NAKED & CLEAN
A final observation on Portland’s 2015 World Naked Bike Ride. Take note for next year, nudists!
DEAR MERCURY—You know what the coolest thing about the Naked Bike Ride was? Ten thousand people at Colonel Summers Park, and when I walked by it [the following] morning there was not one speck of trash anywhere.
Suemail
HOME UNSAFE
RE: “No-Cause for Alarm” [News, July 1], documenting the precarious situations Portland renters find themselves in, and a movement to create more rules around landlords’ ability to eject tenants.
This is something that needs to be very carefully thought through, and could have some real unintended consequences. This would also lead to many more people going the Airbnb route with their properties, which can lead to much higher monthly income for many properties, and there is no shortage of tourists using Airbnb in Portland. It could also lead to landlords jacking up rental rates ahead of this going into effect for units that are currently on the market, and from the rental house standpoint, could lead to many landlords just saying “screw it” and selling their houses into what is a very frothy market. All the landlords I know are already complaining about taxes, needed repairs, increasingly low-quality tenants, rising property management costs, etc. Now, some of this is probably them overblowing it and they need to just suck it up, but it does go to support the point that increased regulation could cause many landlords to act in a way that many people would see as heartless.
posted by JTR
This is another example of the problems caused by the housing shortage. Normally landlords would face higher costs in trying to get a new tenant, and people who have to move wouldn’t have such a bad time finding a new place. But if we leave housing scarce like gold instead of plentiful like water, the people who control the “gold” will have power. Second, let’s imagine we come up with some regulatory approach that protects people who want to renew. That solution only protects people who stay put. People move for lots of reasons, not just because of problems with renewal. Why should people whose lives aren’t changing be privileged over others? The housing shortage is the problem. Regulatory schemes are no substitute for a solution.
posted by BJ Cefola
I was a landlord in [San Francisco] and have several rentals now in [Portland]. In SF, I would only rent to those with high-paying jobs. My SF friends that were landlords would avoid families and only rent to groups of friends, since they would move in a few years. In PDX, half of my rentals are to service people and non-white-collar types. If talk of rent control got serious, I would immediately find a way to evict those people.
posted by Lin-Chuan Lee
SUCKING IN A GOOD WAY
RE: “Debate Club” [Music, July 1], a heated debate over Van Halen: yes or no?
The intro to “(Oh!) Pretty Woman” is called “Intruder,” and yeah: Why the fuck isn’t that its own song? Oh, and let’s see… “Eruption” is still great as a document of a guitarist at his most unfuckwithable. Yes, it is masturbatory. That’s kind of the point. Hagar’s fucking atrocious, and I’m pretty sure Michael Anthony being dumped from the band later on was due to his still being loyal to an idiot like Sammy. Almost all of the songs are ruined by Dave’s lyrics. My favorite moments are the very weird ones, like “Tora! Tora!/Loss of Control” and “Outta Love Again.” But almost all of their stuff suffers whenever that idiot opens his mouth. But I still gotta give it to Dave for being the only Dave out there. There wasn’t one, so he had to invent one. I’m glad the rest that followed were nowhere near as successful. He entertains me. And he sucks.
posted by rich bachelor
THANKS, RICH, for summing up the duality of a band like Van Halen and a man like Diamond Dave. Let the argument rest. Instead, take the two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater for winning this week’s Mercury letter of the week, and cool off.
Lin-Chuan Lee, did you just admit to discriminating against people in rentals? You did just admit to being a douchebag landlord, that’s for certain. You are part of the problem.
However ‘theonlysane…’ just showed themselves to be really creepy.
TheOnlySanePersonInTheWorld: Your internet stalking is much more concerning than the poster’s constitutionally protected right to express his opinion. By a long shot.
Yeah, not to mention the fact that the guy actually has some skin in the game, so to speak. I’m tired of all this Property Owners=Bad bullshit. Your under achievements are not the fault of the guy providing his house for lease at fair market to those he feels comfortable with. Every rental you ever dwelled in you were chosen over someone else.
Interesting that in ‘the onlysane…’ links provided, in which I could find no real damning info on Lee, are now deleted, or edited from this post.
But the fact remains the supposedly ‘onlysane…’ is rather creepy, at least in this instance.
Quick reminder for internet constitutional scholars: you have no “constiutionally protected right” to post things in a comment thread. This is privately owned, and things can be taken off here (as in this very thread) by management, whenever they want.
The right you’re referring to is the protection against the government preventing you from expressing your political opinions. Not the Mercury, the Government of the United States. Not other people telling you you’re stupid and should shut up, but the goddam gummint putting you in jail for your stupid opinions. That’s what the 1st amendment actually covers. Bachelor out.
Yeah, thanks Rich.
I think we pretty much all know that.
I never referred to any right, as I thought the editorial staff was using good judgement, that is all — but also pointing out to others that some shit was deleted.
That was for Remorsely, who either pretty much doesn’t know that, or is trying to be funny.
And just because every other comment thread one encounters online includes some dewy eyed moron howling about their 1st Amendment rights being abridged due to something like people telling them to shut up, or something.
*flips hair* I just like to know my neighbors. Especially if I have to live in a city that is slowly becoming unlivable because of douchebags like him. Whatever gurl.
It IS interesting though, that my other comments were deleted. I didn’t think they were in violation of rules and no one sent me any notifications about it. Since we’re complaining about “free speech”.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s creepy that I found that stuff, it’s really easy to do if someone is stupid enough to use their real name and it’s more creepy that the information is available really.
But yeah, fuck scumlords and gentrification! Gimme back my city! Looking at the number of likes on stories like this, I would say that you boo-hooers about equating property owners with “bullshit” as you so aptly put it are on the wrong side. You don’t have to fuck people over to survive.