I hope Bill McDonald will do a series of analysis on Sam's mental state like he did for "what's his name?". And practice his "don't be nice" agenda.

Man, when the Oregonian runs less-than-flattering photos of him, even the O crew thinks he's toast. That one looks as if he's about ready to grab a saucepan and run through the house, screaming "OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA!" while beating on it.

The O has run bad photos of him for nearly four years now. Here's their best shot:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/portlandcityhall/2012/02/mayor_sam_adams_promotes_onlin.html

That is one doped-up dude.

Well he got voted in even with glaring truthful accusations, so you get what you ask for. A shame, wasted time for PDX.

It may be time for environmental groups and neighborhood associations opposing the time line, besides the supposed final results, to have a news conference announcing their intentions to file a LUBA appeal based on construed public involvement, and it's timeline. Correct public involvement is a requirement of our City and State Planning Goals, and appeals have been won on this basis. This might slow Sam and his party down and win even more public support.

But then, maybe it's best to let Sam hang himself by not following a "public involvement" process and having a decision that can be challenged on that basis, and probably a few more. Besides, usually when things are rushed, bureaucrats are likely to make administrative mistakes legally challengeable.

Actually, Adams lied quite blatantly to get elected. Most voters believed him at the time. The miserable failure of the electorate was in not recalling him, but the amateur recall effort was a hopeless failure.

The old money of Portland have been happy to have a buffoon run the show. Now they're installing another hack who is an even slicker maneuverer and lies much more convincingly.

From the moment Sam became Mayor this was going to be all about him. Portland was a backdrop - a stage set for the Sam Show.

We knew this before he was elected when he showed a desire to be on camera that would make Gloria Allred blush. I remember theorizing that if he ever got lost in the woods, all rescuers would have to do would be to set up a TV camera at the edge of the forest and he'd appear within minutes. He even allowed TV cameras into the hospital to chronicle his jaw operation. Remember that?

Still, the most classic case involved the tram emergency system. If a tram gets stuck, the plan is to strap a harness on the passengers one by one and lower them down to the ground with a rope. It was ridiculous then, and it remains ridiculous to this day. Picture a cold windy night with some patient from OHSU pushing off into the darkness on a rope for a drop of over 100 feet. I used my old blog to suggest that - if the plan was so safe - maybe the city council should show us how it works.

This was picked up by columnist Phil Stanford and - you guessed it - Sam volunteered. One day, he strapped on a little harness, and stepped out of the tram car over a hundred feet up, and was lowered to the ground. Here's the catch: All he really did was show how stupid the plan was, but it was worth it to him just for the chance to get on camera.

So suddenly Sam is in the Mayor's office. Getting attention now would be easy. All the people of Portland instantly became extras in a movie called "The Sam Show." And even then, it happened so quickly. Remember? We were celebrating a joyous day of saying goodbye to 8 long years of Bush/Cheney, when suddenly, there was Sam. He couldn't wait another day. Sam had to interrupt everything for his Beau Breedlove press conference. It's classic really. Sam even made the Inauguration Day of President Obama, all about Sam.

I would suggest that this first year was the pinnacle of Sam's time in office, simply because it really was all about him for those months. He even made it to the late night comedy monologues. For a guy who used to have to beg cameras to follow him around, he was now the envy of fame whores everywhere - he was a legitimate national story.

Those must have been exhilarating times, despite all his complaining about how sad it made him to put his beloved city through such pain. Remember the resignation letter? Somehow Sam found just enough courage to go on letting himself be the focus of attention. What a shock.

So now where are we? The curtain is coming down and Sam feels cheated. He hasn't even gotten a good sendoff. He's been basically invisible because, against all odds, the mayor's race turned out to be riveting. It's true. For a while there, the mayoral campaign actually became dramatic with Jefferson Smith winging little press conferences on the lawn, and making career-ending decisions basically every 6 hours.

It was a real train wreck and Mayor Sam disappeared. He was irrelevant. If we owe Jefferson Smith any gratitude, it's for dominating the news and making the last few months, NAS. That's Portland social media for "not about Sam."

But wait...there was a little window between election day and Sam's last day in office, when he could still reclaim the narrative. He could take his pent up needs for attention and subject us to one last frenzy before the fame whore was out the door. There was still a small window left where he could scale the Portlandia statue one last time, and stand on the very top screaming, "This is still about me. I am Sam and I do the train wrecks in this town."

That is what we are seeing now. This isn't about West Hayden. This is about Sam yelling, "Me, me, me" even though Portland has already moved on and doesn't even feel like saying goodbye.

Is there any chance Sam could take his last month in office as paid vacation?

It may be time for environmental groups and neighborhood associations opposing the time line, besides the supposed final results, to have a news conference announcing. . . . .

In my opinion long overdue for both of these groups to challenge our city, on so many issues, that I have little faith in most of them. The Audubon and Bob Sallinger have been vocal about Hayden Island, where are the other environmental groups? How about the Coalition for a Livable Future? I know some good people serve on neighborhood associations, but it just seems so strange that we have over 90 neighborhood associations that they haven't organized to confront the city that enough is enough with degrading our livability. This isn't only about one area here, neighborhood after neighborhood have been given shabby treatment! Do too many of them approve of the city plans and intentions? Is it that some always want to maintain a nice relationship with the city no matter what?

42 days left.
How long is his list on last hustles?
Between Sam and the Admiral, I wonder what gifts
they will want to wrap up for the oligarchy for Christmas?

Jack, I respectfully beg to differ on those photos. The problem is that it's nearly impossible for anyone at the O to get a picture of him that doesn't look like he eats paste when you're not looking. This one, though, was particularly disturbing, because there's no effort any more in pretending that he belongs more in city government than as one of the "look at the freaks" acts at Coachella.

Bill, I couldn't agree more, Mayor Creepy has taken the words "attention whore" to a new level.

Note to Sammy, as one commenter so aptly stated before, "stop doing stuff"

I used to support a new terminal, but with the way the ILWU is slowing killing off Portland as a seagoing port, why bother.

At the current rate of our international shipping business is going, we'll be trying to figure out whether we should find a new use for Terminals 4, 5 and 6 or rip out the asphalt and restore it to a "natural state" Or, use those railroad tracks that taxpayers paid for for a new MAX line and build lots of riverfront housing there in a floodplain...

And then we'll be kicking ourselves for not widening the Interstate Bridge for truck traffic, since WSDOT will by necessity have to widen I-5 to four lanes from Vancouver to Tacoma to accomodate all the truck traffic, and blame Oregonians for buying cheap plastic crap from China but forcing it all to be transported on Washington state roads and not paying Washington taxes (you know, the opposite argument of the anti-CRC Portlanders.)

Thanks for that summation, Bill. Well done.

Bill, thanks. But that was too nice.