Demonstrator Mimi German, foreground, strategizes with others in a darkened council chambers this morning, after briefly shutting down the scheduled meeting.
Demonstrator Mimi German, foreground, strategizes with others in a darkened council chambers this morning, after briefly shutting down the scheduled meeting. Dirk VanderHart

It took roughly three years for former Mayor Charlie Hales to get to a point where he had to routinely shut down Portland City Council meetings because of outbursts and impromptu demonstrations. New Mayor Ted Wheeler's not going to get that kind of lead time.

After an early term that has included at least four people dying in historic winter weather and a chaotic, forceful response by Wheeler's Portland Police Bureau to protests last week, the mayor was forced to clear council chambers at the outset of this morning's meeting.

He did so in response to a demonstration that included a tiny makeshift coffin draped in flowers. It was a representation of a stillborn baby found recently in the arms of a homeless, mentally ill mother—a potent symbol demonstrators are using to argue the city is still negligent in its efforts to help the homeless.


City officials took off, leaving demonstrators to sit in the dark talking strategy ("Let's get this police chief fired today, shall we?"). City Hall security officers were mostly keeping people out of chambers.

Eventually, Wheeler decided to make a plea to the crowd himself, entering chambers alone and offering to meet with them about their concerns at Terry Schrunk Plaza, across from Portland City Hall. It was a very Wheeler move, but it didn't go great. The mayor wound up threatening to arrest people if they didn't depart.




Eventually, though, the protesters dispersed. No arrests.

"You have the power, use the power," Mimi German, who brought the coffin and helped lead the action, said of Wheeler afterward. Asked about the mayor's unprecedented decision to open up the Portland building as a warming shelter for the homeless, German wasn't impressed.

"There's a span," she said. "You can do excellent things, or shitty things. HE went to the lowest end of that continuum. That's how I took that."