The deal is the Occupy folks haven't done anything to effect any sort of meaningful systemwide change, or lay any sort of foundation for leading to such change, whatsoever. Its like those handful of people who gather in Pioneer Square every Friday. They've become city noise.

Plus, there's this sort of stuff, from the Willamette Week Occupier of the Day (sorry), today is "Pi":

Tenure at Occupy Portland: Camping since last weekend and staying until it ends, but says he might move to the Occupation in Seattle

Otherwise lives in: Eugene

His favorite political thinker: Khalil Gibran

His contribution to the camp: Pi says he hasn’t been able to volunteer because he’s afraid to leave his stuff. “People are yelling about stolen stuff every night."

Why he won’t show his face or use his real name: “I’ve been going by Pi for 13 years. You cannot create or destroy energy. Just like Pi, it goes on forever.” He also says he’s afraid to show his face because of government monitoring.

His experience at Occupy Portland: “My idea of the movement is that people feel like this is their last-ditch effort to be heard. There’s going to be violence, there’s going to be resistance. The police are going to crack down and people are either going to give up or it will be the last crushing blow."

Jefferson Smith clarified his position by saying the protesters should be allowed to stay if they meet certain benchmarks:

(from the updated article)
But State Rep. Jefferson Smith is willing to see the camp remain, provided occupants comply with "benchmarks" set by the city, such as committing no crimes that are not related to the protest, such as acts of civil disobedience.

As long as the occupants meet the benchmarks, Smith would allow them to stay. He would only move to the close the camp if the ratio of noncompliance to compliance with the benchmarks becomes too great.

At that point, Smith says the city should look a win-win situation.

“The city should work with the protesters to help them find another vehicle for their message,” says Smith.

It seems necessary that the camp will be moved. But to where and what effect it'll have on the Occupy community, who knows. By the way, who is the leader(s) of the Occupiers in Portland? Is this a social Co-oP in which everyone is just chillin and waiting or are there a group of loud extroverts actually planning the end goal?

I don't think anyone is going to be worried about the Occupy folks, until they start registering as voters, and using their direct democracy to put forth some consensus derived candidates and platforms to start running for positions in the representative democracy that the rest of the country outside of a few parks in big cities use.

Until then, it's all just noise... it's a shame I agree with the majority of the noise.

"using their direct democracy to put forth some consensus derived candidates"

You just described every election, dude. That's what elections are: a vehicle for the community to arrive at a consensus about who should represent us.

Let's go to Portland's other, often forgotten, mayoral candidates!

"The Winter is Coming."
~Eddard Stark on #OccupyPortland's coming challenge, winter weather!

"They'd go away if you stopped paying attention to them, you imbeciles. As mayor, I'd kindly ask you not to ask me these idiotic questions."
~Frank Cassano

One can forgive the Tribune for being unclear, because everything Smith has said about anything so far on the campaign trail is a vague statement laden with qualifiers.

Was Max Brumm, the candidate of the people, not available for comment?

@Zed - I know, right?! The difference is, they're a direct democracy looking for group consensus, where as the government here is a republic or representative democracy where decisions are based by a simple, or a modified majority. If they start developing candidates out of their direct democracy OR otherwise interfacing with the larger representative democracy, then they'll REALLY become a force to be reckoned with...or... interesting.

As it is, they're outside of the system giving them squarely zero effect on people within the system.

How about if they had a "register to vote day", and then they all used consensus to decide which mayoral candidate to endorse and as a block vote for. Suddenly they stop being "That problem in the park" to all of these candidates and suddenly they become "Oh shit! It's the electorate!"

Walked by the camp this morning. At this point, it's just a bunch of people living in a park. Maybe they go on a march every few days, but they could be doing that anyway.

I recommend everyone walk by there and ask yourself what it is accomplishing. If there is an answer, it isn't obvious.

BREAKING: This just in from Max Brumm's twitter account,
"@superchundy they [the occupy pdx protesters] should stay! I was down there the first night. I wrote a press release and posted it on my website! max4mayor.com"
https://twitter.com/#!/max4mayor/status/12…

There you have it; they only candidate with enough conviction to come out in support of the protesters and not kowtow to cranks.

Eileen Brady continues to get smaller in my eyes. That's sort of sad.