Mavodones: The ‘hair’ apparent?

   The cameras were rolling and radio microphones were properly modulated. The 75 cent newspaper that provided a generous forty-five thousand dollar ad gift to help create the new elected mayoral post even showed up. Rosemont was all abuzz Tuesday as the great white hope – The captain that was sure to pilot our collective ship to the promise land of 1998 economics, chamber of commerce socials and smiling group photos on the society page decided, after months of leaving us all holding our breath, to run for the newly created elected mayor seat.

   And why not? Sure, 11 people had been in the race up until the point Nick Mavodones took the created-just-for-him stage, but they were all long shots in the eyes of your corporately sponsored local media. Perhaps we were just wasting our times here at the Sun and over at outlets like The West End News and Bollard even mentioning the others. I’m guessing you don’t think so, though.

   Mavodones was presented to us as a candidate whose only electoral concern was in a two-way race for “Best Hair” with WCSH’s Pat Callaghan. Nick was molded in the stories filed by the newly interested media as the guy to beat. However, the media were stuck in the same old winner-takes-all campaign mindset. The new ranked-choice system will fix that right quick this fall. In a race with 12 people, a number that is sure to grow, he’s not so inevitable.

   As the press conference began, it became clear to me that Mavodones was as backward a thinker as most of our political leaders today. He gave us the usual lines of helping business grow, preserving the social net, improving education and etcetera. Basically, he gave us a look at the progress of last fifteen years, indicated that everything would remain the same and that we would grow on those successes.

   Mavodones, like our leaders at the state and federal levels, is either in total denial or is willfully misleading us about our future. Everything is about to change. Economists from around the world are predicting at best a deep “double dip” recession and at worst a total collapse of the global economic system. By the end of this summer, you will see evidence that the slide we rode downward in the fall of 2008 was only the beginning of a massive change in how the world economies, and indeed, our little economy here in Portland, work.

   We need a leader to guide Portland, which is in a unique position with an equally unique population to succeed if there is a total collapse, to come from a place where he or she is informed enough to level with us about what is really going on, and how we are all going to work together as a community to work toward an economy that doesn’t rely on outside forces and money. We need a mayor to talk to us about a sustainable Portland.

   The 100 year old model of infinite growth on a finite planet is coming to an end sooner rather than later, evidence of which will certainly appear during the first term of our new mayor. The mayor needs to lead the way to create a new type of safety net – one that doesn’t throw printed, worthless money at the disadvantaged, but one that ensures we are all able to eat when energy crises put a halt to the 1400 mile trip the food we’re currently eating takes. We need our mayor to find a way for people to get from Riverton to downtown when gas either becomes too scarce, or too expensive for us to attain. We need our mayor to mold this sustainable city into a model for other troubled cities to follow in the tough times just ahead.

   You’re not going to get that with Mavodones, or the other two city councilors currently running. Not when they’re voting to build 80 million dollar expansions to the Jetport when airline travel will become out of reach for most due to fuel cost and/or scarcity; Not when they get excited about new buildings in Bayside that feature parking garages for the cars that won’t be there and retail shops that will never be occupied; And certainly not when they insist that they don’t need to cut positions and services because of a made-up increase in revenue that just isn’t going to happen based on the way things are now or used to be.

   So for me, Mavodones is anything but the heir-apparent for this job, nor is he my pick for best hair in Portland.

   No one can beat Pat Callaghan’s “touch of gray” perfection.