I knew nothing about the candidates going in; I didn’t even know which Zone was number 4! (Turns out it’s North Portland.) But I came out of the debate with a favorite candidate and a far better concept of what issues are facing Portland schools.

There are more debates coming up, so go learn about these guys. Dan Ryan, one of the Zone 4 candidates has a list of upcoming debates on his site.

And I still don’t know anything about the other zones. If you do, fill us in with a comment.

I’m like 5′8″… I don’t know if Joel will be able to reach my head, so far below him.

Get more info here.

Did he do that bad a job? Stuck with a team without a superstar, countless player injuries this season, and a dwindling fan base, how much success can you have?

And then he ran off.

So you’ve got a stuffed donut thief apprehended by a mob of Portland’s Finest, but a guy with a hundred-thousand-dollar diamond clutched in his fist runs free down SW Broadway.

Anyway, this is what my backyard looked like today. Click the image for a larger version.

The article also discusses the public policy issues he intends to stay involved in — namely, schools and workforce diversity.

This was the first City Club event I’d been to, but the appeal is immediately obvious. All sorts of political folks get together in one place. You see people you know, meet people you don’t, and maybe get to hear an interesting presentation. I ended up talking with a guy named Sy who was involved in local government in a bunch of different ways, and definitely had his share of opinions about our leaders.

Mayor Katz’s speech was very optimistic and cheery. She put a happy face on everything that’s happened during her time in Portland. There was no mention of police shootings and abuse of protestors. She didn’t mention big companies like Columbia Sportswear leaving — she claimed companies were moving here and expanding, “adding shifts.” She talked about big ideas like luring Major League Baseball, but didn’t mention that bathrooms in our public parks have been closed for years for lack of maintenance funds.

When she shifted out of praise-Portland mode and into considering how to improve Portland, her concerns were centered around livability, and how livability affects the economy. Issues like access to the waterfront, affordable housing, tolerance, and diversity. She talked about “the creative class” so much I thought she might have been cribbing from former mayoral candidate Phil Busse’s platform! She ought to — the future of Portland’s economy depends on the young, educated, mobile people who make up that class. If Portland’s not attracting and retaining those people, we’re in trouble in the long run. It’s an important thing to focus on, and I hope Tom Potter has livability at the very top of his list of priorities.

If you want to see more of Vera Katz, all we know so far is that she will be affiliated with PSU’s College of Urban and Public Affairs, in an as-yet-undefined role. I think it’s the right place to be, if she wants to continue to have an effect on livability, getting into the heads of Portland’s future planners.

And with that, out with the old, and in with the new. When’s Tom Potter’s inauguration? I have a feeling the new mayor is going to generate a lot of news.

It gets you to thinking — could you make a career out of that? Protesting and suing? I guess that’s kind of a nasty thing to do, but it sounds fun. Protesting is fun. Getting pepper sprayed, okay, not so fun. Getting paid, on the other hand: fun.

Hopefully, cases like this will result in improved police tactics (i.e. NOT pepper-spraying babies), making my career idea impossible.

Photo: Ryan Wise

The basic premise is that there are qualified people who do not run for office due to the enormous amounts of money required to run a successful campaign. Just because someone is smart, talented, experienced, and ready to be a city commissioner, it doesn’t mean they have deep-pocketed friends who can generate two or three hundred thousand dollars.

The solution proposed is public campaign finance. Any candidate who can demonstrate broad support, by collecting 1,000 small contributions, would receive $150,000 for a primary campaign, or $200,000 for a general election campaign.

Yes, that’s out of the city’s tax revenue. But hang on.

Candidates elected through this process would not be beholden to big-money — after receiving public campaign dollars, a candidate is not allowed to raise money from outside donors, whether they’re private individuals, rich corporate donors, developers, or special interests. Make no mistake: there are projects the city is paying for right now that never would have happened if not for big-money donors. It’s quite likely the city would actually save money with this proposal.

Stanford calls it the “Incumbent Protection Act.” Who’s he kidding? Is it easier for an incumbent to raise the kind of money necessary to win a race, or a challenger? This type of public campaign financing should terrify incumbents — which is probably why there are only a few other examples around the country of this type of law. It requires brave, forward-thinking legislators to create it.

I’m glad we’ve got some of those in Portland City Council.