'Bowling Alone' in Portland

The city’s political capital is tied up in one market — progressive

This week a homeless woman gave birth on the streets of Portland. It wasn’t the first time.

But it’s probably the first time the subject came up during a Portland City Council candidate discussion on Gaza.

What does Gaza have to do with the 2024 Portland City Council race?

This election will be the first under a new system where instead of four council members elected city-wide, there will be 12 council members elected from four geographic districts, with three council members per district.

That means there are now more City Council candidates than ever in the history of Portland. At this point, voters in District 3 — the inner Southeast — will have 30 candidates to rank by choice (another new feature).

The Gaza question came up during the Clinton Street Theater’s City Council Candidate Forum for District 3. Of the 30 candidates, 16 took the stage in three groups (A, B and C) for one hour each.

According to the theater’s promo, “Unlike other candidate forums, this event does not claim to be ‘politically neutral,’ though it is candidate neutral. Questions will be poised from a progressive/left-wing angle and cover a wide range of topics.”

A lively audience of at least 80 stuck it out to the end — and even grew more animated during the third and final hour.

Theater co-owner Aaron Colter and moderator Blair Stenvick, former journalist from The Portland Mercury and now with Basic Rights Oregon, ran the show.

The Gaza question was posed by Stenvick, presumably from a question submitted by “the community” before the event.

Stenvick said many Portlanders are against what is happening in Gaza and asked: How would you deal with this issue?

There were few surprises from the candidates in Group A during the first hour:

“Human rights violations are going on around the world …,” said Chris Flanary. “I would support divesting. … There are so many ways we can use our platforms to stand up for justice.”

“I testified in support of the cease fire resolution…,” said Kelly Janes. “It aligns with the majority of voters in Portland.”

“America is funding Israel and has for decades,” said Luke Zak.

“Somebody had to oppose apartheid first…,” said Brian Conley.

Group A candidates, which also included Jesse Cornett, were in agreement on expanding Portland Street Response to handle calls for people who appear to be mentally ill. They also generally agreed that a camping ban criminalized poverty. They support the new police accountability board

There was so much agreement, that Janes said, “I feel a lot of repetition at this point.”

Then came the candidates in Group B. This group stood out immediately from the moment Sandeep Bali was asked by Stenvick to state his pronoun.

“My pronoun is Dr.,” he said with a smile. “I worked hard for that degree, so I am going to use it.”

Bali followed that up with another surprising answer to the very first question put to all candidates: Do you support Portland Street Response?

He was only candidate in the three groups to flatly say he didn’t support it.

“I live in Portland. I don’t see an improvement,” Bali said.

When the Gaza question came up, he replied, “I am more focused on local issues … what’s happening on our streets. … A woman gave birth (this week) on a tarp on the street.”

Sitting next to Bali on the stage at the Clinton Street Theater, Daniel DeMelo said he felt a deep sense of sadness over the Oct. 7th attack, but he also wanted to try something different.

“We have a number of sister cities. … I would like Portland to establish a sister city in Palestine,” said DeMelo, who works for the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

“I want a pragmatic city government…,” said Philippe Knab, a Portland public defender. “We need to focus on what’s happening here. … We are fodder for Fox News when we go out there and try to make everything right.”

Bali, DeMelo and Knab joined Daniel Gilk, Heart Pham and Ahlam Osman as the other District 3 candidates in Group B.

Colter, the theater’s co-owner and moderator, seemed rejuvenated at the end of hour two when Group B left the stage to make way for Group C.

“Wild responses this round!” Colter shouted.

Candidate Pham looked out at the audience and added, “You guys are the heroes for coming out here!”

As Group C settled in on the stage for the third hour, the audience also seemed to grow. I asked a woman who sat down near me if she had come just for this group.

Yes, she had. The theater’s website had listed which candidates would be in which group. It seemed that the audience now had more individual candidate supporters — particularly for Angelita Morillo, who formerly worked for Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.

In addition to Morillo, Group C included Rex Burkholder, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Steve Novick and Jonathan Walker.

For the third time, Colter laid out the rules to candidates and audience: No hectoring, no bigotry, and anyone who engaged in such behavior would have to leave.

They all supported Portland Street Response. On support for the street camping ban, most were opposed, but there was some variation.

In addition to her support, Morillo also noted: “I have experienced homelessness in Portland.”

Novick, an environmental lawyer who served one term on the City Council from 2013-2017, said if there were other places for people to go, then it would be OK to tell them to get off the street.

Burkholder, who previously served on the Metro Council, supported the camping ban. The campers are dying on the street; they are attacked and robbed on the street.

“It is not humane,” he said.

The candidates all supported a new police oversight board with more community input. They supported tenant’s rights, and some were concerned that property owners were renting out Air B-n-Bs to vacationers when they should be renting their property to tenants instead, because of the housing shortage.

On the subject of Gaza, Lane (a Portland public school teacher and union organizer) said, “We can all agree that what is happening is horrific.”

Morillo: “All our community members must feel heard.”

Novick: “Israel should withdraw from the West Bank.”

Walker, who is policy analyst at the Oregon Health Authority’s Office of Actuarial and Financial Analytics, broke rank: “There is nothing the City Council can do about foreign policy. It is a distraction.”

He advised that if you have concerns about foreign policy, talk to your congressman.

Burkholder declared that America was a major exporter of death and advised the City Council to “stay out of international politics.”

(The Portland Mercury has brief profiles of most of these District 3 candidates at this link.)

The shortest question put to all the candidates was simply: Who do you support for mayor?

At this candidate forum, the likely winner would be Keith Wilson, who runs a trucking company called Titan Freight Systems.

Current City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez had few fans and many detractors.

“Anybody but Rene Gonzalez,” said Jesse Cornett from Group A.

Carmen Rubio, Mingus Mapps and stripper Liz Osthus, aka Viva Las Vegas, also had their supporters in this group.

In Group B, Pham liked Mapps or Wilson.

“He’s very approachable, normal” Pham said of Wilson. “You can have a conversation with him.”

Bali liked Gonzalez and also Mapps.

DeMelo said “I’m endorsed by Rene,” but he’s thinking about voting for Wilson.

What he thinks might work best: Gonzalez and Wilson — one be the mayor, the other be the city administrator.

In Group C, Walker picked Wilson because “The people currently on the council don’t understand the role of the mayor.”

Morillo received audience approval when she declared, “Don’t rank Rene.”

Novick had initially told Willamette Week that the current council member he most aligns with is Rubio. Afterwards I asked him if he supported her for mayor given the controversy over her lengthy driving record.

“I haven't seen recent polls, but I hear Rubio is toast,” Novick said. “I don’t want to waste my vote . . . I need to study the other candidates.” He’s thinking maybe Wilson or Viva Las Vegas.

As the audience rose to leave, Colter signed off for the night with “Remember to vote or die!”

It was a curious way to end the evening. It recalled another event at the Clinton Street Theater almost two weeks ago, when it featured a documentary called “Join or Die.”

More than a film, it’s an attempt to get people more socially and politically involved with one another.

The film is about Robert Putnam, who wrote a bestseller called “Bowling Alone” that attracted much attention from people like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg.

The gist of the book and film is that Americans have lost their connections with one another, because they no longer invest social capital in joining organizations — think Kiwanis, Elks, Rotary, Jaycees, Oddfellows, bowling leagues — that once brought them into contact with each other. Many of those organizations are dying, and the communities they used to be part of have lost those connections.

According to Putnam, there is a productive connection when people can build a sense of reciprocity in their interactions with one another if they have some kind of link  — “I won’t cheat you if you don’t cheat me.”

The film is being shown around the country at special requests/venues. In the Portland area, it was scheduled to be shown at East County Citizens’ Alliance, Grant High School and the Maybelle Center.

Portland could be a special challenge. The city has hewed progressive for so long that residents and leaders alike have coalesced over “progressive values.” Is it any wonder that the Clinton Street Theater posed candidate questions with a progressive/left-wing angle?

By adhering to one political faction, the city has eliminated entire swaths of political thinking. The city is bowling alone — even when residents gather together.

At the end of the film, Putnam suggests that people turn to the person next to them in the theater and introduce yourself. Nobody in the audience of about 50 appeared to do that at the Clinton showing.

But they did applaud.