In a video that showed him riding MAX light rail and promised, “better transit that actually works for people” and “safe streets where everyone can get where they need to go,” Metro Councilor Juan Carlos González just announced his campaign for Metro President.
González, a first-generation American born in Forest Grove, has served on Portland’s regional elected government since 2018 and represents northern and western Washington County. He’s distinguished himself on council for his interest in transportation issues and currently presides as chair of Metro’s influential Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT). Prior to being one of seven Metro members, he was a director at Centro Cultural, a nonprofit that advocates for Latino families.
In 2021 I reported that González was the lone “no” vote on an amendment that would fund freeway expansion megaprojects. “To me these highway expansions represent an old way of doing business,” Gonzalez said at the meeting. “I question these projects, given the information that we have now regarding our need to act or climate future and prioritize communities that have been deprived of infrastructure investments.”
In 2022, González spoke about the importance of bus service on TriMet line 57, calling it the “backbone for tens of thousands of people who live alongside it,” on Tualatin Valley Highway. That highway is a major focus for González. He’s made its safety and transit issues a major part of his work. In fact, he hosts an annual clean-up along TV-Highway that happens this Saturday if you’d like to meet him.
This announcement by González has created a major buzz among the region’s transportation reform advocates, who see his ascension as a key piece to more progressive leadership on major issues like fighting freeway expansions and securing the financial support to build out the region’s bicycling, walking, and transit networks. González was around for Metro’s last major push for a transportation funding measure that failed in 2020 and sources say the pieces are coming together for another attempt.
In his campaign launch video (below), González shows several scenes of public transit and bicycle paths. At one point he stands in the middle of North Broadway outside Moda Center. Any elected official willing to sacrifice their body in that location is worth a look.
The election for Metro Council President is May 2026. No other candidates have announced a bid to run for the seat.
CORRECTION, 5:17 pm: An earlier version of this post mentioned current Metro President Lynn Peterson as a possible challenger; but Peterson will not run again. She has already endorsed González in the race.
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Wouldn’t Lynn be prevented from running for the seat due to term limits?
Correct. Interesting to note that Metro councilors can serve three terms, as opposed to only two for the Council President.
Yes, it’s not a decision not to run, she is termed out.
Metro during Lynn Peterson’s terms has been such a catastrophic failure. I hope the next council president enables a course correction at Metro.
According to that source of all internet wisdom, Wikipedia, González is actually a second-generation American; his parents, assuming they were born outside the USA, were the first generation, whether they got US citizenship or not.
First generation meaning the first generation of the family born in US
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/first-generation
Confusingly, first generation is used for both situations, both foreign born and the first generation born in the US.
From Wikipedia:
“In some definitions, however, those born to at least one immigrant parent are considered “first generation”[1] – or rather, first generation of an immigrant’s descendants (i.e., second generation from the USCB definition).”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrant_generations
Many folks that I hang out with that were born in foreign countries consider their kids that were born in the US the “1st generation Americans”. Many times, though they may be US citizens, they consider themselves still of their original country, French, Algerian, Cambodian, etc.
Good news! Hope he pulls it off!
When I first moved to the area, I arrived at PDX and rode trimet all the way out to Forest Grove (57, baby), where I lived car free for two years. I hope Juan Carlos can bring some good leadership to Metro.
Sounds like González has the right priorities, but let’s see how big the pushback is from the industrial-driving complex, which Peterson was entirely beholden to.
He started off with strong positions, but his voting record has been weak. Hoping he is a sleeper agent for smart transportation. Usually, it doesn’t work out.
My thought as well. He has drifted toward “build it all” and “get’er done” type mentalities. He is an awesome person: smart, charming, fun, etc. But that move away from the environmental, multimodal principles he was elected on—not his rhetoric, that’s stayed the largely the same, but his voting record and actions—is cause for some concern.
Instead of worrying about who to elect as the next president, maybe we should be talking about scrapping Metro altogether. It’s expensive, bloated, and not really doing the job. The vast majority of well-functioning local governments don’t even have this extra layer — and they seem to manage just fine. Why are we paying for more bureaucracy when we’re not getting better results? Time for a serious rethink.
I’d start with merging the county and city governments (and sending east county/Gresham off to a separate county) . But we have a region that’s interdependent for land use and transportation and economic development. It’s good to coordinate those investments and decisions in a significant way.
We could offload the Zoo, Convention Center, and parks to local governments if we wanted to.
The zoo is tantamount to continual animal cruelty and has been so for awhile. It is time for it to either be closed or receive a large budget increase without a corresponding increase in animals. Since the second option is never going to happen it is time to divest such a torturous place from local government.
https://animalpeopleforum.org/2018/10/19/portlands-oregon-zoo-ranked-worlds-worst-captive-elephant-experience/
https://www.nonhumanrights.org/blog/oregon-zoo-elephants/
https://www.thedodo.com/why-the-oregon-zoo-is-one-of-t-572332190.html