167 of Doug Klotz’s neighbors voted this fall to kick him off the Richmond Neighborhood Association after 22 years. He survived the recall attempt by a single vote.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

It’s 8:10 a.m. on Friday morning and the most controversial man in the Richmond neighborhood has just finished reading the funnies.
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Doug Klotz is a longtime Richmond Neighborhood
Association board member. He also co-founded
the advocacy group Oregon Walks.
(Photo: Oregon Walks)

One of Portland’s longest-serving neighborhood association board members survived a recall vote Monday night by the thinnest margin possible.

Doug Klotz, a member of the Richmond Neighborhood Association since “around 1993” and a longtime advocate for Portland to become more walkable, bikeable and transit-oriented, won the right to stay in office by a single ballot out of 252 cast.

The neighborhood association’s bylaws require a 2/3 majority to agree with the recall proposal. According to a count Monday night and a recount Tuesday by the Southeast Uplift neighborhood coalition, opponents of Klotz found 167 votes out of the 168 they would have needed.

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Southeast Division Street has rapidly shifted from an auto-oriented corridor to one designed for more walking and biking, including four-story apartment buildings with sidewalk shops. Some residents support the changes; others don’t.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

One of the neighborhood groups that has been a focus of opposition to denser development in Southeast Portland has three new leaders.

But the board chair thrown out in Monday’s election is calling foul play, saying that many Richmond residents showed up and voted against him without getting to know him.[Read more…]