of Cesar Chavez Blvd (formerly SE 39th) to Campesinos Blvd in contravention of city code, which requires the initiation of a public process to approve the change. This is a long, busy thoroughfare, lined by businesses and residences that will have to begin the expensive process of changing addresses, without having had an opportunity to vote on the matter. A District 3 candidate named Tom Sollitt (not an endorsement - I know nothing about him) testified that "How we do things matters and to waive the city code cuts out, not red tape, it cuts out the inclusion and involvement of people who will be materially impacted by this name change." Many on the Council seemed to think that the solution to continually making exceptions to the re-naming code is to change the code. The bigger issue here is not the name change, but whether we're governed by democratic principles, set out in code, or by the feelings and interests of councilors.
As a Pearl Resident, I have two words: "Ditch Mitch." Seriously, it's why Mr. Green never feels any need to meet with us or get our input. We need diversity of thought and council members who are willing to listen and engage (Ala Olivia Clark and Eric Zimmerman). Ironically they claim transparency but their actions speak louder than their words.
Very nicely expressed and it mirrors the frustration many of us have at the national level. MAGA policies are horrible for the Country and the World and we are being held hostage by 33% of the voters in this Country because the Democrats have no power to act in Congress. Ironically, we in Portland (and Multnomah County and to some degree in Oregon) find ourselves in the same predicament, with less than a third of our electorate preventing Portland and Multnomah County from making the policy choices to pull Oregon, Multnomah County and especially Portland out of its economic doom loop. The irony continues. The very "party" that professing to care most about workers is driving jobs and the opportunity to create new one from the City. The same Campaign is advocating policies that are keeping new businesses at bay and resulting migrating high income and net worth households, which fund the policies, to other jurisdictions. The resulting irony is that those who pay the highest taxes are leaving Portland, leaving it with out the revenue to help the most disadvantaged among us.
The DSA platform advocates for giving workers access to the means of production. In essence, Oregon has done this. We have among the most unionized public work forces in the nation. We have the among the highest tax rates in the nation. But we rank poorly in most areas of public service where government plays the most important role; public health and behavioral health, public safety and public education. Don't get me wrong, in this age of Artificial Intelligence and developing Oligopoly nationally and with existential threats like climate change to deal with, we need to protect the rights of workers and those with little power, but we have to start by proving government workers can actually work together to solve the problems that the vast majority of residents and voters and taxpayers want addressed. We need to show it can be done now with the resources we have available to us. We need a Government That Works. The DSA seems to be taking us further away from that and from the democracy we are fighting for at the federal level. Democracy is more than policy. It is process.
The DSA hased used the democratic process to become undemocratic.
At last--a major voice in Portland's tortured politics points out that the new charter (written by flaky progressives and socialists) has served up what it was engineered to produce: rule by fanatics, "none of whom would even have been serious candidates before charter reform."
Then comes the happy ending: "The peak of DSA power may have passed at that juncture; after the election in November, we may know for sure."
What we will know is that the pols who know how to manipulate a stupid electoral system will simply bring in a new bunch of stalking horses...same-old, same-old. Any of the "don't rank" nonsense will fall on deaf ears (ie., the voters who approved the disaster).
Anyone around here note that the legacy media is totally uninterested in asking the fundamental question about the charter: "How'd that work out?" When will someone with money and smarts step up to the plate and get some repairs on the ballot?
Portland is in the cusp of economic contraction accelerating. The Democrat Party encouraged and allowed the DSA to meld into it. Very bad choice. Very lazy choice. The Democrat Party is a shadow of what it was 20 years ago.
Portland needs conservative leadership that respects our nation's Constitution. Portland needs to earn back the respect it once enjoyed as being fair, economically opportunistic and disciplined.
Conservatives in this city will learn in November whether they need to endure or leave.
If conservatives have ever had an original thought in their collective skulls they might be suited to municipal leadership. Alas, they do not, and allowing themselves to become the ideological zambonis for full fledged-fascism doesn’t suggest they could lead a lemonade stand, much less a mid-sized American city.
Rudi Guilani, Mayoral Hall of Fame
With the benefit of hindsight, Rudy’s tenure is a mixed record at best. His antics since then… you might not want to draw attention to if you’re trying to make conservatives look sane.
Conservatives do not support illegal immigration, nor abortion up to full term, nor leaving a population without adequate police protection, nor do they endorse violence in the name only of "peaceful protest", nor allowing children to be mutulated for gender surgeries, nor inventing voting schemes that endorse cheating. Sadly, your liberalism is only acceptable. To other radicals.
Well, congratulations. No one else supports any of that, either. What else you got?
Personally, I would have a hard time voting for any of Portland’s DSA councilors. They simply do not strike me as serious about the practical work of governing. They also don’t look as though they are having much fun. Serving on the Portland City Council should be demanding, but it should also be an exciting opportunity to improve the city. Treating cooperation with people you disagree with as weakness is a remarkably Trumpian way to govern: politics becomes a contest between loyal allies and enemies rather than a search for workable compromises.
But I would offer the moderate bloc some equally direct advice: It’s the economy, stupid. If moderates cannot offer credible solutions to Portland’s affordability crisis, they should not be surprised when voters abandon them for candidates promising more radical change. Gresham’s departure from the Bull Run water system, for example, is reducing wholesale revenue and contributing to higher rates for Portland residents. Portland households already pay nearly $2,000 annually for combined water, sewer and stormwater service, with further increases expected. To the moderates on the council: What is your plan to keep Portland affordable?
From Reddit:
I know everyone is tired of 'Portland is in a doom loop' posts but I actually sat down and tallied every new tax, fee, levy, and rate hike hitting us in 2026 and 2027. The total is genuinely insane.
New annual costs hitting a typical single-family household
Arts Tax increase ($35 → $50/person) +$15–$30/yr (single/joint)
New Parks Levy ($1.40 per $1,000 assessed value) +$310/yr
New 'Transportation Utility Fee' street fee (Jan 2027)+$144/yr
Water rate hike +8.1% (Jul 2026) +$64/yr
Sewer/stormwater +5.15% (Jul 2026) +$59/yr
PGE electricity +5% (Apr 2026) +$96/yr
NW Natural gas +4.7% + more hikes +$72/yr
Conservative total (before income taxes & parking) ~$775–$1,200+/yr
That's before the downtown parking meters jumping from $2.20 → $3.60/hr (a 63% increase that happened last July with basically zero coverage), event parking going up 25%, and permit fees rising another ~8%.
And if you're a dual-income household earning over ~$205K? You're already paying 1% Metro SHS tax plus 1.5% Preschool for All on top of that: a 2.5% combined local income tax hit before Oregon's 9.9% state rate even enters the picture.
Then in 2027, the Preschool for All rate jumps to 2.3% (and up to 3.8% above $400K joint). On a $75K slice above the threshold, that PFA increase alone adds roughly $600/yr more. Portland-area households are stacking local income taxes that peer cities simply don't have. The Parks Levy alone hits every homeowner. The TUF street fee hfits every household... renters included, because landlords will absolutely pass it through. The utility hikes hit everyone. There is no bracket. There is no opt-out..
I compared us to Seattle and SF. Seattle has higher base property taxes but no city income tax and their utility hikes are similar or slightly lower. SF passed big water/sewer hikes too but has no local income tax either. Portland has ALL of it simultaneously. The levies, the fees, the income taxes, the utility hikes...all in the same 12-month window. For what in return?
The city will tell you the Parks Levy replaces an expiring one so it's 'only' $132/yr extra. They'll tell you the TUF is 'just $12/month.' The city and county tell you the Arts Tax increase is 'only $15.' Every single one sounds reasonable in isolation. Add them up and you're looking at a grand minimum for a regular household just trying to keep the lights on.
I'm not saying don't fund parks. I'm saying maybe don't do everything at once and then act confused when people can't afford to stay.
edit: +$15–$30/yr (single/joint) for arts tax
Yes, well expressed! Let's remember that we all have a voice in a democracy and have a right to be listened to with respect.
I consistently write emails to my D2 councilors, especially Sameer Kanal and even to “Teacher Tiff” and hotdog Mitch summarizing out what the submitted written testimony is requesting before they take public testimony on various topics. For example, 70% of submitted written testimony on changing the name of Cesar Chavez made it clear that Portland voters wanted the name changed back to 39th Ave. One, I never get a return response from either Mitch or Sameer, even though they tout how important it is to respond to constituents. Two, they never vote with what the public wants, they vote directly with the ideology of the DSA. They don’t represent the will of the voters of Portland at all.
Well said. Can we translate this to a council closer to normal?
I am happy to be back in Portland and the USA after five weeks in Slovenia hiking. I found the people remarkably helpful and friendly, but there was something sad about the leisure class of European vacationers that seem so dependent upon their vacations, dining, and government run everything. That is why I am not a socialist.
Portland should do away with the rank choice nonsense and give the mayor a vote on the city council in case of ties. I predict that people are drawing a line in the sand around the socialist block. At some point the political candidates need to do that also. Do we really hate capitalists so much that we want to remake ourselves and become conforming and thoughtless? Much of the election is about what happens in the Governor's race. It would be really great if Christine Drazan won so we could push back on needle and drug paraphernalia distribution and build in a stronger criminal justice system that works hand in glove with a well administered and practical mental health system.