Editorial

Add Lewis, Fish to City Council

The Portland Tribune, Apr 29, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

The Portland City Council could benefit from a couple of new, independent thinkers, and luckily the city’s voters have the chance in the May 20 primary election to support two people who fit that description.

In a crowded field of candidates, Charles Lewis and Nick Fish stand out as the best choices to replace two current commissioners — Sam Adams, who is running for mayor, and Erik Sten, who left his seat midterm.

The race for Adams’ seat is the most competitive, with six reasonably well-qualified and mostly well-funded people on the ballot. Sten’s seat drew five candidates, but only two are running serious campaigns.

Here are our recommendations:

Commissioner No. 1: Charles Lewis

Virtually every candidate in these council races has made mention of the need to do something about the 127 miles of unpaved roads in the city. But Lewis actually can offer the ground-level perspective of a person who lives on one of those streets.

Lewis created a media stir earlier in the campaign by strapping on a hardhat and filling potholes in front of his Northeast Portland home. He then inquired whether he could use some of the money he received through the so-called voter-owned elections program to pay for street repairs.

Lewis, however, is more than the sum of his publicity stunts. He is the founder of Ethos Inc., a nonprofit that brings music to Portland children, and he has dabbled in other entrepreneurial ventures. Lewis showed gumption in this campaign by announcing last summer — before Adams declared for mayor — that he would run for the job whether Adams sought re-election or not.

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