In character with David Bragdon

A conversation with an interesting Portlander

By peter korn

The Portland Tribune, Apr 9, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Metro Council President David Bragdon used to drive a cab, but loves trains — and has always dreamed of being a locomotive engineer.

COURTESY OF THE OREGON ZOO

David Bragdon turns 50 this year, and there are some who think Bragdon, council president of regional governmental agency Metro, has got a bit of a one-track mind about the coming event. We’ll get to that.

During the course of his career, Bragdon worked in shipping at Nike, chartered freighters for another company and represented Evergreen Airlines around the world. You might say he’s had a life defined by modes of transportation, and he wouldn’t disagree. Some of those modes were a bit surprising.

Portland Tribune: How long did you drive a cab in Portland?

David Bragdon: Just over a year, from New Year’s Eve 1999 through New Year’s Eve weekend in early 2000. Thirty-six hours a week, noon to midnight, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I had just been elevated to Metro councilor, and the seats are part-time, and at the time paid $28,000 a year. I needed another job to make money.

Tribune: A favorite story?

Bragdon: There was a woman I picked up late on a Sunday night. She was probably in her early 30s and had grown up in Iowa, and she told me all about her estrangement from her parents, and her mother’s bad relationship with her father, and her own determination to be independent. And when she got to where she was going she said, “I want to keep talking. Keep the meter running.”

Tribune: So what did you do?

Bragdon: I kept the meter running, and she kept talking. I turned around and she reached over and took my hand, she was holding my hand as she was telling me all this. It was very touching.

Tribune: Any really strange customers?

Bragdon: There was a woman I picked up at Fred Meyer in Beaverton who wanted to go to a Fred Meyer in Tigard to get vacuum cleaner bags and seafood. What do these things have in common? I have no idea. And why would they be any better at Fred Meyer in Tigard than in Beaverton? She went on a non-stop monologue about seafood. She kept repeating, “Seafood in my gut makes me real happy.” And, “I don’t need diamonds or pearls; I’m not one of those girls.”

Tribune: But she did need vacuum cleaner bags. She was one of those girls.

Bragdon: She needed to go to Tigard to get the right vacuum cleaner bags.

Tribune: And all the time, wouldn’t you have rather been driving a train?

Bragdon: I’ve always wanted to be a locomotive engineer and the fact that Broadway Cab and Union Pacific locomotives are both yellow was not lost on me. There were times in my fantasy mind I would think the yellow Broadway cab (I was driving) was a yellow Union Pacific locomotive.

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