I can see Daniel waving goodbye

The equity director at Portland City Hall has quit. Lisa Watson, who took the gig 11 months ago at the invitation of Commissioner Chainsaw Rubio, has packed it in rather than work under Dandy Dan Ryan, who took over supervising her bureau a couple of months ago. Watson, perhaps best known as a co-founder of the once-hot Pearl District bakery Cupcake Jones, is a prominent member of the Grand Ronde Tribe. She has bounced around at a lot of different nonprofits over the years. I'm sure she'll find something else to do for a living.

Ryan also recently lost the guy who was temporarily running the neighborhood association universe, Michael Montoya, who's taken a personal leave of uncertain duration. That's a lot of turnover. It seems like a sign that Ryan is trying to change the culture. For better or for worse, though, that's the question.

A side note: The OPB article on the staff turnover was written by Alex Zielinski, until recently a reporter at the Merc. For everyone's sake, I hope she has left her sometimes extreme lefty bias back at her old desk. It's not needed on the public radio.