Ah, welcome to the economic concept of the multiplier effect!

When last checked, restaurants are a service industry. If people do not want a service, sorry, but that's the way it goes. As for an ethical responsibility, aren't business owners aware of the risks they incur by choosing to go into business in the first place? And what about the opportunity cost to other industries as folks decide to spend more in restaurants? That money is not being spent on other goods or services, right? What about jobs in those industries, and the businesses that serve them? How many other industries do we have an ethical responsibility to prop up?

I dunno, it seems almost certain a lot of restaurants will go the way of "Maude's Olde Candle Shoppe" and the like. I'm not so sure they had realistic business plans to begin with or analyzed the competition well enough to compete in a variety of business climates.

All those wine shops/bars/distributors - really, we need all those when you can buy a $6 bottle at New Seasons? Didn't these companies take things like that into consideration when opening the businesses, or were they just banking on ever-rising home values, endless jobs and equity locusts?

Portland has always had an inferiority complex and perhaps the culinary "scene" here gave people something to crow about for a while. As long as Ringside doesn't go anywhere, I'll be fine.

Here is a novel idea: Eat at the places that are good. Yes, some good wholesalers may be selling to the bad restaurants, and it would be a pity to see them fail, on the other hand, the places that are good are buying from someone too, and they could use the business.

Life is too short to pay too much to eat bad food with poor service just because it keeps people employed, especially with so many good restaurants around.

"I’d noticed how rabidly against Lucier so many people in the Portland foodie community had become."

What is this "had become", Patrick? If you really hadn't seen the anti-Lucier writing on the wall a solid month or three before there opening, you're even more brain-dead than your writing suggests.