DREAM OF THE NICETIES
RE: “Can Portlandia Be Funny in the Age of Trump?” [Blogtown, Jan 9]. “Season 7 of Portlandia premiered Thursday on IFC,” wrote Charles Mudede, noting that the show “continues to make fun of white, urban, progressive people who would never vote for Trump—indeed who, if given the chance, would for Bernie Sanders. The question is: Should we really mock these people?”
You’re making the assumption that the show WAS funny.
Euphonius
Yes, all self-righteous blather aside, the show is under the impression that hitting several simplistic punchlines over and over again is the same thing as humor. Portlandia’s lack of social progressivism is somewhere down around reason 75 why the damn thing sucks.
rich bachelor
FARE IN LOVE AND WAR
RE: “Portland-Area Prosecutors Are Pledging to Be More Lenient on TriMet’s Repeat Fare Dodgers” [Blogtown, Jan 3]. “Top prosecutors are ringing in the new year with an interesting message: The justice system is too harsh on people who repeatedly skip out on their MAX fares,” wrote News Editor Dirk VanderHart. Going forward, district attorneys for Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties will “largely opt for less serious C-level misdemeanors for flagrant fare dodgers…. The decision comes less than a month after a Portland State University study commissioned by TriMet showed African Americans who are caught riding without paying a fare are far more likely to receive exclusions from the transit system than other groups.”
As long as there’s going to be a fare, we should be working to catch more fare avoiders of every color. If the current deterrent isn’t working, the punishment needs to be increased until it starts working.
Jeff Snavely
Or we could just dump the honor system, since it clearly doesn’t work, and put those transit police to work at stations checking fare instead of delaying trains and being bigger nuisances than the people stealing fare.
Someguy267
THE TIKI CONTINUES
RE: “Club 21 Owners to Take Over Classic North Portland Tiki Bar the Alibi” [Blogtown, Dec 30]. “One of North Portland’s most famous and beloved bars, the Alibi, will be taken over by the owners of Club 21,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Wm. Steven Humphrey. “According to Club 21’s Warren Boothby, he and partner Marcus Archambeault have been talking with the bar’s longtime owners, the White family, and all agreed they wanted to continue the bar’s legacy.”
Yay! Nice to see some good news on the PDX “development” front. I hope they keep the Monte Christo. It’s a gut bomb with serious mega-tonnage.
Pdxfred
SO, SPEAKING OF CLUB 21…
RE: “Yes, It’s True: Iconic Portland Dive Bar Club 21 Is Closing” [Blogtown, Jan 10]. “The bar will do its last days of business this weekend, with the Club’s final night being Sunday, January 15,” wrote Senior Editor Ned Lannamann. “The iconic building itself will be demolished at some point to make room for a large mixed-use building…. Club 21 was just one of many businesses to make its home beneath that odd, chateau-like roof since the 1930s, when it opened as a Russian orthodox church. This is the last weekend to enjoy one of Portland’s great dive bars.”
2017 celebrity deaths will apparently all be bars I love.
Dwight Genocide (@BryanCooking)
Yep, definitely move here. Nothing good closes to put up condos.
Matthew Brown (@MatthewJBrown)
New to Portland? Research the places that make this city fucking awesome and go patronize the old-school businesses before they’re all gone.
Rob Downer (@bearto)
I got drunk here, my mother got drunk here, my grandfather got drunk here. RIP Club 21.
Ian Karmel (@IanKarmel)
FOR POINTING OUT how deeply the Club is embedded in drinking Portlanders’ lives, we’re giving the Mercury’s letter of the week to former Mercury contributor Ian Karmel! Is that a conflict of interest? Maybe? We don’t care! We’re too busy being sad about Club 21. Ian, enjoy your prize—two passes to another beloved Portland institution, the Laurelhurst Theater, which has yet to be knocked down and replaced with condos.