On Sunday, October 8, the Portland Oregonian editorially called for voters to defeat the Charter Measure on the November ballot. This was a surprisingly regressive position from a newspaper that likes to think of itself as “progressive”.
And yet, we suppose, it should not really have come as a surprise. The intense campaign of the past month or so, calling for the measure’s defeat, has mostly come from downtown business interests, and the city government itself — all of whom seem alarmed that the downtown-centric nature of the current antiquated Commission form of government could be lost. After all, the paper, too, is based downtown, as are many of its major advertisers.
They seem to fear that it might give way to a form of city government that offers all parts of the…
