[October 15th, 2008]

Amanda Fritz

And Portland’s got issues in spades—a dwindling budget and deteriorating streets, to name two.

Fritz, a nurse in the psych ward at Oregon Health & Science University, has been toiling in the trenches of city issues for years. In 1991, she won a NIMBY battle against developers who planned to encroach on a forest near her Southwest Portland home. She served seven years on the planning commission and is as omnipresent at community meetings as public-access TV.

In 2006, she leveraged her activism and committee service to make her first council run against Commissioner Dan Saltzman. WW didn’t endorse her then because she didn’t muster a real case against Saltzman. But she has clearly matured as a candidate.

She’s not flawless. Fritz can make molehills into Mount Hood. Yet based on this campaign, she’s mellowed—or at least moderated herself. Obviously, Fritz can listen, learn and adapt. These are fine traits in anyone—and crucial traits in leaders. Now her stubbornness looks more like strength. She demonstrates a big-picture perspective once missing from her microscopic procedural focus. For instance, when we asked Fritz about a potential $75 million city investment for a Portland Beavers stadium in Lents, she didn’t just drone on about not writing “blank checks.” She also riffed knowledgeably about how the PGE Park renovations went wrong, and the dearth of public parkland in East Portland.

Her opponent, Charles Lewis, who recently sold his Duck Tours business and runs a successful music education nonprofit, has gained some polish during the campaign—but lost his shine. In the primary, Lewis showed flashes of brilliance—like using his public campaign funds to fill potholes—compensating for his temper and seemingly personal crusade against the PDC. Post-primary, Lewis is all talking points and non-answers.

Philosophically, and on most issues, Fritz and Lewis agree: The city should stick to the basics. Build sidewalks before buying streetcars. They disagree about Portland’s support for bio-fuels (Lewis: yea; Fritz: “wants to re-evaluate”) and the $4.2 billion Columbia River Crossing project (Lewis supports the new bridge; Fritz would’ve voted against it—though she didn’t say so until the council had already said OK).

But their most important difference is that Fritz is much, much better informed about how Portland works.

Video of WW endorsement interview (thanks to Portland Community Media)