SUMMER ON THE SPRINGWATER

RE: “As Springwater Sweep Looms, Mayor Charlie Hales Says Camping Policy ‘Has Not Succeeded As We Hoped’” [Blogtown, July 15] and “As Portland’s Largest-Ever Homeless Sweep Looms, Advocates Plot Resistance” [News, July 27], Dirk VanderHart’s coverage of Hales’ decision to eradicate camping on Portland’s swath of the Springwater trail. In response, VanderHart reported, volunteer organizations met on a part of the trail known as Lambert Field to “discuss how to react to a decision they say lacks both humanity and logic.” One such plan is an “‘economic refugee camp’ for people displaced by the sweep... with space for trailers as well as tents, and security. There will also be a strictly enforced code of conduct.”

Wandering back a few articles: The mayor’s policy had “not succeeded as hoped” because he never actually implemented it. If he had, places like Lambert Field would’ve fallen under “Organized, City Sanctioned Camping” with a camp host and code of conduct, or a city-sanctioned site would’ve been set up elsewhere and the folks at Lambert Field would’ve been directed there.

The folks proposing the “economic refugee camp” recognize the need for such rules, at least in part; according to the Mercury, “The organized encampment would include security and a code of conduct that prohibits substances.” I would have more respect for this planned resistance if the advocates would start with such codes of conduct along the lines of Right 2 Dream Too. Perhaps you can take time from organizing defenses to setting up a “strictly enforced code of conduct” for the Springwater encampments?

Sok

If implementing a security code among this group were feasible, they could have already done it in Springwater, thus avoiding many of the issues that have brought this situation to its current boiling point.

FlavioSuave


NEW YORK, NEW YORK

RE: “Sizzle Pie Is Expanding to Pizza-No-Man’s-Land, New York City” [Blogtown, July 29], Ned Lannamann’s story about how Portland pizza chain Sizzle Pie has set its sights on the Big Apple. “NYC has no known pizza makers or places to buy and eat pizza,” wrote Lannamann, “which makes this a no-brainer for Sizzle Pie.” “There’s a Brooklyn-Portland connection,” Sizzle Pie’s Matt Jacobson explained to the excellently named trade publication Pizza Today. “A lot of people in the creative, design, and coffee worlds kind of tend to go back and forth between here and there.”

I was just there in January. Brooklyn has been there, done that with the gentrification thing. That is probably the connection he is talking about—the creative design people took over Brooklyn and Portland, and neither place has much left of what made them cultural hot spots. But hey, at least now the new and improved posh yoga crowd of Brooklyn have Sizzle Pie.

guidogazz


HOT COFFEE

RE: “Southeast Portland to Get Their Own ‘Kink and Coffee Shop’” [Blogtown, July 25], Wm. Steven Humphrey’s post about professional dominatrix Miss Pixie Frye’s plans to open a coffee shop in Portland that will also feature “a dungeon and education space.”

No cream in my coffee, thanks.

Demondog


TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR

RE: “Here’s What Powell’s Has Planned for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” [Blogtown, July 29], Erik Henriksen’s nerd-out about Powell’s Books’ plans for trivia contests, costumed employees, commemorative stamps, and scavenger hunts to mark the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book, which follows a grown-up Harry Potter and his children. “Wait,” Henriksen wrote, “If Harry’s a dad now, and if the last Harry Potter book took place in 2007, does that mean Harry Potter and the Cursed Child could be set... in the future?”

Here’s what Powell’s has planned for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: KA-CHING!!!

Todd Mecklem

The last Harry Potter book took place in 1998, duh.

nothingnothingnothing

nothingnothingnothing, your know-it-all reminder that the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows took place in 1998—and not, as that Muggle idiot Henriksen thought, in 2007, when the book was released—has earned you the Mercury’s letter of the week, along with two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater. Go see something with wizards in it, and in the future, perhaps consider being less of a Hermione.


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