YES.

He makes Bud Clark & Vera Katz seem like a geniuses.

I can't wait for 2008 for Mayor Ego to be gone!!!!

We need another Frank Ivancie, a business and family-friendly mayor.

Herb

I remember being at a Portland Beavers game with my dad and brother. The PA announcer made an announcement that said something like "Frank Ivancie-phone call at the main entrance, Frank Ivancie." The 2000 fans that were in attendance pretty much booed. Ivancie was sitting about 10 rows in front of us and didn't move. Nothing but a PR stunt.

Pretty funny even as a kid.

Portland needs another Frank Ivancie like the US needs a third term of Bush.

Okay, I'll bite.

Someone please tell me SPECIFICALLY why Mr. Potter is such a bad mayor.

Clark & Katz ARE geniuses. Clark showed that Portland is an everyman city and Katz made it alive and vibrant. Potter is making sure that vision stays intact.

ps: Our next mayor will be Sam Adams.

Our next mayor will be Sam Adams.

At this point, I think so, too. It's early, though, so who knows who'll run next year.

I wouldn't call Potter the worst Portland mayor ever, but it's obvious that ever since the 2004 election, Adams overshadowed and outshined Potter almost every step of the way.

I do agree with a few things Potter did:
1. Open city budget process;
2. Honesty with the attempted FBI scheme a couple of years ago;
3. Firing the cop last month (seriously, if I was on the job, answered a personal phone call, and left my post to handle anything personally using my professional capacity, I'd be fired... and if I shot & killed someone? I'd be in jail for murder!);
4. Taking Portland out of the JTTF (Lars reminded me of this earlier today, when I was listening to the news stations hoping someone would've covered the press conference live).

Let's face it, he ran on word of mouth and he probably thought he was doing the best he could do. He's still the mayor of Portland for a little over a year, so who knows what that will bring. Maybe people will change their minds.

Chris, we may have been at some of the same games. I remember both Ivancie and Atiyeh being booed relentlessly when they both threw out the first pitch in a home opener. I will always love my Dad for those season tickets in the bleachers.

Bud Clark will go down as possibly our greatest Mayor. I loved Bud. I have loved no other Mayor before or since. Sam Adams is an interesting choice, and with his regular chats with regular Portlanders, he has a damn good shot. Only Sam, and to a lesser extent, Randy Leonard have been spotted milling among the peasants with any frequency. That does pay off in the long run. Just ask Bud Clark.

To answer the question: No. The corrupt Terry Schrunk is near the top of the list, and the bought and sold Vera Katz is somewhere in the mix. Up there near the top is George Baker. He was supported by the Klan, controlled by business interests, and felt his finest hour was when he rounded up all the Unionists after the outbreak of World War One. His only positive legacy is the Ross Island, Sellwood and Morrison bridges.

Littlesongs wrote:
His only positive legacy is the Ross Island, Sellwood and Morrison bridges.

Nitpick: I think you mean the Burnside Bridge, not the Morrison Bridge (re-built in the 1950s). The Ross Island, Sellwood, and Burnside were built in the 1920s and were the subject of corruption scandals...

Andrew

I too think Sam Adams is a likely next mayor. I've seen him at a lot of forums and such, and he does seem like a regular guy.

Andrew

Yes, you are quite right. Nitpicking is good. It keeps us from simply relying on memory. :0)

Littlesongs, thanks for naming some of the truly "worst" mayors. Portland has a rather embarassing past and we've no doubt a boatload of shady characters in our history -- some of them mayors. I didn't want to name any without googling!

I don't think Vera is in that class -- she has a LOT to do with making Portland the kind of city it is today. Like I say, if one doesn't like Portland, there's the wide open spaces of pro-business Dallas, Texas -- IMO a God awful place to live.

Paulwilson, Herb, hello? Specifics please?

I'm with Warner. Been a while since I lived in PDX and would like to know you folks think he's so bad.

So now we know how to kill a thread;

Ask for specifics!

Totally!

Well, I like Tom Potter. I like how he ran his race, I like how I get replies to my e-mail, and I like how he is currently performing as mayor.

He's not really a bad mayor. Maybe we could have better ones, but it's not a winner to run against how bad Potter is. Better to run on how much better one is than Potter is.

I dislike him soley on the fact that he's anti-baseball. Not that it matters, he's not my mayor anyway.