In Latest Newsletter, Mayor Wilson Ridicules Blazers Fan and Influential Critic as a “Techbro”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson had critiques and a sharp tongue in a Tuesday newsletter that took jabs at city councilors as well as a data analyst who’s become one of the most influential sources of information about the city’s upcoming Moda Center lease contract. What the mayor didn’t have? Accuracy.
Wilson’s newsletter—sent to email subscribers the day before Portland city councilors were scheduled to meet for a work session on Moda Center lease negotiations—focused solely on the Moda Center and what he believes is at stake.
“Portland has a big decision looming,” Wilson noted, recounting the financial commitments already made: a $365 million Moda Center renovation bond from the state, backed by Blazers player salaries and $88 million from Multnomah County, primarily paid for by a rental car tax.
“The City of Portland is expected to cover about $120 million. Our commitment is less than a quarter of the overall renovation cost, and we’re still debating the smartest funding source,” Wilson stated. “Our share may be comparatively smaller, but it’s enough to put the brakes on the project if we don’t take our role seriously.”
Wilson emphasized the need to reach a fair deal that benefits Portlanders and the team, but he was quick to try to silence criticism of the proposed $600 million top-of-the-line Moda Center renovation being requested by the Trail Blazers owner. One major source of that criticism is a website dubbed Rip City Not Rip Off. The site has generated media buzz and caught the attention of city councilors—some of whom are up for reelection this fall—who remain skeptical of the proposed deal and have been outspoken about the need for more transparency.
Edan Krolewicz created the Rip City Not Rip Off site as a conduit for sharing information about the Moda Center lease negotiations with the public. He operates the site with collaborator and fellow Blazers fan Jonathan Pulvers. The two have used the site to raise questions about the efficacy of local governments committing roughly $1 billion in taxpayer funding toward arena upgrades over the next 20 years, with little to no investment from the NBA team’s owner. They’ve also researched similar arena deals with other NBA teams around the country and provided comparisons for reference.
Krolewicz, a data analyst and software engineer who previously lived in Portland before moving to New York City, says he became a loyal Blazers fan and has kept up with the team’s games. He and his family are in the process of moving back to Portland.
He recently reached out to Wilson via email with a personal appeal, urging the mayor to consider a funding deal that doesn’t rely on the city’s clean energy funds—an idea that would likely be politically palatable to city councilors and the public.
Such a deal is possible without needing the clean energy funds, Krolewicz insists, because the city could easily recoup $120 million in revenue from the sale of the team, and by not “giving away” revenue like Moda Center parking garage fees, repair obligations the operator is supposed to cover, and user fee carve-outs identified in a 2024 bridge lease agreement executed between the city and RIP City Management as a short-term lease extension to keep the Blazers in Portland until 2030, until a more permanent contract could be ironed out.
“The council’s skeptics have each named what they need—a cost cap, real relocation security, ownership contribution, sunshine—and every one is a term this ownership has already signed elsewhere, mostly in Raleigh,” Krolewicz wrote to Wilson, referring to Dundon’s deal on behalf of the other sports team he owns, the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Their conditions are satisfiable inside a strong term sheet without costing the city a dollar.”
The Blazers enthusiast, who works in data analytics and software engineering by trade, reminded Wilson that he’s got more than 1,500 (now more than 1,700) people following his website, who each signed a petition to City Council urging a deal that clearly identifies the public’s return on investment and buy-in/cost-sharing between the city and the Blazers owner.
“One thing I owe you straight because I’d rather you hear it from me than wonder: I answer to 1500-plus Portlanders who signed up for a strong deal, not for any single fix—so our public support isn’t mine to trade piecemeal, and I won’t pretend otherwise,” Krolewicz wrote to Wilson. “What I can offer is bigger: if the term sheet is strong, we will be the loudest voice in the city saying so.”
But in his newsletter, the mayor couched the email interaction much differently, going as far as to refer to Krolewicz, not by name, but as an “opportunist” and a “Brooklyn-based techbro using our city’s dilemma to pitch his ‘civic engagement’ dot-com startup.”
Krolewicz, who describes himself as a “civic technologist” launched a separate site, called Portland Civic Lab, featuring data dashboards based on city performance metrics like parks maintenance backlogs, and the estimated time it takes to secure a building permit. But the Civic Lab site wasn’t mentioned in Krolewicz’s email to Wilson about the Blazers and the Moda Center and it doesn’t appear linked anywhere on the Rip City website he launched.
The mayor had nicer words for Blazers owner Tom Dundon, who lives in Texas but was in Portland Wednesday as a featured speaker at the Moda Center for an event hosted by the Portland Metro Chamber, which Wilson also spoke at.
Wilson said the team’s new owners “have a negotiating style much like my own—fair, firm, friendly, and committed to the best outcome for those they serve.”
In the same newsletter, Wilson also lobbed thinly-veiled criticism at councilors like Mitch Green, an economist who’s been vocal about his desire for a more transparent process to decide the fate of the Moda Center lease.
“It’s easy to be against transformational civic projects. There are risks, though a renovated arena holds far fewer risks than constructing a new one,” Wilson wrote. “Calling foul and throwing around accusations can boost re-election campaigns, but we can’t wave away the very real risk of declining tax revenue, broken promises to neighborhoods, and lost jobs.”
Wilson stated Krolewicz “reached out to me and offered to personally deliver 10 city council votes if I used the ‘term sheet’ he developed.”
Krolewicz says Wilson’s rehashing of the written correspondence not only missed the mark, it misconstrued the message.
“What I was saying was the opposite of what he wrote in that message,” Krolewicz told the Mercury Tuesday. “All I’m saying is if you put forward a good term sheet, I will be your supporter.”
Here’s a transcript, followed by a screenshot of the full email Krolewicz sent to Wilson:
Mayor Wilson,
You’ve said you’re committed to striking the best deal for Moda, and this week you said you’re willing to break a 6-6 tie to pass it. I’m writing because I don’t think you should have to. The version of this deal that passes 10-2 exists, and I’d like to put it in front of you before the term sheet takes shape. (Raymond and I are also finding time to connect — this note is about the part that’s yours.)
Three things we see from outside.
First, PCEF. The polling and the July committee calendar both point the same direction, and the exit will read very differently coming from your office than from the committee. The city share doesn’t actually need it: between the sale proceeds you’ve already identified and the revenue the 2024 bridge lease currently signs away — event parking and its 25% administration fee, the operator’s unpaid repair obligations, the user-fee carve-outs, —the term sheet itself can fund the city’s contribution. That’s the heart of what we’ve published: the funding plan and the lease terms are the same negotiation. The numbers: ripcitynotripoff.com/terms.
Second, the council’s skeptics have each named what they need — a cost cap, real relocation security, an ownership contribution, sunshine — and every one is a term this ownership has already signed elsewhere, mostly in Raleigh. Their conditions are satisfiable inside a strong term sheet without costing the city a dollar.
Third, a deal passed on a tiebreak carries every later consequence alone — November, the county, the lease fight. A deal passed 10-2 is armored against all of it. One thing I owe you straight, because I’d rather you hear it from me than wonder: I answer to 1,500-plus Portlanders who signed up for a strong deal, not for any single fix — so our public support isn’t mine to trade piecemeal, and I won’t pretend otherwise. What I can offer is bigger: if the term sheet is strong, we will be the loudest voice in the city saying so.
The ask is 45 minutes with you or your team the week of June 16. We’ll bring what Portlanders tell us at this weekend’s listening sessions — funding, terms, calendar, the whole picture. I’d rather be your coalition than your critic.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Councilor Green addressed the mayor’s newsletter via social media on Tuesday.
“I’m unsettled by the Mayor’s newsletter today re: Moda,” Green wrote. “Rather than acknowledge that there are very real concerns about how this process has unfolded, he chose instead to cast critique as short-sighted and opportunistic in an effort to deflect from the impressive lack of rigor to date on his part.”
I’m unsettled by the Mayor’s newsletter today re: Moda. Rather than acknowledge that there are very real concerns about how this process has unfolded, he chose instead to cast critique as short-sighted and opportunistic in an effort to deflect from the impressive lack of rigor to date on his part.
— Mitch Green (@councilorgreen.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T21:42:39.139Z
Green said Wilson pulled the same stunt leading up to the budget, when he characterized Portland residents and city employees who signed up to testify against the mayor’s proposed budget cuts as “special interests.”
“No matter what the subject, the same lobbyists and special interests show up in the same T-shirts. Their voices are heard by legislators… but what about yours?” Wilson wrote in a May 4 newsletter. “The ‘pros’ have gotten very good at gaming the public testimony system.”
District 3 Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane also addressed the mayor’s newsletter, by poking fun at it with a video featuring Rip City Not Rip Off co-creator Jonathan Pulvers joining her for a Portland-spin on the Billy Joel classic, “New York State of Mind” filmed on Southeast Portland’s Brooklyn Bridge.
City councilors met on Wednesday to review the results of public surveys and listening sessions regarding the Moda Center. The results showed a strong interest in investing in the venue and keeping the team in Portland, but a higher percentage of respondents weren’t willing to expend public resources to make that happen.
District 3 Councilor Steve Novick said Koyama Lane drew his attention to language in the city’s 2024 bridge agreement with the Blazers ownership that stipulates the team owners will maintain the Moda Center in a “first-class” manner.
“I thought the whole point of this $600 million investment was to make it a first-class arena, so why haven’t we filed a lawsuit asking for $600 million dollars?” Councilor Steve Novick asked. “I say that playfully, but not lightly.”
Novick requested further information from the city attorney’s office about what exactly the city’s Moda Center agreement requires, and whether the city is entitled to arena renovations from the Blazers owners that it isn’t currently getting.
The city is expected to solidify terms of a public-private partnership with the Blazers for use of the Moda Center by mid-August, with a long term lease agreement expected to be finalized before the end of the year.
