December 16, 2003
Portland: The City With Balls
Back on December 5, Phil Stanford of the Portland Tribune reported on one of the early decisions Tom Potter would make if elected Mayor next year:
If elected, says mayoral candidate Tom Potter, one of his first acts will be to re-establish Bud's Ball, the annual music bash started by Bud Clark and abruptly discontinued by his successor, spoilsport Vera Katz. Who says the former chief doesn't have any issues?
In his column for today's edition of the Tribune, Stanford adds a new twist:
If Jim Francesconi gets himself elected mayor, he, too, will reinstate Bud's Ball, the annual city blowout that was started by Bud Clark and abruptly terminated by his successor, whose name I forget at the moment. ... Last week, Tom Potter, Jim's only serious competition for the job, revealed a similar pro-party platform.
I find this strangely interesting, beyond the fact the Bud's Ball was before my time. It doesn't entirely surprise me that Potter would reinstate the event, but I do find it surprising that Jim Francesconi would do the same.
The cynic in me can't help but wonder if his saying so is some way of trying to undercut what would be an oddly popular campaign element for Potter (I have friends with political fetishes for Bud Clark who were ecstatic that Potter said he'd bring it back) -- but then I think what an extraordinarily silly reason that would be to express support for a party.
As a sidenote, I should also say that for all her crowing about "young creatives" in Portland, you'd think that some sort of annual music bash would be something that Mayor Katz would support, no?
Comments (1)
Mikey on 17 Dec 2003
I can see Potter being excited about bringing back the Ball, because he has Bud Clark's backing, but shouldn't Francesconi have a "Francesconi" Ball or something? Or maybe a "Oh Look How Much Money I Raised" Ball?