Teacher aims to change community

An MHCC instructor sets forth on his first run for political office: Mayor of Portland

On the 17th of May, Portlanders will cast their vote for a new mayor. Who are you going to vote for? With incumbent mayor Charlie Hales opting out of re-election, the office is up for grabs during the May nonpartisan primary. Should a candidate receive at least 50 percent of the vote, he or she is “in.”

When taking into account all the issues facing the Rose City this becomes a very important election. Some in town have called for a state of emergency regarding our homeless population; we are in the grips of a housing crisis throughout the metro Portland area; and police are drastically understaffed, which isn’t helping an already strained police-community relationship. Considering that more MHCC students live in Portland – about 40 percent – than anywhere else, including Gresham, this becomes a pivotal election for our student body, as well.

Interestingly enough, we have an MHCC staff member who feels he has what it takes to address these issues. Sean Davis is an adjunct writing professor who splits his class time between Clackamas Community College and Mt. Hood, where he works with the veterans COHORT program.  He’s an Iraq War veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, a firefighter, author, artist, community activist, and he’s running for mayor of Portland.

Communities are cornerstones

When you consider the divisive state of politics today, one has to wonder: What would drive a seemingly normal person (by Portland standards) who has never held or wanted to hold public office before now, suddenly run for mayor of America’s 28th-largest city? In Davis’s  words, “We need some clear-thinking people governing us; people with the ability to think independently and use common sense; people with the same priorities as the majority of the population.”

To that point, Davis identifies himself as a political Independent, choosing not to align with the pre-established political agendas of the Democratic or Republican hierarchy.  In fact, when asked he had little to say about party politics and loyalties except that he’s “registered as a Democrat for now, so I can vote for the independent (Sen. Bernie Sanders) running in their primary.”

Rather than partaking in the vast array of party differences, he sees one underlying issue behind many of the problems facing Portland. The cornerstone of his campaign, his reason for running in the first place, even his answer for addressing the major issues facing Portland all center around one thing: community.

“We need to fix our local communities. Portland is one of America’s great cities, but the communities that’ve grown this city into what it is today are being pushed out. The writers and artists and teachers and all the average people (who) built this city can’t afford to live here,” Davis said.

Many of our MHCC students can attest to that.  Rent has been rising uncontrollably and the threat of no-cause evictions looms over anyone living in a cheap rental. Sean laid out a two-pronged plan to combat this housing crisis by addressing both wages and housing.

His plan, as he explained it, entails working with developers to encourage and “incentivize” them to build more affordable housing. He mentioned possible tax breaks and retooling the inspection and zoning processes in the city to promote responsible and timely growth. As he put it, these “developers are part of the community, too. They should be willing to help solve this crisis with us.”

At the same time Davis also wants to re-introduce the inclusionary zoning legislation the Oregon state senate failed to pass last July. This bill would repeal ORS 91.225, which prohibits any form of rent control in the state of Oregon. Couple that change with a higher minimum wage in the area of $15 an hour, and he paints a rough exit strategy from our current housing crisis.

Davis also references the community pretty heavily with his solutions for police relations around Portland. He envisions a day, he said, where Portland police are looked at as “community builders rather than cops.”  To achieve this, he wants to increase the size of the police force to avoid the commonplace 60-plus hours a week many Portland officers now work. He said the money saved by not paying as much overtime will offset the money needed to hire and train more officers. He also wants to implement a “community liaison” program to keep citizens “heavily involved in policing their own communities.”

No invitation

Without major financial backing, Davis is undoubtedly facing an uphill battle and he’s already experiencing the debauchery that is the American democratic process.

Case in point, a group called “Emerging Leaders” held an event titled “Meet Your Next Mayor of Portland.” Davis was not invited, nor were his requests to join the event even acknowledged by the organizers. So, he crashed the event and after a lengthy conversation with event organizers he was told he would be allotted 15 minutes near the end to address the crowd. As the event wore on, the two career politicians who were actually invited to the event – Ted Wheeler and Jules Bailey – both went over their allotted time limit. As a result Davis and the other “fringe” candidates’ time was cut from 15 minutes to a mere one minute, each.

Another sour spot for Davis is the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), who held a “Candidates Forum for Arts & Culture” at the Gerding Theater in downtown Portland on Tuesday. This would seem like the perfect opportunity for Davis, a Portland author and artist, to address a like-minded group of artisans regarding the election. But, again, Sean was shunned – only the two career politicians, Wheeler and Bailey, were represented in the mayor’s race discussion

A tall order

With such a formidable challenge ahead, one again has to wonder, why? Why go through all this? For Davis, it’s worth it if he can affect a positive change in our community, he said.

“(I’m) not running for mayor because of money or fame or power. I am running for mayor because I believe this is the best town on the planet and the reason for that is the type of people who live here. I mean the weirdos, the dreamers, the unique, the people who live in our communities,” he said.

To learn more about Davis and his campaign, visit www.seandavisforpdx.com, check out his articles at TheBigSmoke.com, reach him on Facebook, or swing by his American Legion Post-turned-community center/campaign headquarters at 2104 N.E. Alberta St. in Portland.

Advocate Staff