Bespectacled and bikey, Sam Adams will be Portland’s next mayor. He will also be the first openly gay man to lead a top 40 US City.
Education, transportation and making Portland a cleaner and greener big little town are some of Adams’ top priorities and ones I very much support. After some of the disappointing reversals that fellow (former?) bike-advocate Mayor Tom Potter brought to the office I might want to be wary of getting too excited about our new strongly liberal city leader. But I’m not. Though Potter endorsed Adams’ opponent Dozono, he congratulated Sam and pledged to help him make the transition over the next 7 months. And I have faith that Sam with continue to be an advocate for causes I care very much about.
So I’ve decided it is a summer to forget the cynicism and revel in our victories, excited for what the future may bring for both Portland and our country. Highlights from Adams’ victory speech below can help jump start this optimism.
| Sam Adams victory speech |
Sam will make you proud! You will see your cost of living accelerated even more with his spending priorities that cater to well-to-do special interests at the expense of the average Portlander. He will clear out much of the town of those pesky families as the cost of living will make Portland an Eden for those who are well-off so we don’t have to deal with the lower classes. Prepare to downsize significantly if you are living marginally now or get out all you working wage employees! Sam is here and his rhetoric about the working class was useful to get elected, but he could care less. Too bad there really was no one else worth considering to run against him so now we will all pay. But the wealthy will be fine so that’s good.
I respectfully disagree. As a child of poverty I think Adams’ has a keen awareness of what infrastructure needs to be in place to help Portland’s poorest. Yes, there are always projects that will cost money, but I believe they will benefit us all, and hopefully more burdens put on the wealthy. It’s just a new way of seeing how we all benefit from education, transportation and other projects.