great use of city dollars, talking about freaking dogs...pathetic waste of money....

They debated 'the pitfalls of dog ownership'
Listen to it again -
'the pitfalls of dog ownership'
A city run by retarded children.

I think that what was being discussed was the [larger] issue of gentrification & neibourly relations in NE Portland.

Besides that, i don't think there's ANY issue b/t dogs & Black people.I honestly don't know where such a myth came from, seeing as how Blacks own dogs in no less of a persentage than Whites.

Here is a link to the Sentinel article that gives some more background on these meetings and some of the various perspectives: http://portlandsentinel.com/?q=node/2018

I am surprised that lifestyle was never discussed as a deciding factor in the purchase of a large dog... it is assumed by many that they are for protection without a moments consideration that larger dogs meet the needs of active people better. A lapdog isn't going hiking and the owner would not be singled out as having gotten the dog to intimidate the neighbors.

The idea of buying an animal/pet for no other reason other than to "intemidate" other people is, well... i'm not even sure how to approach that.