Bike lanes über Alles

He hasn't been in office for much more than a year, but Portland city commissioner Dan Ryan has to run for re-election in 2022. He now has a decent challenger in Jamila Dozier, a city housing bureau "policy coordinator," who is interviewed by the Merc here.

But among her comments toward the end, we find:

Of course crime is up in this city because people are angry, people are in pain, and things aren't getting better. But I do not believe that the police need to respond to everything. At some point, we need to focus on preventing crime instead of just responding to it. That kind of prevention comes from the community. We need to invest in our community in other ways, and actually listen to the community....

We need more transit centers. We need sidewalks, more bike lanes, and more street lights everywhere—I see how this impacts people living in East Portland all the time. We need to see an equitable commitment to transportation.

If this were another moment in the city's history, Dozier might be a viable choice. But given where we are in Portland right now, that platform is a complete nonstarter with me. 

According to the Merc, "[t]wo others have since joined the race: conservative videographer Brandon Farley and a relatively unknown candidate named Avraham Cox." They don't sound too promising so far, either. Uness somebody else appears, I'd stick with Ryan. He's being set up as the fall guy on homelessness, but at least he's doing something besides the grotesque shuck-and-jive coming from the creepy Sam-Ted Twins.