Comments

1

"Portland Mercury columnists terrified their bestie on the Council might get voted out" would be a more appropriate headline for this advocacy piece.

Eudaly has been a train wreck for the city. Her small tenant group cheerleading squad is not large enough to overcome the rest of the voter base who will have no trouble pulling the lever for Adams, who despite his flaws was actually competent in the capacity of a city official.

2

This is a pretty balanced article, IMHO. I do not recall that that the recall efforts were stained with homophobia as a number of queer publications and prominent people who happen to be gay supported the recalls. The Gonzalez allegations deserve more than a paid hit job by Sam's attorney. Perhaps the Merc can look into them with a more balanced perspective.

3

Wait a second. The incumbent in office gets a free pass, with no anonymous comments about her, even though many people in the city think she has been a disaster??? But you include all these anonymous comments about the challenger? That is simply bad, unfair and biased journalism. I expect better of the Mercury. And, FYI, it takes two seconds of Google research to show that Adams left office with a very high approval rating. I think this story is unfair and misleading.

4

I don't usually comment on articles, but this one is simply the WORST. It's completely one-sided and gives the incumbent a free pass even tho many of us do not think she has the least bit of competence. I would pick adams over eudaly any day. I think the writer of this piece needs to do her homework.

5

Hey Portland Mercury, why no mention of up-and-coming challenger Mingus Mapps? https://www.mingusmapps.com

6

HOLY COW CHECK OUT THIS EMAIL EXCHANGE!!!

*SEE ALEX'S RESPONSE BELOW!!!

[slightly shortened]

Dear Alex:

I just want to make sure I understood your reply to me correctly, because many Portlanders have long suspected there were reporters specifically working to take down Sam Adams, but now you appear to have provided written proof.

What you're saying, according to the email you wrote me below, is that the reason you had to rely on anonymous sources to attack Portland City Hall Candidate Sam Adams is because ..... EVERYONE you talked to using their name supported Adams and you didn't want to write positive story. As a result, you went to anonymous sources to attack Adams and claimed those people had to be anonymous out of a "fear of retaliation" from Adams.

You do realize that's not believable. Adams can't really retaliate. He's not the incumbent. Eudaly is the person who has the power to retaliate, to fire people, to deny them contracts, to use all the powers she has as an elected official.

To be a responsible writer, you should include one of those notes in the beginning of your story. It should say something like this:

///We called 50 people trying to find an Adams critic. Everyone we called only had only good things to say about him. The comments about Adams were so overwhelmingly positive that we were worried they would result in a positive story. We didn't want to write a positive story. As a result, to find people to criticize Adams, we went to anonymous sources, and we asked those anonymous people to attack attack Adams. We then pretended he was an elected official who could retaliate against them. This story is the result.///

Alex, Please explain more if I am missing something. I'm not in the business of just trying to tell people one side of things and make things up to attack people trying to help our city. I'm only doing this because the coverage of Adams FOR YEARS has amounted to homophobic bullying. I am over it. And you seem to have provided written proof that doing so was your plan the entire time with this story. Am I missing something?

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 7:26 PM Alex Zielinski wrote:
Hey Jared,

Thanks for writing. As you know, this was a story about how the public views Sam Adams. It includes feedback both positive and negative—many of those who offered negative feedback feared retaliation for speaking publicly. We considered only including non-anonymous sources, but that would leave the story deeply biased in the other direction.

Alex

7

Eudaly is not well liked, and it is not hard to find insiders and outsiders who will say so. Im not sure why the author didn’t try to seek out those voices, but this article does not seem to be appropriately balanced. The public records requests that have revealed her emails plainly show Eudaly to be a petulant bully- I’lll take a competent, experienced leader like Sam Adams over Eudaly every time.

8

One of my favorite (?) features of Eudalys new laws- if a landlord has to repair the carpet because a tenant incinerated it with cigarette butts (for example), the repairman can only cut out the burned up bit and insert a patch! Amazing! You cant recarpet the room! Only the discrete area that has been damaged. I cant wait to rent a place with a bunch of beautiful carpet squares patching it up! And - coming soon!- inspections of every now-required-to-be-registered rental unit. Interesting that Edualy didnt learn anything from the short term rental permit debacle. The council admitted compliance was low because people dont want inspectors poking around their 60 year old house for features that had been in place safely for 55 years before they decided you needed a permit to paint a window. Its sad that people are shocked at climate change deniers but refuse to believe the science that has been telling us that these kind of clumsy rent control regulations et al just scare away the mom and pop renters and leave it to the big corporate guys who are definitely going to raise your rent 9.9%.

9

I’d like to point out that if Adams were heterosexual, and his Beau were a Betty, none of you would have considered this a scandal. Most of you idiots would be high giving each other and pumping your fists while hooting about how he had ‘scored’.

As the old saying goes, never get caught with either a dead woman or a live man.

10

Why doesn't Alex and the Mercury save a lot time and ink by instead of writing these one sided hit pieces just endorse Chloe now? It would be more honest "journalism" and respectful to your audience.

11

“Chloe Eudaly Wants to a Return To City Hall. Portlanders Aren’t So Sure”. - There, Alex, you perpetual PR shill cheerleader for Eudaly, I fixed your headline for you. If you are going to practice PR under the guise of “journalism” please at least try to be a bit more sophisticated about it. Sits glaringly obvious The Merc continues to allow you to act as a campaign champ for Eudaly and not an actual balanced, professional news reporter.

12

“My style is to treat people like adults... I tell them what I know, ask them for what they know, and say, ‘Let’s figure this out together.’”

Seriously, Sam?

Adams' strategy is to assume people won't remember who he used to be.

13

The sheer amount of regular shit posters here who are freaked by Chloe and ready for Sam tells me all I need to know.

14

I'm actually not a fan of Sam, either. I'm for Mingus (who Alex completely ignores). My comment had to do with how Alex is more of a PR person for Chloe than an actual journalist.

15

@13 Totally. The same people who used to shitpost all day long about Hillary's emails are now shitposting all day long about Chloe. Any news story that doesn't throw in several irrelevant slams on her must be "biased."

16

This whole article is yet another CLEAR case of Mercury bias. And to think just a few weeks ago they were on their knees begging for donations from readers. For this kind of unusable garbage?!!!! Laughable!

17

Personally I think part of why Eudaly drew a serious challenger was that she didn't appear to be going to run a serious campaign. She seemed to think that it was preordained that she would run unopposed and sail to a win. These seats aren't lifetime appointments and I am glad to see that we will have a choice in May.

18

I won't say Sam Adams didn't do anything good. Mainly, tho, he worked with businesses, and not for, or with most citizens.I never judged him by the scandal he weathered while in office, but by the results of how livable this city was for everyone.It got harder to survive day to day. Housing, Transportation, & walkability suffered. Yes, he did listen to the bicycle lobby, but did he make any improvements for those of us who take public transit and walk? In fact, busing downtown became much harder when the bus mall (after over a decade of being closed to cars) was reopened to cars; this increased the pollution on the bus mall and unsafe traffic commuters had to deal with. I no longer come downtown if I can avoid it because of this.

19

"One environmental activist, who asked to remain anonymous, is disappointed that Adams’ run may threaten the city’s newly majority-women council."

I'm not sure what this sentence is getting at. The council is currently all women because Nick Fish passed away. Amanda Fritz is not running for the seat again. The council could easily still be majority women depending on who wins the two seats and the content between Sam Adams and Chloe Edualy. That aside, the article makes it sound like he is threatening the council in general and not the women majority.

20

Fuck him. He blew it when he lied about blowing Beau.

21

Half of these quotes from anonymous sources are using the exact language Eudaly used when expressing dismay that someone challenged her. Either these sources just like reciting back her favorite phrases, or the propaganda is working far too well. I don’t know who I’m voting for, but the Mercury choosing to ignore other candidates and ignore Eudaly sketchier behaviors does not help.

23

I just picked up this issue of the Merc and I was surprised to read these comments:

"Portlander Henry Kraemer, a longtime progressive activist, says... The housing crisis didn’t just magically appear. It was the result of inaction and bad decisions over decades, including the 20 years when Adams was [in City Hall],” says Kraemer. “You can’t let a crisis fester under your leadership for two decades and then ask for take-backsies.”"

Henry, you and I have worked together on a number of projects, I am ashamed of you... but Mitch McConnell would be proud of your cheap and false retrospective narrative, my friend. It was Obama who caused the great recession, right, Henry?

Nonetheless, your candidate, who said the same thing as you did, has now defined the strict scale of political justice we get to use to evaluate her record in office...

Alex, I hope you are reading this...

24

@ 23

Actually, the housing crisis -with skyrocketing rents began in earnest with the GFC and great recession. Coincidentally, right about the time Adams became Mayor.

And not coincidentally, at the time when Obama and Senate Democrats (like Patty Murray) sided with the banksters and fraudsters, denying people reasonable and effective foreclosure relief (failing to even consider well thought out "right to rent" policies).

That led to a increase in the commodification of housing- with in and out of state investors and funds controlling a larger share of the market.


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