 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
MEMO BLOG | |
Memo Calendar | Memo Pad | Business Memos | Loaves & Fishes | Letters | Home |
 |
| Businessman Bruce Altizer, who ran a novice campaign for city council, endorsed Mary Nolan for City Commissioner last month. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim Curran |
Those, and votes for others, prevented the top two vote getters, Nolan and Fritz, from receiving a majority, forcing them into a run-off.
Altizer said he got to know both candidates during the campaign through their many joint appearances. “I like and respect Mary's and Amanda's sincerity, their abilities, and their love for Portland,” he said. “However, I think our city will be better served electing Nolan. She has a proven record of accomplishment and unmatched innate abilities. Mary has shown she can run city bureaus whereas the mayor deemed Amanda capable of handling less than 5 percent of city operations. The new mayor, whoever it is, will need all the help he can get with at least one, and I hope two new commissioners.” He added, “Smith and Hales know Mary's capabilities and will certainly give her more of the city operations than Fritz is doing.”
Altizer understands east Portland issues. The West Point graduate and 12-year Army officer lives in the Russell neighborhood with his wife Tonia, and owns and operates two Postal Annex franchises in Mid-county.
He said the way City Hall has used and abused east Portland for more than twenty years since annexation, is shameful and the main reason why he ran for office in the first place. “I got fed up with seeing my own and neighborhoods around my businesses deteriorate year after year. We need fundamental change at City Hall to have a chance of turning things around out here. I think Amanda Fritz is part of the problem.”
Altizer feels longtime east Portland neighborhood and business association leaders have been co-opted over time through money grants for their groups and other inducements from City Hall. He points to the resulting saturation of east Portland neighborhoods with tax-exempt, low-income, high-density housing over the last twenty years. “She [Fritz] shows up at the functions celebrating every new housing project. How many are being built in her cushy neighborhood in southwest? Does she insist all affluent Portland neighborhoods accept low-income, high-density housing? I think not. And our so-called leaders out here stand-by and do nothing.
“We do not receive the level of city services the rest of Portland gets,” He added. “We have an anemic and under developed park system in east Portland, many unpaved streets and sidewalks, neighborhoods saturated with tax-exempt, low-income housing that makes sleazy developers rich and happy, but neighborhoods out here poorer and sad.”
Is Altizer planning another political run in the future? “My grandchildren are in the Parkrose school system and I understand the board has at least two vacancies next year,” he said. “As strongly as I support and believe in the value of education and educators, that would be a good place to serve my community.”
What would he do differently with his campaign if he had to do it over? “Money,” he answered. “Without it, I knew I had no chance of winning, but I wanted east Portland issues to have a voice. I'd raise more money to have a bigger platform for our issues and concerns. I love Portland. I do business here. I live here. My grandchildren go to its schools. I want Portland to succeed - every part of it. I ran because I thought I could do a better job, but if I can't, Mary Nolan will. That's why I'm voting for her.”
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
MEMO Advertising | MEMO Archives | MEMO Web Neighbors | MEMO Staff | Home