COGEN BOGIN'

RE: "Clutching Our Pearls" [News, July 24], regarding the recent scandal caused by the discovery of an affair between Multnomah County chairman Jeff Cogen and county health policy director Sonia Manhas.

DEAR MERCURY—[Cogan] won't apologize to people he has not affected through having an affair that is none of their goddamned business! Meanwhile, the Tea Party wants to dismantle the country into a conglomeration of dictatorial monopolies, [and] the Republicans continue their 40-year crusade that has resulted in wage stagnation for three-fourths of workers and [has] murdered the American Dream, standing firm on the principle that the poor must suffer and starve and beg for whatever pittance an employer deigns to give them.

Daniel Bradley Macklin

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SMOKE IN THE MIRROR

RE: "Pipes" [Portland As Fuck, July 24], wherein columnist Ian Karmel stands in judgment of young men who smoke pipes.

Ninety-seven percent of the people [who] take up smoking a pipe [do it] because they want to be a dude smoking a pipe.

Posted by Aestro

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WATER BOARDING

RE: "Squirt Guns at Dawn" [News, July 24], regarding the movement to create the "Portland Public Water District" and wrest control of the city's water and sewer services away from city council.

This water board sounds like a bad idea, but [it's] still better than the City Council using water dollars as a personal piggy bank for whatever shiny new object they get conned into funding.

Posted by MrPDX

I'm just as mad as any other Portland ratepayer about the eye-watering water and sewer bills, but I think this proposed PPWD is an overreach. As infuriating as Randy Leonard's dips into the utility revenue were, they were drops in the bucket (sorry) compared to the main cost drivers of utility spending; namely, the legacy costs of maintaining an over-100-year-old water and sewer system and upgrading it to meet current standards and federal regulations. While I appreciate PPWD promoters for firing a shot across the city council's bow to get them to pay attention to this issue, they and anyone who supports their proposal are fooling themselves if they think their effort, if successful, is going to immediately and dramatically reduce costs.

Posted by Davey_Blunkett

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AT LAST

RE: "The Price of Art" [News, July 24], cataloging the amount of city money spent every month on running the Last Thursday art event on NE Alberta.

I know why it costs so much to "run" Last Thursday. It is the police bureau's cash cow. The only reason Last Thursday doesn't cost more is that the other city bureaus haven't figured out how to cash in on the prize.

Posted by paulbarthol

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FOR THE RECORDS

RE: "How to Run a Record Label in 2013" [Music, July 24], in which author Thor Benson checks in on the state of several small indie labels to find out how they operate in an evolving industry.

The trend toward listening to music via streaming services like Spotify is sucking out what little money there was left for emerging artists. In the not-too-distant future, bands will be relegated to part-time hobbyists who will never be able to quit their day job.

Posted by Spindles

We actually had great luck using streaming services to our advantage with the Wild Ones release. On Rdio, new releases are sorted by popularity, so if you can get people to listen to your new album early, it can snowball and stay towards the top, as more people check it out. Wild Ones ended up being the #8 new release in the US for the week of July 9-16!

Posted by Ben Moral

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RIGHT? RIGHT!

RE: "Sex Fan" [Arts, July 17] a profile of cartoonist and sex toy reviewer Erika Moen of Oh Joy Sex Toy.

HEY PORTLAND MERCURY! We love you and we were soooooo excited to see Erika Moen featured in your arts column this week! I follow her on Instagram but it would be incredibly awesome to see her work in the Merc more often! Like right up next to Savage Love. Perfect, right? Right! 

Yuki

CONGRATULATIONS TO YUKI for winning this week's Mercury Letter of the Week! Yuki gets two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, which offers a variety of pleasurable experiences depending on what vibe you're feeling.