Mayor Ted Wheelers home, in the Portland Heights neighborhood.
Mayor Ted Wheeler's home, in the Portland Heights neighborhood. Google Street View

As he preps for his first State of the City Address this afternoon, Mayor Ted Wheeler continues to be plagued by a small group of demonstrators demanding he leave office—and asking for a lot of other things besides.

For the last two nights, a group of people has camped out in front of Wheeler's Portland Heights home, according to the mayor's office and images making the rounds on Facebook. Unlike the first time demonstrators surprised the mayor as he was getting ready for bed, Portland police are on hand, according to Wheeler spokesperson Michael Cox.

But it's clearly grating Wheeler.




Photos and videos posted to social media show a handful of demonstrators outside of Wheeler's home yesterday, with refuse, messages like "ACAB" (all cops are bastards) and outlines of bodies in chalk littering the sidewalk in front of the mayor's precisely manicured lawn.

"That's decided on a night-to-night basis," one occupier told a Facebook user called Dory Dae, who asked how long they planned to stay.

The protest appears to have been inspired by news this week that a Portland police officer, Andrew Hearst, won't face criminal charges in the Feb. 9 shooting death of Black 17-year-old Quanice Hayes.

That was the decision of a Multnomah County Grand Jury, which heard the case from a county district attorney. Yet Wheeler, the city's mayor and police commissioner, has borne the brunt of the backlash. Many are calling a profanity-laced City Council meeting on Wednesday the worst they've ever seen.

Cox says the demonstration in front of the mayor's home has ranged from two to 30 people. "Two nights ago, they were playing drums," he says. The protest has been dubbed "Wheelerfest" by at least one participant, Jeff Singer, who bragged on Facebook of urinating in front of the mayor's house in full view of police.

There has also been talk of police taking demonstrators' property, and potentially injuring one person in the process. We've asked the Portland Police Bureau for information.

Update: Police confirm they've picked up some items, but say they've not made any arrests or used force. From PPB spokesperson Sgt. Pete Simpson: "They have been warned about private property and erecting structures. If someone was injured, it wasn't from us as we haven't used any force. Property that was abandoned was removed - nobody would claim ownership."

Original post: All this comes as Wheeler's office is struggling to develop a strategy for calming City Council meetings that frequently spin out of control. On Thursday, Commissioner Nick Fish announced he wouldn't allow his employees to attend a City Council meeting unless the mayor came up with a new plan.

Wheeler has tried to extend an olive branch to demonstrators, offering to sit down with them periodically to listen to their concerns, which largely involve police behavior and homelessness. As of now, it doesn't appear to have worked.

"Our administration is in active discussions as to how best maintain decorum in the chamber," Cox says. "In the next council session on Wednesday, you can expect to see some changes."