Hanukkah Presents 2/8

The Most Powerful Woman in Portland: The Burberry Baroness

It’s the second day of Hanukkah! I’ve been blasting Neil Diamond and you should stay away from me if you don’t want to hear how “Red Red Wine” should never have been turned into a white reggae tune.

I wrote a piece further highlighting the casual cruelty of our new ruling class, but how many weeks in a row can I justify grumbling about them? They’re still bad, increasing so as the political discourse leans into violence. Those leftovers will keep.

Today, let’s start looking at the old ruling class. The ones who now grudgingly share the dais with the Coke Zero Maoists.

She’s in the middle… but who are those familiar faces?

We begin with our current Multnomah County Chair, Jessica Vega Pederson. She was in the neighborhood last week! Her outfit cost more than the monthly rent for my business! It made the news. (her doing something, not her outfit)

So why did JVP finally trudge over to our little corner to see what her leadership has allowed to flourish?

Stadiumhood

Karen Chirre (owner of the Stadium Superette), along with Pete Colt, Laura Curry, Dave Gray, Michelle Milla, and other members of the Stadiumhood neighborhood have been testifying at Multnomah County on Thursdays (they also swung by the Portland City Council). Let’s look at some greatest hits:

11/21 - Testimony starts at 9:02

12/5 - Testimony starts at 19:17

12/12 - Testimony starts at 32:29

This crew has crushed it. When I say that “Portland Nice” needs to die, this is what it should be replaced with. I’m proud to live in the same neighborhood as these people. I’ll write more gushingly about them in the future, but right now we’re kvetching about someone in funky glasses - a true Portland past-time.

Pederson hit the streets on a Tuesday morning, in the rain. Our most vulnerable neighbors decided to play all the hits.

• A bag full of needles

• Pants-less people around small children.

• Drug use/dealing beside a school.

• A chance to fight your local Monseigneur.

• Human excrement!

• Your County Chair looking lost in a $600 Burberry Scarf.

The r/PortlandOR Reddit Thread was pretty much as expected.

“Haha she ran out and did it Tuesday so they will stop showing up on Thursdays to testify. I hope they still show up again tomorrow anyways!”

And to think we could've gotten Sharon Meieran in that role. If only a giant network of “trusted” orgs had endorsed Meieran instead…

But I’m getting ahead of myself!

Campaigning Early

JVP has kicked off her reputation rehab tour. That’s the real reason for the trip. She’s unpopular and she’s up for re-election in 2026.

We aren’t going to let that happen and we have an obvious ally in the above-mentioned former Commissioner Sharon Meieran.

In response to a recent Oregonian Article “Multnomah County allocates $4M to build village shelter in Southeast Portland”, she offered this shellacking:

This headline should have been: “For Christmas, county chair offers those living unsheltered the gift of words without substance.”

Multnomah County just allocated $4 million to build a 34 pod shelter in SE Portland on a parking lot it purchased almost three years ago and that won’t open for another year. It has no plan, no operator, and has had no local neighbor or service provider engagement until now. I voted against it because I don't feel we should be spending taxpayer money without planning or accountability.

The county still hasn’t opened the other lot it purchased in the same area around the same time. That one was intended to be a safe park site, until the county realized it forgot to read the zoning rules. It turns out the site can’t be used for safe parking (oops). So the JOHS decided to use half the property for a few shelter pods, and the other to park the residents' cars. Because it’s not like we need that extra space to, say, shelter more human beings...

Meanwhile, the city and county have studiously avoided public scrutiny as they've “collaborated” their way into closing the Sunderland Safe Park site that houses 70 RVs. The shelter is effective, organized and well-run. The reasons for closing it don't even seem to rise to the level of flimsy excuses. Safe park sites are the low-hanging fruit we should be pursuing more of, not closing for reasons that don’t pass the smell test. And btw, in addition to displacing all the residents, the city will need to figure out how to tow and dispose of the RVs. (Aside to Mayor Wilson: Don't close this site! Especially if your plan is to shelter everyone living outside in a year!)

At my final board meeting last week I asked the county's joint office of homeless services how they account for the “minuses” in their plans to expand shelter when they’re closing more shelter beds than they’re opening? Because even if the county opens these beds it's been promising for years, the net here is a loss.

Lots of questions. No answers.

But hey, at least they transcribed the chair’s full comments about how much she cares.

The gloves are off and I like Bareknuckle Meieran even more!

The Same 60 People, Again

Check out JVP’s original endorsers. It’s a who’s who of bad ideas in Portland, including:

• SEIU

• Working Families Party

• Basic Rights Oregon

• APANO Network

• Portland Association of Teachers

• The Street Trust

• Disgraced Former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan

• Heavily-Fined Soon-to-be-Former City Commissioner Carmen Rubio

• Disgraced Local Activist Cameron Whitten

• Lunatic Almost-Mayor Sarah Iannarone (double dipping w/ the Street Trust above)

• Aaron Brown (went on to lead Portland Neighbors Welcome for Candace Avalos)

• Stephen Gomez (former Nike VP who ran Don’t Rank Rene)

That entire list endorsed or directly funded the DSA this year, except for Fagan and Whitten as they’re basically in hiding.

Tell your friends. Connect the dots for them or send them to me. Portland isn’t controlled by a secret cabal of “big business interests.” It’s run by a very public group of nonprofit leaders, unions, and professional board members, and they’re running it into the ground.

The solution is simple. Don’t vote for them or people they endorse. There are so many other options. No second chances for JVP. She’s got enough money, she’ll be fine.

How do I know? Next time we’ll look at her predecessor: Debb-rah the Everliving.