Vera Katz
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Vera Katz (born August 3, 1933) was the 45th mayor of Portland, Oregon. She served from January 1993 until January 2005. She was elected in 1992 and was re-elected in 1996 and 2000. In 2004 she did not stand for re-election. Tom Potter was elected mayor in November 2004 and became the next mayor in January 2005. Katz is a member of the Democratic Party, although the Portland mayoral race is non-partisan.
Katz was born Vera Pistrak in Düsseldorf, Germany and moved to the United States as a child. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York in 1955, and a Master of Arts in 1957. Katz began her political career in the late 1960s while working on the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy (Kennedy had antagonized many in Portland in the late 1950s through his aggressive pursuit of local corruption). In 1972 Katz was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. In 1985 she was chosen as the first female speaker of the Oregon House. While in the Oregon House, she sponsored the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century, a landmark school reform bill. She also helped pass measures on gun control, as well as legislation prohibiting discrimination based on gender in places of public accommodation and credit.
During her administration, Katz pursued an active policy of revitalization of the city's neighborhoods. In her 1992 election, she helped promote her candidacy by her intended use of public transportation to commute to her office. However, she rarely did take any form of public transportation due to security risks involved. She had a security officer appointed to her who also drove her between City Hall, events, and her home. As of March 2000 Vera had never obtained a valid Oregon Driver's license.
Katz fought off the early stages of breast cancer in early 2000, and was diagnosed with a rare form of reproductive cancer in June 2004.
In November 2004, the Eastbank Esplanade was officially renamed the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade in honor of the former Mayor's service to the city. In January 2005, the former Mayor began an unpaid position as a Dean's Visiting Fellow in the College of Urban and Public Affairs' Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies at Portland State University.
[edit] References
- OregonLive profile of Vera Katz is a dead link; use the Internet Archive link instead
| Preceded by Bud Clark |
Mayor of Portland, Oregon 1992-2005 |
Succeeded by Tom Potter |
