Show Notes

The Schmidt Show PDX | Season 2, Episode 14

Some fights you don’t choose. They choose you.

On March 19th, 2026, a New York Times investigation alleged that Cesar Chavez had sexually abused girls in the farm worker movement and assaulted Dolores Huerta, his own partner in the struggle. For Portland’s Latino community that had fought a multi year battle to rename a street in his honor — a community that pushed through the racist attacks, broken promises, and a brutal bureaucratic process — the news landed like a gut punch.

And almost before they could process it, elected leaders were calling for the street renamed - to come down.

This episode is about what happens next.

Today I sit down with Marta Guembas and former Portland Mayor Tom Potter, two people who understand in their bones what it means when a community has to fight just to be seen. Marta was co-chair of the original Cesar Chavez Boulevard campaign. Mayor Potter shepherded that effort through a bruising, years-long political battle beginning in 2007. Together, we dig into the history that most Portlanders don’t know — the false starts, the broken promises, the commissioner who changed his vote, and the three years of pain it took to turn 39th Avenue into Cesar Chavez Boulevard in 2010.

And then we talk about how the original committee has been forced out of retirement to organize once more: to come back to the arena, tired and grieving, and how they found something extraordinary in the hard work of separating an icon from an ugly truth. A new name. Campesinos Boulevard. Not a name that can be taken back. A name that honors not the man but the movement — the farm workers, the families, the hands in the fields and the voices in the streets who built everything.

Mayor Potter put it simply: when he heard it, he thought it was brilliant. So did I.

In this episode:

* Marta describes the moment she realized the NYT report was true — and the deeply personal process of taking down a framed portrait of Chavez she’d kept for years, eventually cutting it into 39 pieces

* Mayor Potter reflects on navigating the original renaming battle and what he’d tell today’s city council

* Why the community felt immediate calls to rename the street were disrespectful — and what they needed instead

* The story behind Campesinos — and why it may be the first street in the United States named for farm workers collectively

* Which local organizations have already come forward in support, and how you can too.

Take action. This one matters.

The community has spoken. Now it’s Portland’s turn.

📖 Read the full story — OPB’s deep dive on the renaming effort and the community behind it: Portlanders consider the future of Cesar Chavez Boulevard

📞 Call your City Council representative and the Mayor’s office. Tell them you support a swift, dignified resolution — one that honors a community that has already waited long enough and fought hard enough to be seen by this city.

✍️ Support Por La Causa and their petition to rename the street Campesinos Boulevard. This effort is being led by community members, not politicians — exactly as it should be.

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As always — keep showing up for Portland. 🌹

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Portland has a new billionaire in the building — and he brought a $600 million ask with him. Tom Dundon closed his purchase of the Trail Blazers just weeks ago, and the early headlines haven’t been about basketball. They’ve been about cost-cutting, lobbying campaigns, and a demand to commit north of a billion dollars in public money to renovate an arena the public already owns.

Two guys with a website and zero budget noticed — and built a case that’s now showing up on KGW and landing in city council chambers.

Jonathan Pulvers is a lifelong Portlander, hardcore Blazers fan, and co-creator of RipCityNotRipOff.com. We sat down the day of Game 3 — Jonathan was taking his six-year-old to the nosebleeds — to dig into whether Portland is on the verge of the worst arena deal in NBA history.

What we get into:

* The relocation threat is a bluff. The NBA just expanded to Las Vegas and Seattle. There’s nowhere to go — and the math doesn’t work anyway. Dundon would face a $400M relocation fee, hundreds of millions in litigation, and would walk away from whatever subsidy he’s already been promised.

* The real price tag is $1 billion. State bonds + City of Portland’s $400M + Multnomah County’s $88M. Dundon’s contribution: zero. No rent, no naming rights, no private capital.

* Nobody knows where $600M came from. The Blazers’ own consultants produced the number. No independent review. Comparable renovations have run $150–200M.

* The love bomb era that wasn’t. Two weeks in: no playoff t-shirts, the team masseuse had no hotel room, two-way players were left home, and staff waited in lobbies because checkout had to happen by 12:30 PM. What happened to dinner and a drink first?

* Co-owner Mark Saar runs Blue Owl Capital, which recently sold a warehouse in Pennsylvania to ICE. Reported in the New York Times. Portlanders can weigh that.

* What a real deal should look like: $150M+ private capital contribution, 30-year lease, meaningful relocation penalties, PILOT payments, naming rights revenue share, free TriMet to the games, street pricing, community benefits, and labor standards. All of it exists in other NBA deals. Portland is the only city being asked to give everything and get nothing back.

We close with a live round of Would Dundon Cut It? — the game show built for this episode.

Find Jonathan: ripcitynotripoff.com · @RipCityNotRipOff on Bluesky · Reddit

Pro-deal? The invitation is open — come make the case.

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A personal note from Mike:

This episode was taped just hours before our heartbreaking Game 3 loss — and I have to give Jonathan credit for nearly nailing the exact final score.

I’m posting this having just come home from Game 4, which was its own kind of heartbreak. Things looked so good in the first half. And then the better team showed up in the second half and reminded us where we are in this rebuild. That’s okay. It stings the way playoff losses are supposed to sting — but underneath it, there’s something genuinely impressive about what this team just did. They overperformed. They fought. And the future, assuming it doesn’t get squandered, is looking bright for this young squad.

Also — Wemby is just unreal. I don’t know what else to say about that.

Photo credit: me. I was there. I hope you enjoy some of the shots.

Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.