UPDATE, 9/3 at 10:30 am: This interview will be livestreamed to YouTube. You can tune in starting at 5:30 here.
In case you haven’t heard, Mayor Keith Wilson will join us at Bike Happy Hour tomorrow (Wednesday, 9/3). Wilson credits his speech at Bike Happy Hour in February 2024 with launching his successful bid for mayor. Now he’s coming back to where it started because he wants our community to know he cares about street safety and cycling.
Or does he? Does Mayor Wilson really have what it takes to make real progress for cycling in Portland? Or is he still campaigning and looking for a friendly audience? Will he actually make bold moves to push the needle forward? How does he answer the pro-car lobby when they come knocking on his door at City Hall? And why the heck did he sign off on removing those diverters in northwest Portland?
I hope to find clarity on all these points and much more during our conversation on Wednesday. Show up any time after 3:00 to meet and mingle prior to the interview. I’ll plan to leave time for audience Q & A, and you can also contact me directly or leave a comment here to share a question you’d like me to consider asking.
This is a great opportunity to bend the ear of Portland’s most powerful politician. I hope you’ll join us and I look forward to seeing you there. The interview will begin at 5:30, but you’re welcome to come any time after 3:00 as per usual.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Who does Wilson go to for expertise and perspective on transportation and urban planning?
American Trucking Association? Don’t forget wher his $ comes from– his trucking company.
Trucking Advocacy | American Trucking Associations
Unsubstantiated speculation.
I haven’t seen anything that makes me think he puts the interests of freight over pedestrians or people biking. His statements on these issues have actually been much better than many of his predecessors. In fact, both freight and people walking and biking have a common problem, which is overuse and over-dependence on single occupancy vehicle use.
Wish I could make it, but I can’t. Still, I’m keen to hear what he’s got to say about the bike issues—especially the lack of bike path maintenance and the ongoing camping on the MUPs. A lot of people voted for him on the promise he’d end unsanctioned camping within a year, but we’re nine months in and nothing’s really improved. The homeless situation doesn’t seem any better, and he’s only got three months left. Will anyone actually press him on this?
I’ll definitely bring this up on some form or another.
I never believed his claims. There are other more insidious forces at work here in Portland that would never allow him to clean up anything.
I presume you mean the insidious forces of a system which prioritizes profit over housing stability, and that you’re advocating for a full reform of the existing relationship between landlords and tenants in Oregon to vastly increase rent protections. Unless I’m misreading your comment!
No, the Housing Industrial Complex, where solving homelessness would put them out of business. They have zero incentive to solve the issue.
Exactly.
Since you are the “facts” guy, can you show any evidence that Portlands homeless problem has anything to do with the Rent protections and not Meth and Fentanyl?
We have a housing affordability problem but for most living in tents, the cost of their drugs is way important to them than the cost of an apartment.
That is the problem to solve.
Yes, all those narcissists who demand that the people stay out in the elements on the streets and sidewalks of Portland just so they can enjoy their suffering.
maybe ask him about that 4th avenue comment he made on your bike to work video. He seemed to say that he took a bunch of heat keeping that project in place when he first started as mayor. Details would be interesting. Seque into who influences policy downtown and how (backroom vs public process); visions for downtown; role of infrastructure investments (both on the sense of safety but also of manifesting the transportation priority ladder in concrete), etc
Hi Jeff. Yes! I definitely have that on my list. Thanks.
Any chance of this being recorded & published?
Hi Nick. Yes I will definitely have an audio recording that will be turned into a podcast. I am going to try and do video but not sure if I’ll pull it off.
What time will he speak?
5:30
I’d like to ask the mayor why Candice Avalos and several others are going to Austria on the taxpayers dime for a “study” trip.
Mitch Green, man of people, also going on this vacation.
Just Gross abuse of the office .
A taxpayer funded vacation that will produce exactly nothing. The arrogance of Avalos is really something else.
Well, that didn’t go well.
Don’t you know there’s a “genocide” and it takes precedence over local issues?
/s
No need to put “genocide” in quotes, it seems pretty clear at this point that is in fact what Israel (Israel!!!) is engaged in. However, ridiculous to think that a forum to talk about local bike issues must be focused on what’s going on in the Middle East.
Pretty irritated that the free Gaza crowd shouted down the mayor until he left. Do they think that’s how they gain influence? All they accomplished is showing everyone there they have no interest in dialog, only in stroking their massive self-righteousness.
I thought Wilson’s handling of the disruption was really good. He sets boundaries and doesn’t fool around. I admire that.
Here’s what I saw going down until I left a couple of minutes after the mayor did:
A handful of Gaza folks set up large Gaza flags as a backdrop to where the Mayor and Jonathan were to be set up for the interview. Politicians send in an advance team before appearing in public. The mayor’s advance team saw the flags and said he would not appear unless they were moved–so as not to backdrop the event, and him speaking.
The Gaza folks moved their flags to the side. Once JM and Wilson took their seats the Gaza folks began shouting them down with bullhorns. The mayor and his people in short order withdrew from the event.
There were I’d say about 60 or 70 people who had come to the Happy Hour to see the mayor. It looked to me like the bike folks were very annoyed with the Gaza folks. After the mayor left, a particularly narcissistic Gaza person took the stage and began haranguing BikeLoud, Oregon Walks and the Street Trust for not taking a stand on Gaza. That’s when I left.
Hi Lisa, thanks for the in-person update!
What a frustrating blow to an amazing opportunity to hear JM grill the mayor on the issues we were all looking forward to hearing answers too.
It is hard to decide if the Gaza folks are just egocentric children screaming (literally) for attention, enemies of people powered and public transportation or showing their dangerously emboldened contempt for democracy and freedom of speech. What a night!
To add to this good recap:
The Pro-Gaza folks started by mainly taking a stance against the genocide, but then primarily shouted at the Mayor about the permits for an ICE facility in town.
They also attempted to shame the Bike Happy Hour crowd for “only caring about bikes” and “doing nothing about the genocide”. This is a strange take to me because, AFAIK, they didn’t know anyone else at the event and don’t possess the psychic ability to know all our personal histories.
In summary, they:
1) Visually presented as a pro-Palestinian group
2) Seemed to focus on ICE when interacting with/at the mayor
3) Observed *30 minutes* of our day and assumed bikes are the single focus of our *lives*
They clearly have room in their heads for 2 ideas (Palestine and ICE), but being capable of holding 3 ideas in one’s head is too much of a stretch.
Pretty much everyone is annoyed with the Gaza folks.
They are cowards, a disgrace to their own cause and an embarrassment for sincere anti-genocide activists.
Yes, because Portland determines the US’ foreign policy decisions. The protesters need to go to DC, where the real decisions are made.
Stopped before it could get started due to some main characters. Maybe you can livestream it from The Shed instead and take questions via chat?
Sounds like this ended up being a waste of time. Maybe next time, if there is a next time, people who actually want to hear and question the mayor about Portland’s particular bike and transportation issues should come with their own bullhorns and Portland flags to post up behind the mayor, and demand their issues be addressed before any other topic can be discussed.