Here is the text of the Mayor Katz's announcement, received this morning via email:

July 23, 2003

Dear Portlanders,

One of the greatest honors of my life is to serve you as Mayor since 1993. Your civic interest and involvement inspires me to always do my best. I hold sacred the trust you place in me to lead this community. I seek to govern by setting an example of hard work, innovation and accountability.

Over the past ten years, we’ve made Portland a better place to live. I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I think of all the people I worked with who helped complete a list of accomplishments that makes Portland the envy of many other American cities.

I am proud of projects such as the extension of lightrail lines to the airport and Expo center; completion of the streetcar; expansion of the Oregon Convention Center; creation of new neighborhoods in the River District and South Waterfront; launch of the River Renaissance; construction of North America’s largest Chinese Classical Garden and the Eastbank Esplanade; restoration of our historic City Hall and the Civic Stadium; and the rebirth of Oldtown/Chinatown, North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods -- with the Central Eastside, St. Johns, Gateway and Lents on the way.

I am also proud of groundbreaking policies and initiatives that reshaped city services like the City’s first comprehensive economic development strategy; significantly-increased funding for the arts; the Youth Gang Anti-Gun Task Force that stopped a rapid escalation of gun and gang violence in the mid-1990s; our graffiti abatement and auto theft programs; the annual Regulatory Improvement Workplans; the Fair Contracting and Employment Strategy to assist women and minority owned businesses; maintenance of our triple A bond rating; reduction of administrative costs that saved millions of dollars; and the protection of our schools by keeping them open and funded until the Legislature acts.

With these and other efforts since 1993, Portland is safer; countywide per capita income has grown; citizens rate the livability of neighborhoods higher – results that helped Money magazine rate Portland as the most livable city in America in 2000.

Have we succeeded at everything we tried? No, but it is necessary to take some risks and face a few disappointments to push Portland’s progress forward. Have we solved all problems? Obviously not, for with each success is a set of additional challenges to work on.

We must reform our business taxes; protect our ratepayers as PGE is sold; implement the updated economic development strategy to prepare for our economic recovery and get more Portlanders back to work; close the student achievement gaps in low performing schools; complete the transfer of Ross Island to the city; decide the future of Memorial Coliseum; launch the build out of South Waterfront; finish the necessary work to arrive at a final decision on baseball; complete a comprehensive review of policies and practices at the Portland Police Bureau; and set plans to extend Lightrail along the transit mall…just to name a few tasks on my “to do” list.

With the local and national recession lingering, what Portland needs most over the next year and a half is a Mayor who is completely dedicated to the job at hand.

After 32 years in elected office, what I want most a year and a half from now is to focus my energies on new adventures and challenges, and spend more time with friends, my son and my grandson.For these reasons, I will not seek re-election as Mayor.

I have another year and a half as your mayor to continue leading this city to a more prosperous future, and I intend to do just that.

With warm regards,

Vera Katz
Mayor

You can pick up some context via The Oregonian, with a shorter piece from KGW,. which also explains that the official announcement is due at noon today.

This entry was posted by The One True b!X on July 23rd, 2003, at 7:22 AM and is filed under 2004 Mayoral Campaign, Metro-Area Politics. There are two comments (most recently on August 17th, 2003, at 8:57 PM) and .