Another great article by Pamela and Richard. I am thoroughly disgusted at the stupidity of most Portland voters, who for the most part are also Newbies. Very few people in Portland are from Oregon or Portland, or even long term transplants. Most are from other places and have lived here less than 10 or 15 years. I've talked to people who are so proud of being Portland residents and when you ask them how long they've lived in Pee Town, they say amusing things like, "Oh for SEVEN years now!" or "For 14 years!" and I just want to laugh. I can't wait to watch these new 'leaders' mess up. Make moronic policy, put their foot in their mouth and other mishaps. I'm going to be right there cheering on their mess making, laughing at them and pointing my fingers at them. Ya gotta get some enjoyment somehow, right?
14 years, myself. Aaaaaand with this election, I've hit my limit, and am preparing to move out to Yamhill county. I'm a Democrat, but I'd rather live amongst the most rabid Trmup supporters imaginable than be ruled by the most dysfunctional, idiotic, grifting lefty ideologues imaginable.
What’s the over under on how long until Avalos introduces a reparations plan? 3 months? Wait until she hires Shaina Pomerantz as her aide. Anyone who disagrees with them is racist.
One of Avalos’s big causes is the new Community Board for Police Accountability that can discipline officers. Her idea of reparations is more like steering public funds to groups and organizations that reflect “her values.”
I would hope that Avalos has wised up about Shaina Pomerantz.
Avalos was chair of the Citizen Review Committee when Pomerantz became a member and co-chair. Pomerantz publicly stated at one of the meetings, “As a light-skinned black woman I have made it my charge to support black women … part of my becoming co-chair was to support Candace. … Portland has a white supremacy problem.”
It sounded like Pomerantz believed her lighter skin somehow conveyed a superiority, and she was offering some racial noblesse oblige to the much darker Avalos.
Before she tried to protect Avalos, Pomerantz briefly offered her services to then-state Rep. Diego Hernandez, elected to the legislature at age 29. Pomerantz said she wanted to guide him as a new lawmaker.
Later she worked about eight months for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, where she filed a lawsuit alleging racial hostility under then-commissioner and just re-elected Congresswoman Val Hoyle. The state settled the suit for $425,000.
Pomerantz calls herself a racial justice warrior and has a consulting business called Race Talks. Will the new progressive city council steer contracts to her business? Sounds plausible.
Maybe Pomerantz could turn her attention to our homeless population. Don’t they need racial enlightenment, too? Many of Portland's homeless appear to be white. Perhaps she could lecture them on their white privilege.
No, I haven’t delved into their financials. Maybe I should. I did go over and spend some time on their website — and encountered the photograph of Mary Nolan, one of their board members. Yikes. Somebody told me about a year ago that she was now using they/them pronouns. I guess she thought that meant she could stop trying.
In 2013 I went to a RACE Talks event at Jefferson High School. Donna Maxey, who is Shaina’s mother, ran it. About 80 people were there, split evening white/black. Maxey introduced a fellow who had “killed someone,” (as he put it) and did time in prison, then wrote a book he was pitching called “Respect My Gangstah.”
When she brought him around to the group I was in, I asked why he didn’t call his book, “Reject My Gangstah.” I was informed that in the black community “Gangstah” is a term of respect. How dope is that.
The organization has several facilitators on their website. Presumably these are the folks who lead talks on race.
It seems that more city-related committee meetings are now run by facilitators. What’s the point in having a designated chair/co-chair of a committee if a paid facilitator is going to run things?
You can be sure Avalos will try to reward Pomerantz with a juicy city of Portland contract…..the only question is how much taxpayer $ will flow to her….can’t fill the potholes but we sure can support unaccountable and ineffective nonprofits.
I think Portland has a POC supremacy problem. I’m sorry they are still a minority by a long shot but seems like that’s all people can elect around here. I’m a senior white woman and no one ever seems to represent my demographic anymore.
As a native Portland resident, who has been here an along time I barely recognize this place anymore.
Hollywood where I used to walk to as a child is unrecognizable. Boarded up buildings and graffiti. It’s a shame.
I agree Aileen so much so I have half a mind to go down to the Trailblazer HQ and DEMAND a position on the team. As an elderly, overweight, white woman I am demanding my racial RIGHT to be represented. Equity not meritocracy! Duh.
What an excellent sum up. I am laughing and crying. I would expect both of you to have left the county by now what what with all this depressing knowledge. I am thinking of doing this myself. Thank you!
Oh, if only post-election analysis at the national level were as astute as this! Thank you.
I predict that Keith Wilson will not be able to fulfill his promise to get the homeless off Portland's streets within a year of taking office. He will run into stiff opposition from the powerful contingent who believe the homeless are passive victims of capitalism and the high cost of housing who must never, ever, under any circumstances be "forced" to do anything they don't want to. That would just retraumatize them. The feral homeless will be his undoing if the City Council isn't.
It would be nice to be wrong for once.
If Sophie Peel's analysis were corrected so it read: “If the 12 front-runners remain stable throughout the week, that means the new City Council will represent a diverse set of councilors that span the spectrum in age, race and lived experience," the great and the good at the City Club of Portland would know that the voters repaid their noblesse oblige in spades. That outcome is precisely what they were after when they poured their white liberal guilt into the city's new charter.
As I recall, Avalos and an ally sought to drive Mozyrsky off the Citizen Review Committee in 2022. He gave as good as he got, but they surely made his life hell there for a while when they ginned up a grievance about Mozyrsky's style. This will give you a flavor of what transpired:
"Vadim Mozyrsky, who is challenging incumbent City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in the May primary, filed a complaint March 4 with the City Attorney’s Office, claiming two women who serve with him on the Police Citizen Review Committee used the committee to politically smear him."
"Specifically, he is taking aim at fellow committee member Shaina Pomerantz, a Black woman, who accused Mozyrsky, who is white, of using 'a tone of anti-Blackness' in emails to her and the committee’s chair, Candace Avalos."
"Pomerantz did so in a March 2 phone call to Mozyrsky in which she says she told him 'the aggression you exhibited towards Candace is both unprofessional and has a tone of anti-Blackness.' In that call, she asked him to resign. (Mozyrsky also recalls her saying that to him and told her he would not resign.)"
I can't recall whether, when pressed to elaborate on her allegations, Avalos plead exhaustion or immunity from having to explain herself to white people.
Keith Wilson is SOOOO out of his league. He is going to crash and burn. Solve the homeless crisis in a YEAR? What a fool for making such an impossible claim. I can't wait to watch him fail. And he will...
Excellent rundown on the dismal results. Perhaps the only good thing about Ryan’s election is that he seems to have come around on Portland’s need for a couple hundred more police officers. That probably is a consequence of his home being attacked and damaged a half dozen times by Antifa in 2020’s Summer of Love. Being on the receiving end of crime does have its advantage sometimes.
Ryan is one who used to think homelessness-- or rather the visible unsheltered homeless-- is was a result of housing issues, and he has since changed his mind to the reality most of it is because of behavioral health issues.This is what I have noticed is the big ideological difference between the current council & the majority of the county, and it is why JVP and the JOHS rarely talk about getting the unsheltered off the street-- they want permanent housing for them and nothing else will really do. With the new city and county makeup he might be one of only a few to think this way.
Just when you think Oregon and the largest part (Portland/MultCo) might be regaining some sanity (by flushing Measure 110, recognizing that homicides are bad and that they need more street cops) it all gets flushed when virtually across the state, tone deaf "progressives" (I hate that monicker) were voted into office.
In Portland what part of "what we did from 2016-2024 really did not work" did they not understand?
Part of this was the utterly anemic voter turnout, well below 70%, when in presidential elections in Oregon it has been in the 80s in recent years.
And the fools who were too lazy to vote will be the first ones to bitch and moan when things don't get better. Portland voters are for the most part cretinous...
The problem is as the years of dysfunction here continue, pragmatic voters are leaving and they are being replaced with those that are far left. I mean you have to ask yourself what kind of person would willingly move TO Portland OR right now? You should see who has been leaving and who has been arriving on my block the last few years. The polarization (and intolerance) here is only going to increase.
I think of them as left wing libertarians. I am or was a progressive, but like the type that wants affordable health insurance for everyone and safe public spaces with laws enforced. I think places like Boston are run pragmatically by progressives, but this doesn't exist on the west coast.
Another great article by Pamela and Richard. I am thoroughly disgusted at the stupidity of most Portland voters, who for the most part are also Newbies. Very few people in Portland are from Oregon or Portland, or even long term transplants. Most are from other places and have lived here less than 10 or 15 years. I've talked to people who are so proud of being Portland residents and when you ask them how long they've lived in Pee Town, they say amusing things like, "Oh for SEVEN years now!" or "For 14 years!" and I just want to laugh. I can't wait to watch these new 'leaders' mess up. Make moronic policy, put their foot in their mouth and other mishaps. I'm going to be right there cheering on their mess making, laughing at them and pointing my fingers at them. Ya gotta get some enjoyment somehow, right?
14 years, myself. Aaaaaand with this election, I've hit my limit, and am preparing to move out to Yamhill county. I'm a Democrat, but I'd rather live amongst the most rabid Trmup supporters imaginable than be ruled by the most dysfunctional, idiotic, grifting lefty ideologues imaginable.
It’s great that you have that option. Not everyone is able financially to do that.
What’s the over under on how long until Avalos introduces a reparations plan? 3 months? Wait until she hires Shaina Pomerantz as her aide. Anyone who disagrees with them is racist.
One of Avalos’s big causes is the new Community Board for Police Accountability that can discipline officers. Her idea of reparations is more like steering public funds to groups and organizations that reflect “her values.”
I would hope that Avalos has wised up about Shaina Pomerantz.
Avalos was chair of the Citizen Review Committee when Pomerantz became a member and co-chair. Pomerantz publicly stated at one of the meetings, “As a light-skinned black woman I have made it my charge to support black women … part of my becoming co-chair was to support Candace. … Portland has a white supremacy problem.”
It sounded like Pomerantz believed her lighter skin somehow conveyed a superiority, and she was offering some racial noblesse oblige to the much darker Avalos.
Not only did Avalos not need her help, but Pomerantz stirred up trouble by accusing fellow CRC member Vadim Mozyrsky of committing “microagressions.” (https://portlanddissent.substack.com/p/lynch-mob-targets-vadim-mozyrsky)
Before she tried to protect Avalos, Pomerantz briefly offered her services to then-state Rep. Diego Hernandez, elected to the legislature at age 29. Pomerantz said she wanted to guide him as a new lawmaker.
Instead, she ended up falsely accusing him of having an inappropriate relationship with an intern. (Pomerantz is Subject Five in this sordid tale: https://www.heldtoanswer.com/2021/02/new-face-creep-sheet/
Later she worked about eight months for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, where she filed a lawsuit alleging racial hostility under then-commissioner and just re-elected Congresswoman Val Hoyle. The state settled the suit for $425,000.
Pomerantz calls herself a racial justice warrior and has a consulting business called Race Talks. Will the new progressive city council steer contracts to her business? Sounds plausible.
Maybe Pomerantz could turn her attention to our homeless population. Don’t they need racial enlightenment, too? Many of Portland's homeless appear to be white. Perhaps she could lecture them on their white privilege.
Pamela,
Have you been able to find any financials on Race Talks PDX? I looked but see absolutely nothing.
No, I haven’t delved into their financials. Maybe I should. I did go over and spend some time on their website — and encountered the photograph of Mary Nolan, one of their board members. Yikes. Somebody told me about a year ago that she was now using they/them pronouns. I guess she thought that meant she could stop trying.
In 2013 I went to a RACE Talks event at Jefferson High School. Donna Maxey, who is Shaina’s mother, ran it. About 80 people were there, split evening white/black. Maxey introduced a fellow who had “killed someone,” (as he put it) and did time in prison, then wrote a book he was pitching called “Respect My Gangstah.”
When she brought him around to the group I was in, I asked why he didn’t call his book, “Reject My Gangstah.” I was informed that in the black community “Gangstah” is a term of respect. How dope is that.
The organization has several facilitators on their website. Presumably these are the folks who lead talks on race.
It seems that more city-related committee meetings are now run by facilitators. What’s the point in having a designated chair/co-chair of a committee if a paid facilitator is going to run things?
Would not be surprised if they get taxpayer money. Nonprofit grift is the best thing going in Portland right now. It's "Gangstah!"
You can be sure Avalos will try to reward Pomerantz with a juicy city of Portland contract…..the only question is how much taxpayer $ will flow to her….can’t fill the potholes but we sure can support unaccountable and ineffective nonprofits.
I think Portland has a POC supremacy problem. I’m sorry they are still a minority by a long shot but seems like that’s all people can elect around here. I’m a senior white woman and no one ever seems to represent my demographic anymore.
As a native Portland resident, who has been here an along time I barely recognize this place anymore.
Hollywood where I used to walk to as a child is unrecognizable. Boarded up buildings and graffiti. It’s a shame.
I agree Aileen so much so I have half a mind to go down to the Trailblazer HQ and DEMAND a position on the team. As an elderly, overweight, white woman I am demanding my racial RIGHT to be represented. Equity not meritocracy! Duh.
Always. If you disagree with anything she says... "YER A RACIST!" She is very FRAGILE. LOL...
The illiberal intolerants wedded to ideology have won in Portland. I’m planning my escape. :).
What an excellent sum up. I am laughing and crying. I would expect both of you to have left the county by now what what with all this depressing knowledge. I am thinking of doing this myself. Thank you!
Oh, if only post-election analysis at the national level were as astute as this! Thank you.
I predict that Keith Wilson will not be able to fulfill his promise to get the homeless off Portland's streets within a year of taking office. He will run into stiff opposition from the powerful contingent who believe the homeless are passive victims of capitalism and the high cost of housing who must never, ever, under any circumstances be "forced" to do anything they don't want to. That would just retraumatize them. The feral homeless will be his undoing if the City Council isn't.
It would be nice to be wrong for once.
If Sophie Peel's analysis were corrected so it read: “If the 12 front-runners remain stable throughout the week, that means the new City Council will represent a diverse set of councilors that span the spectrum in age, race and lived experience," the great and the good at the City Club of Portland would know that the voters repaid their noblesse oblige in spades. That outcome is precisely what they were after when they poured their white liberal guilt into the city's new charter.
As I recall, Avalos and an ally sought to drive Mozyrsky off the Citizen Review Committee in 2022. He gave as good as he got, but they surely made his life hell there for a while when they ginned up a grievance about Mozyrsky's style. This will give you a flavor of what transpired:
"Vadim Mozyrsky, who is challenging incumbent City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in the May primary, filed a complaint March 4 with the City Attorney’s Office, claiming two women who serve with him on the Police Citizen Review Committee used the committee to politically smear him."
"Specifically, he is taking aim at fellow committee member Shaina Pomerantz, a Black woman, who accused Mozyrsky, who is white, of using 'a tone of anti-Blackness' in emails to her and the committee’s chair, Candace Avalos."
"Pomerantz did so in a March 2 phone call to Mozyrsky in which she says she told him 'the aggression you exhibited towards Candace is both unprofessional and has a tone of anti-Blackness.' In that call, she asked him to resign. (Mozyrsky also recalls her saying that to him and told her he would not resign.)"
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2022/03/06/responding-to-allegations-of-racism-city-council-candidate-files-complaint-against-two-fellow-members-of-citizen-review-committee/
I can't recall whether, when pressed to elaborate on her allegations, Avalos plead exhaustion or immunity from having to explain herself to white people.
Keith Wilson is SOOOO out of his league. He is going to crash and burn. Solve the homeless crisis in a YEAR? What a fool for making such an impossible claim. I can't wait to watch him fail. And he will...
Can’t wait until he tries to arrest all those refusing his kind and gentle shelter plans. He will crumble a la Wheeler……
Excellent rundown on the dismal results. Perhaps the only good thing about Ryan’s election is that he seems to have come around on Portland’s need for a couple hundred more police officers. That probably is a consequence of his home being attacked and damaged a half dozen times by Antifa in 2020’s Summer of Love. Being on the receiving end of crime does have its advantage sometimes.
Ryan is one who used to think homelessness-- or rather the visible unsheltered homeless-- is was a result of housing issues, and he has since changed his mind to the reality most of it is because of behavioral health issues.This is what I have noticed is the big ideological difference between the current council & the majority of the county, and it is why JVP and the JOHS rarely talk about getting the unsheltered off the street-- they want permanent housing for them and nothing else will really do. With the new city and county makeup he might be one of only a few to think this way.
Just when you think Oregon and the largest part (Portland/MultCo) might be regaining some sanity (by flushing Measure 110, recognizing that homicides are bad and that they need more street cops) it all gets flushed when virtually across the state, tone deaf "progressives" (I hate that monicker) were voted into office.
In Portland what part of "what we did from 2016-2024 really did not work" did they not understand?
Part of this was the utterly anemic voter turnout, well below 70%, when in presidential elections in Oregon it has been in the 80s in recent years.
And the fools who were too lazy to vote will be the first ones to bitch and moan when things don't get better. Portland voters are for the most part cretinous...
The problem is as the years of dysfunction here continue, pragmatic voters are leaving and they are being replaced with those that are far left. I mean you have to ask yourself what kind of person would willingly move TO Portland OR right now? You should see who has been leaving and who has been arriving on my block the last few years. The polarization (and intolerance) here is only going to increase.
I think of them as left wing libertarians. I am or was a progressive, but like the type that wants affordable health insurance for everyone and safe public spaces with laws enforced. I think places like Boston are run pragmatically by progressives, but this doesn't exist on the west coast.
Richard, You are always such a joy to read.
Richard and Pamela wrote this together...
Yes, but he's more joyful than I am. I send him long-winded emails, and he responds with a one-liner.