AFTER REPEAT outbursts at City Hall last week, I wrote online that Ted Wheelerâs honeymoon as mayor was over.
Wheelerâs office promptly pointed out something to me: The mayorâs actual honeymoon involved snowshoeing to the North Pole.
âAn easy honeymoon was never a necessity,â I was told.
Itâs an apt observation. It also doesnât change the situation at hand. Weeks after Wheeler convened his first-ever Portland City Council meeting, attendees are already lobbing profanities and shoehorning testimony about heavy-handed policing into council items about, say, technology projects.
It turns out the baton former Mayor Charlie Hales passed to Wheeler wasnât magically wiped clean in transit. Instead, from the earliest days of his administration, it looks as though Wheelerâs also going to grapple with a combative band of council attendees sensitive to any misstep they perceive in the mayorâs governance style.
âYou screw around one minute, and we will shut you down every week!â council chambers mainstay Joe Walsh screamed at Wheeler during the January 25 meeting. âYouâre a tyrant just like Charlie!â
Those arenât empty threats, of course. Wheeler was forced to recess last weekâs meeting twice because of disruptionsâincluding a symbolic funeral for a baby found stillborn in the arms of a homeless mother earlier this year.
That might mean Wheeler and the rest of city council are in for a long four years. But there are signs of hope, too.
First, Wheeler isnât as guarded as Hales was. As a contingent of demonstrators occupied council chambers last week after shutting down the meeting, Wheeler made a solo appearance to suggest a deal: Heâd meet with them to address concerns after the council meeting, if theyâd allow it to go forward. Otherwise, heâd have cops clear the chambers.
It worked, sort of. Sure, there were more outbursts, but when Wheeler did meet the skeptical crowdâwhich pressed him on police overreactions, help for the homeless, and moreâmost seemed impressed by this new mayorâs openness.
Thereâs also a non-Wheeler force who might have a positive effect on council meetings going forward: new Commissioner Chloe Eudaly.
Eudaly, remember, comes to office fresh from a role as a rentersâ rights activist. Now that she wields considerable power, sheâs bringing that sensibility to bear with promising results.
Last week, for instance, audience members became upset at an item that would improve roadways near new developments in Northwest Portland. Officials said the fixes would be great for bikes and runners. People in the crowd wondered why the cash wasnât instead going toward homelessnessâor at least to the needier east side.
Eudaly swooped in, spurring helpful clarity that the roads money couldnât just be shunted to housing. Then she calmed the crowd by acknowledging something: Their concerns were valid.
âWhen weâre in the middle of a housing emergency and we have thousands of people on the street,â she said, âtalking about making a street safer for people who run marathons is going to incite the type of response we saw here today.â
To which activist Jessie Sponberg, whoâd been laying into Wheeler all morning, responded: âWe love you, Chloe!â