We won’t know till November who the next mayor is, but Liv Osthus is the next in the installment of candidates to get to know.
She may seem like an unlikely next mayor for the city of Portland, running against three Portland city commissioners. Known by the stage name Viva Las Vegas, Osthus is a well-known stripper, an artist, and an advocate for sex workers’ rights.
But her platform of hope also speaks to Portland’s troubles at the moment.
You talk a lot about transforming empty buildings and storefronts around town into space for artists. If you were going to live in a downtown building, how would you design it — the outside, inside, anything?
“I watched ‘Fame’ growing up. I always wanted a big raw studio space that in my imagination would be next-to-free. Then those spaces became very popular and condo-ized. So yeah, a big empty space. I would put up a dance bar — put up a pole, obviously.
“I'd get some beautiful Moroccan rugs. I would make sure to have a hearth-like gathering space, like Frank Lloyd Wright. I mean, not with an actual hearth, but a place where people gather around to share ideas. I would take down any walls that weren't necessary to make sure that people could be together and could move and dance in the space.
“I would get plants and mirrors to reflect the light. I think reflecting light in metaphorical and literal ways is really important. It's another facet of my campaign.”
What have you missed the most when you left Portland for work, you know, or vacation?
“Oh, interesting, I always had the reverse thing where the second I got over the clouds, I was like, ‘Oh my God, there's blue sky up here. I can breathe.’
“But what did I miss about Portland? The feeling of being in a rainforest and all the secrets passed amongst the trees. My band played in Copenhagen but I miss the forests. I live on Mount Tabor and I'm out there every day, just absorbing messages from the dirt and the worms and the trees and the bald eagles and the crows. So I would say that fecundity, being in a rainforest.”
For more on her reasons for wanting to be mayor, check out the City Cast Portland interview with Osthus.
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