June’s Last Thursday celebration was relatively quiet. Given claims the city wanted to forcibly disperse celebrants with “pressurized water,” the procession of cops, officials and street cleaners that ultimately cleared Alberta Street was downright benign.
But city staff actually documented more questionable activity on June 27—when the city was forced to operate the event after the volunteer group Friends of Last Thursday stepped down—than they had at May’s event, according to numbers from the mayor’s office.
Those figures include double the amount of littered alcohol bottles (34), more people drinking in the right-of-way, more vehicles blocking curb cuts (and a KATU news van both double parked and blocking someone’s driveway) and a “group of 30 teens, jumping on car, setting off fireworks.” Staffers and interns with the Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement also chronicled new categories: Cars entering Alberta before the streets were opened (12) and fire performers (1).
It’s the second time the city’s attempted to quantify problems at the popular street fair, derided by neighbors as a magnet for unruly, unlawful behavior. Mayor’s office staff is quick to warn the numbers aren’t scientific, but a step toward figuring out where enforcement and security should be targeted. The data will also almost-certainly come into play in conversations Mayor Charlie Hales is having with Alberta-area stakeholders about who should run the event going forward.
Friends of Last Thursday—after quitting in protest of suggested changes to the event—have signalled they’d like to remain involved, but Hales’ is using their resignation as a bit of leverage to change how Last Thursdays are operated.
“I think there’s this built up hype that FoLT was somehow chairing last Thursday,” says Chad Stover, a policy assistant in the mayor’s office. “The city ultimately has been paying tens of thousands of dollars for Last Thursday for years.”
Going forward, discussions about who takes over Last Thursday will involve finding a stable base of cash for the event. The mayor met with stakeholders earlier this week in a closed door meeting. There’s another scheduled Monday.
“It’s a good event,” Stover says. “It needs a home and it needs funding. Those are the things we’re working on.”
FoLT, meanwhile, has been involved in talks with Hales’ office, and wants to remain at the helm of Last Thursday going forward.
“Friends of Last Thursday has the mangement structure in place, one that doesn’t need to mess with the Last Thursday ‘product’ yet conforms to the requirements and logisticts of hosting up to 20,000 people each month,” FoLT member Jeff Hilber said in an e-mail. “No need to re-invent that wheel.”
“Given claims the city wanted to forcibly disperse celebrants with ‘pressurized water…'”
Dirk, it’s disingenuous to keep reporting something that only existed briefly in the fevered imaginations of some in FoLT. At no point was anyone actually suggesting turning hoses on people.
The standard of reporting shouldn’t be “what some crazy people think they heard” (i.e. “claims”).
Colin: You’re right it was never a legitimate possibility. That’s what I’ve reported since the get-go. However, the notion was put out there by the volunteer organizers of the event and clearly a certain segment of people were incensed by it. I even heard people discussing it while walking through the event. There were claims, and they held at least some weight, which is why I mention them.
Just fucking end this thing already.
My claim is that the city was planning on dispersing the crowd with robot-zombie-dogs at exactly 9:48 pm. Why don’t you start printing that instead?
Given the claims by some that Dirk likes to hump donkeys, Thursday night appeared to be thankfully free of donkey-humping at the VanderHart household, but no reports were yet in on Friday morning. Some claim that he may be humping donkeys as we speak, but note that these reports are quasi-unconfirmed at this time, but may be later.
Just shut Last Thursday down forever. Now.
Pass an ordinance allowing the city to lien commercial properties for costs incurred for street fairs. Once the landlords face risks, FOLT will come up with a funding plan.
And Blabby, sources say goats residing within a mile of the VanderHart residence are unusually agitated this Friday afternoon.
Here’s how news works: A group running a public event makes an outrageous public claim casting the city government they’re negotiating with as brutal—1963 Alabama brutal, even. Is that claim true? No. Clearly. Is it still newsworthy the group said it, and that it infected, nonetheless, the discourse around an event that’s already frayed relationships? Yes. Do people curious about the situation now know one group in the debate is prone to uttering flights of fancy that might hurt their cause? Yes. Is it our job to print the newsworthy things people say? Yes.
Dennis, with all due respect, that’s precisely how news (and government for that matter) DOESN’T work.
@Denis: By not qualifying the ‘claims’ in any way, Dirk was helping to substantiate them. Your argument is essentially the same argument used by TV news to have NOM debate gay rights, that they need to balance things and that it’s newsworthy.
This piece clearly fell flat on just how and why this claim was newsworthy; it should either have been cut or expanded on.
@ Denis, I admire you going to bat there, but I agree with Graham. I would have kept my trap shut if Dirk had indicated in some way that those claims were ridiculous, but it lent legitimacy to an illegitimate claim to merely breezily repeat it.