What’s Wrong With This Picture?
This is PBOT’s vision of the future 82d Ave, rescued from the clutches of the state and dumped into the city’s lap…
Notice anything missing on this idealized drawing, aside from bums and hookers on the sidewalks? Yikes! There’s no bike-lane, which is mandatory on all PBOT projects, whether bikers use them or not.
PBOT solved that problem: If you look carefully, there’s someone on the right in a yellow shirt…on a bike! Slaloming among the pedestrians. A gross violation of bike orthodoxy.
Which will, no doubt, get the biker’s lobby (maybe even lame duck Rep. Ol’ Earl Blumenauer) screaming.
…and We’ve Been Here Before…
PBOT will make it virtually impossible to turn left into the waiting arms of the used car lots, bars, pot shops, pho joints, massage parlors, and other businesses along long stretches of the raunchy old street.
You might recall the kerfluffle when PBOT dropped this on SE Division last year, as PDX.Real‘s Jeff Church detailed here in September.
Here’s a drawing of the Division project, before the concrete and asphalt got poured…
PBOT’s slimmed-down Division when it actually happened created something close to an insurrection. One business owner actually took a jackhammer to the offending median. Others yelped about lost revenue.
Church’s observations read like coming attractions for 82d…
The problem with not allowing left turns is that drivers DO like to turn left, especially when they are turning into a business they want to conduct business with. The construction would allow eventual left turns, but at an intersection three to four blocks past where the driver wanted to turn. Some of the turns were constructed as one-way, which means that often drivers would drive the wrong way in the turn lane, potentially causing head-on collisions.
…and the promised safety results of the $-millions never materialized.
Let’s start a pool on who will be the first to drive into one of those trees as they careen across the median in search of a quick massage.
Does the Dinosaur Press Understand the Coming City Charter Train Wreck…?
Disregarding that all of the currently announced candidates for mayor are members of the political class that produced Portland as we know it, each has gotten a polite, softball quickie interview in the local rags.
Here, for example, were the hard-hitting questions that one of WillyWeek’s head-hunters, Sophie Peel, put to Carmen Rubio…
Why are you running for mayor? What have been your biggest accomplishments on the City Council so far? What’s a mistake you’ve made? Why you instead of Commissioner Mapps or Gonzalez? What do you see as a barrier to winning this election?
Notice anything missing?
Let’s suggest a few:
Do you understand how this “ranked choice voting” actually works?
Do you know that, if you don’t pass the 50-percent-plus-one-vote goal, the votes will be magically rearranged, thus making it likely (as Alaska demonstrated) that a person in third place in the initial round will probably come out on top?
You won’t have a vote or a veto when the new 12-member city council runs amok. How will you handle that?
Who do you want to be the new “professional” city administrator? Will you have any of the usual BIPOC, or “historically underserved” requirements? And what do you suppose “professional” really means?
Although you’ll nominate the city administrator, you’ll have to get the city council to confirm your choice. (No one knows how many votes will be required). If nine councilors gang up on your administrator, he/she/they can be fired, whether you like it or not. And you get no vote or veto. What’s your workaround?
Do you think any sane person would want to be mayor under these limitations? Think you’ll be happy mostly handing out keys to the city?
I’d sure like to know…wouldn’t you?
Rumor Mill…
We hear whispers that there’s a fourth candidate about to enter the mayoral race. Anyone who isn’t a recycled incumbent gets our vote.
Race Here, Race There, Race Everywhere…
Any you have any doubts that neo-racism pays bigly, we refer you to a recent job opening at one of Portland’s most politically active nonprofits, the Coalition of Communities of Color (which includes—surprise!—Slavs)…
If you’re not a BIPOC, look elsewhere. And the US Supreme Court and its “Harvard” affirmative action decision can go pound sand.
Add to the above an Oregon Health Authority pitch in its latest newsletter…
…which advertised a ZOOM meeting for black youth between 14-21 who will…
…share their voices, meet inspiring peers, connect with mentors, gain leadership training, and hear about a paid opportunity to join the coalition as a youth leader. Successful applicants will help create town hall meetings for Black youth across Oregon and learn from their stories.
I dropped a line to the OHA and received not one, but two quick replies, an indication that I might have touched a nerve when I asked if this was for blacks only, The first reply came from OHA’s…
Jill Baker, LSC
she/her/hers (Why Pronouns Matter)..
The purpose of the wellness mixer event is to host a safe and open spaces for black youth and other youth of color. This coalition's focus is suicide prevention, with a focus on the specific needs and strengths of black youth.
…which sounded like a reprint of the original pitch; and then this from…
This is a great question that our team considered for some time. As we are looking to develop a strategic suicide prevention plan for Black youth, we are hoping to create a unique safe space for our focused youth for this project. Whereas this event is an informational space for students that we are hoping to apply we are also hoping that it is a safe space for our Black youth to discuss their experiences.
We will have space for youth who do not identify as Black in other spaces that we will look to create for our state when we discuss ally support.
Two things bother us…
The reference to “safe spaces” begs the question: “safe” from whom?
And why did Ms. Baker miss the memo about capitalizing the word “black.”
More racial surprises…
You can image our shock when this showed up on the OPB website…
…given the progressive catechism that Oregon’s history is irredeemably racist! And they were here in 1860! Before thousands of Americans died to end slavery.
OPB also reveals that the blacks-who-weren’t-supposed-to-be-there “operated some of the earliest Black-owned businesses in the state.” (Long before black was capitalized.) Whaddaya know!?
Weird Stuff in the Oregonian
We know times are tough for the dinosaur press—layoffs and the replacement of the old hands with the young, impressionable, unskilled, and naive. But now the O’s website, OregonLive, seems to be padding the editorial budget with some strange stuff from an outfit called Reckon News…
Reckon’s mission statement only adds to the mystery…
Born out of the South and grounded in communities who have been marginalized, underestimated, and undervalued, we live our nation’s issues up close and intimately.
That’s why people are at the center of our stories on climate justice, reproductive rights, faith and purity culture, working mothers and families, queerness and trans rights, Blackness, racial justice, movements and more.
Funny: no mention of masturbation, but we’ll let that slide.
We were amazed to find that this propaganda outfit is owned by the Oregonian’s New York overseers, Advance Publications. Who knew that an outfit well known for ruthlessness has such a lefty heart?
The Ads Are Just as Weird…
Since the O’s ruthless anti-ad-blocker nudge can’t be defeated (and believe me, I tried every workaround)…
…the subscriber who is badgered into disabling their ad-blocker is served some oddball ads…
…and one can only wonder at that 87-percent number. Did they call up dudes at random and ask them if they can’t get it up…?
Other ads seem to be in an odd argument with editorial copy. Example: Tom Hallman Jr.'s weepy piece on the Fire Department’s new Overdose Squad in Old Town, which notes…
They are Portland’s fentanyl addicts, wrecked by the easy availability of the cheap, super-powerful opioid, their addiction enabled by a treatment-oriented but toothless Measure 110, which in 2020 made user amounts of street drugs legal.
…was liberally salted with this ad…
…from those wonderful people who brought you Measure 110.
Well, ya gotta make a buck…
Why is Portland’s Best Columnist Sitting in an Easy Chair Down in Southern California…?
…and why is Phil Stanford retelling tales of Portland’s utterly corrupt past on Substack when there’s much to chew on in this town?
Where the Hell is the Vasquez (Remember Him?) Campaign?
Insiders worry that the mild-mannered candidate is going down the rathole that killed the Betsy Johnson campaign; too much money chasing too many campaign consultants.
He’s been talked into a campaign that has only one pitch: vote for me because the other guy is worse. (And make your Instagram posts as dull as dishwater.) Which is dumb. Especially when the guy who’s worse runs creepy ads linking Vasquez to—the horror!—Trump. Some people in Portland suffer brain-freeze when the Orange Guy’s name is uttered.
Touring the headlines…
Wonder which one they’re most embarrassed by—the city, or America’s greatest wildlife artist?
Tough to run for re-election on a platform of soaking the voters.
Homelessness Inc. Bulks Up…
…as further proof that this town’s only growth industries are nonprofits and government, KGW noted the appointment of Ms. Brandy Westerman to the hapless job of running Portland’s bum dumps. We wish her the best—but note a few of the details buried in KGW’s congratulatory story…
A city spokesperson told KGW that her annual salary will be $185,016.
Last month, the county also added a similar position called the director of the homelessness response system, which was filled with County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson's former Chief of Staff Chris Fick.
His position is not directly a part of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, which has its own director.
More people whose paychecks depend on never ending homelessness.
Over and out…
REAP’s 2021 federal form 990 lists total revenues of $4,048,317 and total expenses of $2,690,337. “Grants and similar amounts paid” were $0.
Sir, you are a gem among us! Please keep up the Good (capital G) work!!
You missed commenting on this one “We will have space for youth who do not identify as Black”…. So race is a choice now? I guess I identify as black and make business is now minority owned.