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ISSUE #35.52 • SPECIAL SECTION •

Magnificent 7


Seven quotes from seven mayors who’ve presided over Portland since 1974.

BY WW EDITORIAL STAFF | 503-243-2122

[November 4th, 2009]

Neil Goldschmidt
(1973-1979)

“What other job pays you to fall in love with children every day of the week, knowing you left a little something behind to comfort and encourage them?” asked Goldschmidt in a 1990 farewell speech after abandoning his bid for re-election as governor. He was leaving the race for fear of being exposed for sexually abusing his 14-year-old babysitter from 1973 to 1978, while he was mayor.

Connie McCready
(1979-1981)
“I have crises right up to my armpits,”
lamented McCready, just a few months into her brief, off-balance stint as mayor.

Frank Ivancie
(1981-1985)
“I am not going to support homos in firehouses,”
ranted Ivancie in 1974, while still a city commissioner, in response to a proposed 1974 resolution to ban discrimination against homosexuals in city hiring practices.

Bud Clark
(1985-1993)
“Mildred Schwab could only have an orgasm at budget time,”
Clark told Tom Brokaw in 1986 over beers at his Goose Hollow Inn, describing a city commissioner with a tightfisted reputation.

Vera Katz
(1993-2005)
“It’s the best bad marriage I ever had,”
said Katz in 2002 of her sniping rapport with Sam Adams, her chief of staff at the time.

Tom Potter
(2005-2008)
“I am irrelevant,”
proclaimed Potter, before walking out of an Oct. 25, 2007, meeting with the City Council. He still had 14 months remaining in his term

Sam Adams
(2009-present)
“He was looking for a mentor. I tried to be both prudent and useful to him,”
said Adams, denying allegations of a sexual relationship with barely-18-year-old Beau Breedlove during his 2007 mayoral campaign. He was lying.
















Comment on Magnificent 7   Comment RSS feed

portland guy  writes on Nov 5th, 2009 10:31am

Great quote by Bud Clark. I remember Mildred Schwab and that is a startling image to say the least.

John Erickson  writes on Nov 6th, 2009 2:44pm

And remember that Brokaw turned right around and blurted out Bud's Mildred Schwab story to a packed audience at the Hilton?

portland guy  writes on Nov 8th, 2009 9:16am

No, I'm not quite old enough to remember specific events like Brokaw at the Hilton. I just remember seeing Schwab on the news when I was a kid.

Comment on the "Magnificent 7" article
Portland By The Numbers
BY ETHAN SMITH
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BY HENRY STERN | The Blazer icon pines for Portland.
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BY MICHAEL MANNHEIMER | Promoting music for four decades, on his own terms.
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BY SASHA INGBER | Escape From New York Pizza brought good pie to PDX.
My PDX: Thalia Zepatos
BY NIGEL JAQUISS | The gay rights crusader cut her teeth in Portland.
My PDX: Matt McCormick
BY AARON MESH | From sandwich maker to promising filmmaker.
A Cause And A Crisis
BY ETHAN SMITH | Portland’s stance on two defining issues, then and now.
Loggers To Bloggers
BY JAMES PITKIN | Oregon’s timber industry’s been chopped down—what’s grown up in its place?
The Price Is Right
BY BEN WATERHOUSE | Paying for stuff in 1974 and today.
Portrait Of A City Block
BY BETH SLOVIC | Fox Tower’s reach for the sky erased a colorful, less chichi neighborhood.
Hair Play
BY CASEY JARMAN | For Blazers, what goes on above the ears is as important as what goes on between them.
35 Years, 35 Songs
BY CASEY JARMAN, MICHAEL MANNHEIMER | Our essential Portland mixtape, ’74 to ’09.
Class Pictures
BY BETH SLOVIC | Decades after desegregation, race remains a sensitive issue in Portland Public Schools.
Magnificent 7
WW EDITORIAL STAFF | Seven quotes from seven mayors who’ve presided over Portland since 1974.
Flash Forward
BY KELLY CLARKE | When it comes to Portland grub, everything old is new again.
Our Own Private Hollywood
BY AARON MESH | Portland filmmaking, then and now.
Portland Style Then & Now
BY ERIN FLESCH, ETHAN SMITH | What’s gone. What’s Back. What never left.
The Covers
WW EDITORIAL STAFF | 20 Memorable Front Pages From The Last 35 Years.
 

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