If you’ve got 13 minutes free, watch the 60 Minutes segment on Portland that aired Sunday night. Here’s some things we learn along the way, in chronological order:
•Mayor Ted Wheeler loves Portlandia. “That’s so Portland,” the mayor said. “People in Portland, they either love it, or they hate it. And the people who love it love it because it’s funny because it’s true, and the people who hate it hate it because it’s true.” He’s particularly fond of this sketch:
•Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy paid $180 per month to live in a warehouse in the 90s, which less than what people typically pay now.
•There’s s store in Portland that sells a bunch of different types salt and that’s similar to the Portlandia “Doily Shoppe” sketch:
•People in Portland frequently bike and drink craft beer.
•There have been a bunch of protests in Portland since Donald Trump was elected president. Sometimes people fight.
•Tensions are high in the city and Mayor Wheeler believes “the ability to disagree amicably is an art much in jeopardy… Where I think we’ve gotten a little sideways as a culture is people take it very personally if you have a different perspective or a different point of view. I would say we need to lighten up.”
•Four people associated with Rose City Antifa were interviewed while wearing masks and black clothing. “There is no such thing as dialogue” with white supremacists, one of them says.
•Patriot Prayer’s Joey Gibson, who lives in Washington, wants to provoke antifascists protesters. White supremacist Jeremy Christian showed up to a Patriot Prayer rally and then murdered people on a MAX train.
•Portland has a racist history. Mayor Wheeler: “Portland is one of the least diverse cities of its size in the United States. I don’t think we can really move into the future unless we confront some of the darker things about our past. The reality is we have a racist past… We have a lot of making up to do.”
•Portlandia “satirizes a city that no longer exists,” the reporter says, saying the average rent for a studio apartment is $1,200.
•Portland has a housing crises and homelessness is a huge problem.
It was an extremely subpar piece, by 60 Minutes standards. I learned nothing new, and it was rife with errors that could and should have been corrected. And why, pray tell, was an editor from Sports Illustrated presenting the piece? This may have been a bit beyond his expertise.