In an email sent to supporters last night, Portland mayoral candidate Charlie Hales had some choice words for a column by Dave Lister, published yesterday by the Oregonian, that said Hales’ residency problem was just one damning flaw in his quest for the 2012 mayoralty. Hales called the column “mean-spirited and untrue” and said, basically, that’s what happens when people consider you the front-runner.
An exceptionally blistering snippet from Lister’s piece:
Hales is the poster child for what’s gone wrong in Portland, rather than what’s gone right. Before going AWOL for many weeks and then abruptly quitting midway through his last term on the City Council, Hales was one of the principal architects behind transforming the Portland I love into a cheap imitation of San Francisco. Now Hales wants to be the next mayor so he can continue on that course.
Hales’ letter—in which he also says “enough already”—is accompanied by a response sent in by one of his supporters, longtime environmental wonk Gail Achterman. I’m not sure how spontaneous it is—it reads like a detailed restatement of Hales’ campaign talking points. (Hales and I sat down yesterday, and touched on many of the same ideas. Expect to read more in the coming days.)
Dave Lister’s column about Charlie Hales was a bit over the top. I find his personal attacks on Charlie’s integrity to be both misplaced and distasteful…. This is a non-issue.
The exchange has already gotten some attention. Blue Oregon, earlier this morning, featured the letter, asking people to weigh in on whether Lister is running with a serious issue—or just taking cheap shots.
Me, I’m not sure anyone actually sees Hales as the front-runner yet—or that anyone is, given that the primary is all the way in May, and that a likely runoff between whoever wins among Hales, New Seasons co-founder Eileen Brady, and current Mayor Sam Adams (yes, he’ll run again) will wait until November 2012. But I guess that’s part of what Hales has to say to explain—beyond the fact that he lived in Washington, no matter the reason, and then was fuzzy about it in the initial telling to WW—why he’s still under the microscope.
Not that Hales personally sees himself that way. Oh no. When he talked to me about Adams yesterday, Hales had this to say: “To quote Monty Python, ‘he’s not dead yet.’… The incumbent is the front-runner until further notice.”
Read Achterman’s full response after the jump.
To the Oregonian:
Dave Lister’s column about Charlie Hales was a bit over the top. I find his personal attacks on Charlie’s integrity to be both misplaced and distasteful. Yes, Charlie was a legal Washington resident for a few years. Why? Because he married a Washington resident and moved into her house with her and her children while they were going to school. After the kids went off to college, Charlie moved back to Portland and Nancy came with him. And the Oregon Election Division agrees that he qualified to vote in Oregon while his principal residence was in Washington. This is a non-issue.
After almost four years of a disappointing Mayor, Portlanders should be pleased Charlie Hales is running. Let’s take a look at why.
As many of our neighbors struggle with employment and underemployment, Charlie not only has city government experience, he has been working for the past years in the private sector, creating jobs. Good paying, family wage jobs. He understands what it takes to lead city government and build a private business.
It is a great embarrassment to see the Portland Police Bureau being investigated by the Federal Justice Department and our officers responding to certain situations with excessive force. Charlie Hales called for a return to community policing strategies on the day he announced. And Charlie knows of what he speaks. As a City Commissioner, he strongly supported then Chief Moose’s successful community policing methods, which emphasize crime prevention and safe neighborhoods. As Mayor, Charlie has made it clear he would oversee the Police Bureau so these changes would be made.
Mr. Lister makes light of Charlie’s work on light rail and streetcars, saying that somehow this makes us “a cheap imitation of San Francisco.” Huh? The Portland Streetcar is a huge success, strengthening wonderful Portland neighborhoods and creating jobs and economic activity. Getting light rail out to the airport and up Interstate Avenue, also Charlie’s accomplishments – are visionary efforts that benefit our city and region every day.
And did Mr. Lister forget the work Charlie Hales did to enhance, expand and improve our parks, including building some parks and a wonderful community center in outer Southeast Portland? Portland voters supported the Charlie-led parks ballot measure because Charlie correctly understands that Portlanders care deeply about parks and community centers and are willing to invest in a better future for kids.
The common thread running through Charlie’s time at City Hall was that he actually got things done. It wasn’t all talk, process and meetings. Important things were accomplished for Portland. Wouldn’t it be great for Portland if the Mayor were experienced and knowledgeable? Someone who knew how to make things happen in City Hall? Sorry, Mr. Lister, Portland is not going back to the past you revere. The rest of us are eager to move forward into a prosperous and sustainable future. We’re ready to ride Charlie’s train!
Gail Achterman
Hey, Look! It’s a Portlander bitching about gentrification! I am staggered and shaken by the sheer novelty of it all.
Dave Lister is a total hack, if he is attacking someone it only improves my opinion of his target. I still think Hales should pay some back taxes if he is serious about running, otherwise it looks like a tax dodge since he owned a home here. Oregon should also clarify the rules that seem to allow non-residents to vote. Did they actually mail his ballot to Washington or did he use his Portland address?
On a related note, my parents are talking about moving here from the Midwest. They are looking at Clark County for the sole reason that their pensions and annuities will not be taxed. I told them you get what you pay for, and you couldn’t pay me $5,000 a year to live across the river, but they seem pretty sure it is worth it for them. Ugh.
If Hales can’t quote Monty Python correctly, then how does he expect to be mayor of a major city?
The correct line (from HOLY GRAIL, of course) is “I’m not dead!” Hales could then have followed up by croaking out the additional line “I feel happy! I feel happy!” (hopefully without getting knocked on the head immediately afterward).
Lister’s biggest issue is Hales’ reputation as a no-show around City Hall and that he left in the middle of his term. I note that this letter in defense carefully avoids responding to those criticisms.
Hey, Look! It’s a Merc reader making the leap that someone expressing their displeasure with how Portland has morphed into a rather shallow tourist destination point catering to the hip&trendy crowd is the same thing as bitching about gentrification. I am staggered and shaken by the sheer novelty of it all.
Oh, what the fuck ever. I’m actually from here and I remember when the Pearl District was a shithole and north Portland was where you went if you wanted to get stabbed. Yeah, there’s shallow crap and gentrification that comes with development, but I wouldn’t reverse it or bemoan what we used to have.
While the Pearl District may be filled with obnoxious bullshit like yoga studios or people with very small dogs, I wouldn’t trade it for the crumbling infrastructure that used to be there. Portlanders complaining about developmental success in this city is really fucking tiresome, and is colored more by irrational nostalgia and idiotic idealism than anything else. Yes, there are troublesome issues that come with gentrification, but I’d prefer to grapple with those issues over those of blight, decay, or stagnation any day. Shut the fucking fresh hell up, all of you.
Perhaps I was unclear in my earlier post or maybe you need to brush up on your reading comprehension, Reverend. Either way, we can certainly agree to disagree. My point wasn’t to bemoan “developmental success” as you put it, but rather, to point out that many of us don’t feel the need to bend over backwards building Portland into whatever trendy hotspot the NY Times living section wishes it was. Commensurate with the flavor du jour that Portland really needs to try harder to please that crowd is the attitude, based on a narrow, selective and underinformed view of local history, that up until the last few years Portland was somehow an uninhabitable shithole. Sure, things were rougher around the edges in years past, but to deride North Portland as just the “place to go to get stabbed” comes off as the type of revisionist commmentary that denies that many residents of North Portland have generations of their own history to share which we are now told should be written off as irrational nostalgia and idiotic idealism.
Oddly, in recent years I’ve met a number of folks who have recently moved here who are actually curious about Portland’s history and what it “used” to be like. One of the questions I hear most often is if Portland has always been as sterile and cutesy as it is now. Well, reasonable minds can always differ as to the answer, I respond, but if anyone tells you the “old” Portland was a scary, crumbling post-apocalyptic ruin, they’re either ignorant or pulling your leg.