Charlie
Hales
Continues from Pg. 26
JO: Portland Public Schools is about to ask
homeowners for more money. Many LGBT peo-
ple have children in public schools, but many
more do not. In fact, LGBT people have often
been discouraged from even coming near chil-
dren. In light of historical anti-LGBT bigotry,
what would you say to LGBT Portlanders being
asked to spend more money on other people’s
kids?
CH: This is one of the primary reasons why
I am running for this office in the first place.
Everything we say we are as a city is tied up in
public education. The idea of the commonweal,
and of the social contract where you can live in
a great neighborhood and have your kids going
to a great public school, which is the anchor of
your neighborhood, still holds here. But, it’s not
guaranteed and it’s under a lot of strain, because
we’ve been holding that promise together with
duct tape and bake sales for 20 years since the
passage of Measure 5.
I am passionate about this issue and I want to
round the corner from the permanent crisis to
stable funding for public education. I want to
fix up the buildings, which is why I support the
bond measure that’s on the ballot this fall.
Everybody’s got a stake in [public education], it
doesn’t matter whether you’ve got kids or not.
It’s our economy, it’s our quality of life, it’s our
crime rate, it’s the value of our real estate. It runs
through everything we are as a community.
Everybody’s in this boat together. And, I hope
and expect that our public school districts in
Portland will embrace our diversity and that the
LGBT community will be welcome as parents,
volunteers, teachers, mentors, as activists in the
schools, with open arms, and without a blink of
concern.
JO: What training do the Portland Police get
around LGBT culture and concerns? Do you see
any need for change in this area?
CH: The shorter answer to the first part of your
question is that I don’t know what training they
receive. It’s a good question, and we ought to
know the answer to that. But, overall I am con-
cerned about the training the Portland Police
Bureau is receiving, and I want to steer the cul-
ture of the police bureau very clearly towards
the model of community policing. Right now
we’re schizophrenic about that. Sometimes we’re
a community-policing bureau, and sometimes
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we’re not. I did a ride-along with a young officer
who came up through Self-Enhancement, Inc [a
Northeast Portland youth program]. We’re driv-
ing past Unthank Park and he’s got the window
down and is calling the kids by name. Another
time, I was at Holladay Park and a police officer
drove across the park on the sidewalk, scatter-
ing pedestrians. Fortunately there were no blind
people or kids on the sidewalk. That’s not com-
munity policing.
So, those two incidents crystallize the fact that
we’re not fully there with the ideal of communi-
ty policing. And there’s more to it than whether
you’re driving nicely or not. It’s whether you un-
derstand the community you serve. Do you un-
derstand that you are there to protect and serve,
not that you’re a part of an occupying army? Do
you look for every opportunity to de-escalate?
Do you understand the public that you’re deal-
ing with in all of its diversity, including people
with mental illness?
And the answer, of course, is that we’re not there,
either because of the tragic uses of force in cases
where it wasn’t necessary over the past several
years. Which is another motivation for why I am
running for this office. The police will receive
clear leadership towards cultural competence,
community policing, and towards problem solv-
ing. Those are expectations I will set for the po-
lice bureau, which I plan to keep as one of my
own assignments.
JO: Many Portland minorities have neighbor-
hoods historically associated with them. In
Portland, historically African American or
LGBT neighborhoods, such as NE Albina and
SE Stark, have been largely eliminated by gentri-
fication. Do you see the city as having a role in
addressing the impact of gentrification on mi-
nority cultures?
CH: yes. One, we just have to learn from what’s
happened, and try to be more sensitive in what
we do in the future. When we think about rede-
velopment and urban renewal, we need to think
about supporting the character of the neighbor-
hood, rather than supplanting that character.
And so loans to existing businesses, access to
housing for existing residents, those are pri-
orities that we ought to raise as we try to make
positive change in neighborhoods, rather than
the old formula in which we’re there to “fix the
blight,” and residents respond with, “Wait a min-
ute, I’m not blight!”
So, again I want to praise things that Mayor Ad-
ams is doing. I think this neighborhood pros-
perity initiative that’s focusing on economic
uplift for small neighborhood districts rather
than replacement of districts by the latest urban
renewal fad is a good approach. And I want to
continue and expand that approach.
JO: Portland has policies to proactively encour-
age hiring women and minorities both as em-
ployees and contractors. While LGBT people
are protected in hiring decisions, they are not
clearly included in the proactive, or affirmative
action measures. Should they be?
CH: I hadn’t thought of it. Why not? I’d certainly
like to explore that. That’s a new thought. A new
question that you just articulated. The point of
affirmative action is to correct underrepresenta-
tion, not just stop discriminating. And, if there
… and I bet there is … underrepresentation,
then let’s check it out and do the right thing.
JO: Moving in a different direction here, have
you personally known anyone who died of
AIDS?
CH: yes. Keeston Lowery [former assistant to
former County Commissioner Mike Lindberg].
I worked with him. He was irreverent, even
about his condition. He was amazing, and his
sense of humor was there until the end.
JO: What role does the city play in addressing
HIv related health concerns?
CH: Again, we have to do so much in concert
with other governments, in order to do our job
well. Although I don’t see a major role address-
ing HIv in the city’s core functions, I do see a
lot of partnerships. you look at needle exchange
at Outside In, and how both the Police Bureau
and the county health programs have to support
that kind of service. That’s one of those places
where from the citizens’ standpoint, they don’t
care if this is a county service, city service, or a
non-profit, but whether we’re being thoughtful
and effective.
JO: When did you meet your first drag queen?
CH: (Laughs) I think probably on a road trip
to the dubious corner of Richmond, virginia,
while I was in college. There were some drag
queens out on the street in front of a club and
we had a, you know, a jovial conversation. And,
of course, once arriving in Portland I made the
obligatory first visit to Darcelle’s.
JO: Have you ever worn drag?
CH: (Grins) Let me think about that. I’d better
answer that carefully.
JO: Any pictures?
CH: (Laugh) I don’t think so. I don’t think I
October 2012