Tag: portland

If your performance art involves playing in traffic while dressed as a tree…

…you probably should find a new way to artistically develop yourself.

Police say they’ve arrested a man dressed as a tree for blocking traffic in Maine.

They say the man didn’t respond to officers when they warned him against obstructing traffic in a busy intersection in downtown Portland.

WCSH-TV posted video of the man being arrested after he blocked traffic again.

Click here for a possibly unique photo of a policeman handcuffing a tree and leading it away.  Although it’s probably happened before. I’ve just never seen it happen before, which kind of counts for ‘unique,’ right?

Oh, Portland MAINE was the city that voted down the $15/hr minimum wage.

You can understand my confusion.

I keep forgetting that there’s a Portland on either side of the country. And that one, ah, has more of a charmingly unique viewpoint than the other. The other one is at least sensible enough not to drive its small businesses out of its jurisdiction, not that that’s a high bar to clear…

Tweet of the Day, Today’s “…Man. White People” Will Be Provided By Portland Hipsters edition.

Man. White people:

Look, I understand how a person might think that getting a tattoo of an airport carpet pattern* might say to the world that you are serious; but, speaking as a representative of the world, I regret to tell you that in fact the opposite is true.

Moe Lane

PS: Mind you, if the hipsters want the old carpet and the Portland airport can’t get rid of it otherwise, then by all means: give the hipsters the damned carpet. I mean, the hipsters want it, right? Better than just throwing it in a landfill.

…What? Hipsters can have nice things, too. For given values of ‘nice.’

*I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP.

The score: Trader Joe’s 0, Portland Community Organizers -1.

I saw this yesterday, but forgot to write something about it until Glenn Reynolds reminded me.  Short version: Trader Joe’s wanted to put up a store on some vacant lots in Northeast Portland.  The people who lived there were largely happy about this; the Portland African-American Leadership Forum (whose membership apparently mostly does not live there) was not.  The PAALF hassled Trader Joe’s about this until the chain threw up its hands and said Fine. We can take a hint and dropped its development plans. This left the PAALF holding a press conference in an empty lot, trying to explain to a bunch of aggravated locals about why the sudden loss of a job-producing anchor tenant wasn’t the worst thing in the world.  When the PAALF wasn’t demanding pet projects that nobody was particularly stepping up to fund.

Ah, community organizers. Continue reading The score: Trader Joe’s 0, Portland Community Organizers -1.

…Since when do police LIEUTENANTS need to be union?

Yeah, I think that maybe we don’t need this much unionization.

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales has taken the unprecedented step of trying to break up the city’s police commanding officers’ union.

“Managers should be clear they are managers,” Hales said Thursday. “It just doesn’t make sense to have people who are in management positions be in a union.”

Of course, you’d expect that attitude from me; after all, my dad was union, and he would have said the same thing.  Workers are workers. Management is management.  You need that clear line of division between the two if you ever expect to get a fair deal.  You lack that division, your deals can appear tainted.  And over the long term, tainted union deals are generally more trouble than they’re worth.

Moe Lane

(Via @laborunionrpt)

Giant Sequioa threatened by road developers in… Portland. Wait, WHAT?

Portland?  Portland, Oregon? Has there been a mix-up, somewhere?

The tree at the center of the controversy is a giant sequoia that stands about 120 feet tall and measures 18 feet around.  It’s one of a couple dozen giant sequoias in Pier Park, but the only one on the chopping block.

Park visitors have already pinned up a little memorial on the tree’s trunk asking the city to reconsider.  The problem is that the tree sits in the way of a major project, according to Portland Parks and Recreation officials.

The city is building a ten-mile long pedestrian and bike trail called the North Portland Greenway.  Once completed, the trail will connect North Portland to downtown.  Plans call for a bridge to be built over a set of railroad tracks, and according to the city, that sequoia tree is in the way.

Continue reading Giant Sequioa threatened by road developers in… Portland. Wait, WHAT?

#rsrh The racism of the peanut butter sandwich… REVEALED!

It’s amazing how less funny these stories become when you have school-age kids:

Verenice Gutierrez picks up on the subtle language of racism every day.

Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year.

“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” says Gutierrez, principal at Harvey Scott K-8 School, a diverse school of 500 students in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood.

Continue reading #rsrh The racism of the peanut butter sandwich… REVEALED!

ILWU backpeddling from job-killing Occupy attack on West Coast?

Background (H/T: Instapundit) next Monday there is supposed to be an organized shutdown of the West Coast’s port facilities by the Occupy movement – if you’re wondering why the heck they’re going after port facilities, it’s because the Occupy movement has a lot of anti-globalization sorts in it these days, and those people hate free trade with a passion that normal people reserve for rapists – and supposedly said shutdown would be supported by the private sector unions that would be immediately affected by it.  Most important one? The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU).  The Occupiers are expecting the ILWU’s support in their shutdown.

Witness the solidarity! Continue reading ILWU backpeddling from job-killing Occupy attack on West Coast?