page_title: Sam Adams (Oregon politician)
section_title: Mayoralty
hierarchical_section_title: Sam Adams (Oregon politician) / Mayoralty
caption_attribution_description: Portland Mayor Sam Adams with then-City Councilor Tim Leavitt at a meeting regarding the Columbia River Crossing Project. Leavitt is now Mayor of Vancouver, Washington.
context_page_description: Samuel Francis Adams is an American politician who is the former mayor of Portland, Oregon. He grew up in Newport, Oregon, attended the University of Oregon and worked on a number of campaigns before taking office as a Portland commissioner. 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 in Political Science.
  In 2004, Adams was elected to the Portland City Council, serving four years on the council earning a reputation as a "policy-driven advocate for sustainability, the arts, and gay rights". He was elected to a four-year term as mayor of Portland in the May 2008 primary, with 58% of the vote and a dozen other candidates on the ballot. He was the first openly gay mayor of a top-30 U.S. city. In July 2011, Adams announced that he would not seek a second term as mayor. He had an approval rating of 56% eight months before he left office. In 2020 he announced his candidacy for Portland City Commission, challenging incumbent Chloe Eudaly.
context_section_description: In 2009, Adams in his inauguration speech said his top three priorities were creating more family-wage jobs, reducing the high school dropout rate, and making Portland more sustainable.
  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.
  Later that year, 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, but later apologized.
  That year he also established a local economic stimulus plan by fast-tracking capital improvement projects, secured a Major League Soccer franchise, began work on the Oregon Sustainability Center established a free-bus-ride program designed to help low-income students more easily get to school, helped secure $2.5 million in new grants designed to help the city reduce diesel emissions, began construction of 15 miles of bike boulevards, and consolidated the city's permitting process.
  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 I-5 bridge over the Columbia River, 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 the 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.  He also appeared in Portlandia's second episode as Sam, assistant to the Mayor of Portland.
  In November of that year, 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 that are designed to reduce shootings.
  In 2011, Adams established curbside composting, banned single-use plastic bags, adopted a transgender-inclusive health plan for city employees, recruited a photovoltaic company to move to and invest $340 million in infrastructure in Portland, recruited several TV and movie companies to do business and spend about $100 million on production in Portland, established the $2.1 million seed fund to help start-up businesses in Portland, supported Occupy Portland at first, but later dispersed the camps, and cracked down on gangs with a 14-month police undercover o
caption: Adams and C-Tran director Tim Leavitt at a meeting of the Columbia River Crossing Project
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