Sam Adams (born 1963) is an American politician who is the current mayor of Portland, Oregon. He dropped out of college to enter politics and worked on a number of campaigns. Among them was Vera Katz's run for mayor of Portland. After she won, he served as her chief of staff for eleven years and then went back to school, earning a degree from the University of Oregon. He was outed as gay by the alternative newspaper Willamette Week in 1993 and is now the first openly gay mayor of a top 30 U.S. city.
In 2009, Adams was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing related to a consensual sexual relationship with a young adult he met in 2005. Adams said the deception about the relationship was warranted because a political opponent had falsely accused him of having sex with a minor. Adams later apologized.
In 2010, Adams fired the police chief and then fired a police officer who had shot and killed an unarmed citizen. He recruited a wind company to spend $66 million on development and hire 400 employees, established the city's first economic development plan, developed programs designed to reduce Portland's high school dropout rate and make the city more sustainable, and, along with the rest of the city council, adopted gun control regulations which are claimed to reduce shootings.
Early life
Son of Larry Adams, a
special education teacher and high school
basketball coach, and his wife, Karalie (
née Gibbons), Adams was born in 1963, when his family lived on a ranch eight miles outside of
Whitehall, Montana. When he was two years old, his family moved to
Richland, Washington for a year, and then on to
Newport and
Eugene, Oregon, where his parents were
divorced. Adams lived with his mother and survived for a time on
food stamps and housing assistance. In discussing not disclosing his
sexuality, Adams noted he came from a "family of tough Montanans" where "there's a premium on being tough and strong, and being
queer and a
faggot wasn't strong." He graduated from
South Eugene High School and attended the
University of Oregon, He next worked on
Vera Katz's mayoral campaign in Portland and served eleven years as her Chief of Staff. It links the
South Waterfront district to the upper campus of
Oregon Health & Science University. During its development, the project was plagued with cost overruns and opposition from some residents impacted by the project. When Adams assumed responsibility he replaced the external consultants responsible for the poor cost estimates with in-house expertise. The project was completed on time and within the revised budget with the tram opened to the public in January 2007.
Adams and his staff maintain a blog highlighting their activities in the community, especially pertaining to Adams' priorities such as arts and culture, livability and environment, and transportation.
2008 Mayoral campaign
In October 2007 Adams announced his intentions to run for Mayor of Portland and kicked off his campaign at the
Wonder Ballroom in Northeast Portland in February 2008. His main opponent was
Sho Dozono, a civic leader and businessman, although 13 candidates filed for mayor. In the
primary election, held May 20, 2008, Adams captured 58 percent of the vote and was elected without the need for a
run-off. Dozono, his nearest opponent, received 34 percent of the vote.
Mayoralty
In his first State of the City address on February 27, 2009, Adams outlined his goal of making Portland "the most
sustainable city in the world". Adams emphasized reduction of
carbon dioxide emissions and investment in efficient
green energy as essential to the city's energy-environmental goals and called on the
Oregon State Legislature to provide incentives for the expansion of green energy companies, notably
Vestas Wind Systems, into the
Portland metropolitan area.
Adams announced his support of new regulations for horse-drawn carriages in September 2009 after a horse died in downtown Portland a month earlier. Adams recommended that planners at the Revenue Bureau write new city codes that would cover working conditions for equine businesses and their animals.
In September 2009 he opposed the $4 billion, twelve lane replacement for the freeway bridge over I-5, a plan he had once supported. Adams stated, "I'd rather settle for a bad bridge for another 25 years than a terrible bridge that punishes Portland for another 100 years." The twelve lane idea was a compromise deal Adams helped write with then-Mayor Royce Pollard of Vancouver, Washington in February, 2009. That deal helped get Portland City Council to agree for a bridge of up to twelve lanes, something Vancouver wanted in exchange for its support of Portland's MAX Light Rail extension across the I-5 bridge.
Adams focused on improving the local economy by attracting large, sustainable employers to Portland, including a $200 million investment by the company Vestas.
In 2010, Adams in his State of the City address was praised by environmental organizations and criticized by coal advocates for his successful efforts to shrink Portland's carbon footprint through programs such as Clean Energy Works, the nation's first on-bill financing for home retrofitting. Adams also became known for leading the creation of Portland's "Citizen Reports" iPhone application.
at a meeting of the Columbia River Crossing Project]]
Personal life
From 1992 until 2004, Adams was in a long-term relationship with Greg Eddie. In 2007, the former couple, in a challenge to the state constitution, filed suit against the
State of Oregon to dissolve their
domestic partnership and divide Adams' future
pension. After his break-up with Eddie, Adams was, for the first time, both
openly gay and single. Adams lamented his lack of "
gaydar." He said this made him decide to date only men who asked him out first.
In 2005, Adams met a young man interning for Oregon State Representative Kim Thatcher. In September 2007, Adams denied rumors of a sexual relationship between the two, calling the allegations scurrilous, and adding that they played into stereotypes of predatory gays. The man confirmed Adams' account, adding that he had no regrets about their relationship. Adams apologized, saying he had lied to avoid untrue accusations of having had sex with a minor and the likely disruption such allegations would cause in his mayoral campaign. Adams cited the "swift public condemnation" of former mayor and governor Neil Goldschmidt in 2004 by the news media as weighing heavily in his decision to lie. "[N]o one's going to believe me [that he was eighteen]". Before Kroger's findings were made public, several newspapers called for Adams' resignation. The Portland Mercury and the board of the Portland Area Business Association, the LGBTQ chamber of commerce, spoke out against resignation. Out magazine columnist Dan Savage noted what they saw as hypocrisy, homophobia, and sex panic about age disparity in sexual relationships. A second effort began in Fall 2009, with financial backing from over a dozen regional businesses. The backers posit that a "lack of trust and political capital" affects their businesses' bottom lines.
Adams has also dated Christopher Stowell, artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre. As of early 2008, he was the partner of journalist Peter Zuckerman.
References
External links
Mayor Sam Adams
Sam Adams campaign site
CityMayors profile
Category:1963 births
Category:Living people
Category:Gay politicians from the United States
Category:Portland City Council members (Oregon)
Category:Mayors of Portland, Oregon
Category:LGBT mayors of places in the United States
Category:People from Jefferson County, Montana
Category:Oregon Democrats
