Fast Stats

• Population: 160,716
• Percentage of residents registered to vote: 72%
• Largest population of color: Black (14.3%)
• Median household income: $90,000
• Percentage of population with a bachelor’s degree: 57%
• Nathan Vasquez’s vote share in May: 46%

Sources: City of Portland; John Horvick, DHM Research

People Who Love Parks

In many ways, District 2 is the median district. In a spring survey, the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center found few voter priorities that stand out from those in other districts. But 41.3% of voters here think parks are essential. That’s several percentage points higher than anywhere else in the city. Communities that value parks and community centers typically have less access to those green spaces, says OVBC executive director Amaury Vogel. “We have had a hard time giving people in that part of town access to the same level of services,” she adds.

Fights in District 2 over neglected parks and community centers have been a perennial story, including a fierce battle for an indoor pool in North Portland. Vogel says this deviation might initially seem small but could point toward what voters will think about while picking their candidates.

“[Access to parks] is a livability issue that’s really important to people,” she says.

Nite Hawk Cafe and Lounge

6423 N Interstate Ave.

Despite its name, the Nite Hawk is already bustling at 8 a.m. on a recent Thursday. One of the waitresses laughs when she hears about WW’s project. “People here have opinions,” she says.

That’s true of Dale Christensen, who’s sitting at the bar for an early-morning 65th birthday celebration. A Portland resident since 1985, he says he worked at the Hilton downtown as a doorman when the city was one of the prettiest in the world. Forty years later, he’s angry the city has turned into what he calls “a total hellhole.”

“We need real solutions to the problems, first of which, start enforcing the laws on the books, stop enabling the homeless, stop giving them freebies on our dime,” he says. “Give services to people who paid for them: the taxpayers.”

The people in this District 2 diner don’t have much in common, but they all agree on one thing: local government is not efficient in anything. Homelessness, as we found in diners in other districts, is a popular issue here. But people have thoughts on all manner of problems.

Leslie Kralicek, a self-described conservative centrist, takes specific issue with road maintenance. His street has speed bumps, he says, and sometimes people still drive down it at 60 miles per hour.

“It seems like there are a lot more corridors where people are getting killed where they haven’t in the past,” says Kralicek, 68. “It’s not because of bicycle lanes—it’s because of the enforcement. They need to enforce these laws a lot more than they have.”

Gary Taylor, 72, comes to Nite Hawk almost daily. He says he’s lucky he has money from Social Security and pensions, but he’s increasingly frustrated with how much money the city takes from property taxes. It’s not an infinite pool, he says, even if the government treats it that way.

But there’s a nonconformist at the Nite Hawk, sitting at the head of a table of about 10 people. It’s 81-year-old Luke Groser, a former high school social studies teacher, whose friends say they came to the diner just to listen to him talk.

Here’s Groser’s take: Growing up in Wisconsin, he’s used to strong public services and believes in high taxes. He thinks Portland isn’t spending its money efficiently and says the government drags its feet on everything.

“I’d try to come and understand the budget, where the money goes. I’m kind of an institutional structuralist. I believe you should put your money where your priorities are,” he says when asked what he’d do if he were a city councilor.

On ranked choice voting and the new City Council system, Groser’s more open to innovation than some of Nite Hawk’s other patrons. Kralicek voices his thoughts on the voting process: “I think it sucks,” he says. “I think it’s stupid.”

Taylor expresses his own worries about having 12 people at one dais. “It could be a problem of too many chefs in the kitchen,” he says. “It’s going to require more cooperation at a time when government is not cooperating with anything or within themselves.”

But Taylor thinks more eyes on the problems could be a good thing if people can find it in themselves to work together. It might be possible. At the Nite Hawk, Groser and Kralicek, who hold many opposing views, share a laugh over their longtime involvement in different unions.