In his sparse office on SE Belmont near the Horse Brass Pub,
Slav Davidzon is buzzing around, making final arrangements for his
sustainable bike touring company’s December ride in Hawaii, dealing
with a ceiling that sprang a leak during the recent downpour, and
polishing off his paperwork to run for mayor.

Davidzon, the 26-year-old CEO of both ThinkHost, a green web hosting
company, and Common Circle Expeditions, realizes that his bid for mayor
is a long shot.

“My primary goal is to get the issues out there,” he says, listing
off his big picture ideas, like a living wage and universal health care
for all Portlanders, renewable energy via solar power “on every roof in
Portland,” and banning cars on one-fifth of the city’s streets to make
way for bikes, pedestrians, and public transit.

“This city’s supposed to be on the cutting edge, not somewhere in
the middle. And we’ve got a long way to go, quite honestly,” says
Davidzon, who’s hoping to snag the Pacific Green Party’s endorsement.
Raised in Michigan, Davidzon says he “barely graduated high school” but
founded ThinkHost when he was 19. He bounced around for a few years,
spending time in New York City and in the Middle East before landing in
Portland.

He acknowledges that his ideas aren’t the typical nuts and bolts of
municipal campaigns—which often focus on city basics like street
maintenance or policing—but are nods to national and global
problems.

“We have a long way to go on a national level, and it’s going to be
a long fight. But on the local level, you can make a difference,” he
says.

Davidzon adds that “it’s a real disservice to democracy” if a
presumed frontrunner—in this case, City Commissioner Sam
Adams—has a cakewalk into office. “There’s not going to be enough
discourse if there’s not more candidates, if there’s not more folks
standing up and saying we’ve got to talk about issues that really
matter.”

When Davidzon announced his ultra-progressive campaign on Wednesday,
November 28, however, commenters on BikePortland.org—which posted
Davidzon’s announcement—railed against his candidacy, critiquing
his tours and his personality: “Like so many brilliant risky
entrepreneurs: He lacks social skills—in a major way… Portland
would have a bad reputation if Slav ran around telling everyone why
they were stupid for not listening to all his ideas,” noted a commenter
who’d gone on one of Davidzon’s tours.

Davidzon acknowledges that he’s got a strong personality, one that’s
blunt and can be abrasive. “I value getting things done,” he says,
dismissing criticisms about his business and reiterating that his
campaign is about the issues.

Regarding the issues, it’s too early in the campaign to grasp how
Davidzon would make something like universal health care happen. In
January, after he returns from Hawaii, Davidzon plans to turn his lofty
ideas into a more solid platform. He talks about crafting “a very
creative taxing structure,” including things like carbon taxes, or
higher taxes on large corporations.

Davidzon will also be spending the first part of 2008 raising money
for his campaign—given his late entry into the race, he won’t be
seeking public financing, and he plans to partially self-finance his
run. Even if he doesn’t win, if he can just get the next mayor to run
with just one of his ideas, “that will have been a successful
campaign.”