Mayor-elect Sam Adams has joined commissioners Dan Saltzman and Nick Fish in supporting a last chance deal that will allow convenience store owner Doug Peterson to stay open in the city-owned parking garage on SW 10th and Morrison. And who cares if the publicity-hungry city commissioners gave the story to Anna Griffin at the Oregonian? Because this scalp was categorically mine.
Peterson was supposed to be out by August 15th, following objections by downtown cops and, of course, the Portland Business Alliance. The PBA’s vice president of downtown services, Arthur Frobisher Mike Kuykendall, is most likely going to be having a great time with the latest news. Have a good weekend, Mike. At least, try to calm down for Monday, when your morally abhorrent sit/lie law is going to take a beating at the First Presbyterian church, 3pm.
Saltzman’s new deal for Peterson reportedly includes adding 24-hour security, posting rules of conduct for customers, and meeting monthly with police and city administrators. But in truth, it’s a victory for common sense and decency over hidden agendas driven, in my opinion, by greed.
Well done, Doug. I’ll be sure to pop in for some smokes soon.
Bravo. Peterson’s belongs in the neighborhood. They have gone above and beyond to try and be good neighbors and good tenants. Commissioner Saltzman, while I disagree with him on damned near everything, deserves a special shout-out of thanks for taking point on this.
HOLY SHIT. The O always puts the interesting stuff on the second page so it won’t get in trouble. But it quotes an assistant manager of Brooks Brothers, in an email to Tom Potter, writing:
“I fail to see why a disgusting store such as Peterson’s is allowed to stay open….they cater to the dregs on the streets of our city.”
I, personally, am failing to see why a disgusting store such as Brooks Brothers (even though I LOVE THEIR CLOTHES) should be allowed to stay open, either.
But that’s a campaign for another time.
W00t
It seems the underlying and important message in all this is that the clerks at Peterson’s need to mind their business. They got undue attention for reporting crimes / misbehaviors to 911. Whether this happened in Peterson’s, in front of Peterson’s (which is the MAX stop) or across the street from Peterson’s is unclear to me. And I don’t understand if the police statistics are weighed against businesses which are open 24 hours (and therefore would have staff onhand to witness more troubles).
So the message is, if someone is creating havoc nearby, don’t call the police – the City may use the information against you as if you are the trouble.
Or perhaps they should have called the Portland Business Alliance’s private police, Portland Patrol Inc. Because their calls don’t get added to the downtown calls for service.
That way the cops wouldn’t be able to say “they call us a lot.”
Mayor Potter was quoted in the O saying Peterson’s costs the taxpayer money. But you know what? I’d rather my money went to pay for police than see our streets patrolled by rent-a-cops who dress like police, but have no oversight.
Nice ‘tache, by the way, mate.
“And who cares if the publicity-hungry city commissioners gave the story to Anna Griffin at the Oregonian? Because this scalp was categorically mine.”
Because journalism is all about winning… It’s nice we don’t have to go the whole weekend without your passive-aggressive cries for validation, Matt.
[still knows]
And I’d hardly qualify my writing about the Portland Business Alliance as “passive” aggressive.
[i made my offer]
The comment was about the sentence that I quoted. Reading comprehension, mate.
Thanks. I grew it myself. I bought the dog collar from the congregationalist on his way to jail.
There is a Portland ordinance for nuisance businesses. I imagine it was designed by legislators to for lazy cops to persecute hookers, minorities, drug dealers, nightclubs, and seedy hotels. A Jeff Myers law. This ordinance probably has a definition of “nuisance” which no doubt matches the behavior of dozens of downtown business. But to not use this law, or to use it only in some circumstances and not others, is the smoke of the fire of corruption.
Follow the money, mate.
Well according to the police records that they supposely claimed to have had, they actually never even opened the book when putting their facts on the table.
After I was capable of digging up facts verified by Mayor Tom Potter himself verifying that the crime rate had gone down over the last year and proved that the store was in the least location of crime in Downtown Portland; they had to do some back peddling.
More people wanted proof of these crimes that they were insisting were occurring when there were hardly any at all as I presented to them in the city council meeting on the 16th of July.
However I am really happy that all this work has paid off and there is a brighter light at the end of the tunnel for Peterson. I really do love volunteering there when I am capable.
Oh and Matt, Thank you so much for keeping up on all of this for everybody at the Peterson’s Store and me too. You have been tremendous help all around.
And I don’t care what anybody else says, the ball is in your court. This story has been yours from the start, please finish it. Everybody at Peterson’s would love to hear it.
Matt, your reading comprehension got totally dissed, dude! Pretty much the whole Internet is applauding “A cat” for that AMAZING BURN!
Two things you never insult about a man: His mamma, and his reading comprehension.
I know. And I was disappointed not to see the cat show up to watch the Mercury thrash the WW at softball this morning, too.
Matt, I already made a perfectly reasonable offer.
Seeing as you now know who I am (and I should “watch my back” or whatever), all you need to do is email me with my identity and a summary of your 133t sleuthing skillz. If you’re right, I’ll never post here again. You have my word.
If you choose not to, I can only assume that you want me to keep posting here. There isn’t any other explanation…
Matt,
The funny thing is, you have been the driving force behind a number of stories in Portland over the last year or two. Too bad nobody takes you seriously.
You should do a better job of “writing” and “research” and “being a journalist.” That way people will take you more seriously, and the Oregon will not be able to pretend you do not exist.
Ohhhhkay, Some Guy, now you’ve done it. I can usually abide by your comments because you refrain from the generalized internet troll method of whining, “LEARN HOW TO WRITE,” or “DO YOUR RESEARCH.” But since you’ve chosen to lower yourself to their level, I’ll speak to you on their level: Matt kicks ass in both forums, and you know it, pee-hole. His problem is that he loves to shoot his mouth off on this blog, and that gets under your and a bunch of other peoples skin (mine too, on occasion). Plenty of people take him seriously — especially those who don’t give two craps about the feigned journalistic integrity of other news organizations in town. Matt and his big mouth rocks, and deep, deep down you know it, or you wouldn’t be here commenting.
That will be all.
None of those things are my strong suit, some guy, and to be honest, who wants to be a “journalist” these days? They all seem to be hopelessly unhappy and insecure. I’d rather all the journalists did a better job of being Matt Davis. Then I might take THEM seriously. But nobody has my guts…
No one comments on my mustache. Sorry, I don’t have one. Forgot.
Sir:
Perhaps in the future if you could use the phrase personal courage rather than “guts”. I know you have been assigned by the owners of this publication to pander to the lowest common denominator, but Portland, for all its many faults, is the most literate city in the United States by all accounts.
As for being a journalist, even a gonzo journalist, this is a profession that requires intestinal fortitude and what can best be described as a cavalier attitude. Add to this order the need to be (occassionally) funny, and one obviously needs testicals of steel.
A tall order in this day of political correctness and journalists who appear to have a primary motivation of being everyone’s friend and/or an author. Those frustrated authors on the Mercury staff need to take a hike, to use the common slang.
Those who care about journalism with an edge, follow Matt’s lead. However, you cannot do both.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus
Mr. Editor of the Mercury:
Maybe you could help Matt think of a way to write his stories so they do not come of as half-cocked, sensationalist, knee-jerk liberal hooey. Because I am pretty sure that most of the time there is an actual news story in there.
I do like Matt. But its frustrating to watch him screw up good news stories time after time. The instincts are good, but the product needs improvement. If I may make a suggestion: you have the potential for a real product in Matt. You should package and market him, and use this stuff he digs up to better effect. For example, instead of letting him burn a story on this blog, you could keep it secret and then make a “feature” ™ article out of it in the Mercury.
Sure, the Mercury is a too-cool-for-school hip alternative weekly that doesn’t try to hard because trying isn’t as cool as working in a coffee shop on N. Mississippi. However, if you spent some energy actually marketing one of Matt’s stories as investigative journalism, and spent some energy helping him not fuck it up with some whiny, self-rightous, incongruous polemic about how the world is so unjust against victims, then maybe I would not have to get so annoyed when the Oregonian steals his stories. Because if there is one thing I hate more than Matt’s screwing up stories, it is the Oregonian’s poor discretion in what it chooses to report, and how it reports.
And Matt does make some not-too-infrequent factual errors in his stories, or blog entries, or whatever they are.
“testicals of steel”. And the ability to spell, presumably.