It was right around 2008 and I was serving as the communications director for Portland Community College.
We had a chance to get Congressman Earl Blumenauer on our Sylvania campus and, parking there being what it was, I was supposed to meet his driver and walk the congressman to his meeting with the college president.
He climbs out of the car with his bow tie and round, wire-rimmed glasses, looking like a Thornton Wilder character from “Our Town,” glares at me, and says, “Buying the land for the Rock Creek campus was a mistake. A mistake. There was no mass transit out there, no way to bike that far, forcing everyone to drive. It was just an error.”
I say, “Yessir, but in my defense, I was in junior high when that happened.”
He glowers at me a moment, then reluctantly concedes to let me off the hook for that one. “Okay. I’m just saying….”
Earl Blumenauer. Always an opinion on something.
Earl is retiring from Congress this year after representing Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District and the eastern half of Portland for 28 years. If you take in his other elected positions, including on the Portland City Council, he’s served in office for something like 52 years.
Like a lot of Portland journalists, I’ve interviewed him countless times. He’s brought the same intensity to every conversation: Focused, pugnacious, jaw thrust forward, making his point. He’s like that in a suit and tie behind a lectern. He’s like that in bike shorts and studded shoes, astride his bicycle, waiting for the Portland Gay Pride parade to start.
He once turned to me and said, “NAFTA was terrible. Terrible. Sent thousands of American jobs to Mexico.”
I have no idea what this was in connection to. One never knew what would set off a Blumenauer mini-lecture. I told him I thought the North American Free Trade Agreement sent jobs that had been destined for Bangladesh to Mexico, and that we were losing them anyway. Bruce Springsteen wrote, “They’re closing down the textile mill/Across the railroad tracks/Foreman says, ‘These jobs are going, boys/And they ain’t coming back” in 1985. NAFTA was established in 1992.
Boy, that set him off. I got an earful. Which had been my goal. I wanted to get into it with him. It was fun. I love that he’s passionate about, well, everything.
This is the guy who, as a college student, lobbied to lower Oregon’s voting age from 21 to 18, then got himself elected to the Oregon House at age 24 from Southeast Portland. He served on the Multnomah County Commission from 1978-86 and on the Portland City Commission from 1986-96.
This is one of the visionaries who opposed federal money to build the Mount Hood Freeway. This was the 1970s, mind you. Turning down federal bucks for a highway? What are you, nuts?
Turn down the money they did, and instead of another downtown freeway, we got the Waterfront Park.
So Earl’s Act I, serving in office in Portland, the county and the state, was followed by his Act II in Congress. He’s getting out at the right time. The U.S. House hasn’t ever been the epitome of efficiency, but it’s devolved into the world’s largest adult day care center. The 2023 session led to the fewest laws passed in modern history. Why anyone would want the job is beyond me.
Earl’s Act III looks to be an exact right fit for the gregarious gadfly (see story, Page A1). He’ll take on two new roles at PSU starting next year: senior fellow and special adviser to university president Ann Cudd. He’ll work in the university’s Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies, part of the PSU College of Urban and Public Affairs, which focuses on urban development and planning issues across the area. And he’ll focus on addressing Portland’s most pressing challenges through the PSU’s research.
Earl’s never really taken his eyes off Portland. In all my interviews and interactions with him, he’s seemed more like Portland City Hall’s ambassador to D.C., than a congressman. This new gig will let him focus like a laser on the city he loves.
I’m looking forward to getting lectured by Earl for many years to come.
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