RE: âAs Springwater Sweep Looms, Mayor Charlie Hales Says Camping Policy âHas Not Succeeded As We Hopedââ [Blogtown, July 15] and âAs Portlandâs Largest-Ever Homeless Sweep Looms, Advocates Plot Resistanceâ [News, July 27], Dirk VanderHartâs coverage of Halesâ decision to eradicate camping on Portlandâs swath of the Springwater trail. In response, VanderHart reported, volunteer organizations met on a part of the trail known as Lambert Field to âdiscuss how to react to a decision they say lacks both humanity and logic.â One such plan is an ââeconomic refugee campâ 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.â
Wandering back a few articles: The mayorâs policy had ânot succeeded as hopedâ because he never actually implemented it. If he had, places like Lambert Field wouldâve fallen under âOrganized, City Sanctioned Campingâ with a camp host and code of conduct, or a city-sanctioned site wouldâve been set up elsewhere and the folks at Lambert Field wouldâve been directed there.
The folks proposing the âeconomic refugee campâ recognize the need for such rules, at least in part; according to the Mercury, âThe organized encampment would include security and a code of conduct that prohibits substances.â 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 âstrictly enforced code of conductâ 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
RE: âSizzle Pie Is Expanding to Pizza-No-Manâs-Land, New York Cityâ [Blogtown, July 29], Ned Lannamannâs story about how Portland pizza chain Sizzle Pie has set its sights on the Big Apple. âNYC has no known pizza makers or places to buy and eat pizza,â wrote Lannamann, âwhich makes this a no-brainer for Sizzle Pie.â âThereâs a Brooklyn-Portland connection,â Sizzle Pieâs Matt Jacobson explained to the excellently named trade publication Pizza Today. âA lot of people in the creative, design, and coffee worlds kind of tend to go back and forth between here and there.â
I was just there in January. Brooklyn has been there, done that with the gentrification thing. That is probably the connection he is talking aboutâthe 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
RE: âSoutheast Portland to Get Their Own âKink and Coffee Shopââ [Blogtown, July 25], Wm. Steven Humphreyâs post about professional dominatrix Miss Pixie Fryeâs plans to open a coffee shop in Portland that will also feature âa dungeon and education space.â
No cream in my coffee, thanks.
Demondog
RE: âHereâs What Powellâs Has Planned for Harry Potter and the Cursed Childâ [Blogtown, July 29], Erik Henriksenâs nerd-out about Powellâs Booksâ 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. âWait,â Henriksen wrote, âIf Harryâs 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?â
Hereâs what Powellâs 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 1998âand not, as that Muggle idiot Henriksen thought, in 2007, when the book was releasedâhas earned you the Mercuryâs 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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