(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly is on the agenda of the Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) Tuesday night. It will be the final time the BAC hears from the commissioner-in-charge of the transportation bureau and an opportunity for her to cement a legacy. When it comes to cycling, many of us will likely recall a tenure that delivered a lot of promise and solid progress on key issues, but missed out on cycling-specific opportunities.
Here’s a look back at Eudaly’s time as transportation commissioner.
Despite being seated as commissioner in January 2017, Eudaly wasn’t given the Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) portfolio by Mayor Ted Wheeler until August 2018. That gave a political newcomer just over two years to steer the PBOT ship, a rather large vessel with over 1,000 employees and an annual budget of $570 million. PBOT is one of the most difficult agencies to oversee not just because of its size, but because how we get around intersects with so many other controversial and emotionally fraught issues such as racism, policing, income/geographic equity, and an entrenched resistance to change the driving-centric status quo. Eudaly also took the helm of PBOT at a time when the transportation issue carried much less political heft than in past eras.
Given this context, Eudaly handled the assignment well. She (and her Chief of Staff Marshall Runkel and Policy Director Jamey Duhamel) plunged into the topic head-first by participating in the widely-respected Portland Traffic and Transportation class at Portland State University. Eudaly also proved early on that just because she didn’t have a deep transportation policy background, she would not be afraid to go up against those who did.
When challenged by a BikePortland reader about her commitment to the issue, she came right into our comments section to defend herself. And months before her runoff election with former U.S. Senate candidate and commissioner Steve Novick, Eudaly successfully pressured him on the issue of making adaptive bikes available as part of Portland’s Biketown bike share system.
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Once armed with the confidence and knowledge about how transportation works, Eudaly spoke clearly to Portlanders about the harmful impacts single-occupancy vehicle abuse has on our system and the urgent need to reduce it. In contrast to a transportation agency too often saddled by fear of hurting drivers’ feelings, Eudaly’s candor was important and refreshing. In a May 2019 I shared, “If PBOT is ever going to start riding faster, they need someone like Commissioner Eudaly out front to provide a draft.”
Eudaly was unafraid to oppose the I-5 Rose Quarter project, even though PBOT had spent years cozying up to the Oregon Department of Transportation as a close partner. Eudaly’s concerns about the project grew over time and ultimately led her to take the historic, unprecedented step of withdrawing PBOT’s federal partnership back in October.
That opposition to the Rose Quarter project will outlive Eudaly’s tenure at City Hall. So too will her work on the Rose Lane Project, an effort launched last year to speed up buses with dedicated lanes and other methods.
Eudaly’s bus policies were centered on lowering greenhouse gas emissions and raising the quality of transit service for Black, indigenous, and people of color. Climate change was an obvious way to frame transit upgrades; but Eudaly and her team (led by Policy Director Jamey Duhamel) gave race-specific outcomes a surprisingly powerful role in shaping the policy. That move, based on a burgeoning mobility/transportation justice movement, would prove prescient and appropriate as it came months before local protests erupted after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.
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Climate change and racial equity are pillars of the Rose Lane Project, and they’ve now become enshrined as official PBOT policy more broadly. The agency’s 2019-2022 Strategic Plan includes two questions PBOT is “always asking”: “Will it advance equity and address structural racism?” and “Will it reduce carbon emissions?”. Those questions became more than empty rhetoric when staff used them to decide against bike lanes on Hawthorne Blvd in a preliminary analysis released in September 2020.
With racial equity and climate change now ahead of Vision Zero as PBOT’s top priority, the Rose Lane Project off-and-running, and buoyed by a rally for the 2030 Bike Plan, Eudaly’s office was ready to focus on cycling in early February this year. The plan was to have a “Council Bike Moment” this past spring at City Hall with Eudaly and her policy staff arm-in-arm with PBOT’s top brass. The agenda included the release of three documents that could help spur the cycling renaissance Portland so desperately needs: a report on the Bicycle Plan for 2030, a report on Portland’s neighborhood greenway network (released last month), and the release of a protected bikeway design guide (which was released in draft form in 2018 but has since vanished).
Then the pandemic hit.
Biking’s big day at City Hall was called off and rescheduled for late October.
As the new Council Bike Moment date approached, Duhamel told the PBOT Bike Advisory Committee it wasn’t ready and needed to be delayed again until spring 2021. Eudaly’s office and PBOT staff wanted the presentation at council to demonstrate work they’d done on racial equity and cycling; but they felt not enough progress had been made. “We made the decision to take the time that is needed, rather than invite BIPOC cyclists to a preset table and risk tokenizing their participation, something that feels more like a show,” Duhamel explained. (I’ll share more on this in a separate post.)
Race has played a huge role in Eudaly’s short political life — especially as it relates to transportation: She faced the complexities and opportunities of race in the Council Bike Moment example above; she oversaw PBOT as it embarked on being an antiracist organization; she made race a central pillar of the Rose Lane Project; racial equity concerns loomed over her delayed decision to create “open streets” when the pandemic hit; it influenced plans for a “Black Lives Matter” street mural; and her striking evolution on the role of police officers in traffic enforcement has everything to do with her own racial reckoning.
Eudaly’s candid, courageous, clear, and policy-driven style through these daunting last two years earned her considerable support in local transportation and cycling advocacy spheres. In the end however, she didn’t do enough to win re-election.
Much like the era Eudaly governed through was complicated, so too remains her legacy. The decision to visit the bike committee Tuesday night shows Eudaly is proud of it. She should be, even though the people around the table never got the big moment they hoped for.
You can attend Tuesday night’s BAC meeting via Zoom. It starts at 6:00. Details here.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Thank you for the article, Jonathan.
Eudaly had some strengths that made her a good fit with PBOT. She’s charismatic, she didn’t shy away from controversy and she sincerely wanted to improve the system. I thought she had the strength and toughness to make big changes. So it was frustrating for me to see her squander her political capital on creating the neighborhood association soap opera. That was a newbie mistake that probably cost her her seat, an unforced error.
I supported Mapps because he said my magic words, “evidence-based policy,” and because he’s got the intellectual chops to follow-through on that. He also understands that getting things done does not have to involve turning people into adversaries.
I think you touch on the main reason she lost: The neighborhood association thing. I think people got it very wrong in general, but perception is reality and Eudaly lost big-time on perception. I have a hunch she’ll be back at politics. A mayoral run in 2024 possibly? From personal experience I can say that there is nothing more powerful than learning hard lessons publicly and suffering consequences because of it. Eudaly has done that in a big way and if she can use what she’s learned to make herself a better leader and politician (which includes stuff like campaigning and actually caring about popularity!), I think she has a chance to be pretty great.
Saying that people simply misunderstood her on the neighborhoods issue is completely wrong. They generally supported her stated goals, but objected to her tactics, divisiveness, and the fundamental dishonesty and contempt with which she and her staff undertook that project. People understood her perfectly clearly.
And I agree, it cost her the election.
I meant to convey that the policy was right in my opinion, but yes, she went about it the wrong way and people “got it wrong” by thinking the idea overall was a bad thing, when really it was just how she and her staff went about it that was bad.
What do you think “the policy” was? (John, not sure why “anon”)
The policy was to change the existing code that regulates n’hoods associations to make it more inclusive of other groups; not only the traditional, non-geographic-based Neighborhood Associations. That is a good idea and a long overdue change to level the playing field a bit and balance political power among a broader array of groups so that people who are not represented by n’hood groups can have a seat at the table.
I agree with that policy. Unfortunately Eudaly and her staff made some mistakes and mismanaged the rollout/communications.
I agree with JM here. The policy was correct but the rollout struggled. Ironically, this is similar to what caused Novick to lose. He was super supportive of the gas tax and he made lots of enemies in raising it. That was good policy, but made lots of people unhappy.
I have never heard anybody disagree with that proposal, and had she moved forward on that basis, I don’t know that it would have been at all controversial.
It takes a special kind of talent to make a generally agreeable proposal so toxic that not even a single city council member will sign on. Her mistakes ran much deeper than communications and rollout.
By the way, I’m curious what table you think neighborhood association sit at that others don’t have access to. With a few very specific (and largely unimportant) exceptions, any power that neighborhoods have is drawn from their base of support, just like any other civic organization.
You think trying to change the code that governs one of the most sacred institutions in Portland is a “generally agreeable proposal”? I give Eudaly credit for having the guts to even approach stuff like this. Obviously it would be controversial given that our vaunted NA system is so cherished — especially by folks who benefit most from it and who abuse it to create their little fiefdoms of power.
NAs represent neighborhoods in Portland in an official way that other groups simply do not. That is the issue here. And instead of asking people nicely to let other voices come in and have more official power, Eudaly felt the best way to reform the system was to make changes at the code level. Not a bad approach in my opinion. I also don’t agree with you that it’s a level playing field out there when it comes to representing neighborhoods and the people who live in them Sure, some non-NA groups have power and have done a great job organizing and getting access to City Hall – but tons of others haven’t.
I think the NA system could be better and more inclusive. I think it’s worth trying to reform it to evolve with the current times and landscape. To me that’s what Eudaly was trying to do. Is she a saint? No. Did she make mistakes? Absolutely. Is she as evil and terrible as many folks made her out to be? I don’t think so.
Yes, I think there was widespread support from making the system more inclusive, and I am convinced most neighborhood associations wanted to be partners in that effort.
Where does this “official” representation manifest itself? Their power only comes from the fact that residents support them, which provides a political base. With the exception of getting fees for certain land use appeal fees waived, NAs have no special powers, only the sway they can muster from their residents. The problem that Progressives have with neighborhood associations is that lots of people support them, and they provide a competing voice in public dialogue. That said, there is no reason why progressives should not use the NA system to their advantage, and in many cases, we do.
I agree with this 100%. If Eudaly had approached the issue from this direction, she would have succeeded.
Hello Kitty, Eudaly had a special talent of actually winning a city wide election and delivering solid results. Plus she has the integrity and candor to make a big comeback. I think we women need to give her a special warm place in our hearts for all the other BS she put up with this summer (women get a special type of masculinity bs in politics). She was an outspoken member of the Council and provided cover for Hardesty. She needs feminist support right now and acknowledgement that she actually kicked azz in the little time she had. The neighborhood associations need to get stacked with bicyclists and other mobility advocates. I’m not sure I support non-profits or NGOs on these committees as our campaign finance laws are terribly influential. This would give no name organizations more say on the committee then actual neighbors.
So they say. Did you read the *actual code language* that Chloe and her bureau tried to pass?
Yeah. Are you saying Eudaly and those who supported the effort tried to misrepresent their intentions? I don’t see that, but am open to learning otherwise.
Yes. The actual code they sought to pass would have largely eliminated the neighborhood association system and given the OCCL commissioner power to direct the office’s $14MM budget to any group she desired. That is a recipe for political patronage. Which was pretty likely the intent.
All the while taking every chance to say “we’re not getting rid of neighborhood associations” which, while technically true, in context was a total lie.
Sorry Jonathan..I know you like her but her goose is cooked. She is just too divisive.
Mayor run? No. She has rubbed many people the wrong way. I still have trouble understanding why so many in BikePortland have been going to bat for her.
I get that she came a long way from no biking to bringing it to the table but I think Mapps has the right mix of being a regular cyclist and actually being a person of color: “There’s a lot of risk with cars and there’s also a racial component to driving, which is frankly awkward.”
Oh God. Hope Not. She is horrible. it is really sad to see how partisanship makes you overlook absolutely incompetent person with a terrible character.
Hi Jamie,
What are talking about? I don’t think your assessment of me is accurate at all. In fact, it’s completely off-base. Almost as if you want to believe I think a certain so that it helps your narrative and validates your dislike of Eudaly.
She also ticked off a lot of landlords with deep pockets.
So I would say that her two biggest political calculus challenges included the NA debacle AND rolling out (a second wave) of rental regulations.
She must be appeasing homeless services social enterprises then who have come into a great fortune recently with the newly passed metro homelessness services tax then.
Ha, those are some awfully rosy glasses to remember her time through. I just remember her complete lack of interest in PBOT or cycling. She only embraced cycling when she needed to pander to cycling advocates for votes when it became clear she was going to have a tough re-election run.
Getting around by any mode of transportation be it SOV, bike, transit, or walking, is worse today than it was when she took over. I guess that is technically a legacy.
An ineffective PBOT head going to an ineffective bike advisory committee to try and reshape her terrible legacy is probably peak Portland though.
cmh89,
Based on on the context she operated in and actual things that happened as I share in detail above, I disagree with you. She was far from perfect, but a “complete lack of interest in cycling”? No. Did you bother to read the story? I ask because I notice your comment came in less than 7 minutes after I posted it. One thing I’ve observed in the years covering Eudaly is that a lot of people just seemed to not like her. I have my thoughts as to why that is, but I think this personal emotion around her clouds peoples’ judgment of her governing and policy record.
I must have just happened upon it right after you posted it. I read the whole story.
Here’s is the break down as I see it. She took a class. Anyone can take a class. Congratulations. She talked a lot. Great! Eudaly does well with anyone who gives platitudes a ton of currency. She is actually really really great at giving empty platitudes. Honestly, better than Ted at it. It’s her complete lack of action that will make her legacy.
The Rose Lanes are literally the only thing PBOT produced of value under her tenure and not only do they predate her, they are, at the end of the day, just dedicated bus lanes. How is this suppose to be a heavy lift?
I also think that there is this really white concept of centering every single thing in equity but not actually centering it in equity. You know what would benefit BIPOC Portlanders? A functioning transit and road system.
Lastly, I’ll always remember her for looking at a chance to solidify the “greenways” around the city and instead insulting the people who were advocating for improving “greenways”. She then turned around and embraced it after it was clear everyone else thought it was a good idea, put up some signs, and then trumpeted her accomplishments as if PBOT was on the cutting edge.
Eudaly used race throughout her tenure to try and hide her shortcomings. Like I said, getting around the city is worse for every single mode of transit and for every single person regardless of skin color. I guess that is equity though. She made the city worse for everyone equitably!
OK. Thank you. I appreciate you explaining your opinion a bit more. I hear you on this stuff and I too was/am frustrated with stuff she did/didn’t do. But I’m trying to look beyond my own emotion and make a fair determination based on what I know. That being said, I think we should keep in mind we both operate without all the info needed to really make a fair and accurate judgment. I would really like to know more about what PBOT staff think of her for instance, but it’s hard to get them to share anything these days out of fear of “talking to the media without authorization”.
Even though I understand where you’re coming from and agree with it to some extent, I just don’t feel the same anger toward her as you do. I mean, she only had two years at PBOT and that time was riddled with other crises that made moving any needles on transportation difficult. I would have liked to see what she would do with 4 more years because I think she’s the right kind of wonk and policy personality to help us push past some of the status quo crap.
And as for you saying she didn’t center equity. Man, she sat there in City Hall and supported Hardesty on that police budget cut 100%. That was one of the most courageous things I’ve ever seen from a local politician in my 15 years here. She literally framed the Rose Lane thing as being done solely to make transit times faster for Black people. She decided against the Council Bike Moment because she wanted to have more done on the racial equity front before trotting out a bunch of “equity” statements. I’m not sure your expectations around this are reasonable if you think she didn’t do enough to center equity. That is a pretty dang good record if you ask me.
I’m not angry at her, I just think she did a mediocre to bad job. I actually voted for her over Mapps because what little progress she made was more promising than the regression that Mapps promises to bring to the table, but it was very much a “two bad choices” situation. I’d also love to know how PBOT staff feel about her.
Honestly about 90% of the problem is Portland’s dated and frankly awful form of government. I’m not opposed to having an elected official run PBOT but I want to vote specifically for the person running PBOT. I’m glad she was willing to take a class but at the same time, it’s awful that person who is going to be in charge of a 1000 person transportation bureau is taking a college class of transportation. That of course, is not her fault.
Hardesty is probably the most liked City Councilor and the wind was blowing pretty hard towards those token budget cuts. I’m not sure it’s courageous for a politician to take a position that is going to be overwhelmingly popular with your core constituency.
See, I just see that as tokenizing BIPOC people. She did pretty poorly in the neighborhoods the Rose Lanes are supposed to benefit the most. I’m white so I can’t speak for anyone else but I think people just generally want things to work. I see a lot of predominantly white run organizations that have begun to coat projects they want to do in equity to make them seem more appealing and I think that’s what is happening here.
I’m not sure not achieving anything, recognizing you haven’t achieved anything, and then canceling something so no one will bring up the fact you haven’t achieved anything, could be considered a good thing.
At some point centering equity has to mean improving outcomes from historically disadvantaged people. If you use “centering equity” as a tool to getting the project you want to do done, you aren’t actually centering equity
I don’t think we should judge someone on outcomes for a big new policy/program (Rose Lanes) that is only one year old… especially when that desired outcome is something as big as improving the lives of historically marginalized racial groups. I also think your argument falls apart when you consider she had a great opportunity to “center equity” with the bike stuff at City Hall and declined to do it based solely on the fact that it would look performative and too premature — so she seems to clearly understand the problem with the exact thing you accuse her of doing.
Agree to disagree I guess. Maybe she was scared of getting the blowback that Ted has? Who knows. She’s never shied away from tokenizing BIPOC folks before, I’m not sure why she’d change.
Why is this a good thing? To me it sounds like just more pandering and feeding her white savior complex. Improving the transportation system benefits everyone, and that should be enough reason to do it.
Sigh. Please read more carefully. I am not making a good/bad judgment. I am saying she did something and using it as an example of centering racial equity.
Acknowledged. I’m just saying that that sort of “centering” isn’t helpful.
Agreed. Everyone needs to feel included in societal improvements and support. The movement for racial equality has stalled due to this concept not being understood. Good article from NYT on this subject. Worth the read.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/race-american-history.html
This is a trait many Progressives share – white folks knowing what is best for minorities. Quite frankly, I think we are getting to the point where many minorities are tired of it. At least the conservatives aren’t being hypocritical in how they go about race.
race and transit:
https://twitter.com/Freeyourmindkid/status/1325528995052589056
I recall her being able to sacrifice the entire biketown bike share system if she didn’t get her way on adaptive bike rentals, ignoring that many people who are handicapped can and do ride normal bicycles. Odd that she didn’t seem to want to stop allowing car rentals in the city at the same time. Then she presided over the massive jump in cost of biketown and the city is still contributing no money to it. I wouldn’t call her record on bike share a success.
Car rentals are not a public service like the bike share program is (yes it’s a private entity that operates it, but it is overseen by the city). Also she pushed for that prior to winning her seat on council, so I don’t think she even had the capacity to ‘sacrifice’ the whole system? She played the role of an advocate and was highly successful – and a more inclusive bike share system is a win for everyone.
Well stated cmh89!
I guess my take is PBOT staff actually did all the innovations, sophisticated writing, policy, programming, budgeting, projects, implementation. She was good at parroting, buzzwords & talking points. But tough negotiations? Public engagement? swaying doubters & opponents, building much needed bridges (figuratively speaking), and needed political coalition building? Not so much. She’s very good at taking credit for the hard work of others however.
I’m with you here, Lizzy. An effective politician builds bridges; Eudaly specialized in burning bridges. Her campaign staff posted signs all over SE saying she “stopped the I-5 widening project.” No, she just pontificated about it. Stopping it would have required building effective coalitions, which Eudaly knew nothing about. I’ll be glad to see the back of her. Oh, I’m surprised JM thinks she could be mayor. Portlanders have long memories and we won’t forget how ineffective and divisive she was.
Stopping it also would required… you know… stopping it.
“She was good at parroting, buzzwords & talking points.”
Exactly that. She came off like a grad student fresh out of 1 class on the topic and considered themselves an expert.
PBOT burnt up all the e-scooter revenue, and some more on administrative staff expenses.
Her idea of taking lanes away from super crowded streets to put a bus every 15-20 minutes was utter spitefulness.
She has an axe to grind wiht certain groups, so even when she wants to do something good, she does it in a way to stick it to the other side. In the end, her proposals made rents higher, and made people less likely to rent out/invest in units.
“Getting around by any mode of transportation be it SOV, bike, transit, or walking, is worse today than it was when she took over. I guess that is technically a legacy.”
SPOT ON. That is what happens when you make decisions to appeal to certain die hard voter groups and also make life difficult for others that you do not agree with.
I would have LOVED to go to work using public transportation. But making traffoc horrendous to appeal to the most radical groups without giving people an option is just mean spirited.
Just ask that question – are things she worked on better today or not? The answer is a clear no.
I just want to be clear, her biggest failure was her unwillingness to take on the motorist first mentality of PBOT. Bus-only lanes are a great idea as are road diets and traffic diverters. She just was unwilling to do enough of those things.
She does not ride a bike. She believes that parking tickets do not apply to every vehicle. She has no issue screwing over homeowners in regards to sidewalk repair, but illegally parked RV’s litter the city. Yeah, she has zero vision. Oh, would someone please remove those “local” traffic only signs. There are so few “locals” they have zero meaning. Hopefully Hardesty is next.
I think the sidewalk repair policy predated Eudaly.
I think that is true. As much as it’s a hassle to take care of one’s sidewalk it is the responsibility of the property owner here in Portland (surprised me when I moved here). Sidewalks in disrepair really are a danger for some of our senior citizens and those with balance issues when they are out and about. It does seem unfair when PPOT allows abandoned cars and illegally parked RVs to be everywhere and yet demands that homeowners repair their sidewalks. But that’s the way it is in Portland for law abiding citizens. You are held to a higher standard. :(. Anyway think of your grandma when you pay big bucks to repair your sidewalk. You can take solace in the fact that PBOT has apparently suspended any new sidewalk inspections due to COVID. So be careful all you pedestrians!
Citation needed.
Depends what you mean by “locals” I guess?
Local business activity liberating palladium from local Prii, freeing bicycles tied up to trees by felling tree.
They hit 4 hybrids on my block this week. The one Prius that had a protective plate got to keep their Cat, but got keyed instead…
These people are sick.
Yep, and Eudaly and Hardesty want to cut even more of the police budget and divert it to their pet projects. I’m sick of the bike theft, rampant vandalism, the car theft, the abandoned stripped cars, the trashed RV’s parked everywhere.
Sorry but Good Riddance Chloe! Adiós, Sayonara, Adieu.
They of course don’t do anything about places that buy stolen property. One example. The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative which gladly buys stolen metal beverage containers regardless of where they came from.
The signs are pointless. It’s public right of way whether I live in that particular neighborhood or not. And I agree with you Hardesty too. She’s a blowhard and hypocrite.
I agree with Phil, the signs are inadequate and should be replaced with diverters that prevent cars from going around.
No that’s not at all what I said but thanks for twisting my words.
I think you’re missing the point here. You are the reason why we need diverters. You only have yourself to blame.
There are more important things to be dealt with, such as making sure our sidewalks comply with national standards. “Lane, 541 U.S. at 532. Even facially neutral government actions that apply equally to disabled and nondisabled persons may violate Title II if the public entity has failed to make reasonable accommodations to avoid unduly burdening disabled persons.”
Sidewalk frequently unusable due to illegal camps. Hopefully the city loses an ADA lawsuit over transient encampments. Pedestrians are regularly forced into roadside due to tents and trash blocking path. Imagine how safe it is to divert power chair riding senior citizen alongside cars because tents.
About parking tickets… or when they’re for promoting the interest of extremely wealthy and politically connected construction industry. Contractors are allowed to reserve spaces on our streets only for purposes essential to construction. Like trucks carrying heavy items. Cars are specifically prohibited. You will regularly see this being violated. Superintended and project managers using these to create free parking for themselves. It is never proactively enforced and very sparingly and leniently enforced when reported.
Case in point. Some monied construction company closed a lane illegally to their benefit and caused a significant traffic disruption. They only got away with a $500 fine and “getting talked to” while they probably saved five figures by breaking the law. https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/2017/08/portland_fines_two_constructio.html
Thanks, Jonathan. I think this is a fair and good reflection of the good work Eudaly did. I’m disappointed we won’t have her continuing this work.
43% of voters supported Comm. Chloe Eudaly but yours is the only mildly supportive comment here. The Bike Portland comments section has become an angry echo chamber.
An alternate explanation might be that Eudaly was not a particularly strong bike advocate, so her supporters may underrepresented in the readership of this site who may have preferred to vote for someone who identified as a cyclist.
Any positive achievements by Eudaly were FAR out shadowed by her arrogance and divisive nature. She is/was Trump “on the left”. I breathe easier knowing she has been voted out of office.
DT is an amoral, lying, entitled real estate developer who tested out of military service, stiffed working people who did his plumbing…and is rich because his father broke tax laws to give him a lot of money. You can’t get all the major disgusting facts about * in a sentence, a paragraph or a software licensing agreement. TLDR.
Comparing all that to Ms. Eudaly is wannabe trash talk. Put down the koolaid.
Everything you said is true but my friends and I often compared her to Trump because she was an unsuccessful businessperson with no governmental experience who campaigned (and won) on a populist message.
Yep, she’s a populist ideologue just like the orange haired guy. Both Eudaly and Trump have been very successful in creating division amongst their constituents.
Eudaly’s business paid storefront rent, supplied something that people wanted, supported her and her son, paid at least some employees, and did not harm other people or profit from their loss. She started it with her own resources and helped support a community of local artists, writers, and publishers. I rate that a success.
Eudaly’s line score– Bankruptcies: 0. Defrauded suppliers: 0. Legal judgements: 0. Constitutional amendments upheld: 1.
As the owner of a small business for 20 years, I would deal with Eudaly in a heartbeat. Trump? I would not ____ on him if he was on ____ (that’s a purely hypothetical country expression referencing _inaction_ but the sentiment is heartfelt).
How many times does a business need to crowdsource funding to survive before you stop considering it a success?
But, I mean, c’mon. Of course the scale of the two are incomparable.
You mean like, from Deutschebank?
Eudaly’s financial supporters aren’t likely to be calling in their chips the way our zombie leader’s have, or will be. He’s flailing like a carp because the White House is his last refuge from all the stuff that’s coming due.
Is large scale meant to be a good thing here? If * had a finger in more pies would the world be a nicer place? What specific thing lacks the name, that would be better for it?
My apologies to all carp everywhere.
Ah, you got me. When I said she was an unsuccessful business person who ran a populist campaign, I was clearly saying that, like DT, she is a bottomless pit of corruption where morals go to die (and whatever else it is you think the comparison implied). They’re pretty much the same person. Yes, that is exactly what I was meant. I don’t know how you managed to read between the lines so well.
You win this round of debate, X, but next time… *shakes fist furiously at the sky*
It’s completely possible that * has destroyed more capital than he has created.
You also know that Eudaly didn’t pay workers at her store and didn’t pay taxes, gave no bid contract to friend, cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars by firing two people to put her people in, checked her facebook and belittled people, and also had zero competency and also went bankrupt. Not to mention her renter’s rights policies directly benefited her.
Sorry, but the Trump of the left, in terms of character and achievement is not that far off. If by chance Eudaly was President, she would have done very similar things. Character matters.
I’m glad that she/PBOT finally came around on the Rose Quarter project, but I think she’s getting a little more retroactive credit for opposing it than is quite due. At an ODOT hearing in March 2019 she all but told opponents to just take their lumps and give up. The community has very much taken the lead on opposing this project, and I wish that she (and the rest of Council) would’ve taken a stronger stance much sooner. The material facts about the project haven’t changed in the last couple years, only the politics.
Her work on tenant rights will probably be the centerpiece of her legacy, which is nothing to sneeze at. And you can quibble over how much of the Rose Lane project is attributable to her directly, but it was under her tenure and some good progress either way.
Her coalition with Hardesty was definitely an asset and I’ll be sad to see that go. Eudaly really did score an “own goal” with the neighborhood association thing; I think she could have been more effective in a second term, but so it goes.
Could it be that Chloe Eudaly was a little too willing to tell the truth to be a “successful” politician? As in, once ODOT gets the bit in their teeth you just have to ride it out? Lying is a handy skill for public office. If Mike Pence could tell a smooth lie Trump might have squeaked through.
A material fact about the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project is that the budget has doubled. In ODOT land $800,000,000 = $.9 Billion and when they cop to that, before the building starts, just round up.
I’ve not read the 37 posts here already, but here’s my take on Eudaly:
– Sure, she was good at social media, which earns her JM’s plaudits. But social media posts don’t really accomplish anything.
– Her opposition to the I-5 widening project did not make – and will not make – any difference in the long run. ODOT will have their wider highway.
– She lectured cyclists who were concerned about homeless camps that blocked cycling paths and homeless people who threatened cyclists.
These are not accomplishments. Can anyone point to any significant cycling improvements?
Eudaly should be the *last* amateur PBOT leader. We need to END the commissioner-style of city gov’t and adopt a grown-up gov’t structure, like every other major city in the US.
Euduly is like the mirror image of trump wrapped in tie dye and prius faux leather…
She did a few good things and blew up the rest. Too bad, she looked like a up and comer and instead…well…one hit wonder.
I’m very pleased to see Eudaly go. See how you feel about the impact Civic Life’s graffiti nuisance abatement program is producing. They have I think 1 1/2 FTE in some decorative administrative roles. Even before BLM matters protests, absolutely nothing was getting done about all those blighted buildings bombed with graffiti all over. The graffiti code is supposed to get those dealt with. Absolutely nothing gets done abotu it like many of things people complain about things that fall under PBOT responsibility.
Civic Life and PBOT are both Eudaly’s bureaus.
Wow, is this written by Eudaly’s PR manager or somebody who is supposed to be somewhat impartial?
Look – she said all the keywords that gets the most progressive part of this city giddy.But she was insanely divisive, her policies were zero sum and hurt way more people than they helped, she oversimplifies everything – simple solutions for complex problems, esp when they are so designed to hurt the other side DO NOT WORK! She also was incredibly power hungry, gave jobs to her friends with no bids or high salaries.
She made pretty much everything bad – under her watch, more people died in traffic (but she took no responsibility in multiple interactions I have seen), created an “us vs them” mentality which made riding bicycles riskier, her policies increased greenhouse emissions because she removed lanes from the most congested streets and put bicycle lanes at places nobody used them (esp. on deep East side). She hates cars, but also doesn’t give people a chance. A lot of poor people have to go long distances from outside the city to inside, but there are no options for most of them. Why do you think that despite worse traffic, more people are driving? Bicycle ridership percetange went down under her watch.
It is really sad to see that radical parts of political spectrum are no different from each other. Just like trump supporters can never acknowledge how horrible and incompetent he was, Eudaly supporters do the same.
Eudaly have harmed bicycle movement a lot with her horribly simplified, absolutely partisan zero sum policies. it is very hard to lose as an incumbent, but she managed to do that at a time when we had huge Blue turn out.
Do you expect someone who couldn’t finish HS to be able to deal with these complicated things? Mapps is far, far more qualified than Eudaly.
I have very little good to say about Eudaly, but she is not unintelligent.
Bike chop shops, stolen property crime and vagrancy at 3737 N Emerson at Swan Island boat ramp and the vacant lot on north side of Powell in between SE 21st and 22nd are in code violations. BDS is the jurisdictional bureau with authority on property code violations. I just realized it’s led by Rebecca Esau, chosen by EUDALY and Eudaly oversaw BDS until quite recently. The things that go on at these properties would easily become the subject of liens and search warrants if it was happening at a business or a home in Beaverton. City owned property gets a pass for hosting crime under Eudaly’s regime.
PBOT, BDS and Civic Life all have poor history of violation enforcement. They’re also lead by Eudaly or having been very recently touched by Eudaly and directed by someone chosen by her.
Johnathan, I read the article and have digested the comments and your replies/ defenses. I really do believe you are personally biased by even publishing such a piece. It comes off defending her inactions and an endorsement of a future political career. It is my opinion and view that she was incapable of navigating the political landscape and was easily swayed in either direction without having a grasp on the issues and was unable explain her stance effectively on any issue. These are not skills of a promising elected official. She lost. Get over it. Cover her rise from perceived adversity should she choose to run, but don’t attempt to defend this article as news, which it is not.
Ok thanks. Good feedback. And just so folks know, I got no feelings to get “over” on this. Just trying to share facts and thoughts. There will be more stories to come.