Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said this week that the city needs a two-term mayor.

After three straight one-term mayors, "we need some consistency," Wheeler said Tuesday. He made the remarks at a Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce event featuring him and Hillsboro mayor Steve Callaway.

Wheeler arrived via Lyft after the city car he was in ran out of electricity. He informed the audience that if he seemed out of breath or loopy, it was because he was on pain medication after he broke multiple ribs in a biking accident Sunday.

"If I declare I want to run for reelection today, it's totally the drugs," Wheeler joked.

Mayoral spokesman Michael Cox said Wednesday the mayor has not yet considered whether he will run for a second term. But he said Wheeler has learned "the value of stability" during his first year in office.

"Our first year has focused on setting a culture and solidifying an approach to these really challenging issues," Cox said. "To make the kind of progress the city needs to make ... stability can play a positive role in that."

At the Hillsboro event, the mayors discussed what keeps them up at night, what it's like to govern under the Trump administration and what the two leaders can learn from one another's cities.

Callaway said that gun violence and the children's safety and housing security keep him up at night. So do the phone calls from elderly people asking how to pay their property taxes and other calls from residents who hope the mayor can help them.

"I'm humbled by the phone calls I get," Callaway said. "They call because they believe that we can help. ... It's truly an opportunity, but you don't want to let people down."

Wheeler said "basic livability issues" like break-ins, "aggressive panhandling" and harassment on the street keep him up at night. His comments came after Columbia Sportswear President and CEO Tim Boyle said he was considering closing the company's downtown Portland store due to his employees feeling unsafe.

"It's paramount for me to be able to address those issues or I won't be here in another three years, and I know it," Wheeler said.

Portland's last three mayors -- Tom Potter, Sam Adams and Charlies Hales -- all opted not to run for a second term. The city's most recent multi-term mayor, Vera Katz, was elected to three terms ending in 2004.

Speaking to the Hillsboro audience this week, Wheeler called himself "an aggressive advocate" of community policing, which has officers step out of their cars and get to know the community members they serve.

He also noted that the city has increased its spending on homeless shelters and efforts to house the city's homeless more permanently.

Both Wheeler and Callaway said mayors should work together to address regional issues such as housing affordability and transportation.

Wheeler warned that if local government doesn't play an active role in developing and preserving affordable housing, Portland could lose its character.

He said Portland needs to learn from San Francisco where the housing market has driven up prices and forced police officers, service industry workers and teachers far out of the city. As a result, he said, it's almost impossible to open a restaurant in a city known internationally for its food.

"If we cannot create a beachhead, an anchor of affordability in our communities, in our urban areas, we will lose the people who actually make the community what it is," Wheeler said. "You'll end up with a very expensive Disneyland. That's not the future I want for my city."

--Jessica Floum

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