OUTER LIMITS
RE: “Portland > Korn” [Letters, Sept 17], a debate between columnist Ian Karmel, who argues longtime Portlanders should be more welcoming to newcomers, and Carlos, a “townie.”
WOW, IAN KARMEL—I’ll be frank, I’ve hated your column from the moment I read it, but I believed that we could agree to disagree. The paradox you gave Carlos impressed even me. Claiming that Portland outside a 15-mile radius hasn’t contributed to the city as a cultural force that affects the world is back handed to the very people who’ve made eating all those banh mi sandwiches and fried chicken with biscuits you’re killing yourself with a middle-class luxury. Personally I choose not to live in “the ’burbs,” but I don’t forget what they bring me—that’d be obtuse as fuck, and since you missed the point Carlos was making, it reveals you [to be] as common as fuck.
C. Marchandt
MR. [IAN] KARMEL—In your response to Carlos Covarrubias, you didn’t really “get” his point. Go back [and] reread what he said, and give it some thought. For one thing, you might decide that he didn’t deserve a response that was compiled of off-the-cuff dismissive putdowns.
Alan Silver
YES WE CAN
RE: “From Can to Can’t” [News, Sept 17], regarding a planned shift from bottle returns at neighborhood stores to a somewhat remote regional redemption center.
“Casual” returners will just want to take the bottles back when they return to the grocery store for more groceries—I don’t want to drive to some separate place just to return eight bottles. Reducing the number of returns at stores in order to keep the lines moving does make sense… presuming these new centers were easily accessible to people returning mass amounts of recyclables. Which, whoops.
Posted by SokMunki
The city is going to be fixing that entire area entering into Delta Park from N Interstate pretty darn soon to make it better/safer for cars, bikes, and pedestrians, so while it might not be the most convenient spot right now, it will be in a couple of years. I do agree that the stores need to continue to host returns!! If what I’ve seen in other states rings true here in OR, if more and more redemption centers start opening up that have better service, the big returners will flock to those locations, leaving the grocery store return spots a tad nicer for the rest of us occasional returners.
Posted by Mehhh
TOUCH & TACKLE
RE: “Football” [Everything as Fuck, Sept 17], in which columnist Ian Karmel recalls his school-aged football days and the violence pervading the sport’s culture.
I watch football most Saturdays, and many Sundays during the season. The first game I went to, I saw Steve Young get carried out on a stretcher after a concussion. I’ve heard local legend Frank Wycheck talk about the pain he feels every morning due to the damage done to his joints and nerves, and a few years after that he started talking about memory loss and depression related to CTE. I still love watching football, but I know sometime in my lifetime the sport will either have to go through some serious changes or end completely. On a side note, fuck every Ducks fan who boos opposing players when they’re on the ground.
Posted by Aestro
I can watch and enjoy football, knowing exactly how fucked up it is. I can eat and enjoy bacon, knowing an intelligent animal was “farmed” so I could. And I can listen to/read/watch (insert artist here) even though I know (insert transgressions here). Two key survival skills: compartmentalization and rationalization.
Posted by eprophet
I recall the Sisyphean task of blocking you in 6th grade. It’s cool to read your reflection; I can relate. It’s an odd reality that big American kids are encouraged to hurt themselves and others for sport.
Posted by anotherSN
WOAH ANOTHERSN, you played football with Ian in sixth grade? That’s… adorable! But also pretty violent, so tsk tsk, etc. Since it sounds like you never had the satisfaction of taking Karmel down on the field, please accept two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater to make up for it (bonus: the popcorn line is a much less violent scene).
C. Marchandt
What are you, new? Because I’m calling Bullshit. The best Bahn Mi in town is at 68th & Broadway, a section of town that’s been a Vietnamese/Asian enclave for at least 35 years. Furthermore, my favorite taco truck down town is owned and run by a family that lives 4 blocks from me in Kenton. Which subsequently is another 3 blocks up to King Burrito. Now admittedly I don’t know where those cats live, but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts they ain’t commuting in from East County or Hillsboro. (For those of us who’ve been here since the 70’s, that’s anywhere east of 205)
“Outer East Portland” (as the p.c. crowd calls it) is likely in the future to contribute to the broadening of the cultural landscape due in it’s newfound status as the neighborhood of the poor and recent immigrants (which in turn will draw the next generation of artists and musicians etc) , but up until the 90’s it’s was as whitebread as anywhere in the city.