City Council Candidate Nat West

BikePortland Podcast

Nat West is known as "Reverend Nat", the name of the successful cider business he built over the past 12 years. Now a part-time TriMet bus driver, West wants to represent City Council District 2 (N/NE) on Portland's new 12-member city council.

In this episode, we talked about:

• All the bikes Nat has owned throughout his life.
• His adventures collecting apples for his ciders by bike.
• How defending a friend's business trademark against the City of Portland lit his fire for political activism.
• His experiences as a regular participant in the George Floyd protests in Summer of 2020, and why he would do it all over again — even though he and his daughter were seriously injured by police munitions.
• How he'll balance activism and idealism with the realities of political office.
• Why he feels small businesses are worth fighting for.
• Why he thinks PBOT should focus more on maintenance and less on "shiny new infrastructure."
• His views on what's wrong (and right) with policing and how he'd reform the Portland Police Bureau.
• And of course we talk about cider and much more!

Links:

Nat West for Portland campaign website