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Re: “Did We Sit on the Story?”
Well, it seems like the Portland Mercury (or at least its beat reporters) did more than sit on the story.
In September of 2007, Scott Moore posted a piece in the Mercury named "The Scandal That Wasn't There: Sam Adams, Bob Ball, and the Gay Witch Hunt". This piece accused the Willamette Week of running a rumor in an apparent grasp at former Pulitzer glory, Bob Ball of pushing a scandal for his political gain, and positioned Adams as a victim of a witch hunt because of his sexual orientation. The Mercury's reporting was a strong influence in stifling any further investigation, and consequently paving the way for Adams to be elected.
Original Story:
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Co…
Re: “Fight the Power”
I'm just responding to what's written in the article. It never mentions tenants being evicted, but instead describes angry homeowners that are upset about the substation expansion, primarily because of the loss of value to their homes.
If the Mercury wanted to make the case about the tenants being forced to move out, then they should write an article that includes their perspective, not one about homeowners with a classic case of NIMBY. And to balance it out, maybe they could also write about how we all benefit from living in a vibrant and growing city, but that means we use more electricity, and depend on unsightly things like substations.
Re: “Fight the Power”
Am I the only one that sees the humor in this? The houses in the area around 32nd and Belmont are generally owned by a lot of well off baby boomers, who when younger, probably wore flowers in their hair and protested the war in Vietnam, and now are rising indignantly to fight evil PGE because.....they are going to reduce their property values.
What have house prices down in that neighborhood - doubled in the last 5 years? I'm pretty sure that if the power station expansion was in Gresham, these same people would not be out protesting it. But they would be happy to force PGE to move the substation underground at ten times the price, in order to jack up power prices for everyone, because it would keep their neighborhood looking dreamy and their house values rising like Swiss Alps.
I think it's good that we have to see power stations (and clear cuts, and oil refineries...). It's a reminder that we all are consuming too much energy and too many materials, no matter how much we try to block it from our view.
Re: “Hot Houses”
The idea sounds great and the developers are to be commended for making affordable condos available. But the article does little to explain what makes these lasting community projects. Shared newspapers, yellow paint, and strawberry patches can be ephemeral - what's to say the condos won't become slums in ten years?
Re: “A Celebration of Mediocrity”
I'll admit to listening to Jack Johnson here and there. No, he's not cutting any edges, but being that 99.99% of us are not "music critics", means that we can actually just enjoy music for what it is rather than have to be "challenged" by it 24/7, which sounds miserable. But that aside, near as I can tell, the songs are anti-war and life/love affirming. Hardly seems to deserve a cheap-shot connection to date rapes.
RSSGoing to Seattle?
Re: “No One Is Innocent”
So, if Tom Potter had been caught making out with a 17-yr old in the city hall bathroom, and sleeping with her shortly after, the Mercury would of course be consistent, and be telling us to pause and look inside ourselves? Seriously? You know that you guys would be slaughtering him endlessly in your paper.
The Mercury provides great entertainment coverage, art, and humor, but your political reporting has always been biased. You pick your favorites (Franzoni, Adams) and your foes (Potter, Dozono) and all of your reporting follows this lead. This time you got caught in it, and now you're trying to backtrack and appoint yourselves the even-handed arbiters of introspection.