Heat of the moment
I've lived in Portland almost five decades now. During that time, the City Council has never been particularly impressive, but the current crew is a downright embarrassment.
Yesterday, we had Councilor Loretta Smith seriously proposing that she and her collegaues should possess and display loaded firearms at their meetings because they don't feel safe from protesters. That is so utterly stupid that it deserves no comment. Make up your own joke.
The more you think about it, the worse it gets. Smith, who has parlayed her job as Ron Wyden's receptionist into one well-paid elected office after another, is actually a swing vote on the current council. On one side there are the four socialistas and their two comrades – Avalos, Dunphy, Kanal, Koyama Lane, Morillo, and Green. That leaves six grownups on the other side – Smith, Pirtle-Gurney, Ryan, Novick, Clark, and Zimmerman. Any time any of the adults has a weak moment, you can count on the council to do something ridiculous.
The root of the problem is the foolish city shar charter that the voters adopted a few years ago. With "rank choice" voting and three representatives from each district running at the same time, you're sure to get a collection of goofballs. In the current setup, from each of Districts 1 and 3, you get two crazies and one grownup. Or at least sort of a grownup, Novick and Smith. From each of Districts 2 and 4, you get two grownups and one crazy. I doubt that's going to change if the charter doesn't. In this year's election, Districts 3 and 4 will try again, but if the results are any better than two years ago, I'd be shocked.
What we should have is seven districts with one representative from each. (You can have the "rank choice" foolishness, if you must.) In that climate, you might actually get seven moderates, or maybe five moderates and two fringe types. With that kind of leadership, you might start to pull the Rose City out of its current death spiral.
But I fantasize. What we now have is a council in which the city's fortunes rest on the shoulders of people like Pistol-Packin' Loretta. The loaded gun is pointed by the city at its own head.
I wouldn't trust any of those clowns with a squirt gun!
ReplyDeleteI think open carry for commissioners is a great idea. But fair is fair, and spectators should be allowed to bear arms too so they can shoot back. That would probably solve a whole lot of problems.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the city should consider the danger presented by the “mostly peaceful” protester who jumps the partition and is literally screaming face to face at a seated council member? Maybe the city should hold the most radical protesters accountable to the law and prosecute them accordingly? A small number of dangerous protesters will continue to terrorize the city if no behavior guardrails are imposed. As for city councilors carry weapons, even Portland wouldn’t allow that level of crazy……
ReplyDeleteThere should be police officers at the meetings, and others close by on standby. It should be routine.
ReplyDeleteJust to remind everyone, the city charter was largely ignored as it was being cobbled together under the guidance of the Mystery Woman of Portland Radical Politics Julia Meier (she's still on the city payroll, doing something or other). Her former employers, City Club (now radicalized by the Floyd frenzies) and the Coalition of Communities of Color ran in ideas, which the low-intelligence commissioners ate up (Avalos was the lead cheerleader). Legacy media remained silent. Bojack did a couple of pieces, PortlandDissent did 27--but the course was set.
ReplyDeleteEveryone in town got in line behind the "current charter is awful" party line--but no one asked: if it was so bad, how come we had a city with a great PR reputation--even a TV series--and a solid economy available for radicals to destroy?
It was no coincidence that this hot mess was voted, overwhelmingly, right after the city fell prey to antifa, rioters, and socialists, along with racialized white-guilt politics. Just a coincidence.
And here we are.
The socialists know how to manipulate the rank choice vote and they'll be gunning for Smith and Novick and they'll probably get their majority. Count on Morillo to hotbox poor lttle Steve. Zimmerman is toast.
And then the socialist fist will come down--hard.
Get out while the gettin's good.
Dear Lord, I hope Z-man is not toast. He seems the most level headed of the entire group.
DeleteOh gee karma's a bitch. Letting the kids endlessly riot for the cause de jour with hardly any pushback, not only destroyed downtown, but now has emboldened them to get in your face whenever they want. Feel'n lucky kid? Go ahead and make my day...
ReplyDeleteOh wait... She didn't mean it...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/20/portland-councilor-loretta-smith-open-carry/