I actually had a conversation with a couple several years ago that said to me that Vera was the best thing that ever happened to this hick town and that they would never have moved here from the Bay Area if she hadn't been mayor.

Having on more than one occasion run into similar brazen arrogance coming from recent transplants is one of the reasons I no longer hold out much hope for Portland.

Its so nice to see someone publish some truth about Vera Katz. For years I thought the city was suffering from mass hysteria as everyone seemed to be swooning over Katz. She was completely inept, and was the worst thing to happen to pdx in decades.

PGE Park disaster, South Waterfront disaster, a general attitude of borrow and spend, way too cozy with developer snakes...

As if we needed another reason not to vote for Charlie.

Oh, but look: Smith's got transportation covered - http://www.facebook.com/groups/JSTransportationPolicy/

facepalm.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150697124687502&set=o.248351331914423&type=1&theater

In Vera's eyes we didn't go far enough with all of this borrow spend stuff for developer pork give-aways. She wanted to cap the 405 Freeway and tear out I-5 where it parallels the river on the east bank so they could Pearlize the C.E.I.D. I think I heard something about demolishsing the Marquam Bridge in the process. Thank God she had to settle for SoWhat. I'm not making this stuff up.

Katz is the very same slimeball that had lunch with Homer every day for years.

I'm uncommitted but leaning towards Brady. I think the City Council needs more private-sector experience and (frankly) more estrogen. That said, among the three candidates, if you're looking for someone with actual, directly applicable experience, unfortunately Hales is the only one. He's actually run city bureaus and negotiated with commissioners. The fact that the fire union has it out for him is a plus in my book: he actually had the cojones to stand up to them. I think Brady's compromised on the union issue from her time at New Seasons, and Smith, the darling of the progressives, will all but hand the keys to the cash register over to the unions.

Not that I'm against unions in general or for Hales. He lost my vote with quitting the council and the Oregon-versus-Washington residency shenanigans. But in making an honest appraisal of all three candidates' strengths, I'm forced to admit that in terms of direct experience with the mechanics of governing the city of Portland or an entity of similar size, only Hales has it.

Yikes! That seems like an endorsement a smart politician would downplay. Not as though I was going to vote for him anyway, but now there's really no chance.

Vera always struck me as a bit of a carpetbagger--where she thought her Brooklyn street-smarts (whatever that means) somehow qualified her to show us covered-wagon types how things worked in the modern era. She always seemed to have more than a little disdain for whatever Portland and Portlanders have ever been. I guess you could say the armies of planners and developers have taken up her mantle of condescension.

Vera Katz did for Portland politics what Jeffrey Dahmer did for vegan cuisine, and lower than that I can't get.

if you're looking for someone with actual, directly applicable experience,

Anything but. Portland City Hall needs a complete cleanout, not more from the characters who have been wrecking the city for the last 15 to 20 years.

I wasn't just imagining things. Here's the link to the whole blowing up the Marquam bridge and tunneling I-5 under the river scheme. They wanted to lower the rail line on the east side to below grade and the whole works. Of course this "critical" improvement was supposed to free up "gridlock" on the freeway loop somehow. The projected cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.5 billion in 2003 dollars. I have a feeling we will see this raised as an option within the next decade or so. There are too many people in power who bought/own property in the C.E.I.D. at bargain prices who will push for it so they can make a killing on their investments by building out a new river district.

http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?a=319717&c=52119

Portland City Hall needs a complete cleanout, not more from the characters who have been wrecking the city for the last 15 to 20 years.

Agreed, but unless we find a way to get rid of the entrenched bureaucrats who really run things, nothing's going to change.

To help begin the "cleanout" would be to vote for Scott Fernandez. That's a beginning.