The Portland City Council is in for a big shake-up this year, with the mayor’s seat and two council seats open. Randy Leonard is up for re-election in a third council seat. Only Dan Saltzman’s seat is uncontested.

A crowded field is contending for council seat #1, including Ethos founder and duck boat entrepreneur Charles Lewis and streetcar enthusiast Chris Smith.

We’ve also got John Branam, Development Director for Portland Public Schools; Jeff Bissonnette, of the Citizen’s Utility Board of Oregon; and Mike Fahey, about whom I know nothing (and who does not appear to have a campaign Web site).

But my vote, and the support of this blog, is going to community organizer Amanda Fritz. I like Amanda for a lot of reasons.

• She’s smart, and has unusual attention to policy detail.
• She has advocated tirelessly for transparency and accountability in City Hall.
• She has real skin in the game at Portland Public Schools, and has been willing to speak out to the city council about the shameful inequities in our public schools.
• She has demonstrated a long-term commitment to civic involvement, well before her last council run.
• She is not flashy or slick. She is very down-to-earth and real. What you see is what you get.
• She believes city policy should be focused on the neighborhoods where people live, not on “megabuck shiny projects”. “Let’s pay for the things we need, before we start shopping for things that might be nice but aren’t essential,” writes Amanda on her campaign Web site.

That last point really seals it for me. Portland politics is polarized between two extremes, neither of which serves regular working families.

On the one hand is a powerful, west-side elite that favors high-end condo and business development in our central city core, and all kinds of public subsidies to support it. This gang of land-grabbers supping at the public trough is aided and abetted by a passionately credulous cadre of “new urbanists,” starry eyed idealists who think Portland deserves a place with Vancouver, B.C. as a model city, complete with shiny streetcars looping the inner core, an aerial tram (to nowhere in particular), and more condo stock than we could realistically sell in the next ten years — yet they keep building more. It’s all “green” and “sustainable,” of course.

On the other hand, you’ve got rabid anti-transit libertarians who think everybody in city and county government are communists.

Through the yawning hole between these poles walks Amanda Fritz, talking about focusing the city’s policy on public safety, streets and sidewalks, affordable housing, and parks and community centers in the 95 neighborhoods where real people actually live.

Of the other candidates in the race, Smith and Lewis appear to be the serious contenders.

While I am in favor of mass transit, Smith’s focus on the streetcar seems almost all-consuming (I know he touts his background as a “Citizen Activist,” but his streetcar work is his most visible). This expensive “megabuck shiny project” doesn’t actually solve any real transit problem for the masses (one of its five main goals is to encourage downtown condo development), and costs the city over a million dollars a year to operate. While the city throws good money after bad operating the streetcar to lure high-end buyers to new condo neighborhoods, established neighborhoods go without transportation basics like sidewalks and paved streets.

Lewis seems to be all flash, spending public election money on political theatre filling potholes. He has no serious background in public policy.

In short, Amanda Fritz is the most well-rounded, community-centered candidate running for Council Seat #1. I hope you’ll join me in supporting her campaign and giving her your vote on May 20.

Note: Over on PPS Equity, I’m running more extensive coverage of the city council and mayoral races, including candidate responses to a questionnaire about public schools issues.

Update: If you want an Amanda Fritz yard sign, her campaign will be distributing them this weekend. Call 503-235-2295 or e-mail Robert to request one.

A few flowers from our front yard last month:

The undefeated Lady Demos pulled off a heart-stopping come-from-behind victory over a tenacious Hermiston Bulldogs squad last night at the Chiles Center in Portland to earn the Oregon 5A women’s basketball championship.

Jefferson struggled against a strong Hermiston defense that kept them to the outside in the first half, and trailed the Bulldogs until Janita Badon’s third period buzzer shot put the Lady Demos up by one. The Hermiston defense looked tired in the fourth, and the Jefferson offense began to click. With two minutes to go the Demos started to hold the ball to protect their small lead. Hermiston forced fouls, but Jefferson held on, sunk free throws and grabbed offensive rebounds, eventually winning 67-58.

Jefferson was led by senior Nyesha Sims, 16 points; sophomore Denaya Brazzle, 15 points; and sophomore Denise Hammick with 10 points and stellar defense.

It was an emotional finish to a perfect season. Though significantly outnumbered in their own back yard by Hermiston fans, the Jefferson family put on a show of support that spilled onto the court at the final horn.

Oh, and the Winter Hawks won last night, too, after a 22-game losing streak.

In Less than two hours, the undefeated Jefferson Lady Demos play their final game of the season, the Oregon 5A state championship, vs. Hermiston.
The Lady Demos out-hustled, out-defended and out-shot Willamette (Eugene) in the semi-final last night, winning 55-44 after a much closer first half against a spirited Willamette team.

Senior Nyesha Sims led the way with fourteen points, along with Janita Badon (pictured) with 13 and Tyrisha Blake with 10.

The University of Portland’s Chiles center was rocked by a sizable and vocal Jefferson cheering section, much of which made their way to Jefferson High to see the second-half of the men’s game, which saw Jefferson defeat Wilsonville 69-51 in their second-round playoff match up. The boys are on to state in Eugene next week.

If you’re like me, and don’t think making Portland, Ore. look like Vancouver, B.C. should be the beginning and end of city development policy, you’ll probably like Portland Gentrification and Other Problems. With a sidebar of links annotated with snarky commentary like “Page after page of unintentionally hilarious stupidity that must be seen to be believed” (pdxcondos.net) and “PSU Architecture students see steel, get wood” (SkyscraperPage Portland Forum), you’re either going to love this blog… or just plain hate it.

I’m loving it, and added it to my feed aggregator the other day. (I read blogs almost exclusively in my aggregator, which means I get to have black text on a white background, regardless of what bad style decisions a blog author may have made, and I get to skip the ads.)

Anyway, today when I updated my feed, it came up with a bunch of new posts. The top of the list was about Natalie Imbruglia’s latest single. There was news of Joan Armatrading’s tour. A review of Neil Young concert. And something about “Pink snuggles up to hairy rocker.” All mixed in with articles about Portland gentrification, including “‘Fast Flip’ b/w ‘Do Ya Wanna Rent My Condo’ (12″ dance remix, nm, no ps).”

Confused? So was I, until I realized that either my aggregator was confused, or the blog’s feed got crossed with the feed from The London Paper. Fun stuff.

I admit it… I’m a bad hockey fan. It’s usually about this time of year that I realize I haven’t seen a hockey game, in person or on TV, for a month or more. Then I look up and realize that all the local teams are finishing up their seasons.

The Jaguars were swept three games to none in the first round of the NORPAC playoffs Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week. PSU finished their season last month.

So, having realized the local season is slipping away, I went to see the Winter Hawks take on the Kelowna Rockets last night at the ol’ Memorial Coliseum. Not having seen the Hawks for over a month, I was cautiously optimistic that I’d see some improvements in both the team and the presentation of the game.

I was sadly disappointed.

On the ice, the team continues to struggle getting the puck out of their own zone (it doesn’t help the the defensive corps has been plagued by injuries), and they continue to have a very hard time establishing offense. The Hawks ended up losing 2-1, but were out-shot 37-17. Their lone goal came late in the third period on a power play with the goalie pulled.

Off ice, the “replay screens,” the jumbo center-hung video screens, were on the fritz for the first period. For the second period, they were on, but only showing graphics — no video. In the second intermission, they tried to bring up some video to show a live interview with Christian author Karen Kingsbury.

It turns out it was “Faith Night,” but no amount of praying could get the big screens to work. When they did work, earlier in the season, they were pretty harsh. Very bright, but pretty low resolution, and the picture was very jerky due to ancient analog video equipment feeding the digital screens through analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion.

Last night this was so bad, it looked like they sent the video feed over Skype to Russia and back. The frame eventually just froze on an unflattering view of Kingsbury and her interviewer from the local Christian radio station. Kingsbury was saying something about how her fans are her friends, and “there are no autograph lines in heaven.” The whole thing completely broke down, and they just blanked the screens for the third period.

This is pretty symbolic of how far this franchise has fallen under the leadership of Jim Goldberg, a self-proclaimed “winner” who’s turned in two of the worst seasons in the history of the Western Hockey League. Things have gotten so bad, the league calls the situation in Portland the top priority of the WHL, and has mandated that Goldberg replace himself as Director of Hockey Operations.

Hopefully there are no New York City barkeeps buying major junior hockey teams in heaven, either.

The good news last night was that I was surprised to learn that the Oregon High School Hockey League was having their championship game immediately following the Winter Hawks game, and I stuck around for three exciting periods of co-ed high school hockey, followed by a five minute overtime and a three-round shootout. The PIL (Portland) took the shoot-out to beat the Pacific (Southwest suburbs) team 3-2.

The Winter Hawks have three more home games this season, including Friday, March 7 against Everett, Saturday, March 8 against Seattle, and Sunday, March 16 against Spokane. The March 8 game will feature a Memorial Cup anniversary celebration with appearances from 1983 and 1998 championship team members and Dean “Scooter” Vrooman, the erstwhile voice of the Hawks, as master of ceremonies.

Is Portland a sports city? That was the question put to Portland Trail Blazers president Larry Miller and Beavers and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson by Oregonian columnist Steve Duin at the City Club’s Friday Forum today.

I was well-prepared to not hear the words “Winter Hawks” mentioned, and I planned to ask a question of Larry Miller in regards to the Hawks’ lease. The Trail Blazers manage the Hawks’ home arena, the city-owned Memorial Coliseum, and have been so far unwilling to entertain renegotiating the lease.

Western Hockey League Commissioner Ron Robison calls the Hawks’ lease with the Trail Blazers the worst in the league. The current Winter Hawks ownership group, headed up by bombastic New York City barkeep Jim Goldsmith, doesn’t seem to be taking a constructive approach to renegotiations.

While the Winter Hawks were not mentioned at the forum (the word “hockey” was uttered once), the Memorial Coliseum did come up, when Steve Duin asked Larry Miller about the Blazers’ Rose Quarter redevelopment plans. Though not stated explicitly, the venerable old glass palace seems to be considered more of a hindrance than an asset.

When club member question time came, I was a little slow getting to the line, and questions were cut off before I got to the mic. Here’s what I planned to say.

Thirty years before the NBA was founded, the Portland Rosebuds were the first US-based hockey team to play for the Stanley Cup in 1916. Though they lost to Montreal, the name of our city is engraved on the cup. In 1976, Portland became the first US city to get a Western Hockey League franchise, the Portland Winter Hawks. Today, that team has what is described by the WHL commissioner as the worst lease in the League. If it means the team will otherwise have to leave Portland, would the Trail Blazers be willing to renegotiate the Winter Hawks’ lease?

I didn’t get my answer today, but we will find out soon enough. WHL commish Robison says the team must renegotiate the Memorial Coliseum lease, or they’ll have to move. The ball, as usual, is in the Trail Blazers’ court.

Update: If you want to hear them not talk about hockey for an hour, the meeting is broadcast on OPB radio tonight at 7pm. It is also rebroadcast on various cable TV outlets, and audio is available online for a couple weeks. See the City Club for more information (scroll down).

Principal owner Jim Goldsmith has announced in the press that longtime General Manager Ken Hodge will be reassigned, and a new G.M. will be hired.

One small problem… this is news to Hodge.

The Tribune article by Jason Vondersmith also reveals that there is a dispute about payment for the purchase of the team.

Kudos to Hodge for hanging in there. With any luck, he’ll outlast these bozos, the league (or another ownership group) will take over the team, and we’ll get back to stability in Hawkey Town.

Rumors have been swirling around town about the sad, sad state of the Winter Hawks, and the league seems to be taking notice.

Kamploops (B.C.) Daily News sports editor Greg Drinnan reports that the WHL is reviewing the situation.

The most serious rumors are about player treatment, and the team refusing to pay for surgery of an injured player. It is also rumored that the team is delinquent in paying for hockey sticks, and players are having to buy their own.

At this point the best thing might be for the league to take over the team, and try to right the ship. It’s bad enough having the worst record in the league since the 1989-90 Victoria Cougars. If you aren’t taking care of your players, you’ve got no place running a major junior hockey team.

My first-born child, one half of the reason I’m so insanely ferocious about advocating for our schools, frequently gives me grief because I never write about hockey or war on this blog. “You should rename your blog,” she tells me, and also “Why don’t you ever write about hockey anymore?”

You see, I didn’t start this blog to write about school politics. I started it as a personal blog almost two years ago, and I actually wrote about hockey and war. Then, a year ago, I dipped my toes into PPS equity issues, and it has gradually taken over my blog.

Let me just say this: I would prefer to not have to worry about this shit. Seriously, I’d like it very much if things were like they were back in Iowa City where I grew up, and every neighborhood school was pretty much just like every other neighborhood school, and they all had art, music and P.E.

But, sadly, we do have to worry about this shit in Portland. So in order for me to take back this blog for things that I actually find interesting — hockey, music, macroeconomics, the price of tea in China — I’ve launched a new Web site for PPS equity issues. To satisfy my eight-year-old’s obsession with things matching up, I decided to call it PPS Equity. It’s got a blog, but that’s not all. The most exciting thing to me is a community discussion forum. With a simple registration, anybody can immediately participate and start new discussions in any of a number of forums.

Down the road, I’m going to set up a PPS data dump, in order to streamline access to PPS enrollment and demographic information.

Now is a good time for this. My friends at the Neighborhood Schools Alliance have been hammering the district on equity issues for years, and now, with the Carole Smith administration, we seem to be getting traction. Which only means we’ve got to keep up the pressure.

Check it out. Explore a little, register for the forum, start a new topic in your school cluster’s section. I think you’ll agree PPS Equity is a better vehicle than More Hockey Less War for the cause. Thanks everybody for your support over the last year, and let’s keep the nickel rolling in a bigger, better venue!