When Dan flipped his vote on the tram, the Oregonian admired his steel. Nothing like caving into the powers that be to get a congratulatory nod for your leadership in this town. It hurt more because Randy Leonard had assured us that he knew Dan, and Dan wasn't going to change his vote. Oh the drama. There was even a town hall meeting! For a second it looked like the city council was going to make a stand against shaky budget numbers so these projects would never again have that funny "scam" smell. Mayor Potter personally leaned on Dan and the vote was flipped. The message went out loud and clear: If you try and run a phony "guesstimate" budget past us again, we're going to act really upset for a while, but then we'll reward you anyway. Carry on.

It's great to start Friday with a laugh. Thanks Jack! The pic of Big Pipe with Gonzales and the line about translating into Laotian made my whole day.

Now Dave Lister can move in. His asking just two simple questions on budget matters will be a gain. Finally, sensibility.

Love the photo work but it does suggest and interesting confluence of needs: perhaps the CoP could benefit from the likely imminent availability of Mr. Gonzales' services.

As competence doesn't seem to be an issue here, perhaps a diversity of philosophy on the council would be of benefit to the City. At the very least there would always be one member that would unify the other four and serve as a lightning rod for the public anger. That is until the little people finally figure what's being done to them.

And it would be a heck of a race. Go Alberto!

Commissioner Dan wins??? Well if the last survivors at City Hall are Dan Saltzman and cockroaches, it's time for us to find another island!

Of course Danny Boy has a great track record when it comes to administering to the little people of Portland. After all Saltzman has said, over and over, “you elected us to make these decisions for you”.

Some of Danno's greatest hits...
1. The proposed sale of 7-9 acres of Mt. Tabor Park for Warner Pacific College student housing without input from the surrounding neighborhood. Public outcry prevented this from happening.
2. The Mt. Tabor reservoir cover fiasco that netted a $401,000 loss to the city. This happened in 2004 but was initiated by Commissioner Dan. This was also prevented by public involvement.
3. The five-year, $42.5 million Children's Initiative, misplaced as a priority since child welfare is the purview of Multnomah County, not the City of Portland—that diverts money the city could otherwise use for actual city services.
4. Flipping his vote on the OHSU tram project tentative $57.6 million funding plan that called for the city to more than double its contribution. Under the proposal, the city's share rose from $3.5 million to $8.5 million.

And then my personal favorite,
5. His tireless efforts to honor Rosa Parks by erasing the Civil Rights of his constituents by renaming Portland Blvd for her without involving the residents who have the nerve to live on the street.

The initial street proposed was Sandy Boulevard but there was concern that too many businesses would be affected. Portland Boulevard was chosen largely because "not too many businesses" were there to object. It seems Dan was trying to pick a street that would offer the path of least resistance. It also appears that the only part of Portland the City Council thinks to honor African-Americans is in the North and Northeast where we forced them to live in the first place with racist real estate convenants. In essence, Portland is still trying to send Rosa Parks to the back of the bus.

Only two of four Neighborhood Associations (Arbor Lodge and Piedmont) directly affected by the change were involved. The Woodlawn and Concordia Associations were never approached, yet the City Council contends there was widespread community support for Portland Blvd being re-named. Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association voted to support the street re-naming. The Piedmont Neighborhood Association voted against the re-naming, though Commissioner Dan informed them that this was going to happen no matter what the vote was. He told them that there was a "procedure" to change a street name, and if they didn't want Portland Blvd re-named they could go and try to find another street for Rosa Parks. The "procedure" he was referring to is the same Ordinance that he, the Mayor and the rest of the City Council almost completely waived. I guess they are our laws, not his.

December 7, 2006 a mailing was sent out to Portland Blvd residents telling them that it was a done deal.

March 23, 2007 Commissioner Dan finally sent a letter to the property and business owners on Portland Boulevard regarding the re-naming to Rosa Parks Way. He talked about the public hearings we were never invited to, and asked us to suck it up and show Portland how unracist we can be by accepting this farce.

If the date on the letter had been March 23, 2006 it would have been in compliance with Portland City Ordinance 17.93.010 - CRITERIA FOR RE-NAMING A CITY STREET which states:
•Within 14 days of the proposal's submission business/property owners on or abutting Portland Boulevard were to receive notification from the City Auditor wherein the schedule of all Public Hearings and City Council meetings on the proposal would be given, as well as a 30 day window for said business/property owners to complete a survey in support of or against the proposal. This mailing never happened.

•A three person panel of historians with appropriate expertise was to be appointed to study the impact of a change to a historic district. This panel was never appointed.

•Signatures were to be obtained in support of the proposal by 2,500 Portland citizens at large or 75% of the business/property owners on Portland Boulevard. No signatures were obtained.

•The names of Portland Boulevard and Rosa Parks Way were to run concurrently for five years. This legislation gives us only three years.

•The person the street is to be re-named for is to be deceased for at least five years. Rosa Parks died just over one year ago. The legislation was pushed through during an election year (big surprise) in a matter of months.

•Permission was to be obtained from Rosa Parks' heirs or estate to use her name. According to the Rosa Parks Institute, this was not sought or obtained and they were not particularily happy about it.

In fact all of Ordinance 17.93.010 was "waived" except the Implementation section (this prompted the mailing on December 7th from the City Auditor) in order to push the legislation through during an election year. By waiving these laws our rights were completely erased, along with a part of Portland history. Darn pesky laws! I have to say Dan has learned the "will build to suit" system of law very well indeed.

Of course an underlying irony is that in the process of trying to honor the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement Dan and the City Council trampled all over the civil rights of hundreds of constituents. I wonder what Rosa Parks would have thought about that?

Then run for office. Hats off to Dave Lister, and both himself and anyone else who thinks these arguments have the substance to make it in a public debate.

Thaks all. I am in, next time and the next time after that. It's time that we be heard.

Posts like Tracy Weber's makes blogs like this interesting and productive. Yes, the post might be editorializing some, but what is important is that is not the information we get from our general media. In essence the Oregonian is an agent of local government.

Jonathan might be suggesting in his post that this and other posts may not have substance for a public debate, but accumulative, these kinds of posts begins to tell the real story about our city politics, or atleast makes one want to prove that they have substance.

Dave, in his first campaign sought to make connections of "incidents" like this, and SoWhat, Cascade Station, Couplet, "LinchPins", PotHoles, PDC, the Pearl, Jails, Parks, and on. We need atleast one council member that looks at the issues that represents a substantial number of Portland's citizens contrary to the mindset of the present council with a knowledge of fiscal matters.

Dan Saltzman?????
What is this, "The Weakest Link" in reverse?

It just shows how weak the link is with our present city council.

"I wonder what Rosa Parks would have thought about that?" Me too. Portland long ago should have districts representing all the citizens of Portland.
Thanks Tracy Weber for setting the record straight on Saltzman.
And Bill, do you still believe Smell Bad Randy?

C'mon people, lets be sage about the Port. Ave. renaming and reinstate the original. Name the latest mother of all pub. transp. boondoggles after Ms. Parks.

"The Rosa Parks Tramway"

Be sure to obtain the family's consent first though. It might be costly to obtain but just lowball the estimate and the taxpayers will do the rest. No worries.

Two birds with one stone. Two problems - Solved- and it's only Saturday.

Connect the dots. The general citizenry needs to connect the dots. Any candidate that wants to win a city council seat will need to connect the dots in a particularly vivid way.

Regrettably, The Oregonian can't be expected to connect the dots for Portland citizens.

Go Dave go, but know this....forces content with the present status quo will spare no expense to prevent Dave or others like him from winning.

This can be overcome, but only with determined and patient outreach across the city.

Every vote is important and no stone can be left unturned.

This is the lonely and unglamorous part of politics. But it must be done.

Good luck, valient soldiers. May the force be with you.