Recalling Sam

I’ve talked to more than a dozen folks about where they stand on Sam Adams’ decision to tough it out as mayor.

As messy and time consuming as a recall will be, I believe that we need a referendum, a recall vote, on the Adams’ mayoralty.

Adams needs legitimacy, if voters are willing to give it.

Personally, I think Portland deserves and can produce far better leadership than Adams can offer. The guy is damaged goods, and deservedly,

My dealings with the mayor have been “small potatoes” compared to recent revelations, but in every instance they have left me with the feeling that Adams isn’t what the therapists call “grounded.” Sam is out to advance Sam, not the general welfare.

Exhibit A: The lies that have called his very integrity into question.

I voted for him because there simply was no viable alternative.

Now I believe we need to be rid of Sam, find solid leadership and move on from this unfortunate, sordid experience.

Bring on the recall.

Sam Adams' expiration date

As I teased open a new box of Wheaties, I paused at the “shelf life” message on the top near the flap,

The chance observation was two weeks ago, long before Mayor Sam Adams and his former lover Beau Breedlove resurfaced in the news.

Honest.

“Better if used by …” began the label, and here the computerized packaging machine had stamped “23OCT09” followed by an 11-character alpha-numeric lot identification. Things can go horribly wrong, even with the Breakfast of Champions.

How odd, I thought. Could the mere tick of the clock at midnight on 23OCT09 make my Wheaties worse or "un-better"? Certainly in all those months in their box, the flakes had gone through a slow, even decline. These things don't happen overnight.

Each day, minute and second in the life of my Wheaties made them worse.

So if the flakes get a tad worse between 23OCT and 24OCT, so what?

It would seem that Adams faced a similar conundrum, in reverse, with regard to Breedlove’s 18th birthday back in 25JUN05.

Here we really must pause. Inquiring minds can no longer contain themselves: Is “Beau Breedlove” really, REALLY Adams' ex-lover’s name or did it come from FOX News or central casting? Have the movie rights been inked? Come to think of it “Sam Adams” rings a bit hollow too.

Okay, back to the thread….

To Adams, Breedlove, at age 17, came with his own label, “Under penalty of law, do not bed until … 25JUN05.”

After repeatedly lying about ever partaking of Breedlove’s bedly charms, Sam now tells us he waited until the expiration date on Breedlove’s status as a minor.

Right. And I’m going to throw out my Wheaties on midnight 23OCT09. As my wife reminds me, I have sunscreen that dates from the Clinton presidency.

Nature has this unfortunate habit of not fitting into our rigid, legalistic schedules and deadlines. Wheaties, Grape Nuts and Cheerios deteriorate slowly over time. Human beings mature sexually and emotionally at their own, madding pace. Give someone a name like “Breedlove” and who knows what might happen …

I don’t know about Sam, but if he were of my Wheaties frame of mind, we the People of Portland might doubt whether he paid too much heed to the warning on Beau’s label. Given that Adams lied to us more than once (and on more than one aspect of this tabloid escapade), is there any reason to believe that he would have paid much attention to mere words and warnings?

On the Trail of the Liability for Liability

Hillsdale readers will find Steve Duin's column in today's Oregonian intriguing. It's the same topic of liability for hiking accidents that I addressed here earlier this week.

Duin builds his story around SWTrails' founder, president and driving force, Don Baack, who is also the president of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association.

Duin makes the whole right-of-way/liability issue seem like a walk in the woods. He puts it in the same category as Don's stepping up and having SWTrails build a pedestrian bridge built in Stephens Creek Park.

If only ...

Mayor-elect Sam Adams is quoted as saying that he has been "pushing the legal shop to come up with something that works in the real world."

He could be pushing a wet noodle.

Let's see what the City's legal minds come up with in time for our meeting with City officials on Dec. 2 about this issue.

In the meantime, Duin can expect to hear from many property owners who, even if they are eventually freed of liability, don't like hikers skirting their property lines. Absurd, I know, but it's a fact. When the Portland Tribune wrote about this issue months ago, things got nasty and personal very fast in the on-line comments section.

Then there's the little matter of whether the volunteers' trail improvements are up to code. "Red Tape" alert, but several of the property owners will tell you that volunteer-constructed steps are too steep, handrails should be required, and railroad ties are slick and dangerous in the rain. All of which is why they didn't want to be stuck with liability for an accident waiting, as they say, to happen.

So the bright red ribbon Duin ties around the trails package is misleading. I'm certain he will hear from all those folks he didn't talk to. (I checked his blog at noon and there were no comments. Folks may be responding to him directly at steveduin@news.oregonian.com)

I hope that everyone concerned is at the table when we meet with the officials. Duin might like to join us.

Meanwhile, Don told me this morning that the City has assumed liability on many trails already. It can do so in Hillsdale too on a case-by-cases basis, he says. So why doesn't it? Could it be because the liability problem provides cover for the property owners?

Stay tuned.

Write in a neighborhood mayor

So far I’ve been under whelmed by our choices for mayor, so here’s a community-building alternative — just to make things a little more interesting.

What say Hillsdale gets behind a local neighborhood write-in candidate for mayor. Other strong neighborhoods like St. Johns or Hollywood or Multnomah Village might do the same with its own candidate for mayor.

The candidate would campaign only in the local community, but the vote would clearly register when the community’s precinct results are tallied. The results would measure the desire for community autonomy, not from Portland, but from the city's centralized, rigid, unresponsive government.

The neighborhood campaigns would be low-budget. No sound-bite TV or radio ads. No glossy mailed brochures. Just a lot of yard signs and high-touch, door-to-door, neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing within one walkable community.

These local candidates would send the message that our neighborhoods are tired of City Hall's dancing to the tune of downtown interests. We’re tired of lobbying City Hall with so little to show for our volunteer efforts. We’re tired of the city planting utility poles in our sidewalks; finding new, “creative” taxes to provide what should be essential services, stone-walling community initiatives, commercializing the "commons," and calling “community town halls” that are nothing more than window-dressing.

At the very least, local insurgent mayoral candidacies would attract more political attention to their communities. At best, they would lay the groundwork for neighborhood political action.

The greatest chance of a high protest vote is in places that already have strong community identities, want to control their destinies, and are tired of being played the fool.

I might add that each of the communities I mention above (Hillsdale, Hollywood, St. Johns, and Multnomah), happen to have newspapers or other effective means of communicating messages like this one.

Where there is communication, there are communities. Where there is strong communication, there are communities with the means to exercise their strength.

It’s time we started doing it.