The AP is reporting that Sam Adams, our newly elected mayor is staying put amid some sex scandal I have barely any interest in other than I like living in a US city where sex scandals are kinda passé. Good for him and good for Portland. No, Adams isn't popular with all of PORT's staff or sponsors for the lies and a perception that he can be a bit "phoney" but I think this is a good development for Portland because there is work to do. Adams got elected in part because of his commitment to the arts as key to Portland's identity. Though his savvy in such things as artist live/work space and arts organizations is sometimes questionable, at least he is interested and any earlier pre-mayoral mistakes are educational opportunities.

At least he has shown he is interested in listening to good and very obvious advice regarding 4.3 billion dollar bridges from PORT.

Here's how we see it, PORT just doesn't care about sex scandals. We do care about art, design and aesthetics and we will evaluate him on those matters alone.

Who knows, maybe a slightly humbler Adams will be a more effective mayor. Clearly he's going to have to regain confidence from a lot of people and some head scratching pet projects like the convention hotel are probably dead for now. Also, what does the mayor think about a 70 year old Portland art institution merging with a 100 year old one? LA's mayor definitely wasn't for MOCA merging with LACMA a few months ago.

Also, note to the New York Times. The map you ran on Saturday is incorrect, that dot is near San Francisco, not Portland. Please make note of the correct dot in blue below.

This is good news. The things I was thinking about when I woke up this morning (since you asked) is how different this boring scandal would be in different configurations of straight man, gay woman, straight woman, etc and how I never heard the name of the crime Sam Adams may have committed if that guy was under 18. If he was a straight guy who had sex with a 17 year old girl, the word Rape would probably have made an appearance (though maybe it did and I just didn't notice). I have no idea what that might mean, but some sort of double standard appears to be involved.

Statutory rape if they had sex before he was 18. They didn't.

Sexual abuse, an A misdemeanor, if the DA/jury decides that infamous kiss was "sexual contact" (because Breedlove was a minor).

Legalese aside, my big concern is how effective he will be. He betrayed his base. The art community seems to be almost unilaterally behind him, and morally I agree. But politically, I think he showed shockingly poor judgment, and I'm concerned that he will not be the mayor we hoped for. Or that after this incident, he simply cannot be the mayor we hoped for because his every move will be blocked by his own constituency (most have not been as forgiving as art people).

Right, I meant the word rape seemed conspicuously absent from the coverage. I guess it was conspicuously absent from my post too. Oh, well. Upward and onward.