David Bell grew up in New York State but has lived in the Pacific Northwest for almost 25 years. He is a lawyer admitted to practice in New York and New Mexico and began his career in private practice, specializing in real estate, partnership and tax law. Since 1985 he has been a partner in a private business firm specializing in housing development, particularly affordable housing. He has been active in Portland-area issues including housing affordability, planning, growth strategies and economic development. He does not have a Twitter account.
In the Spring of 2010 I speculated with friends about the possibility that Barack Obama would decide not to run for reelection in 2012. As unlikely as it then seemed, my rationale for the possibility (not a prediction—that, so far in advance of an election, would be close to fantasy) was the following: (1) The [...]
The comedian Robin Williams has an old routine satirizing various nationalities. When he gets to the French, he has a line, “I em geeving a ceegarette to a baabee! Lo-ook!” His expression says, look how outrageous I am! Aren’t you shocked and appalled? Of course, you are, because you are only crass and conventional, whereas [...]
In a recent piece in the New York Review of Books, writer David Bromwich says, “…Obama has always preferred the symbolic authority of the grand utterance to the actual authority of a directed policy—a policy fought for in particulars, carefully sustained, and traceable to his own intentions.” He was talking about Obama’s recent rhetorical exchange [...]
